Course Description
Early modern and modern Japan: the transformation of Japan from an isolationist, agrarian country to a military giant, to a broken and defeated nation, to an economic superpower.
Athena Title
MODERN JAPAN
Semester Course Offered
Offered spring
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
The principal objectives of the course are to provide students with fundamental knowledge of the history of early modern and modern Japan; and to teach students to think critically for themselves about the relationships between the past and the present, to learn to ask questions of the past that enable them to understand the present and mold the future, and to become attuned to both the limitations and possibilities of change. The course seeks to acquaint students with the ways in which past societies and peoples have defined the relationships between community and individual needs and goals, and between ethical norms and decision-making. In general students will be expected to: 1. read a wide range of primary and secondary sources critically. 2. polish skills in critical thinking, including the ability to recognize the difference between opinion and evidence, and the ability to evaluate--and support or refute--arguments effectively. 3. write stylistically appropriate and mature papers and essays using processes that include discovering ideas and evidence, organizing that material, and revising, editing, and polishing the finished papers.
Topical Outline
The 16th century The Three Unifiers The Tokugawa Polity Tokugawa Foreign Policy The Four Orders Early Modern Samurai Early Modern Peasants Merchants & Artisans Early Modern Urban Culture Dangers Within Troubles Without The Fall of the Shogunate The New Meiji State The Meiji Constitution Meiji Culture Industrialization Meiji Foreign Policy The Sino-Japanese & Russo-Japanese Wars Taisho Democracy Showa Imperialism The Collapse of "Party Rule" The Coming of War The American Occupation The Post War Political System The Post War Economy Modern Japanese Culture
Syllabus