Japan's Rise to World Power
508-352
Roden
Spring 2012
Welcome to “Japan’s Rise to World Power,” an upper-level survey course on Japan’s
political and cultural development from 1600 through World War II. The year 1600
marks the beginning of the Tokugawa period which lasted more than two and one-half
centuries during which time Japan was still under the aegis of a late-feudal and
largely agricultural regime. Our attention will then turn to Japan’s massive
industrialization which took place with remarkable speed in the wake of the Meiji
Restoration and establishment of a new nation state between 1840 and 1880. During
the second half of the semester, we will focus of the evolution of imperialism
and the rise, first, of democratic liberalism in the 1920s and finally fascism
in the 1930s. The course will conclude with a discussion of Japan’s road to World
War II. Along with tracing these political developments, we will also examine
changes in the cultural identity of Japanese writers and their evolving conceptions
of the role of self in society through the exploration of selected literary works.
Critical to this discussion is an ongoing tension, especially after the turn of
the twentieth century, between the private claims of the individual and the public
demands of a nation state that mobilized the masses for a series of wars culminating
with World War II in East Asia. Hopefully by examining these issues in Japanese
political and intellectual history, we will contribute to your understanding of
broader SAS curriculum goals about the study of “human and societal endeavors
across time and space,” including the history of ideas and organizing institutions.
Please use the lecture and reading schedule below as a general guide for the course.
We may, however, take more than one meeting for some of the listed topics, and
less than one meeting for others. I may also give priority to some readings, reducing
others to the status of a recommended assignment. Still, students with high
expectations should read all of the assignments. Also, I encourage everyone to
try to keep up with the readings. To reduce the reading burdens in March and April,
you may wish to begin, immediately, your perusal of the novels Kokoro and,
especially, Makioka Sisters (by far the longest book in the course). Stop by my
office or see me after class if you have any questions or problems during the
course of the semester. I will be in my office (Van Dyck 223C) on Fridays after
class. Course requirements include an in-class midterm exam, a take-home final,
consistent attendance and, as much as possible in a class this size, participation
in class discussions. Consistent attendance assumes particular importance in this
course because I will distribute handouts and upcoming discussion topics in class.
My email address is donroden@aol.com
Jan 17
Introduction: Overview of Japanese History before 1600
Jan 20
Tokugawa Society and Institutions (I)
Pyle, The Making of Modern Japan, l-28
Handout 1: “Selections on Confucianism”
Jan 24
Tokugawa Society and Institutions (II)
Handout 1: “A Samurai Tale”
Jan 27
Pax Tokugawa: Repression and Decline?
Packet, 7-l4, 84-89, Handout 1
Jan 31
Pax Tokugawa: Growth and Progress?
Pyle, 29-40
Packet, l-6
Wray, Japan Examined, l-l7
Feb
3
The Problem of Gender in Tokugawa Japan
Bernstein, Recreating Japanese Women,
l-l48; Handout 2
Feb
7
The Growing Crisis
Pyle, 41-55
Feb 10
The Meiji Restoration: A Sequence of Events
and a Cast of Individuals
Pyle, 57-7l; Handout 3
Feb 14
The Meiji Restoration: An Historiographical
Dilemma
Pyle, 7l-80
Packet, l5-58, 81-84, 89-94
Wray, 45-78
Feb 17
Early Meiji
Foundations
Pyle,
Wray,
Feb 21
The Restoration in Perspective
Feb 24
Midterm Exam
Feb 28
Early Meiji Japan Reconsidered: Cultural Iconoclasm and the
Culture of "Civilization and Enlightenment"
Packet, 67-77
Also review Pyle, 80-118
Mar
Mar
2
6
Japan: Political, Ideological, and Economic
of a Nation State
80-ll8
l8-25, 80-89
Popular
Rights
Movement
and
the
Transition
from
"Civilization
and
Enlightenment"
to
the
Neo-Traditional
Ideologies of the Middle Meiji Period
Pyle, ll8-l31
Wray, 90-ll9
Packet, 77-80,94-97
The Drafting and Implications
and the Imperial Rescripts
of
the
Meiji
Constitution
Packet, 98-106
Mar
9
Beginnings of an Empire: Early Japanese Imperialism(I)
Pyle, 133-157
Wray, l22-l69
Mar
20
Early Japanese Imperialism II): The Culture of Social
Darwinism and Ethnocentrism
Review readings for March 11
Packet, 59-63
Mar
23
Late Meiji Culture and Society: The Crisis of
Individualism and a New Conception of Gender
Packet, l07-ll2, ll8-l22
Bernstein, l5l-l98
Mar
27
The Crisis of Spirit in Late Meiji Japan (l)
Kokoro, parts I and II
Mar
30
The Crisis of Spirit in Late Meiji Japan (2)
Kokoro, part III
Apr
3
From Meiji to Taisho: The Problem of Liberalism
and The New Middle Class
Pyle, l59-180
Wray, l72-l98
Packet, 64-66
Apr
6
Gender and Popular Culture in Interwar Japan
Packet, ll3-ll7, l23-l31
Bernstein, l99-2l6, 239-266
Apr
10
The Human Costs of Industrialization in Interwar
Japan
Packet, l32-l34
Bernstein, 2l7-238
Apr
13
Crisis Politics and the Rise of Militarism
Pyle, 181-205
Apr
17
Colonialism and Militarism as a Problem of
Historiographical Interpretation
Wray, 200-330
Packet, l35-l65
Distribute Take-Home Final Questions
Apr 20
The High Bourgeois Culture of Early
Showa Japan (l926-l945)
Makioka Sisters, part I
Apr 24
Gender Roles, Marriage, Class Distinctions,
and the Family in a Nation at War
Makioka Sisters, parts II and III
Bernstein, 267-303
Apr
27
Concluding Thoughts on the Makioka Sisters and a Brief
Overview of World War II and the Early Postwar Occupation
Pyle, 207-240
Wray, 332-363