HSY2220

Japan: 1800 to the present

Lincoln Li

8 points
* Two lectures and one tutorial per week
* Second semester
* Clayton campus
* Prerequisites: a first-year sequence in history or Japanese studies

Objectives To introduce issues of historical interpretation so as to enable appreciation of the strength of tradition in the evolution of a modern Japanese state and society, as well as to discuss issues of interaction between Japan and the world in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Synopsis This subject may be used to form part of a history or Japanese studies sequence. The subject charts the development of a modern industrial state and society in nineteenth and twentieth-century Japan. Key issues studied include questions of tradition and modernity, the evolution of national marketing networks in Tokugawa times, the Meiji restoration, Westernisation, conservative revival in the 1890s, Taisho democracy, militarism, the building of a capitalist industrial economy, the occupation period, and Japan's rise as an economic superpower.

Assessment Written (4000 words): 50%
* Examination (2 hours): 40%
* Class participation/attendance: 10%

Prescribed texts

Wray H and Conroy H (eds) Japan examined: Perspectives on modern Japanese history 1983

Recommended texts

Craig A M Japan: A comparative view Princeton, 1979
Halliday J A political history of Japanese capitalism Pantheon, 1975
Hane M Modern Japan: A historical survey Westview, 1986
Hunter J E Concise dictionary of modern Japanese history U California P, 1984
T Najita Japan: The intellectual foundations of modern Japanese politics 1974- 1980 U Chicago P