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>.

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