Readings | Modern Japan: 1868 to Present | History

[C] = Cook, Haruko Taya, and Theodore F. Cook. Japan at War: An Oral History. New Press, 1992. ISBN: 9781565840393.

[D] = de Bary, William Theodore, Carol Gluck, and Arthur E. Tiedemann, eds. Sources of Japanese Tradition, Volume 2, 1600 to 2000: Part 2: 1868 to 2000. 2nd ed. Columbia University Press, 2006. ISBN: 9780231139199. [Preview with Google Books]

[G] = Gordon, Andrew. A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present. 3rd ed. Oxford University Press, 2013. ISBN: 9780199930159.

[GR] = Griffis, William Elliot. The Mikado. Audubon Press, 2009. ISBN: 9781444668124.

[T] = Takekoshi Yosaburo. Japanese Rule in Formosa. Kessinger Publishing, LLC, 2010. ISBN: 9781163242445.

Course readings.
SES #	TOPICS	READINGS
Week 1
1	Introduction	No readings assigned
2	Japanese Business History	No readings assigned
Part I: From Samurai Government to a Modern Revolution
Week 2: Samurai Order and Disorder
3	Building Pax Tokugawa	Gluck, Carol. "The Invention of Edo." Chapter 17 in Mirror of Modernity: Invented Traditions of Modern Japan. Edited by Stephen Vlastos. University of California Press, 1998. ISBN: 9780520206373. Ōishi Shinzaburō. "The Bakuhan System." Chapter 1 in Tokugawa Japan: The Social and Economic Antecedents of Modern Japan. Edited by Nakane Chie and Ōishi Shinzaburō, University of Tokyo Press, 1992. ISBN: 9780860084907. Recommended [G] Chapter 1: The Tokugawa Polity. [G] Chapter 2: Social and Economic Transformations.
4	Samurai Disorder	de Bary, William Theodore, Carol Gluck, and Arthur E. Tiedemann, eds. "The Way of the Warrior II." Chapter 29 in Sources of Japanese Tradition, Volume 2, 1600 to 2000: Part 1: 1600 to 1868. 2nd ed. Columbia University Press, 2006. ISBN: 9780231139175. [Preview with Google Books]
Week 3: The Decline of Tokugawa Shogunate
5	Troubles at Home, Dangers from Abroad	Aizawa Seishisai. "New Theses: One - Prefatory Remarks." In Anti-Foreignism and Western Learning in Early-Modern Japan: The New Theses of 1825. Edited by Bob Tadashi Wakabayashi. Harvard University Asia Center, 1992. ISBN: 9780674040373. [Preview with Google Books] ———. "New Theses: Four - What is Essential to a Nation [Kokutai] (III)." In Anti-Foreignism and Western Learning in Early-Modern Japan: The New Theses of 1825. Edited by Bob Tadashi Wakabayashi. Harvard University Asia Center, 1992. ISBN: 9780674040373. [Preview with Google Books] ———. "New Theses: Six - The Barbarians' Nature." In Anti-Foreignism and Western Learning in Early-Modern Japan: The New Theses of 1825. Edited by Bob Tadashi Wakabayashi. Harvard University Asia Center, 1992. ISBN: 9780674040373. Katsu Kokichi. "Introduction." In Musui’s Story: The Autobiography of a Tokugawa Samurai. University of Arizona Press, 1991. ISBN: 9780816512560. ———. "Adult Years." In Musui’s Story: The Autobiography of a Tokugawa Samurai. University of Arizona Press, 1991. ISBN: 9780816512560. [Preview with Google Books] Recommended [G] Chapter 3: The Intellectual World of Late Tokugawa.
Week 4: Japan's Modern Revolution?
6	Overthrowing the Shogunate	[D] Notehelfer, Fred G. Chapter 35: The Meiji Restoration, pp. 5–10. 1852 Letter of President Fillmore to the Emperor of Japan. "Black Ship and Samurai II - Commodore Perry and the Opening of Japan (1853–1854): Visual Narratives and “The ‘Black Ship Scroll’." MIT Visualizing Cultures. Recommended [G] Chapter 4: The Overflow of the Takugawa.
7	From “Restoration” to “Revolution”	[D] Notehelfer, Fred G. Chapter 35: The Meiji Restoration, pp. 10–12. [GR] Book II, Chapter 15: The Last Year of Feudalism. Jansen, Marius B., ed. "The Restoration in History and Historiography." Chapter 3, Section 9 in The Emergence of Meiji Japan. Cambridge University Press, 1995, pp. 196–202. ISBN: 9780521484053. Recommended [G] Chapter 5: The Samurai Revolution.
Part II: Competing Modernities
Week 5: Building a Civilized Nation
8	The Politics of “Civilization and Enlightenment”	[D] Notehelfer, Fred G. Chapter 35: The Meiji Restoration, pp. 12–17: The Abolition of Feudalism and the Centralization of the Meiji State. [D] Craig, Albert. Chapter 36: Civilization and Enlightenment. "Throwing Off Asia I - Woodblock Prints of Domestic 'Westernization' (1868–1912): Visual Narratives." MIT Visualizing Cultures. Recommended [G] Chapter 7: Social, Economic, and Cultural Transformations.
9	The Culture of Enlightenment	[GR] Book II, Chapter 1: First Glimpses of Japan. [GR] Book II, Chapter 2: A Ride on the Tōkaidō. [GR] Book II, Chapter 3: In Tōkiō, the Eastern Capital. "Yokohama Boomtown - Foreigners in Treaty-Port Japan (1859–1872): Visual Narratives." MIT Visualizing Cultures. Kanagaki Robun. "The Beefeater.” In Modern Japanese Literature: From 1868 to the Present Day. Edited by Donald Keene. Grove Press, 1994. ISBN: 9780802150950. Hattori Bushō. “The Western Peep Show.” In Modern Japanese Literature: From 1868 to the Present Day. Edited by Donald Keene. Grove Press, 1994. ISBN: 9780802150950.
Week 6: Democracy and Empire I
10	Democracy and Constitutional Government	[D] Huffman, James. Chapter 37: Popular Rights and Constitutionalism. "The Constitution of the Empire of Japan." Recommended [G] Chapter 6: Participation and Protest.
11	Meiji Imperialism	[D] Notehelfer, Fred G. Chapter 35: The Meiji Restoration, pp. 17–24: Consequences of the Iwakura Mission: Saigō and Ōkubo on Korea. [T] Goto, Shimpei. "Preface." [T] "A Word to My Readers." [T] Chapter 1: Brief Survey of Our Successes. [T] Chapter 2: The Administration of Formosa Looked at From the Legislative Standpoint. Fukuzawa Yukichi. "Good-bye Asia (Datsu-a)." Chapter 12 in Japan-A Documentary History: The Late Tokugawa Period to the Present. Edited by David J. Lu. Routledge, 1996, pp. 351–3. ISBN: 9780765600363. Recommended [G] Chapter 8: Empire and Domestic Order.
Week 7: Democracy and Empire II
12	Japan’s “Imperial Democracy”	[D] Tiedemann, Arthur E. Chapter 40: The High Tide of Prewar Liberalism, pp. 148–80. "Social Protest in Imperial Japan - The Hibaya Riot of 1905: Essay by Andrew Gordon." MIT Visualizing Cultures. Recommended [G] Chapter 9: Economy and Society. [G] Chapter 10: Democracy and Empire between the World Wars.
Part III: Modernity’s Crisis and its Aftermath
Week 8: Japan’s Jazz Age and its Discontents
13	Sounds and Visions of Modernity	Kawabata Yasunari. Excerpt from The Scarlet Gang of Asakusa. University of California Press, 2005. ISBN: 9780520241824.
14	Ideologies of Crises	[D] Barshay, Andrew. Chapter 41: Socialism and the Left. [D] Jansen, Marius. Chapter 42: The Rise of Revolutionary Nationalism. Recommended [G] Chapter 11: The Depression Crisis and Responses.
Week 9: War on Multiple Fronts
15	Japan’s “World War II”	[D] Duus, Peter. Chapter 43: Empire and War. Recommended [G] Chapter 12: Japan in Wartime.
16	War Abroad and at Home	[C] Chapter 2: Toward a New Order, pp. 47–50. [C] Chapter 5: The Emperor's Warriors, pp. 127–34. [C] Chapter 6: Demons from the East, pp. 151–67. [C] Chapter 13: The Slaughter of an Army, pp. 267–76. [C] Chapter 15: Special Attack, pp. 306–13. [C] Chapter 19: A Terrible New Weapon, pp. 382–91.
Week 10: Occupation and Beyond
17	The Allied Occupation	[D] Mayo, Marlene. Chapter 44: The Occupation Years, 1945–1952, pp. 323–72. "The Constitution of the Empire of Japan." Recommended [G] Chapter 13: Occupied Japan: New Departures and Durable Structures.
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.	No readings assigned
19	Contextualizing "Gojira"	[D] Gordon, Andrew. Chapter 45: Democracy and High Growth. Recommended [G] Chapter 14: Economic and Social Transformations. [G] Chapter 15: Political Struggles and Settlements of the High-Growth Era.
Week 12: Geopolitics and Democracy in Contemporary Japan
20	Japan as “No. 1”?	Vogel, Ezra F. "A Mirror for America." Chapter 1 in Japan as No. 1: Lessons for America. iUniverse, 1999. ISBN: 9781583484104. ———. "The Japanese Miracle." Chapter 2 in Japan as No. 1: Lessons for America. iUniverse, 1999. ISBN: 9781583484104. McGray,Douglas. "Japan’s Gross National Cool." Foreign Policy, November 11, 2009. Recommended [G] Chapter 16: Global Power in a Polarized World: Japan in the 1980s.
21	Democracy in Theory and Practice	Nakano Koichi. "Contemporary Political Dynamics of Japanese Nationalism." Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus 14, Issue 20, no. 6 (October 15, 2016). Recommended [G] Chapter 17: Japan's "Lost Decades": 1989–2008. [G] Chapter 18: Shock, Disaster, and Aftermath: Japan Since 2008.
Week 13: History and Memory in Contemporary Japan
22	In-class Viewing: The Wind Rises. Directed by Hayao Miyazaki. Color, 126 min. 2013.	No readings assigned
23	The Wind Rises, cont.	[D] Gluck, Carol. Chapter 49: Thinking with the Past: History Writing in Modern Japan, pp. 553–82: The Asia-Pacific War in History and Memory.
Week 14: Presentations on Essay 3
24	Student Presentations	No readings assigned
25	Student Presentations	No readings assigned