| SES # | TOPICS | KEY DUE DATES |
|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | ||
| 1 | Introduction | |
| 2 | Japanese Business History | |
| Part I: From Samurai Government to a Modern Revolution | ||
| Week 2: Samurai Order and Disorder | ||
| 3 | Building Pax Tokugawa | |
| 4 | Samurai Disorder | |
| Week 3: The Decline of Tokugawa Shogunate | ||
| 5 | Troubles at Home, Dangers from Abroad | |
| Week 4: Japan's Modern Revolution? | ||
| 6 | Overthrowing the Shogunate | |
| 7 | From “Restoration” to “Revolution” | Essay 1 due |
| Part II: Competing Modernities | ||
| Week 5: Building a Civilized Nation | ||
| 8 | The Politics of “Civilization and Enlightenment” | |
| 9 | The Culture of Enlightenment | |
| Week 6: Democracy and Empire I | ||
| 10 | Democracy and Constitutional Government | |
| 11 | Meiji Imperialism | |
| Week 7: Democracy and Empire II | ||
| 12 | Japan’s “Imperial Democracy” | |
| Part III: Modernity’s Crisis and its Aftermath | ||
| Week 8: Japan’s Jazz Age and its Discontents | ||
| 13 | Sounds and Visions of Modernity | |
| 14 | Ideologies of Crises | Essay 2 due |
| Week 9: War on Multiple Fronts | ||
| 15 | Japan’s “World War II” | |
| 16 | War Abroad and at Home | |
| Week 10: Occupation and Beyond | ||
| 17 | The Allied Occupation | |
| Part IV: History, Memory, and Media in Postwar Japan | ||
| Week 11: Monsters, Imaginary and Real, in Postwar Japan | ||
| 18 | In-class Viewing: Gojira. Directed by Ishirô Honda. Color, 96 min. 1954. | |
| 19 | Contextualizing "Gojira" | |
| Week 12: Geopolitics and Democracy in Contemporary Japan | ||
| 20 | Japan as “No. 1”? | |
| 21 | Democracy in Theory and Practice | |
| Week 13: History and Memory in Contemporary Japan | ||
| 22 | In-class Viewing: The Wind Rises. Directed by Hayao Miyazaki. Color, 126 min. 2013. | |
| 23 | The Wind Rises, cont. | |
| Week 14: Presentations on Essay 3 | ||
| 24 | Student Presentations | |
| 25 | Student Presentations | Essay 3 due |