HIST 3481/5481 Modern Japan

The twentieth century saw Japan’s transformation into a non-western capitalist nation-state, imperial engagements in East Asia and a devastating war in Asia and the Pacific, and the country’s emergence as an economic superpower after the Second World War. In this course, we focus on understanding and interpreting a diversity of experiences in twentieth-century Japan, emphasizing in particular Japan’s relations with the United States and East Asia, and the impact of political and economic changes on everyday life. In so doing, we will question some of the cultural images that we bring to modern Japan (i.e. Asian/ non-Asian, traditional/ ultramodern, militaristic/ pacifistic, democratic/ authoritarian) and examine how they took shape. Most of all, we will explore how viewing Japan’s modern history in light of its relations with the United States, East Asia, and the world helps us to understand the global dynamics of a turbulent twentieth and twenty-first century.