COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course provides a survey of modern Japanese history, 1800-present. We begin narrating that history in the middle of the Edo Era, at a time when the Tokugawa shoguns were beginning to lose their grip on central power and authority. In the five weeks that follow, we will focus on early modern Japan: analyzing the “internal troubles” that wracked the Tokugawa regime; engaging the “external threat” posed first by Perry’s “black ships” and later by the unequal treaties; examining the popular reaction to these disturbing times, including peasant rebellions, black marketeering, and grassroots political activism; and investigating the character of modern change at the Meiji Restoration. In the final five weeks, we will focus on modern Japan: scrutinizing the Meiji experiment in modernization; tracing the development of imperial democracy; seeking out the essence of interwar modernism; explaining the rise of authoritarianism, expansionism, and the creation of a Japanese Empire; investigating the causes and the prosecution of the Pacific War; evaluating the character of the American Occupation; and sketching a portrait of the postwar era. The course requirements will likely include: a critical book review (20%), a reaction paper (20%), a mid-term exam (20%), a final exam (30%), and class participation (10%).               

REQUIRED TEXTS

COURSE SCHEDULE