This is a survey course on modern Japanese history, covering the period from the late 19^th century to the present. The course will explore various issues in Japan’s modern history: industrialization, development of mass media, imperialism and colonialism, nationalism, feminism, war, and democracy.  

The course aims at helping students to:
1) Understand the major points of Japan’s modern history;
2) Deepen their understanding of Japanese society in its history, and today as well;
3) Learn to read materials in primary and secondary sources and discuss them;
4) Learn to write logical and concise papers in answering exam questions;
5) Learn to conduct research on a topic of their choice, formulate questions, search for necessary source materials and write original and probing papers.

      The class consists of a lecture and a discussion of the book chapters and articles we read for the week.  There are also 4 or 5 tutorials, depending the number of students enrolled, two or three of which will be for the oral presentation of research papers.  The dates and other details will be announced later.

Sep. 7  Introduction: The Background of the Meiji Restoration

Reading: None required, but recommended, McClain, Chapter 4 (119-154); Sharon L. Sievers, Flowers in Salt: The Beginnings of Feminist Consciousness in Modern Japan, Chapters 1 & 2 (1- 25).

Sep. 14  Making of the New State and Industrialization 

Reading: McClain, Chapter 5 & 7 (155-168; 207-245); Sievers, Chapter 4 (54-86).
Recommended Reading: McClain, Chapter 8 (246-275); Andrew Gordon, The Evolution of Labor Relations in Japan: Heavy Industry, 1853-1955, Chapter 1 (17-50).

Sep. 21  “Civilization and Enlightenment” and Freedom and Popular Rights Movement

Reading: McClain, Chapter 5 & 6 (169-182; 183-206); Itō Hirobumi, “Commentaries on Constitutional Provisions Relating to Emperor’s Position, 1899,” in Tim Megarry, ed., The Making of Modern Japan: A Reader, 183-186; Fukuzawa Yukichi, An Encouragement of Learning, Section 1-3 (1-20); Daikichi Irokawa, “The Impact of Western Culture” in The Culture of the Meiji Period, Chapter 2 (59-68); “The Imperial Rescript on Education” in Ryusuke Tsunoda et al, comp., Sources of Japanese Tradition, vol. 2, 139-40.
Recommended reading: Sievers, Chapter 3 (25-53); “The German Influence: Roessler and the Framing of the Constitution,” in J. Pittau, Political  Thought in Early Meiji Japan, 131-157.

Sep. 28  War and the Empire

Reading: McClain, Chapter 9 (283-315); Fukuzawa Yukichi, “De-Asianization” [Datsua-ron] in The Meiji Japan Through Contemporary Sources, 129-133; Gerhard Krebs, “World War Zero?  Re-assessing the Global Impact of the Russo-Japanese War 1904-05,” available at apjjf.org/-Gerhard-Krebs/3755/article.html;  Andrew Gordon, “Social Protest in Imperial Japan: The Hibiya Riot of 1905,” available at apjjf.org/-Andrew-Gordon/4150/article.html.
Recommended reading: Sievers, Chapter 5 (87-113); Miyazaki Toten, My Thirty-Three Years’ Dream: the Autobiography of Miyazaki Toten (Chinese translation available in CUHK library); Shumpei Okamoto, “The emperor and the crowd: the historical significance of the Hibiya riot” in T. Najita and J. V. Koschmann, eds., Conflict in Modern Japanese History: The Neglected Tradition, 258-276.

Oct. 5   Imperial Democracy

Reading: McClain, Chapter 10 (316-332); Shuichi Kato, “Taisho Democracy as the Pre-Stage for Japanese Militarism,” in B. Silberman and H. D. Harootunian, eds., Japan in Crisis, 217- 223; 232-236); Sheldon Garon, Molding Japanese Mind, Chapter 1 (40-59).
Recommended reading: Sievers, Chapter 5 (114-138); Sonia Ryang, “The tongue that divided life and death: the 1923 Tokyo earthquake and the massacre of Koreans,” available at apjjf.org/-Sonia-Ryang/2513/article.html.

Oct. 12 Rural Life/Urban Milieu in Taisho Japan and Radicalism

 Reading: McClain, Chapter 10 & 11 (345-356; 357-393); Sievers, Chapter 6 (114-138); Barbara Satō, “The Moga Sensation: Perception of the Modan Gaaru in Japanese Intellectual Circles During the 1920s,” Gender an History 5.3 (Autumn 1993): 363-381.
Recommended reading: Gregory Kasza, The State and the Mass Media in Japan: 1918-1945, Chapter 2 (28-53); Penelope Francks, The Japanese Consumer: An Alternative Economic History of Modern Japan, Chapter 5 (108-144).

Oct. 19 Japan’s Colonial Empire and the Rise of Militarism

Reading: McClain, Chapter 10-12 (332-344, 393-397, 405-422); Louise Young, “Imagined Empire: The Cultural Construction of Manchukuo, in Peter Duus et al, eds., The Japanese Wartime Empire, 1931-1945, 71-96; Anne Booth, “Did It Really Help to be a Japanese Colony? East Asian Economic Performance in Historical Perspective,” available at apjjf.org/-Anne-Booth/article.html.
Recommended reading: Ramon Myers, “Japanese Imperialism in Manchuria: The South Manchuria Railway Company, 1906-1933” in Peter Duus et al, eds., The Japanese Informal Empire in China, 1895-1937, 101-132; Mark Caprio, “Neo-nationalists’ interpretations of Japan’s annexation of Korea: the colonization debate in Japan and Korea,” available at apjjf.org/-Mark-Caprio/3438/article.html; Ellen Sebring, “Civilization & Barbarism: Cartoon Commentary & ‘The White Man’s Burden’ (1898–1902),” available at apjjf.org/-Ellen- Sebring/4339/article.html.

Oct. 26 The Japan-China War

Reading: McClain, Chapter 12-13 (422-440; 441-476); Yuki Tanaka, Japan’s Comfort Women, Chapter 1 (8-32); “Fundamentals of Our National Polity,” in Ryusuke Tsunoda et al, comp., Sources of Japanese Tradition, vol. 2, 278-288; “Draft of Basic Plan for Establishment of Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere,” in Ryusuke Tsunoda et al, comp., Sources of Japanese Tradition, vol. 2, 294- 298; Janis Miura, “Japan’s new order and Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere: Planning for empire,” available at apjjf.org/-Janis-Miura/3657.article.html.
Recommended reading: “The Family Letters of Dr. Robert Wilson,” in Timothy Brook, ed., Documents on the Rape of Nanking, 207-254; “A 1942 Declaration for Greater East Asia Co-operation” available at apjjf.org/-James-Orr/2692.article.html. 

Nov. 2 The Pacific War

Reading: McClain, Chapter 13 & 14 (476-481, 482-515); John Dower, War Without Mercy, Chapter 1 (3-14); Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney, Kamikaze Diaries: Reflections of Japanese Student Soldiers, Chapter 2 (71-91). 
Recommended Reading: Yoshiko Miyake, “Doubling Expectations Motherhood and Women’s Factory Work Under State Management in Japan in the 1930s and 1940s,” in Gail Lee Bernstein, ed., Recreating Japanese Women, 1600-1945, 267-295.

Nov. 9  The Allied Occupation and Postwar Reforms

Reading: McClain, Chapter 15 (523-561); John Dower, Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II, Chapter 9 (278-303) (not required but recommended: Dower, Chapter 10 (304-318)); Yoshiko Nozoki, “Educational Reform and History Textbooks in Occupied Japan,” in Mark E. Caprio and Yoneyuki Sugita, eds., Democracy in Occupied Japan: The U.S. Occupation and Japanese Politics and Society, 120-146.
Recommended Reading: Hirata Tetsuo and John W. Dower, “Japan’s Red Purge: Lessons from a Saga of Suppression of Free Speech and Thought,” available at apjjf.org/-Hirata-Tetsuo/2462/article.html; James Orr, The Victim as Hero: Ideologies of Peace and National Identity in Postwar Japan, Chapter 2 (14-35).

Nov. 16 The Economic Miracle and the U.S.-Japan Military Alliance

Reading: McClain, Chapter 16 (562-582); John W. Dower, “The Useful War,” in Carol Gluck and Stephen R. Graubard, eds., Showa: The Japan of Hirohito, 49-70; Erik Esselstrom, “The 1960 ‘Anpo’ Struggle in the People’s Daily: Shaping Popular Perceptions of Japan during the Cold War,” available at apjjf.org/-Erik-Esselstrom/3869.html.
Recommended reading: Chalmers Johnson, MITI and the Japanese Miracle: The Growth of Industrial Power, 1925-1975, Chapter 1 (3-34); Wesley Sasaki-Uemura, Organizing the Spontaneous: Citizen Protest in Postwar Japan, Chapter 2 (15-54); Oguma Eiji, “The postwar intellectuals’ view of ‘Asia’” in Sven Saaler and J. Victor Koschmann, eds., Pan-Asianism in Modern Japanese History: Colonialism Regionalism and Borders, 200-212.

Nov. 23 Japan in Affluence

Reading: McClain, Chapter 16 (582-598); Kenneth Pyle, The Japanese Question, Chapter Six (85-105); J. Victor Koschmann, “Asianism’s Ambivalent Legacy” in P. J. Katzenstein and T. Shiraishi, eds., Network Power: Japan and Asia, 83-87, 103-110; Kathleen Uno, “The Death of ‘Good Wife, Wise Mother’?” in Andrew Gordon, ed., Postwar Japan as History, 293-296, 304-322.
Recommended reading: Carol Gluck, “The Idea of Showa” in Gluck and Graubard, eds., Showa: The Japan of Hirohito, 1-26; Norm Field, In the Realm of A Dying Emperor.

Nov. 30  Japan after the Bursting of the Economic Bubble/ Japan Today

Reading: McClain, Chapter 17 (599-632); Sebastian Conrad, “Entangled Memories: Versions of the Past in Germany and Japan, 1945-2001” in Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 38 (1), 85-99; Lawrence Repeta, “Japan’s Proposed National Security Legislation — Will This be the End of Article 9?”, available at apjjf.org/-Lawrence- Repeta/4335/article.html.
Recommended reading: Satoshi Kotani, “Why are Japanese youth today so passive?” in Gordon Mathews and Bruce White, eds., Japan’s Changing Generations: Are Young People Creating a New Society?, 31-45; Philip A. Seaton, Japan’s Contested War Memories, Chapter 3 (65-84).

1) participation in in-class discussion.  This will be 10% of your grade.

2) participation in tutorials, making up 20 % of your grade.

3) two 1300 -1500 word papers on two of the several questions to be announced later.  The first paper is due on October 5; the second paper on November 2. This will be 30% of your grade.

4) 3500 – 4000 word research paper, due on the second Wednesday of December, on any topic in modern Japanese history of your choice.  This will make up 40 % of your grade.

* Please be reminded to honor academic integrity in your writing assignments.  The information is available at <http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty>.

TBC

Required Texts:
1) James L. McClain, Japan: A Modern History (New York and London:W.W. Norton & Company, 2002)—the book is available for purchase at the campus bookstore as well as on reserve in the Chung Chi Library;
2) Other readings will be uploaded onto the CU eLearning System at http://elearn.cuhk.edu.hk; some of the readings are also available at the Reserve Counter of the Chung Chi Library.

* Interesting articles on Japan, on contemporary as well as historical issues, are available from The Asia-Pacific E-Journal Japan Focus at <apjjf.org>.

Attention is drawn to University policy and regulations on honesty in academic work, and to the disciplinary guidelines and procedures applicable to breaches of such policy and regulations. Details may be found at here.

With each assignment, students will be required to submit a signed declaration that they are aware of these policies, regulations, guidelines and procedures.

• In the case of group projects, all members of the group should be asked to sign the declaration, each of whom is responsible and liable to disciplinary actions, irrespective of whether he/she has signed the declaration and whether he/she has contributed, directly or indirectly, to the problematic
• For assignments in the form of a computer-generated document that is principally text-based and submitted via VeriGuide, the statement, in the form of a receipt, will be issued by the system upon students’ uploading of the soft copy of the assignment. 
• Students are fully aware that their work may be investigated by AI content detection software to determine originality.
• Students are fully aware of the AI approach(es) adopted in the course. In the case where some AI tools are allowed, students have made proper acknowledgment and citations as instructed by the course teacher.

Assignments without the properly signed declaration will not be graded by teachers.

Only the final version of the assignment should be submitted via VeriGuide.

The submission of a piece of work, or a part of a piece of work, for more than one purpose (e.g. to satisfy the requirements in two different courses) without declaration to this effect shall be regarded as having committed undeclared multiple submissions. It is common and acceptable to reuse a turn of phrase or a sentence or two from one’s own work; but wholesale reuse is problematic. In any case, agreement from the course teacher(s) concerned should be obtained prior to the submission of the piece of work.

The copyright of the teaching materials, including lecture notes, assignments and examination questions etc., produced by staff members/ teachers of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) belongs to CUHK. Students may download the teaching materials produced by the staff members/ teachers from the Learning Management Systems, e.g. Blackboard adopted by CUHK for their own educational use, but shall not distribute/ share/ copy the materials to a third-party without seeking prior permission from the staff members/ teachers concerned.