H445

POSTWAR JAPAN

Spring 2008

R. Loftus, Walton 144

x6275

Course Description/Objectives:

Contemporary Japan owes a great deal to its historical roots, especially the Edo period and, later, the Meiji, Taisho and early Showa eras. Yet the Japan that emerged from the ravages of WWII, and was transformed by the Occupation and the postwar economic miracle of the 1960s, is also very much a product of the postwar era or sengo. This class will explore just what the meaning of "postwar" is. Specifically, we will seek to understand what went into the making of postwar Japan--how Japan fared under the Occupation, how the new constitution came into being, the context in which the economic recovery and the reconstruction of Japan occurred, and what happened afterwards during the period of "rapid economic growth." These inquiries will provide some sense of what has emerged at the other end of the postwar era in terms of modern Japan's cultural and social history, the current debate on constitutional reform, as well as Japan's political and economic presence in the world.

Principal Readings:

John Dower, Embracing Defeat (1999)

See H-Net Review here and NYT Review here

Gary D. Allinson, Japan's Postwar History (1997)

Jeffrey Kingston, Japan in Transformation 1952-2000 (2001)

Yukiko Tanaka, Contemporary Portraits of Japanese Women (1995)

Also, Handouts and Online Materials

Some generally useful online materials:

See the Japan sections of the Internet East Asian History Sourcebook This site contains some excellent links!

See also the Library of Congress sourcebook on Japan; it has some relevant sections.

There is a very good site on Photography and Social Research in the Occupation posted by an occupation participant.

See an excellent collection of Japan Links; and useful electronic sources on the Japanese Economy

Class Organization/Structure:

Since this class will be very small this time, it will be conducted in a seminar/discussion fashion which means that we will discuss readings together in class rather than have formal lectures. On regular occasions, students will assume primary responsibility for leading and conducting the discussion by preparing readings to summarize and present to the class. With a smaller group such as ours will be, we should be able to proceed through our course materials at a good pace, so it should be an excellent teaching and learning experience for all of us.

FILMS!

There are a number of excellent documentaries as well as some great Japanese feature films from this era that we will view in order in order to acquire a sense of both popular culture and issues that were important to filmmakers and the public in the postwar years.

Requirements:

1. 4 short response or reaction papers on films and readings (50%)

2. 1 longer paper** based on a mixture of primary and secondary materials on a topic of your choice (12-15 pages) due May 1st. An in-class presentations of your paper topic is also required near the end of the term. (30%)

3. Regular attendance and participation in class including short presentations on assigned readings (20%); and

 

 

Reading and Discussion Schedule

Jan. 15 Endings...and Beginnings: August 15, 1945

Other Surrender Documents

Video: Reinventing Japan--brief introduction

See interesting article by Dower on Japan's Occupation of Manchuria

17 Ending the War and The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb I

Video, ABC News Report on "Hiroshima: Why the Bomb was Dropped"

Dower, Embracing Defeat, Intro pp. 19-30

Gary Allinson, Japan's Postwr History Introduction and Ch. 1

Personal Accounts of bombing 1 and 2

22 Ending the War, War Responsibility, and the Decision to Drop the Bomb II

Dower, Chs, 1-2

The Potsdam Declaration

Japan's Surrender Broadcast

Instrument of Surrender; see also here; and here

Takaki, Hiroshima: Why America Dropped the Bomb, Chapters 1-4 (see "Course Materials" section of Blackboard for a pdf copy)

Surrender Speech and Scholarly Reaction

See also a photo of Nagasaki Mushroom Cloud

Continue with ABC News video on Hiroshima

 

24 Occupying Japan I

General Overview and detailed chronology of the Occupation Period 1945-52

Dower, Embracing Defeat, Ch. 3

More Video on the Occupation: Reinventing Japan

See Blackboard/Course Materials for a newsletter with 3 articles about the planning for the Occuptation, one by Dower called "Durable Democracy"

 

Jan. 29 Occupying Japan II

Dower, Embracing Defeat, Ch. 4

Allinson, Ch. 2

 

Response Paper #1 on the "Decision to Drop the Bomb," 2-3 pages

 

"Those Days in Muramatsu": A Diary

Jan. 31 Changing Relationships in the Early Postwar Period

David Halberstam, The Reckoning, Ch. 6-9 (see "Course Materials" section of Blackboard for a pdf copy)

 

Feb. 5 Wartime in Memory: Graveyard of the Firelies (91 minutes)

Dower Chs. 5-6

Kingston, Japan in Transition, Chs. 1-2

View the first part of this anime on the end of the war and discuss in class

 

7 Postwar Politics and Policies

Finish Graveyard of the Fireflies

Dower, Ch. 5-6

Joe Moore, "Japanese Workers and the Struggle for Power" Ch. 2, Ch.7- 8 (see "Course Materials" section of Blackboard for pdf copies)

 

12 Embracing and Making Revolution

 

14 Begin viewing MacArthur's Children, a film directed by Shinoda Masahiro (125 minutes)

Loftus will be in Portland conducting JET Program Interviews

 

See critical commentary on Koizumi's recent visit to Yasukuni Shrine

 

Wadatsumi no koe--Listen to the Voices of the Deep

19 Embracing Revolution: Dower Chs. 7-9

Kingston, Ch. 3

 

The Question of the Comfort Women and War Responsibility

See the new Digital Museum om the Comfort Women Issue and the Asian Women's Fund

More web pages on Comfort Women

See also here

 

Emperor Hirohito: From Myth to History (Lecture)

21 Dower Chs. 10-11

More of Film, MacArthur's Children

Response Paper #2 on video, Reinventing Japan and/or Graveyard of the Fireflies, 2-3 pages

 

26 Postwar Reforms and The Constitution

Dower, Ch. 12-13

MacArthur's Children

See book review with bibliography of The Birth of Japan's Postwar Constitution by Koseki Shoichi

See two discussions from Jan. 11, 2000 in the Yomiuri newspaper about the constitution

For other links to the Constitution click here

28 Censored Democracy

Dower Ch. 14

Read and Discus Kyoko Hirano, "The Depiction of the Emperor [in film]" (see "Course Materials" section of Blackboard for a pdf copy)

Finish MacArthur's Children

 

March 4 The Emperor in Film

Dower Ch. 15 (War Crimes Trials )

Film: Twenty-four Eyes dir. by Kinoshita Keisuke

IMTFE and Hirohito

March 6

Film: Twenty-four Eyes dir. by Kinsohita Keisuke

Response Paper #3: MacArthur's Children, 3-4 pages

March 11

Finish 24 Eyes

Read and Discuss See short pdf. Orr, "The Victim as Hero," Ch. 5 on Blackboard, Course Materials section

Another Film Review: 24 Eyes

Start Brainstorming Ideas for Longer Paper

 

13 No Regrets: What Do You Tell the Dead When you Lose?

Dower Ch. 16

 

18 Engineering the Postwar Economic Growth

Dower Ch. 17

Begin Film: No Regrets for our Youth (110 minutes)

 

20 Finish No Regrets for Our Youth and Discuss

See Bix Interview on Hirohito

Response Paper #4: Twenty-four Eyes and the Question of the Emperor

 IMTFE and Rape of Nanjing

More on Nanjing Massacre

 

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Spring Break Mar. 24-28

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April 1 The AMPO Movement: 1960 Conflict over the US-Japan Security Treaty

See page on Ampo; Allinson Ch. 4;

See Blackboard, Course Materials for pdf.sasaki on Ampo, "Organizing the Spontaneous"

3 Postwar Growth: The Era of High Speed Economic Growth

Kingston Ch. 4

See also article on "Revitalizing the Japanese Economy"

Some articles on the Japanese Economy

8 Women in Postwar Japan I

Tanaka, Contemporary Portraits of Japanese Women Chs. 1-6

Discuss Paper Topics

 

Dower article and interview on the War in Iraq

 

April 10 Effects of the "Women's Lib" Movement on Japan

Tanaka, Ch. 7-8: Kingston Ch. 7

Ichiyo Muto "The Birth of the Women's Movement in the 1970s" (see "Course Materials" section of Blackboard for a pdf copy)

Documentary Film: Ripples of Change

Gender Issues/Women in Japan

Women in Japan: General

Women and Work in Japan

April 15 Women in Postwr Japan II

Tanaka, Chs. 9

Ronald Loftus, "Recovering the Feminine," US-Japan's Women's Journal 11 (1996) (see "Course Materials" section of Blackboard for a pdf copy)

Finish: Ripples of Change

 


April 16 (Wednesday) Student Scholarship Recognition Day

17 After the Economic Miracle: Japan in the 1990s-2000s

Kingston, Chs 8-10 and Epilogue

See Kingston Documents 21-24

Article on Japanese Economic Miracle


 

Read online article on Women in Workplace

22 Japan in the 21st Century

See Kingston Documents 25-31

 

24 Open Date

 

 Japan in Transition essay

Learning from the Japanese Economy

 

See online version of The Japan That Can Say No

29 Last Class: Student Presentations on Papers

 

Jetro Report on Koizumi's Reforms

 

 

**Regarding the longer paper, I am envisioning less a research paper in the traditional sense than a library-based discussion paper on a topic of your choice. You may choose to pursue something discussed by Dower in one of his chapters but carrying your reading beyond Dower into 3-4 additional sources. For example, topics growing out of occupation reform policies such as educational reform, land reform, economic deconcentration, the spread of radical unionism and labor unrest, follwed by the call for the General Strike, the Reverse Course, the issue of war responsibility, the protection of emperor Hirohito from inquiries into his role and the opposition to his abdication, the framing of teh postwar constitution and the issue of constitutional reform today, etc. might be considered as topics.

Or, alternatively, you might select a topic that lies beyond the 1945-52 time frame adhered to by Dower such as Japan's postwar economic miracle, environmental issues arising from unbridled growth, postwar educational reform and contemporary education issues, the nature of postwar parliamentary politics, the Korean minority in Japan, the issue of US bases in Okinawa, the position of women in contemporary Japanese society, the question of the comfort women, the popularity of "Nihonjinron," or the discourse on Japanese national character, etc. If you would like to pursue the work of a postwar Japanese writer or filmmaker, you could do this by discussing some of their principal works and what they have to say about postwar Japanese society or culture.

Finally, given the current situation in Iraq, you may, if you wish, write a paper on the lessons the government might learn from the occupation of Japan that would apply to Iraq. Here you would want to give an overview of the occupation of Japan, summarize what the steps or policies of the Bush administration seem to be, and argue for things that the government ought to consider doing and/or avoiding.

The final paper will be due Thursday, May 1.

As far as writing style, organization and footnoting, you might find Diane Hacker's online resource site useful:

http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/history/sample.html

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The Postwar Economy: Labor and the Left

Mark Gayn's Diary--Excerpts (see "Course Materials" section of Blackboard for a pdf copy)

John Price, "The 1960 Mi'ike Coal Mine Dispute" (see "Course Materials" section of Blackboard for a pdf copy)