Japan Since 1868

3 units

For some, the word Japan evokes Hello Kitty, animated films, cartoons, and sushi. For others, it makes them think of the Nanjing Atrocity, comfort women, the Bataan Death March, and problematic textbooks. Still others will think of woodblock prints, tea ceremonies, and cherry blossoms or perhaps of Sony Walkmans and Toyota automobiles. At the same time, still others may have no image of Japan at all. Tracing the story of Japan's transformations - from a preindustrial peasant society managed by samurai-bureaucrats into an expansionist nation-state and then into its current paradoxical guise of a peaceful nation of culture led by conservative nationalists - provides the means for deepening our understandings of historical change in one region and grappling with the methods and aims of the discipline of history.