The Rise of Modern Japan

History 341 Spring 2020

Mark Ravina

Office: Garrison 3.502, Tues and Wed 3:00-4:00 PM

Contact: for queries directly related to this course, please use Canvas. Otherwise, my work contact is [email protected]

updated: February 10, 2020

Purpose: To understand modern Japan in historical context.

Overview: This is an introductory survey of modern Japanese history, covering 1850 to 1950. There are no prerequisites. Topics include a brief survey of traditional Japanese society and politics; the fall of the shogunate and the Meiji Restoration; industrialization and economic development; the rise of political parties; militarism and World War II; the American occupation and postwar recovery. Although the emphasis will be on major political events and institutional developments, we will trace social and cultural currents through literature, including dramas and novels.

Readings: The following books are available at the bookstore.

Gordon, Origins of Modern Japan, ISBN 9780190920555. Earlier editions are similar. Tanizaki Junichirō, Naomi, ISBN: 9780375724749. Other editions are fine. Cook, Japan at War, ISBN 9781565840393

Grading: There will be three in-class quizzes (15% each): February 18, March 24, and April 21. There will also be two take-home exams: a midterm (distributed on March 26 and due on March 31) (20%) and a final (distributed on May 7 and due on May 12) (25%). Both these exams should be roughly 1500 words and fully documented with citations (Chicago Manual of Style )and a bibliography. Class participation is 10% or your grade. Please come to class prepared to disucss the readings.

Submit your take-home exams via Canvas. Please use .doc or .docx formats.

Extra credit: Finding a bad link or typo in my course materials is worth 0.25 points up to a total of 2.5 points. Let me know via Canvas.

Pronunciation: Vowels in Japanese are pronounced as in Italian. Hence uomo, pasta, prego and bambino should get you through most words. Alternately,

a as in father e as in et cetera i as in beet o as in note u as in boot

Vowels with macrons are lengthened, but otherwise remain unchanged. This is an important distinction: shojo means virgin while shoojo (shōjo) means little girl, and shoojoo (shōjō) means, depending on context, the symptoms of a disease or an orangutan. Also important is the distinction between "adviser" or komon and rectum or koomon (kōmon). Japanese family names come first. Thus, Itō Hirobumi is Mr. Itō, not Mr. Hirobumi.

Romanized Japanese follows standard capitalization rules. Capitalize only proper nouns. Do not arbitrarily capitalize "Samurai," or "Emperor." Japanese nouns do not have a plural. Therefore, one samurai, two samurai, three samurai, four. Like deer. Samurais, Samurim, Samurae are all wrong.

Schedule

Introduction (January 21)

For discussion:

• Where is Japan? o What to Call Japan? • How to write Japanese

The Tokugawa Order (January 23)

• Gordon, Origins of Modern Japan, Chapter 1

Foundations of Tokugawa political order (for background)

Tokugawa Thought (January 28) • Gordon, Origins of Modern Japan, Chapters 2-3 • Tokugawa Economy and Economic Thought • Kojiki version of the Amaterasu and Susano-o legend

The Tokugawa Society (January 30)

• Tadano, "Solitary Thoughts", and for background on Tadano Makuzu see Gramlich-Oka, "Tadano Makuzu" • Hirata Atsutane • Aizawa Seishisai • Fukuzawa, Kyūhanjō

The Tokugawa Crisis (February 4)

• Gordon, Origins of Modern Japan, chapter 4 • Road to Restoration • For discussion o "Wood and Water" Treaty of Kangawa (1854) o Harris Treaty of 1858

The Meiji Restoration (February 6)

• Gordon, Origins of Modern Japan, chapter 5 • Major Meiji Reforms • Meiji Leaders • Sakamoto's "Eight Point Program" • Tokugawa Yoshinobu's surrender of authority (1867) • Charter Oath of 1868

The Meiji Settlement (February 11 - 13)

• Gordon, Origins of Modern Japan, chapter 6 • Devine, Richard. "The Way of the King. An Early Meiji Essay on Government." Monumenta Nipponica 34, no. 1 (1979): 49-72. (available through JSTOR -- Information Gateway) • Fukuzawa, An Encouragement of Learning, Introduction and Section One (available online at UT library) • For discussion o Conscription Ordinance of 1872 o Itagaki Taisuke's memorial o Etō Shinpei manifesto o Ōkubo, Opinion on Korea o Ōkuma Shigenobu on Constitution, 1881

February 18 - first in-class quiz

Diplomacy and Colonial Expansion (February 18 - 20)

• Gordon, Origins of Modern Japan, chapter 7-8 • Sino-Japanese War and Russo-Japanese War o Treaty of Shimonoseki o Treaty of Portsmouth Early Meiji Politics (February 25)

• Domestic Politics

Meiji Social Policies and Economic Growth (February 27)

• Meiji economic growth • Late Meiji Culture o Nolte and Hastings, "The Meiji State's Policy on Women," in Recreating Japanese Women, pp. 151-174 o Oka, Y. (1982). Generational conflict after the Russo-Japanese War. Conflict in Modern Japanese History: the Neglected Tradition. T. Najita and J. V. Koschmann. Princeton, Princeton University Press: 197-225. o Metzler, "Road to the Dollar Standard," 46-81 o For discussion: § Hiratsuka Raicho in Lu, II: 398-99. § Imperial Rescript on Education

Taishō Politics and Thought (March 3 - 5)

• Gordon, Origins of Modern Japan, chapters 9-10 • Economy of the 1920s • International and Domestic Politics • For discussion: o Yoshino Sakuzo and Minobe Tatsukichi on constitutional theory o Speech by Yamamurō Sōbun

Taishō Culture I (March 10)

• Silverberg, Miriam, 2006. Erotic grotesque nonsense: the mass culture of Japanese modern times, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006, preface • Edogawa Ranpō, "The Human Chair," Columbia Anthology of Modern Japanese Literature, 365- 375. • Natsume Sōseki, "The Civilization of Modern Day Japan," and "My Individualism," in Columbia Anthology of Modern Japanese Literature, 315-334

Taishō Culture II (March 12)

• Tanizaki Junichirō, Naomi • Silverberg, "The Modern Girl as Militant," in Recreating Japanese Women

March 16-20 SPRING BREAK

March 24 - second in-class quiz

The Crises of the 1930s (March 24-26)

• Gordon, Origins of Modern Japan, chapter 11 • Right wing thought • Road to War For discussion:

• Kita Ikki, Plan for the Reorganization of Japan • Gondo Seikei • Asahi Heigo

March 31 - first take-home due

The War and the Home Front (March 31 - April 2 )

• Gordon, Origins of Modern Japan, chapter 12 • Cook, Japan at War: Tanida Isamu, Nogi Harumichi, Tominaga Shōzō, Ogawa Tomotsu, Fukushima Yoshie, Kumagaya Tokuichi • March-madness history • For discussion: o Fundamental Principles of the National Policy (Kokutai no hongi) o Way of the Subject (Shinmin no michi) o Tripartite Pact o Konoe Memorial o Outline of Imperial Rule Assistance Association o Postdam Declaration

The Occupation and Postwar Settlement (April 7-9)

• Gordon, Origins of Modern Japan, chapter 13-14 • War and Postwar o Imperial Renunciation of Divinity and MacArthur on the Emperor o Land Reform o Postwar stock market o Postwar GDP • Reverse course o Kishi Nobusuke o Zaibatsu Dissolution o Economic Stabilization

The Rise to Conservative Hegemony (April 14-16)

• Gordon, Origins of Modern Japan, chapter 15 • Postwar Japanese GDP graphs • MITI and the Postwar economic system • Income Doubling Plan o Yamamura, Kozo, and Jan Vandenberg. 1986. "Japan's rapid-growth policy on trial: the television case." In Law and trade issues of the Japanese economy: American and Japanese perspectives, edited by Gary R. Saxonhouse and Kozo Yamamura, 238-83. Seattle: University of Washington Press. o Johnson, Chalmers A. 1963. ""Low Posture" Politics in Japan." Asian Survey 3 (1): 17- 30. o Baerwald, Hans H. 1965. "Japan: The Politics of Transition." Asian Survey 5 (1): 33-42. • Security Treaty Crisis • Security Treaty Crisis Documents • Far Eastern Survey October 1960 o Fukuda, Kanichi. 1960. "The May-June Incident." Far Eastern Survey 29 (10): 146-51. o Ishida, Tadashi. 1960. "The Diet Majority and Public Opinion." Far Eastern Survey 29 (10): 156-60. o Saito, Makoto. 1960. "Reflections on American-Japanese Relations." Far Eastern Survey 29 (10): 151-53. o Sakamoto, Yoshikazu. 1960. "Neutralism and Democracy in Japan." Far Eastern Survey 29 (10): 153-56. o Scalapino, Robert A. 1960. "Japanese Intellectuals Discuss American-Japanese Relations." Far Eastern Survey 29 (10): 145-46. • Time [Magazine] - June 27, 1960 • Packard, George R. 2010. "The United States-Japan Security Treaty at 50: Still a Grand Bargain?" Foreign Affairs 89 (2): 92-103.

April 21 - third in-class quiz

Postwar Culture (April 21-23)

• Gordon, Origins of Modern Japan, chapter 16 • Abe Kōbō, "Friends" • Motoyama, Mutsuko. 1995. "The Literature and Politics of Abe Kōbō: Farewell to Communism in Suna no Onna." Monumenta Nipponica 50 (3): 305-23. • Film Screening: Woman in the Dunes

The 1980s and the end of the 1955 System (April 28-30)

• Gordon, Origins of Modern Japan, chapter 17 • Nakasone • Pyle, Kenneth B. 1987. "In Pursuit of a Grand Design: Nakasone Betwixt the Past and the Future." Journal of Japanese Studies 13 (2): 243-70. • Muramatsu, Michio. 1987. "In Search of National Identity: The Politics and Policies of the Nakasone Administration." Journal of Japanese Studies 13 (2): 307-42. • CIA report on Japan • Comparative Postwar GDP

After the Bubble and After Fukushima (May 5 -7)

• Gordon, Origins of Modern Japan, chapter 18 • The End of Shōwa o The "lost decade"? Fact or Fiction o Eamonn Fingelton, The Myth of Japan's 'Lost Decades', The Atlantic, Feb 26, 2011 o Eamonn Fingelton, The Myth of Japan's Failure, New York Times Jan. 6, 2012 o Matthew Yglesias, Japan's Lost Decade: All Too Real, Slate Jan 9, 2012

May 12 - second take-home due

Copyright 2020 Mark Ravina