seminars-old.md

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Seminars

Full references to the readings below can be found in the following section ordered by last name of the author. For each week. Please read all of the primary source reading, all of the secondary reading, and please consider reading one of the further readings.

Abbreviations for readings:

• GORDON: Andrew Gordon A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present
• SOURCES: Sources of Japanese Tradition: Volume 2, 1600 to 2000 Library ebook
• MASON: Mason, Michele, and Helen Lee, eds. Reading Colonial Japan: Text, Context, and Critique Library ebook

Week 0 - Introductions: Japanese History and the Transitions of the 19th Century

Reading:

• If you can find the time, please read: GORDON Ch 4-12 (p48-223, 175 pages)
  • What to Look For: These chapters, from a survey history of modern Japan, will be crucial for you to get the broad historical sweep for the course. Given the thematic emphasis of this course and its focus on empire, much of what is in this reading is the only reading you will have that covers some of the domestic developments in Japanese history and the only time that you will have a strictly chronological overview. If you have never studied East Asian or specifically Japanese history before, I would urge you to read this twice, once at the beginning of the semester, and again during the mid-semester break.
  • I would tackle the reading in two or three sessions and read these pages closely, and take good notes to refer to throughout the semester. How long did it take you to read these 175 pages closely, taking good notes along the way? Perhaps 8-12 hours? Make a note of this as your "slow rate" - some texts during the semester will require this slow reading to fully absorb them well, and others can be read or skimmed much faster (perhaps 50 pages an hour or more?) as you search for the main arguments, closely read a few of the difficult theoretical sections, make note of key case studies and evidence, and skim over sections you think are less relevant. This is the key to managing reading of 150-250 pages a week while working on your long essay research.

Preparation:

• Those of you who joined the course late or for any other reason were not able to attend this first meeting, please still be aware of the need to read the Gordon material during the course of the semester.
• I would urge students to purchase your own copy of Andrew Gordon's A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present. The most recent edition is best, but any edition will suffice. It serves as a concise and useful survey of Japanese history in general, as opposed to the empire in particular, and therefore will serve as a good reference for grounding yourself in the broader national narrative of the imperial metropole.
• Bring a list of at least three themes or general areas related to the history of Japanese empire that interest you and be prepared to say something about why you find them interesting
• Be ready to share some thoughts on how a module on Japanese empire might differ from a module entitled, for example, 'Modern Japanese History'
• You will spend a significant portion of time during this semester working on your own original research essay: bring at least 2 ideas of broad areas that interest you for possible research on. They don't need to be limited to Japan as a geographic location but can be a theme, or a kind of source.
• Look at the readings for each of the weeks ahead and read the handbook section on presentations.
• Sign up to do a presentation between week 1 and week 11. This can be done on the module mooodle wiki. A maximum of two people may present in any given week. You may change weeks for the assessed presentation in the future but only if you make an arrangement to switch with someone and they agree. You do not need to contact me about this change, but it must be indicated on our online class presentation schedule.

Overview:

• Our first meeting will talk about the relationship between studying the history of Japan, and the history of Japanese empire.
• Everything you need to know about the module can be found in this handbook, but we'll use this meeting to discuss some of these features and give you a chance to ask for clarification. We will discuss the assignments, and particularly emphasise the importance of beginning early and working consistently on your long essay. I will explain what the expectations are and urge you to make good use of this handbook which offers a lot of detailed advice.
• We will discuss the format of the final examination, and share tips for how to deal with the reading load from week to week.
• We will discuss the collective notes and how it has helped students in past iterations of this module.
• We will sign up for presentations.
• Finally, we will also have a chance to get to know each other a bit better.

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Week 1 - Entering the World Stage and Building an Empire

Primary Source Reading: ~30 pages

• SOURCES:
  • Ch 37: Letters from Saigō Takamori to Itagaki Taisuke on the Korean Question
  • Ch 37: Ōkubo Toshimichi’s Reasons for Opposing the Korean Expedition
  • Ch 38: Fukuzawa Yukichi’s View of Civilization; An Outline of a Theory of Civilization
  • Ch 38: Nakamura Masanao: China Should Not Be Despised; Japan’s Debt to China
  • Ch 41: Tokutomi Sohō: A Japanese Nationalist's View of the West and Asia
  • Ch 45: Konoe Fumimaro: Against a Pacificism Centered on England and America
  • Fukuzawa Yukichi - "Good-bye Asia"

Secondary Source Reading: ~150 pages

• Beasley Japanese Imperialism Ch 4-7 (60 pages) Library ebook
  • "Intervention in Korea, 1894-5, Peace Settlement with China 1894-6", "New Imperialism and the War with Russia 1895-1905", "Formal and Informal Empire in North-East Asia, 1905-1910"
  • This is a survey text but will help deepen your understanding of the events. Compare this with your reading of GORDON for the same period.
• Eskildsen, "Of Civilization and Savages" (31 pages) Online (P)
• Yumi Moon, “Immoral Rights: Korean Populist Collaborators and the Japanese Colonization of Korea, 1904–1910” (25 pages) Online
• Please read and view carefully one of the following three MIT Visualizing Cultures exhibits, each of which has several sub-pages:
  • Throwing Off Asia I: Westernization (Visual Narratives)
  • Throwing Off Asia II: Sino-Japanese War 1894-5 (Visual Narratives)
  • Throwing Off Asia III: Russo-Japanese War Woodblock Prints (Visual Narratives)
  • Yellow Promise/Yellow Peril (Visual Narratives)

Further Reading:

• Lecture by John Dower on Visualising the Russo-Japanese War (1hr)
• Duus, Peter. The Abacus and the Sword: The Japanese Penetration of Korea, 1895-1910 (P)
  • This is a classic work now which goes into great depth on the lead up to annexation in Korea.
• Kowner, Impact of the Russo-Japanese War, 1-26
• Valliant, "The Selling of Japan", 415-438
• Wolff ed., Russo-Japanese War in Global Perspective, Hashimoto Yorimitsu, "White Hope or Yellow Peril?: Bushido, Britain, and the Raj", 379-403
• MASON p55-75 Ch 2: "Hokkaido Former Natives Protection Law, Rule in the Name of "Protection"
• "Ainu Identity and the Meiji State" in David L. Howell, Geographies of Identity in Nineteenth-Century Japan
• Auslin, Michael R. Negotiating with Imperialism: The Unequal Treaties and the Culture of Japanese Diplomacy Harvard University Press, 2009.
• Cassel, Pär Kristoffer. Grounds of Judgment: Extraterritoriality and Imperial Power in Nineteenth-Century China and Japan. Oxford University Press, 2012. (P)
• Paine, S. C. M. The Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895: Perceptions, Power, and Primacy. (P)
• Naoko Shimazu, “Patriotic and Despondent: Japanese Society at War, 1904-5”
• Rotem Kowner, ed., The Impact of the Russo-Japanese War, 1st ed. (Routledge, 2006).
• David Wells and Sandra Wilson, The Russo-Japanese War in Cultural Perspective, 1904-05 (Palgrave Macmillan, 1999).
• Hyman Kublin, “The Japanese Socialists and the Russo-Japanese War,” The Journal of Modern History 22, no. 4 (December 1, 1950): 322–39.
• Simon Partner, “Peasants into Citizens? The Meiji Village in the Russo-Japanese War,” Monumenta Nipponica 62, no. 2 (July 1, 2007): 179–209.
• David Schimmelpenninck Van Der Oye, “Rewriting the Russo-Japanese War: A Centenary Retrospective,” Russian Review 67, no. 1 (January 2008): 78–87.
• Caprio, Mark Neo-Nationalist Interpretations of Japan's Annexation of Korea: The Colonization Debate in Japan and South Korea

Preparation:

• Choosing one of the two long essay ideas you brought to class from last week, spend an hour "blitz" researching your topic: who has written about it? What kinds of sources do they use? What kinds of arguments have historians made, write down at least a dozen bullet points or a paragraph or two for discussion. This exercise is to help you start thinking about the broad topic for your long essay. Remember, the short essay is due sooner than you think.
• If you are struggling with ideas for topics, go through the primary source suggestions at the end of this handbook and choose one source to browse through and think of possible ideas for it.
• The primary sources, along with the Moon and Eskildsen pieces will be discussed in depth, please read them closely
• For many, the topics here are unfamiliar. When you run into unfamiliar territory review the survey text by Gordon, or get in the habit of looking up names, places, or people you are unfamiliar with. Note them down if they pop up and bring them up in class - you may not be the only one!
• Review the page load of readings for the weeks ahead, start planning ahead to make time for your long essay research and writing. Take advantage of weeks with a lighter load to schedule time for the long essay. Think about "time boxing" your reading - fixing in advance the hours you will dedicate to your reading and working within those limits to allow other time for the module on your long essay research, presentation, and other preparation.
• Try to commit to memory the basic, mostly political, events in the "Chronology" section of this student handbook, for the years up to 1920. Note down one or two of these events that you know little or nothing about that you think might be interesting and look them up on Wikipedia.

Overview:

• This period, from the early 1870s, until about 1920, represents a huge transformation for Japan, going from a relatively inward looking archipelago to a modern nation with colonial rule over places such as Okinawa, Karafuto (Sakhalin), Taiwan and Korea. It is a period which includes Japan's victory over the Qing dynasty in the first Sino-Japanese War, its inclusion among the imperial powers who intervened in the Qing's Boxer Rebellion, and its triumphant victory in the Russo-Japanese War 1904-5 that sealed its hegemony on the Korean peninsula and established its influence in Manchuria. It also includes World War I, in which Japan fought with the Allies, took over German interests in the Pacific and Shandong, and subjected China to its 21 Demands.
• Our primary sources this week give you several Japanese perspectives on the international environment they face, from Fukuzawa's contemplations of civilisation and Japan's relationship with the West, to the growing frustrations of Tokutomi and Konoe about Japan's place in a world of Western empires. We will discuss and compare these perspectives.
• We will spend some time on the arguments of Eskildsen and Moon in particular, which both complicate the narrative in various ways, and introduces new perspectives.
• The MIT exhibits have wonderful sources and we will discuss and analyse a few of those which you have found particularly interesting.
• Between Gordon and Beasley, we now should have a basic skeleton of the major events in Japanese imperialism, we will review these
• We will ask ourselves what commonalities and differences we see so far between Japan as a coloniser and those of other western empires at this time.
• Any time left over we will use to discuss topics for the long essay and your overviews

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Questions to Think About:

1. For Japanese leaders at the time what is the relationship between becoming a modern nation and possessing an empire?
2. What tensions and contradictions are to be found among some of the Japanese figures whose works we have been reading?
3. What are some of the patterns to be found in the image sources of the Visualizing Cultures? How do the introductory essays in the collections use these sources to make arguments?

Ideas for Long Essay Themes

• Note: In this section I will put general themes to consider for long essays, but keep in mind that you are by no means limited to them and each of theme contain a full range of more appropriately narrow questions and arguments you might pursue within them.
• There are many sources in non-Japanese languages that will allow you to examine the way Japan's colonization was portrayed abroad, focusing in on one aspect or example of this and making an argument is one possibility for a long essay. Also consider going through the list of further readings in this handbook for the rest of the semester for more ideas of things that are written about.
• Depictions of Japan in some international source or sources, or by Japan of world order in works written by Japanese in English (or another language you know)?
• Aspects of Meiji period transitions within Japan
• Issues of cultural contact between Japan and its neighbors in this period
• Responses of Chinese, Korean, or already colonized peoples to Japan in this period
• Further exploring the visualizations of Japanese imperialism

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Week 2 - Authority, Ethnography, and Assimilation

Primary Source Reading: 45 pages

• Nitobe Inazo, "Japan as Colonizer" in The Japanese Nation Online at Archive.org, 231-258 on Taiwan, or on Korea, "Introduction" in the Annual Report on Reforms and Progress in Chosen (Korea) 1918-21 (Search for this title on HeinOnline
• SOURCES, Ch 41: Yanagi Muneyoshi and the Kwanghwa Gate, For a Korean Architecture About to Be Lost
• MASON 109-123 Ch 4: "Demon Bird, Violence, Borders, Identity"

Secondary Source Reading: 143 pages

• Robinson, Korea's Twentieth-century Odyssey, Ch 2 Colonial State and Society, Ch 3 Class and Nation in Colonial Korea pp36-75 Library ebook
• Tierney, selection from "From Taming Savages to Going Native" Tropics of Savagery, 38-63 Library ebook
• Atkins, selection from "Ethnography as Self-Reflection: Japanese Anthropology in Colonial Korea" Primitive Selves, pp52-74, pp96-101 Library ebook
• Caprio, Japanese Assimilation Policies in Korea, 81-140: Ch 3-4

Further Reading:

• Henry, Assimilating Seoul: Japanese Rule and the Politics of Public Space in Colonial Korea, 1910-45 (P)
• Peattie, Japanese Colonial Empire
• Liao, Taiwan Under Japanese Colonial Rule
• Kim Brandt, “Objects of Desire: Japanese Collectors and Colonial Korea,” Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique 8, no. 3 (2000): 711–46.
• Chen, Ching-Chih. “The Japanese Adaptation of the Pao-Chia System in Taiwan, 1895-1945.” Jstor
• Ching, Becoming Japanese, 1-50: Introduction and Ch 1-2 Library ebook (P)
• Through Formosa: an account of Japan's Island Colony, Ch. 7, 11
• Barclay, "Cultural Brokerage" 323-360 Online
• Antonio C. Tavares, “The Japanese Colonial State and the Dissolution of the Late Imperial Frontier Economy in Taiwan, 1887-1909,” The Journal of Asian Studies 64, no. 2 (May 1, 2005): 361–85 Online
• Moon, Yumi. Populist Collaborators: The Ilchinhoe and the Japanese Colonization of Korea, 1896-1910. 1 edition. Cornell University Press, 2013. (P)
• Brandt, Kim. Kingdom of Beauty: Mingei and the Politics of Folk Art in Imperial Japan. Duke University Press Books, 2007. (P)
• Naoko Shimazu, Japan, Race and Equality: The Racial Equality Proposal of 1919 (London: Routledge Press, 1998) (P)

Preparation:

• Post to the Moodle with the title "Week 2 Topic Idea: (Your Name): (Your Essay Topic)" - and in this posting describe in one or two sentences the topic you are currently considering. All Moodle postings are due the evening before class begins.
• Examine a map of the Korean peninsula and of the island of Taiwan. Familiarise yourself with the location of the major cities.
• Robinson will give you the general background on the history of colonial Korea. You can use this chapter and the broader book to help you with the Korean context
• Tierney is not all an easy read, make sure you understand what you are reading.
• Look up Nitobe Inazo and read a little about him. Some of you may be interested in exploring his key role in popularising the idea of "Bushido"
• Atkins and Tierney will form an important part of the discussion, as will the "Demon Bird" and the Nitobe readings.

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Overview:

• There may be assessed presentations
• One way we might have examined the history of colonial territories under Japanese control is to examine the chronology of events in each place. We are taking another approach, one that is more thematic. Our readings today step back from the political events to the cultural realm and also the ways in which the Japanese empire attempted to form and change the peoples and places it colonised. In particular, we will see how the world of folklore, cultural artefacts, and the field of anthropology are key to understanding other ways that power figure into the relationship between coloniser and colonised.
• We will take a closer look at the Nitobe Inazo reading and discuss the ways that Japan is described as a colonial power and presented to a western audience, with care taken to the rhetoric and language used as well as the selection of material chosen for presentation.
• We will set aside some time in class to talk about how your topics for the long essay.
• Abstracts Discussion: I will bring a list of abstracts for conference presentations and published articles. These are (somewhat shorter) examples of what you are aiming for in the prospectus. We will discuss what kinds of information they contain and what makes them stronger or weaker.

Questions to Think About:

1. What are some of the ways that knowledge about the colonised peoples were deployed in the Japanese empire?
2. In the period focused on here, what were the primary goals for the Japanese colonisers in attempting to form the peoples under its rule?

Ideas for Long Essay Themes

• There is a much more rich literature on ethnography and empire (not limited to East Asia either) and many other possible sources for anthropologists in East Asia to explore these questions of knowing the author. The even richer and broader literature on orientalism offer another way to look at both Japan's use of knowledge in its domination of its neighbours but also of European empires simultaneously jockeying for power in the region.
• Assimilation policies across multiple empires is a fascinating area that opens lots of possible topics that take a comparative approach
• The "Annual Report on Reforms and Progress in Chosen" collection published in several volumes available online in HeinOnline are an interesting look at how Japan tried to portray its role as a colonizer in Japan. An interesting source for long essays.
• Travellers to Japan at around this period are an interesting way to explore how a rapidly modernizing and growing empire are depicted. Isabella Bird is one interesting figure, and there are many other works written in English by travellers to Japan's first colonies that you can explore both for their (very often highly racist) depiction of the Japanese and their approach to empire, or Japan's imperial subjects in Korea and Taiwan etc.
• Our text by Nitobe this time was only one of many such texts, exploring others or a pattern within multiple of them is another area.
• Kim Brandt's piece in the further reading is part of a growing literature (not limited to Japan) which looks at the intersection of art and antiquities related to empire that may give you ideas.

Films of Interest:

• Warriors of the Rainbow (賽德克•巴萊 2011)
• YMCA Baseball Team (YMCA 야구단 2002)
• The Sword with No Name (불꽃처럼 나비처럼 2009)

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Week 3 - The Idea of Colonial Modernity and its Distortions

Primary Source Reading: 27 pages

• MASON 77-104 Ch 3: "Officer Ukuma, Subaltern Identity in Okinawa", 77-89

Secondary Source Reading: 190 pages

• Robinson, Korea's Twentieth-century Odyssey, Ch 4 Colonial Modernity, Assimilation, and War, 76-99 Library ebook
• Todd A. Henry, Assimilating Seoul Ch 4 Civic Assimilation: Sanitary Life in Neighborhood Keijō Library ebook
• Matsutani, Motokazu 'A New Perspective on the 'Name-Changing Policy' in Korea" in Gender and Law in the Japanese Imperium, 240-266.
• Shin, Colonial Modernity in Korea Library ebook
  • 1-20: Introduction
  • 21-51: Modernity, Legality, and Power in Korea
  • 52-69: Broadcasting, Cultural Hegemony
• Lee, Hong Yung "A Critique of 'Colonial Modernity'" in Lee ed. Colonial Rule and Social Change in Korea, 1910-1945, 3-38
• "The 'Modern Girl' Question in the Periphery of Empire: Colonial Modernity and Mobility among Okinawan Women in the 1920s and 1930s" in Tani Barlow, ed. The Modern Girl Around the World, 242-258 Library ebook

Further Reading:

• Kikuchi, Yūko, ed. Refracted Modernity: Visual Culture and Identity in Colonial Taiwan (P)
• rest of Henry, Todd. Assimilating Seoul: Japanese Rule and the Politics of Public Space in Colonial Korea, 1910-45 (P)
• Oh, Se-Mi. “Consuming the Modern: The Everyday in Colonial Seoul, 1915-1937.”
• Tani E. Barlow, ed., Formations of Colonial Modernity in East Asia (P)
• Ming-cheng M. Lo, Doctors within Borders: Profession, Ethnicity, and Modernity in Colonial Taiwan (P)
• Wang, Taisheng, Legal Reform in Taiwan Under Japanese Colonial Rule, 1895-1945 (P)
• rest of The Modern Girl Around the World (P)
• rest of Gender and Law in the Japanese Imperium (P)
• Robinson, Michael Cultural nationalism in colonial Korea, 1920-1925 (P)
• Choi, Hyaeweol New Women in Colonial Korea : a Sourcebook
• Kim, Janice To Live to Work: Factory Women in Colonial Korea (P)
• Morris, Andrew Colonial Project, National Game: A History of Baseball in Taiwan (P)

Preparation:

• Post to the Moodle with the title "Week 3 Topic Idea: (Your Name): (Your Essay Topic)" - and in this posting describe in one or two sentences the topic you are currently considering. If it is the same topic as last week, then copy and paste from the last entry and improve or add depth to your description. Then add a sentence or two on what primary sources you are evaluating for use. Post a constructive comment on at least one other student's posting.
• Continue your exploration of topics for the long essay. As soon as you are settled on a topic your most important question is: what primary sources can I use? If you are still struggling to find an interesting topic, spend a few hours with one or two of the primary source collections. Browse journals on East Asian History to see the kind of scope and detail aimed at by academic articles. Is your topic broader than an academic article? Then focus in more.
• Think about the case of Officer Ukuma in Okinawa. What are some of the features of his story that might be common to the experience of other people under Japanese colonial rule that we have been reading about. Is that experience unique to colonial settings? If so, in what ways? If not, then what other settings resemble it?
• Many of the readings for today are filled with ironies: where intentions of the coloniser often lead to very differing outcomes when seen in retrospect. Some of them also suggest that simplistic nationalist narratives that emerge in a postcolonial setting are also problematic. In what ways is this the case?

Overview:

• There may be assessed presentations
• We'll start by jumping forward a bit to some of the ways that the unfortunately named idea of "colonial modernity" has been come to mean two things today - one thing in the hands of revisionist Japanese historians and politicians, as well as Korean nationalists who oppose them, and another within the scholarly world
• We'll discussion the concepts of modernity, modernisation, the implicit progressivist narrative in these concepts, and the ways in which these are complicated by their place in a colonial setting.
• Group task: We will set aside time again to ask you to reflect on the prospectus. What did you learn from the process, what advice can you offer your fellow students. Where do you go from here?
• Our MASON readings so far have been literary texts. We will continue to make a lot of use of such fictional works written during or very close to the period. Time permitting we will set aside some time to think about what it means to use literary sources in history. What does it do well which other sources often done? What challenges does it bring as we use them?
• If there is time left over we will discuss what kinds of sources have been used in the secondary readings we have done so far for the course and their strengths and challenges.

Questions:

1. What is the difference between modernity and modernisation?
2. According to theorists of colonial modernity, how was it distinct from modernity experienced elsewhere?
3. Apologists for empire have often justified past rule as having had, at the very least, a positive impact on their former colonies in terms of infrastructure and economic development. In what ways does the theory of colonial modernity, and indeed, those who critique the idea, call this into question?

Ideas for Long Essay Themes

• This week, perhaps more than any others, offers chances to explore literary sources as a way into the period. There is a growing body of English translations of not only Japanese literature from this period but Korean, Chinese, and Taiwanese literature. Many of these offer settings that give the appearance of a bustling early 20th century modern society, but often with all the distortions and limitations of that apparent modernity that we expect to find in a colonial setting.
• Despite talking about "modernity" which is a more abstract concept, we have said relatively little of modernization, of economic and technological transformations in the colonies, and the development of infrastructure under colonial rule that was of benefit to the coloniser and its increased extraction of resources from its possessions. This could be explored in an essay through an example or comparison, but when doing so, be aware that this is a field that demands careful consideration of: for whom and who benefits.
• We also see this week that the colonizer - colonized two-sided approach has severe limitations and a long essay can look in more depth at some impact of colonisation on a particular group in metropole or colony.
• Students interested in urban history might consider exploring a long essay with a topic related to cities in the empire - also the topic of a fourth year module I offer for those who want more readings on this.

Film of Interest:

• 미몽(죽음의 자장가) Sweet Dream (Lullaby of Death) - 1936
  • Available thanks to the Korean Film Archive's youtube channel with English subtitles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmd_OBPFll8
  • click the "captions" button to turn on English subtitles
• 戲夢人生 Puppetmaster - 1993
• Radio Days (2008 - 라듸오 데이즈)
• Assassin (2015 - 암살)
• Modern Boy (2008 - 모던 보이)

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Week 4 - Settler Colonialism and Migration in the Empire

Primary Source Reading: 39 pages

• Kim Sa-ryang "Into the Light" in Wender, Melissa L. ed., Into the Light: An Anthology of Literature by Koreans in Japan (39 pages)

Secondary Source Reading: ~210 pages

• Mark R. Peattie The Japanese Informal Empire in China, 1895-1937 Ch 6 "Japanese Treaty Port Settlements, 1895-1937" pp167-174, pp188-209
• Caprio, Mark and Yu Jia "Occupations of Korea and Japan and the Origins of the Korean Diaspora in Japan" in Ryang, Sonia ed. Diaspora without Homeland: Being Korean in Japan, 21-38 Library ebook
• Han, Eric C. Rise of a Japanese Chinatown: Yokohama, 1894-1972 Ch 2 "Expatriate Nationalists and the Politics of Mixed Residence, 1895-1911" Ch 1 pages from 23-41, Ch 2 pp72-80
• Uchida, Jun, "A Sentimental Journey: Mapping the Interior Frontier of Japanese Settlers in Colonial Korea" Online
• Uchida, Jun. Brokers of Empire: Japanese Settler Colonialism in Korea, 1876-1945 Ch 1 "The Growth of Settler Communities" p62-70, Ch 2 Settlers and the State p96-139
• Young, Japan's Total Empire "The Migration Machine: Manchurian Colonization and State Growth" 352-398 Library ebook
• Smith, W. Donald. “Beyond ‘The Bridge on the River Kwai’: Labor Mobilization in the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.” International Labor and Working-Class History, no. 58 (October 1, 2000): 219–38. Online

Further Reading:

• Uchida, Jun. “The Public Sphere in Colonial Life: Residents’ Movements in Korea Under Japanese Rule.” Online
• Driscoll, Mark. Absolute Erotic, Absolute Grotesque: The Living, Dead, and Undead in Japan’s Imperialism, 1895–1945 (P)
• O’Dwyer, Emer Sinéad. Significant Soil: Settler Colonialism and Japan’s Urban Empire in Manchuria (P)
• Rest of Uchida's Brokers of Empire (P)
• Rest of Han Rise of a Japanese Chinatown (P)
• Lie, John. Multiethnic Japan. Cambridge, Mass.; London: Harvard University Press, 2004.

Preparation:

• Post to the Moodle with the title "Week 4 Progress and Frustrations: (Your Name): (Your Essay Topic)" - and in this posting describe in one or two sentences the topic you are currently considering. If it is the same topic as previous weeks, then copy and paste from the last entry and improve or add depth to your description as necessary. Then add a sentence or two on what progress you have made and if you have any challenges or frustrations. Then add a constructive comment on the posting of at least one other student before class which may include comments or suggestions.
• Your prospectus is due next week. Once you have a topic, have confirmed that it is of a scope no greater than what you see in most academic articles on Japanese empire, have settled on some possible sources, found some potentially useful historiography the next and final question to answer before you are ready to compose your prospectus is: what do I think I will argue - what will my analytical contribution be? Finding out what an essay is "about" is just the first step: the real challenge is "what will I argue about this topic"
• Think about ways of tying the Kim Sa-ryang piece to our readings in the secondary sources.
• Look for connections across our readings for this week.

Overview:

• There may be assessed presentations
• Until the full-scale Sino-Japanese war in the 1930s most of the places we have been looking at were assumed to be permanent parts of the Japanese empire. This was a multi-ethnic empire and the strategies of the Japanese government, colonial officials, settlers, and others for what kind of relationships its constituent communities were to have with each other evolved over time. We will focus our time on trying to unpack these relationships.
• We will do a closer reading in class of some parts of the Kim Sa-ryang story

Questions:

1. How do our readings help us understand some of the dynamics of the relationship between the coloniser and the colonised?
2. The migrations described here exist on a spectrum of coercion. What are some of the differing ways the Japanese state became involved in the migrations described here?
3. How is this relationship complicated, if not completely transformed, in the case of settlers or colonised peoples in the metropole?

Ideas for Long Essay Themes

• Migration in the empire is an ideal way in to the deeply transnational possibilities of studying the Japanese empire, and exploring contradictions of identity, of power relationships, and networks. Consider exploring the bibliographies of Uchida, Han, Caprio, and O'Dwyer for some inspiration. Our Kim Sa-ryang piece is only one of many Korean works, for example, now available in English translation which attempt to capture the challenges of minorities in the empire.
• Uchida's Brokers of Empire introduction suggests the rich possibilities of comparative studies of settler colonialism with other empires.
• The idea of "informal empire" has been used as a replacement for an alternative Marxist inspired language of "half-colonialism" as it is still known in China today. This area offers a huge variety of possible case studies, potential comparisons, and questions you might explore.

Films of Interest:

• Anarchist From Colony (박열 2017)
• City of Sadness (悲情城市 1989)
• Blue Swallow (청연 2005)
• Rikidōzan (역도산 2004)
• The Last Princess (2016 - 덕혜옹주)
• A significant number of Japanese gangster (yakuza) films include characters who are depicted as Korean or Korean-Japanese. Some films makes this an active element of the plot, while others give it merely indirect mention.

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Week 5 - Imperial Innovation in Manchuria

Primary Source Reading: ~30 pages

• MASON 209-241 Ch 7: Text and Critique "Manchu Girl", Imperializing Motherhood"
• Watch "Manchukuo: The Newborn Empire" on Archive.org or YouTube (about 13m) and make note of how the Japanese project in Manchuria is justified, and its people and places described.

Secondary Source Reading: ~160 pages

• Young, Japan's Total Empire Ch 2 pp29-35,40-54: Part I - The Making of a Total Empire* Library ebook
• Duara, Prasenjit Sovereignty and Authenticity Ch 2-3 Manchukuo: A Historical Overview; Asianism and the New Discourse of Civilization pp41-122
• Tamanoi, Mariko Asano. “Knowledge, Power, and Racial Classification: The ‘Japanese’ in ‘Manchuria.’” The Journal of Asian Studies 59, no. 2 (May 1, 2000): 248–76. Jstor

Further Reading:

• Mitter, Rana. The Manchurian Myth: Nationalism, Resistance and Collaboration in Modern China (P)
• Esherick, Joseph, ed. “Railway City and National Capital: Two Faces of the Modern in Changchun.” Remaking the Chinese City: Modernity and National Identity, 1900-1950, 65-89
• Shao, Dan. Remote Homeland, Recovered Borderland: Manchus, Manchoukuo, and Manchuria, 1907-1985 (P)
• Tamanoi, Mariko, ed. Crossed Histories: Manchuria in the Age of Empire
• Aydin, Cemil. The Politics of Anti-Westernism in Asia: Visions of World Order in Pan-Islamic and Pan-Asian Thought (P)
• Hotta, Eri. Pan-Asianism and Japan’s War 1931-1945 (P)
• Culver, Annika A. Glorify the Empire: Japanese Avant-Garde Propaganda in Manchukuo (P)
• Smith, Norman. “Disguising Resistance in Manchukuo: Feminism as Anti-Colonialism in the Collected Works of Zhu Ti.” The International History Review 28, no. 3 (2006): 515–36.
• Tankha, Brij. Kita Ikki and the Making of Modern Japan: A Vision of Empire (P)
• Yamaura, Chigusa. “From Manchukuo to Marriage: Localizing Contemporary Cross-Border Marriages between Japan and Northeast China.” The Journal of Asian Studies 74, no. 03 (August 2015): 565–88
• Duara, Prasenjit "The New Imperialism and the Post-Colonial Developmental State: Manchukuo in comparative perspective" Online
• "Military fascism and Manchukuo, 1930-36" and "Bureaucratic visions of Manchukuo, 1933-39" in Mimura, Janis. Planning for Empire: Reform Bureaucrats and the Japanese Wartime State

Preparation:

• If you are willing to share, post the text of your submitted prospectus to the Moodle. Post constructive comment or suggestion on at least one other student's posting.
• You should finish your prospectus and upload to the MMS.
• As you read, please consider the questions listed below for this week carefully.

Overview:

• There may be assessed presentations
• We'll talk about your observations and thoughts regarding the Manchukuo film.
• We'll talk about your prospectus submissions and your challenges so far.
• We'll focus our discussion on what makes the story of Japan's Manchurian occupation similar and different from the rest of its imperial history

Questions:

1. How did the Manchurian "experiment" differ from Japan's experience of imperialism in Korea or Taiwan? How does it differ from any kind of colonialism found in Western empires?
2. What are some of the differences between the ways Asian unity was imagined by Japanese in the sources we consider?
3. Compare the Ishiwara Kanji and Ishibashi Tanzan readings. What assumptions do they share, and in what ways do they differ?

Ideas for Long Essay Themes

• Japan's Manchurian project is arguably unique in 20th century history, and yet paradoxically, has many characteristics that invite deep comparisons with many other state building, nationalist, and legitimation projects in many other places, including in Japan's Chinese occupied areas in years to come. An essay might focus in on one of these areas, and if English sources are short, then a comparative study might work well.
• Manchukuo created a crisis for an already crisis ridden League of Nations. There are a range of possibilities for exploring the international context for Manchuria that will have a range of non-Japanese sources
• Manchukuo was not just a site of Japanese occupation, within it many other things were going on. The work of Duara, Norman Smith, and Rana Mitter show this. It was also the crucible of Korean nationalism and resistance that would later play a critical role in the development of North Korea in particular.

Films of Interest:

• The Last Emperor 1987
• The Good, the Bad, the Weird (좋은 놈, 나쁜 놈, 이상한 놈 2008)

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Week 6 - Independent Learning Week

• This is an excellent time to really focus on your research for the long essay and start writing it! Come back having at least written a few paragraphs - even if they are just a stream of ideas and possible directions.
• If you have been falling behind on the reading, this would also be a good time to catch up on this.
• Consider meeting with some classmates in independent learning week to share notes and discuss preparation for the final examination. Or at least go over your notes so far for the semester and identify where you may need to revisit.
• This is also a great time to go over the general survey history of Japan that we began the semester with (GORDON).

Week 7 - The Development of Pan-Asianism and the Kōminka Movement

Primary Source Reading: ~60 pages

• SOURCES
  • Ch 41 Okakura Kakuzō: Aesthetic Pan-Asianism; "The Ideals of the East"
  • Ch 42 Ishibashi Tanzan - "Fantasy of Greater Japanism"; "Before Demanding the Abolition of Racial Discrimination"
  • Part V, Ch 45 Ishihara Kanji "Plan to occupy Manchuria"; "The Economic Need for Expansion"
• Saaler, Pan-Asianism : A Documentary History, 1920-Present Library ebook
  • Ch 4 - Ōkawa Shūmei "Various Problems of Asia in Revival" 69-74
  • Ch 13 - "The Greater Asia Association and Matsui Iwane, 1933" 137-147
  • Ch 16 - "Japanese Pan-Asianism in Manchukuo, 1935" 163-166
  • Ch 18 - Rōyama Masamichi "Principles of an East Asian Community" 175-178
  • Ch 22 - Ishiwara Kanji "Argument for an East Asian League" 201-207

Secondary Reading

• Saaler Pan-Asianism in Modern Japanese History, Ch 1-2: 1-18, 21-33 Library ebook
  • Ch 1 Pan-Asianism in modern Japanese history: Overcoming the nation, creating a region, forging an empire
  • Ch 2 Pan-Asianism in modern Japan: Nationalism, regionalism and universalism
• Chou, "The Kōminka Movement in Taiwan and Korea: Comparisons and Interpretations" in Peattie ed. The Japanese Wartime Empire, 1931-1945, 40-70 Library ebook
• "Medical Modernists (1937-1945)" in Lo, Doctors Within Borders : Profession, Ethnicity, and Modernity in Colonial Taiwan, 109-150 Library ebook
• Chatani, Sayaka "Between "Rural Youth" and Empire: Social and Emotional Dynamics of Youth Mobilization in the Countryside of Colonial Taiwan under Japan's Total War The American Historical Review, Volume 122, Issue 2, 1 April 2017, Pages 371–398, https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/122.2.371

Further Reading:

• Saaler, Pan-Asianism : A Documentary History, 1920-Present Library ebook
  • additional chapters
• Aydin, Cemil The politics of anti-Westernism in Asia : visions of world order in pan-Islamic and pan-Asian thought
• Hotta, Eri Pan-Asianism and Japan's War 1931-1945

Preparation:

• Post to the Moodle with the title "Week 7 Long Essay Progress: (Your Name): (Essay Provisional Title)" - and in this posting describe in one or two sentences the topic you are currently considering. If it is the same topic as your prospectus, then you may copy and paste from the prospectus and adjust as needed. Then add a sentence or two on what new progress if you have made, sources you have found, or problems you are tackling.
• You should be ramping up your work on your long essay this week.

Overview:

• There may be assessed presentations
• We will discuss the evolution of pan-asianism over time and some of its varieties.
• We'll spend the other roughly half of our session on exploring the idea of Kōminka and discussing what this phase of Japanese empire means in relation to earlier periods.

Long Essay Topic Ideas

• Pan-asianism is an entire sub-field to itself now in East Asian studies with a host of works out in the past decade, not least in Japanese but also in English. Comparative studies with other pan-movements, or an essay exploring one particular aspect or argument made by pan-Asianists or looking at its reception or its development are some examples of where to go, as well as essays that look at the manifestation of pan-Asianism in a particular area such as architecture, education, wartime propaganda, etc. Look to the further reading for guidance.
• Kōminka manifested itself somewhat differently in different colonies but also there are interesting possibilities for comparisons between it and assimilation efforts in other empires, or even of minority peoples within nation-states.

Questions:

1. What is Kōminka, and what is distinct about it compared to earlier colonial efforts, especially in Taiwan and Korea?
2. What are some of the differences between different conceptions of pan-Asianism, subtle or obvious? Is there evolution over time?

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Week 8 - Japan's Invasion of China

Primary Source Reading: ~50

• SOURCES:
  • Ch 41, Tokutomi Sohō Justification for the China War
  • Ch 45, Konoe Fumimaro Radio Address
  • Please note that the material here is of a very disturbing nature describing the violence of the occupation of Nanjing
• Kawakami Japan in China: Her Motive and Aims, 71-82, 145-161 Archive.org

Secondary Source Reading: ~175

• Lary, Diana. The Chinese People at War: Human Suffering and Social Transformation, 1937-1945
  • Please read most of this book pp1-77, pp112-211 - I would suggest getting your own copy.

Further Reading

• Fogel ed., The Nanjing Massacre in History and Historiography, 133-180: The Challenges of the Nanjing Massacre Library ebook
• Brook, Documents on the Rape of Nanking, 9-11,21-24,28-34,54-56,60-61,77-79, 125-128,137-8,156-7,163,234-236 (30 pages total)
• Peattie, Mark, Edward J. Drea, and Hans J. Van de Ven. The Battle for China: Essays on the Military History of the Sino-Japanese War of 1937-1945.
• Schoppa, R. Keith. In a Sea of Bitterness: Refugees During the Sino-Japanese War (P)
• Mitter, Rana. China’s War with Japan, 1937-1945: The Struggle for Survival (P)
• "Breeding the Japanese 'Race'" in Sabine Früstück and Sabine Frühstück, Colonizing Sex: Sexology and Social Control in Modern Japan (University of California Press, 2003), 152-184.
• John Rabe, The Good Man of Nanking: The Diaries of John Rabe, Reprint (Vintage, 2000). (P)
• Chongyi Feng and David S. G. Goodman, eds., North China at War: The Social Ecology of Revolution, 1937-1945 (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2000). (P)
• Yoshiaki, Yoshimi. Grassroots Fascism: The War Experience of the Japanese People (P)
• Tansman, Alan. The Aesthetics of Japanese Fascism (P)

Preparation:

• Think about the ways the Kawakami propaganda piece resembles the Nitobe Inazo reading we did earlier in the semester. What rhetorical techniques are at work here?
• Make substantive progress on your long essay.

Questions:

1. In this week we have shifted our focus, via Diana Lary, to the experience of China in wartime. Ask yourself what are some of the defining differences but also similarities between the experience of conquest in the case of colonies and invasion?
2. What makes the invasion of China different that some of the other military occupations taking place around the world in the 1930s and 1940s?

Films of Interest:

• Chocolate and Soldiers (チョコレートと兵隊 1938)
• Devils on the Doorstep (鬼子来了 2000)
• City of Life and Death (南京！南京！2009)
• Red Sorghum (红高粱 1987)
• Yellow Earth (黄土地 1984)
• Lust, Caution (色，戒 2007)
• The Last Emperor (1987)
• The Mountain of Tai Hang (太行山上 2005)
• Back to 1942 (一九四二 2012)
• Feng Shui (风水 2011)
• The Message (风声 2009)
• Scarecrow (Dao cao ren) 稻草人 1987
• John Rabe (2009)

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Week 9 - The Empire in Southeast Asia and Dying for the Emperor

Primary Source Reading:

Choose and skim one of the following. I'll provide the text or selections of the text for this where it is not available in the library.

• Lichauco, "Dear Mother Putnam"; a Diary of the War in the Philippines
  • A diary tracing the daily life in urban occupied Philippines up to the eve of the battle of Manila
• Ba Maw, Breakthrough in Burma (complete)
  • An account of the Japanese occupation of Burma from the perspective of the Burmese head of state under the Japanese and in the nominally independent Burma after 1943
• I.N.A. Speaks
  • A pamphlet with justifications of the collaboration of the Indian National Army with the Japanese
• Malaya Upside Down
  • An account of British Malaya under Japanese occupation

Secondary Source Reading: ~70-90

• Lebra-Chapman, Joyce. Japanese-Trained Armies in Southeast Asia: Independence and Volunteer Forces in World War II Choose and read one of the following three chapters:
  • Ch. 2 The Indian National Army 19-38
  • Ch. 3 The Burma Independence Army 39-74
  • Ch. 4 Peta 75-112
• Hayashi, Hirofumi "Government, the Military and Business in Japan's Wartime Comfort Woman System" Japan Focus Online
• Fujitani, Race for Empire, National Mobilization, 239-298 Library ebook

Further Reading:

• John W. Dower, War Without Mercy Library ebook (P)
• MASON 243-295 Ch 8: The Adventures of Dankichi, Popular Orientalism
• Brandon. Palmer, “Imperial Japan’s Preparations to Conscript Koreans as Soldiers, 1942–1945,” Korean Studies 31, no. 1 (2008): 63–78.
• Palmer, Brandon. Fighting for the Enemy: Koreans in Japan’s War, 1937-1945 (P)
• Hayashi, Hirofumi "The Battle of Singapore, the Massacre of Chinese and Understanding of the Issue in Postwar Japan" Japan Focus Online
• Christopher Bayly and Tim Harper, Forgotten Wars: Freedom and Revolution in Southeast Asia
• Yoshiaki Yoshimi, Comfort Women: Sexual Slavery in the Japanese Military During World War II
• Goodman, Grant ed. Japanese Cultural Policies in Southeast Asia During World War 2 (P)
• Paul H Kratoska, ed., Southeast Asian Minorities in the Wartime Japanese Empire (London: Routledge, 2002). (P)
• Alfred W. McCoy, Southeast Asia under Japanese Occupation (P)
• Miller, Ian Jared. The Nature of the Beasts Empire and Exhibition at the Tokyo Imperial Zoo (P)
• Nicholas Tarling, A Sudden Rampage: The Japanese Occupation of Southeast Asia, 1941-1945

Preparation:

• Post to the Moodle with the title "Week 9 Long Essay Progress: (Your Name): (Essay Provisional Title)" - and in this posting describe in one or two sentences the topic you are currently considering. If it is the same topic as your prospectus, then you may copy and paste from the prospectus and adjust as needed. Then add a sentence or two on what new progress if you have made, sources you have found, or problems you are tackling. Paste in the major primary sources you have been working with and what bibliography you have so far. Post a constructive comment on at least one other student's posting, especially encouraging to widen their possible historiographical engagement.
• Following things chronologically, this would normally where many books or classes on Japanese history would turn to Pearl Harbor, to the war in the Pacific, and the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These were monumental events in the history of the climatic conflict between the United States and Japan and, domestically, are what stand out the most for the people of Japan and the United States today. However, what is often neglected with this focus, and what had a broader long term impact on the entire history of a region is the massive invasion by Japan in late 1941 of almost all of southeast Asia and the destruction of European colonial power there. This was the last disastrous stage of Japanese imperialism.
• Put your main priority on working on your long essay (half the preparation time at least) which should be well along by now.
• The primary sources this week are long, but you may not only skim the works as needed, but might have the pleasure of reading the entirety of a single longer piece for perhaps the first time this semester. Use this as an opportunity to analyse this source critically and look for patterns and interesting features.
• Consider choosing a chapter from Lebra in the secondary sources to dovetail the primary source. For example, if you read the Ba Maw text, then consider reading the Burma Independence Army chapter in Lebra.
• If you are unfamiliar with it, look up the general history of the Burmese, Indian, and British Malayan colonies to get oriented a bit.

Overview:

• There may be assessed presentations
• Short Lecture and Group Task: We'll spend a good portion of our class today comparing notes with each other (hopefully we will have a good balance of students who read each of the primary sources) on the experience of Japan's "sudden rampage" as one book title calls it, through Southeast Asia.
• Time permitting we'll discuss conscription and colonial soldiering in general, and compare the case of Korean and Taiwanese fighting for Japan with the auxiliaries of Southeast Asia.

Questions:

1. How did the "double occupations" of southeast Asia (western colonialism and Japanese occupation) make serve to make Japan's war a particularly complex memory for the peoples of southeast Asia?
2. The period from 1941-1945 is called the "Pacific War" and many of the films, books, and indeed classes about this period are taught as the war between Japan and the United States. Reflect on what goes missing from a narrative of this period as a US-Japanese war.

Films of Interest:

• Three Godless Years (1976 - Tatlong Taong Walang Diyos)
• Bose - The Forgotten Hero (2004)
• The Eternal Zero (2013 - 永遠の0)
• Fires on the Plain (1959 - 野火)
• Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)
• Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970)
• The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
• Human Condition series (1959-1961 - 人間の条件)
• Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983)
• Empire of the Sun (1987)
• My Way (2011 - 마이 웨이)

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Week 10 - The Aftermaths of War and Decolonisation

Primary Reading: ~40 pages

• Brook, Documents on the Rape of Nanking Dissenting Opinion of Radhabinod Pal, 269-298
• Selections of treason trial documents (will be provided in class)

Secondary Reading:

• Morris-Suzuki, Tessa "Guarding the Borders of Japan: Occupation, Korean War and Frontier Controls" Japan Focus Online
• Totani, Yuma "The Case Against the Accused" Part 4 Ch. 11 in Beyond Victor's Justice?: The Tokyo War Crimes Trial Revisited, 147-162
• Dower, Embracing Defeat
  • Ch 1 - "Shattered Lives"
  • Ch 2 - "Gifts from Heaven"
  • Ch 16 - "What do you tell the dead when you lose?"
  • Epilogue: "Legacies/Fantasies/Dreams"

Further Reading:

• Consider reading more of Dower's fantastic survey of the occupation period in Japan
• Watt, Lori. “Embracing Defeat in Seoul: Rethinking Decolonization in Korea, 1945.” The Journal of Asian Studies 74, no. 01 (February 2015): 153–74
• Bayly, Christopher, and Tim Harper. Forgotten Armies: The Fall of British Asia, 1941-1945
• Bayly, Christopher, and Tim Harper. Forgotten Wars: Freedom and Revolution in Southeast Asia
• Totani, Yuma. The Tokyo War Crimes Trial: The Pursuit of Justice in the Wake of World War II (P)
• Futamura, Madoka. War Crimes Tribunals and Transitional Justice: The Tokyo Trial and the Nuremburg Legacy
• Igarashi, Yoshikuni. Homecomings: The Belated Return of Japan’s Lost Soldiers, 2016. (P)
• Barshay, Andrew E. The Gods Left First: The Captivity and Repatriation of Japanese POWs in Northeast Asia, 1945–1956. University of California Press, 2013. (P)
• Marr, David G. Vietnam 1945: The Quest for Power. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995. (P)
• Armstrong, Charles K. The North Korean Revolution,1945-1950. Cornell University Press, 2004. (P)
• Dikötter, Frank. The Tragedy of Liberation: A History of the Chinese Revolution 1945-1957. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2013.
• Kushner, Barak. Men to Devils, Devils to Men: Japanese War Crimes and Chinese Justice
• Itoh, Mayumi. Japanese War Orphans in Manchuria: Forgotten Victims of World War II (P)

Preparation

• Please read the primary sources well as we will do a group exercise involving them
• Try to complete a full draft of your essay by now. The best writing is writing that has been written and revised multiple times.

Overview

• We will split this class in three: a discussion on the Tokyo War Crimes trials, a group exercise based on some treason trial documents provided to you the week before, and then a short lecture and broader discussion of the aftermaths of war more broadly across what was once the Japanese empire.
• There may be presentations

Questions:

1. What make's Pal's dissenting opinion an unusual document for the age? What is left unsaid? What different ways can a document like the opinion be used?
2. What are the biggest challenges to conducting a legal reckoning with the past in the aftermath of the war?
3. What are some of the ways in which Japan's decolonization is unique among the major empires of the world?

Films of Interest:

• The Burmese Harp (1956)
• Emperor (2012)
• Pride (1998 - プライド 運命の瞬間)
• Better Wishes for Tomorrow (2007 - 明日への遺言)
• The Tokyo Trial (2006 东京审判)
• Tokyo Trial (2016 mini-series)
• Merdeka 17805 (2001)
• Japan's Longest Day (1967 - 日本の一番長い日)
• Under the Flag of the Rising Sun (1972 - 軍旗はためく下に)
• Merah Putih (2009)
• Spirits' Homecoming (2016 - 귀향)

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Week 11 - The Politics of Memory

Primary Reading: ~25 pages

• SOURCES:
  • Part VII, Chapter 51, 1279-1281 Logic and Psychology of Ultranationalism - Maruyama
  • Part VII, Chapter 51, 1283-1285 Ienaga Textbook Trials
  • Part VII, Chapter 51, 1288-1290 Fujiwara Akira
  • Part VII, Chapter 51, 1290-1297 Kobayashi Yoshinori
  • Part VII, Chapter 51, 1306-1308 Arano Yasunori and Colleagues
  • The reading in Victoria's Zen Stories below contains some extended primary source passages

Secondary Reading: ~160 pages

• Lee, Sung-Ae. “Remembering or Misremembering? Historicity and the Case of So Far from the Bamboo Grove.” Children’s Literature in Education 39, no. 2 (June 1, 2008): 85–93.
• Ching, Leo T. S. Becoming Japanese: Colonial Taiwan and the Politics of Identity Formation, 1-11 Library ebook
• Jager, Ruptured Histories Carol Gluck "Comfort Women and the World" pp47-77
• Victoria, Brian Daizen Zen at War:
  • Ch 7 Emergence of Imperial-Way Buddhism - Buddhism and War pp86-91
  • Ch 8 Imperial-State Zen and Soldier Zen pp101-105
  • Ch 10 Postwar Zen Response to Imperial Way Buddhism - Declarations of War Responsibility pp152-178
• Victoria, Brian Daizen Zen War Stories:
  • Ch 1 The Zen Master Wept pp3-16
  • Ch 5 Zen Master Dōgen goes to war pp66-75

Further Reading:

• Shin, Gi-Wook, and Soon Won Park. Rethinking Historical Injustice And Reconciliation in Northeast Asia: The Korean Experience (P)
• Igarashi, Yoshikuni. Bodies of Memory: Narratives of War in Postwar Japanese Culture, 1945-1970 (P)
• Hein, Laura, and Mark Selden. Censoring History: Citizenship and Memory in Japan, Germany, and the United States (P)
• Nozaki, Yoshiko. War Memory, Nationalism and Education in Postwar Japan: The Japanese History Textbook Controversy and Ienaga Saburo’s Court Challenges (P)
• Seraphim, Franziska. War Memory and Social Politics in Japan, 1945-2005. Harvard University Press, 2008. (P)
• Soh, C. Sarah. The Comfort Women: Sexual Violence and Postcolonial Memory in Korea and Japan. University of Chicago Press, 2009. (P)
• Shin, Gi-Wook, and Daniel C. Sneider. History Textbooks and the Wars in Asia: Divided Memories. Routledge, 2011. (P)

Overview:

• There may be presentations
• This week we will examine some of the issues that have collectively come to be referred to as the "history problem" in Japan, including issues related to depictions of empire and war in textbooks and the similar rise of previously neglected voices in the 1980s and 1990s.
• What some of these better known issues don't capture well is how challenging the issue of war and empire is for institutions and communities all throughout Japan. Clubs, families, municipal governments, libraries, religious organizations etc. all have had there own challenges to face the long history of Japanese empire and war. In order to focus in a bit, we will examine one case study in more detail: the role of Zen buddhism. Victoria's readings give you both a look into Zen's relationship with the Japanese state during our period (though keep in mind, Zen buddhists have by no means a unique story to tell here), along with some of the postwar story of their confrontation (or lack of) with their contribution to Japanese empire and wartime expansion.

Films of Interest:

• 2009: Lost Memories (2002 - 2009 로스트메모리즈)
• Grave of the Fireflies (1988 - 火垂るの墓)
• Yamato (2005 - 男たちの大和)
• No Regrets for Our Youth (1946 - わが青春に悔いなし)
• Godzilla (1954)