H381 Modern Japan Due Tuesday Oct. 10

First Paper Topic: Explaining the Meiji Restoration

The Meiji Restoration stands as one of the most momentous transformations in Japanese history. Tetsuo Najita, a historian of Japan, calls it "An iconoclastic event. . .decisive in the emergence of Japan as a modern nation." Thomas Smith sees it as something inherently contradictory, at least on the surface: an "aristocratic revolution."   Marxists see it as the fusion of one wing of the former aristocratic class with the reactionary merchant class to create a distorted, absolutist state.   George Wilson thinks of it as a "liminal moment" during which deeply felt popular anxieties erupted into carnivalesque behaviors bordering on the hysterical.   At the very least, the Meiji Restoration was witness to the end of a regime, a political structure, which had remained in place for over 250 years.   Moreover, it ushered Japan into the modern world.   In this sense, it may resemble the American, the French, the Russian and the Chinese Revolutions.   Or does it?

Construct your own narrative of the causes and the nature of the Meiji Restoration. The point of this assignment is to have you think and write like a historian. Your purpose in this paper will be to identify key moments, critical factors, major players, and the most pervasive forces underlying the event which seem to define it and give it its shape and character.

You might ask some of the following kinds of questions: What were the critical factors that went into the making of the Meiji Restoration?   What kind of historical event do you think it was?   How would you characterize it? Was it a social revolution like those in France, China and Russia? How would you explain the role of the shishi --the Loyalists--and how did their actions play off the deeply felt anxieties among ordinary people? What was the role of the common people? What were the Restoration's main goals and objectives?   What results did it bring about?   One way to approach this topic may be to discuss some of the interpretations advanced in class and in the readings to explain this event, and take a position on which one or ones makes the most sense to you.  

Approximate length: 6-8 pages.

NOTE ON CITATION:

As long as you are citing materials which are part of the class, i.e. Duus, xeroxed articles in handout like Smith or Wilson, you need only use a method of INTERNAL CITATION.   That is, if you want to attribute a statement or put a quote in your paper , e.g.,   ["blah, blah"(Duus, 162).]   follow it with parentheses, the author and the page number, and then a period.   Citation of Internet Resources should show the URL and the date you read the material.   NO BIBLIOGRAPHY IS NECESSARY.   If, however, you want to bring in other materials--which you are quite welcome to do--you may cite the same way but place your additional sources in an ADDITIONAL WORKS CITED list at the end of the paper giving the author, title, publisher, date, etc.