Introductory Topics in Japanese Literature and Culture (220-0-20)

Topic

War and Postwar Japan, 1943-Present

Instructors

Alex Jania

Meeting Info

Kresge Centennial Hall 2-415: Tues, Thurs 9:30AM - 10:50AM

Overview of class

AY26-27. This course introduces students to an overview of the history of late Wartime and Post War Japan until the present day, while introducing them to various historical methodological approaches to Japanese history. The course is organized into three parts following the shifting forms of power Japan has wielded on the world stage. The first part deals with Japan's ultimate decline as an expansionist Imperial Power, detailing the final years of WWII and defeat by the U.S. and allied forces, as well as the subsequent occupation. The second part of the course details Japan's rise to economic power from the 1950s to the 1980s, covering the Americanization of Japanese culture, the dramatic shift in domestic living standards, the increasing dominance of Japanese export goods, and the build up of the asset price bubble in the 1980s. The third part of the course details the fall of Japan as an economic power following the bursting of the asset bubble in the 1990s and the rise of Japan as a cultural power in the early 21st century. Students will learn that while Japanese economic power on the world stage waned its cultural cache grew as it exported anime, food, clothing styles and more, burnished by the "Cool Japan Policy." Students will, in each part of the course, engage with Japanese history through primary sources including political documents, literature, movies, anime and manga, and more as well as supporting secondary source readings. Ultimately students will come to understand the past 80 years of Japanese history as well as the tools historians use to analyze it.

Learning Objectives

Students will learn the past 80 years of Japanese history.
Students will engage with a variety of primary sources from post war Japan
Students will become familiar with various historical methodologies used to understand Postwar Japan and its primary sources.
Students will learn and practice historical analysis, writing, and argumentation.

Teaching Method

Lecture and Discussion

Evaluation Method

Class Participation 25%
3 Short Papers 30% (10% each)
1 In Class Presentation 20%
1 Final Paper 25%

Class Materials (Required)

*All readings, video, and primary sources will be made available on Canvas as individual files.

Class Materials (Suggested)

Christopher Goto Jones, Modern Japan: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford UP, 2009)

Class Attributes

SoC Humanities and Fine Arts Distro