Topics in Japanese History: Postwar Japan

4 credits · Undergraduate

This course considers the history of Japan since the end of World War II, beginning with an exploration of the war itself and its complex legacy to the postwar era. Using the best recent scholarship and a selection of translated novels, essays, and poetry along with film and art, we look at the six postwar decades and the transformations of Japanese life that those years have brought. We try, finally, to answer the question: has "postwar" itself come to an end?