Rethinking Japan: Introduction to Modern Japanese Society ... · PDF fileRethinking Japan:...

Birkbeck, Department of Media and Cultural Studies

Rethinking Japan: Introduction to Modern

Japanese Society and Culture

日本

社会

文化 AUTUMN TERM

歴史

文学映画

MODULE CODE: Level 4 LNLN023S4 / Level 5 ARMC001S5 CREDITS/LEVEL: 30 CATS CLASS TIME: TBC CLASS DATES: TBC VENUE: TBC

社会文化歴史文学映画社会文化歴史文学映画社会文化歴史文学映画社会文化歴史文学映画社会文化歴史文学映画社

This course is offered to the following Programmes at the following level/s:

Level 4 (Year 1) BA Japanese and Journalism BA Linguistics and Languages - Japanese Cert HE: Language & Culture – Japanese

Level 5 (Year 2) BA Japanese and Film/Media

Level 4 or 5 (Year 1 or 2) BA Modern Languages (Japanese) BA Japanese and Management

It runs over 11 weeks in Autumn Term and 11 weeks in Spring Term. There is a reading week in Week 6 of each term.

There is no language requirement for the course.

It is a pre-requisite for all Level 5 and 6 Japanese „Culture‟ modules

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https://puck.mda.bbk.ac.uk/bsis_staff/qs_mod.chkmod?payrc=2010/1&pmodc=ARMC001S5


Synopsis: This module aims to provide you with a critical understanding of crucial aspects in Japan‟s modern cultural and social history. It will give you an opportunity to learn some of the main ways to explore Japanese history, culture, and especially its cultural products. You will be introduced to key texts – historical, literary, visual, cinematic, and theoretical – which represent and chart two central developments:

• Japan‟s emergence as a modern, „westernized‟, powerful, and imperialistic

nation-state (early twentieth century); and • Japan‟s postwar transformation into a high-tech consumer society (1945-

present). We will consider notions of „Japaneseness‟ and the changing discourses on national and cultural identity, with which Japan sought to position itself vis-à-vis the west and Asia; and in turn, scrutinize western images of Japan and the „Far East.‟ Some of the topics we will look at include Japan as a nation and community, identity in modern Japan, Japan in Asia, Western images of Japan, multi-cultural Japan, and gender in Japan.

Course Structure: 1. Weekly Sessions: The course will consist of 90-minute weekly meetings. The format of these meetings will normally include an introductory lecture followed by a discussion in which you are encouraged to apply readings you have prepared to the questions and topics being covered. In some cases, an entire class will be devoted to analysing „primary sources‟.

• ‘Primary Sources’ – include films, novels and short stories, artwork, historical documents, musical pieces and lyrics, manga cartoons, speech, and any material (we often refer to all of these as „texts‟) that forms the basis of your analysis and are sources of evidence for your argument.

• ‘Secondary Sources’ – are analyses and interpretations of primary sources.

For example, When you write an essay about Miyazaki Hayao‟s Totoro, the film is the primary source, and all the books and essays you read to help you analyse the film and its context are secondary sources.

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2. Special Lectures and Film Screenings: over the course of the academic year, a number of special lectures are hosted by the Japanese Department.

These provide you with the opportunity to meet and work with

leading cultural studies scholars from Japan and globally. Some lectures and film screenings may occur as part of the courses on the MA Japanese Cultural Studies/Creative Industries course.

There will also be a number of films screened in relation to various courses on the MA Japanese Cultural Studies/Creative Industries course.

More information will be provided closer to the time. Please try to attend these events which have been organised for all the members of Japanese Studies at Birkbeck.

3. Weekly Readings: At the Certificate level, you are responsible for ensuring that they have read the „Essential Readings‟ listed for each session in order that you can participate actively in discussions.

In addition to the „Essential Readings‟, you are also strongly encouraged to read some or all of the „Suggested Readings‟ to broaden your basic knowledge and understanding.

Finally, you are expected to develop the skill to find books and articles to develop your own original lines of enquiry.

Use the library and internet to help you find books and articles not listed below, but that may be very important to your essays and enquiries.

4. Attendance: is compulsory for all regular sessions.

For special lectures and film screenings, please do try to attend these events, since they will only help to enhance the breadth and depth of your knowledge.

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5. Assessment - General

Level 4 Assessment

1 Written Assignment (2,000 words max) - Autumn 50% of your mark 1 Written Assignment (2,000 words max) - Spring 50% of your mark

Total 100%

In order to pass the course, you must:

• complete all parts of your assessment.

• achieve a minimum of 50% on each essay and in your final exam.

Written Assignment - Autumn

The written assignment (Autumn) will consist of two parts:

• Essay in response to a set-question – you will be provided with a list of questions which you will be asked to choose one. This essay will be 1,200 words

• Source Analysis – you will write an analysis of primary source (500 words), and a set of reflective „guidelines‟ on how one might analyse the kind of source you have chosen (300 words).

There will be a special class before reading week discussing essay-writing conventions and assessment. Notes on how to research and write essays can be found in your Student Handbooks for your Programme.

Level 5 Assessment

1 essay (2,500 words max) - Autumn 37.5% of your mark 1 essay (2,500 words max) - Spring 37.5% of your mark 1 annotated bibliography – Summer 25% of your mark

Total 100%

In order to pass the course, you must:

• complete all parts of your assessment.

• achieve a minimum of 50% on each essay and in your final exam.

Assessment Tasks - Autumn

• You will be asked to devise a question in consultation with the course tutor/s to

which you will write an independently researched essay In Week 5, Level 5 students do not have to attend class. However, by week 7, students will be asked to provide their course tutor/s with a synopsis of the question they wish to address, including a justification of the scholarly validity and viability of this question.

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Assignment DUE DATE

You must submit your assignment using the „Turn-it-in‟ function on Blackboard:

TBC

LATE SUBMISSION!!!

Any work that is submitted for formal assessment after the published deadline is given two marks: a penalty mark of 40% for undergraduate students, assuming it is of a pass standard, and the „real‟ mark that would have been awarded if the work had not been late. Both marks are given to the student on a cover sheet. If the work is not of a pass standard a single mark is given.

„Mitigating Circumstances‟: If you submit late work that is to be considered for assessment then you should provide written documentation, medical or otherwise, to explain why the work was submitted late. You will need to complete a standard pro-forma and submit it, with documentary evidence as appropriate, to your Tutor or Programme Director. The case will then be considered by the appropriate sub-board or delegated panel.

If no case is made then the penalty mark will stand. If a case is made and accepted then the examination board may allow the „real‟ mark to stand.

Plagiarism Statement:

IT IS ABSOLUTELY CRUCIAL THAT YOU DO NOT PLAGIARISE FROM OTHER PEOPLE'S WORKS. PLAGIARISM IS INTELLECTUAL THEFT AND WILL BE VERY HEAVILY PENALISED. IF YOU ARE UNCLEAR AS TO WHAT CONSTITUTES PLAGIARISM, PLEASE COME AND ASK ME.

PLEASE CONSULT YOUR STUDENT HANDBOOK ON ASSESSMENT, LATE SUBMISSION, PLAGIARISM, AND ASSESSMENT CRITERIA

6. Readings and Library Matters: Most of the essential readings for this course will be provided electronically BUT can also be found in the College Library.

School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) Library: For your essays, you may find that a number of the books and periodicals will be available only at SOAS Library.

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Therefore, please ensure that you make the necessary arrangements to register at the SOAS Library, where Birkbeck students have borrowing rights.

• First, go to the Birkbeck Library HelpDesk with your Birkbeck Library card to

check details. Previously, Birkbeck and SOAS had a special bi-lateral loan arrangement. This may no longer be in place, in which case, ask for a SCONUL card.

• Next, go to the SOAS Library, and check in at the SOAS Library Registration desk. Ensure that you have your Birkbeck Library card with you.

If you run into difficulties finding the books in either library, please contact us asap, as we might be able to help out with our own small collection.

Birkbeck Library Notes:

• Items marked as 'Held as P/C' are photocopies available in the Short Loan Collection.

• Books marked as 'Held in SLC' similarly means that they are available in the Short Loan Collection for a period of 4 hours. You must strictly observe the 4- hour limit, as these are key readings to which all students in the course must have access.

• If for any reason the assigned articles in the course outline listed as 'Held as P/C' is not available in the College Library (you must inform me immediately about this), then either go to the SOAS Library and consult their collection of periodicals on the 3rd floor, or come to me so that I can lend you a copy.

• Some journals are accessed through the College Library's electronic journals. Of particular use is J-STORE, which provides electronic access to the back issues of some key journals, such as Journal of Asian Studies. For details, please ask the Enquiry Desk in the Library on Malet Street.

AS WE HAVE A STRICTLY LIMITED BUDGET FOR LIBRARY BOOKS ON JAPAN AND EAST ASIA IN THE COLLEGE LIBRARY, PLEASE RESPECT THE USE OF OUR COMMON LIBRARY RESOURCES. IN MANY CASES, THERE WILL BE ONLY ONE COPY OF EACH BOOK AVAILABLE IN THE LIBRARY WHICH MEANS THAT BOOKS BORROWED MUST BE RETURNED PROMPTLY. FAILURE TO DO SO WILL CAUSE GREAT INCONVENIENCE TO OTHER STUDENTS ON THE COURSE.

Japanese Historical Periods: Japanese historical periods are named after reigning emperors.

• Meiji Period: 1868-1912

• Taisho Period: 1912-1926

• Showa Period: 1926-1989

• Heisei Period: 1989 onwards (the present emperor, known as the Heisei Emperor)

Preliminary Readings: In order to familiarise yourself with the history of modern Japan, you are advised to read the following books.

Gordon, Andrew (2003) A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the

Present.

Hall, Stuart (ed.) (1997) Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices, Sage Publications Ltd.

Morris-Suzuki, Tessa (1998) Re-Inventing Japan: Time, Space, Nation. M. E. Sharpe.

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Weekly Topics, Key Themes, Main Questions, and Reading Lists

Session 1: What is Japan?

It can be argued that Japan is becoming increasingly familiar in the United Kingdom.

Japanese films, manga comics, fashion, technical gadgetry, food, gardens, tourism –

there seem to be ever-fewer numbers of people who have not had some contact with

its culture, and maybe even its people.

And, when not so long ago Japanese were circumscribed to the background of

popular culture unless they were the villain (e.g. Rising Sun, 1993) or were tied

fundamentally somehow to Japan (e.g. Karate Kid, 1984), they sometimes can now

be seen as protagonists with no ties to Japan who are fully integrated with white

protagonists (e.g. Sunshine, 2007).

But, what is Japan? To help us answer this question, we have arranged for Homer

Simpson and his family to give us a tour of contemporary Japan. At first glance, „The

Simpsons: 30 Minutes Over Tokyo‟ (1999) may seem to amount to nothing more

than slapstick comedy that relies on racist stereotypes. But, take a closer look. Matt

Groening, et. al. may actually be asking a lot of very pertinent questions, key of which

is how we, ourselves, relate to this culture. Consider, for example, the title. Is this

not a reference to the 1944 American war film, 30 Seconds Over Tokyo, which

depicts the Doolittle B52 bombing raids that razed Tokyo? In their own inimitable

way, the Simpsons may be understood to be wreaking the same violent

destructiveness, but of what – Japan or our ways of looking at Japan?

In this session, on Homer‟s, Marge‟s, Lisa‟s, and Bart‟s cue, let‟s discuss what Japan

means to you. Let‟s throw in all our ideas, images, and impressions. Then let‟s

begin to take them apart so that we end up with lots of questions and unknowns that

will help guide us through the course, and that will help us to discover Japan.

Doh!

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Modern Japanese History

Over the course of the Autumn Term, we shall survey key themes and questions in Japan‟s nation-building process in the late 19th/early 20th

century, some of the dominant transformations to its society and culture in the decades before and years during the Fifteen-Year War (1931-1945), and the nation‟s reconstruction and „economic miracle‟ after 1945. We shall especially engage with the question of how culture was mobilised for both the shaping of the new „imagined community‟ and its re-shaping after Japan‟s defeat in World War II.

Japanese Periodisation

Meiji Period – 1868-1912 Taishō Period – 1912-1926 Shōwa Period – 1926-1989 Heisei Period – 1989-present

Session 2: Imagining the Nation, Constructing

Community – The Meiji Period This lecture surveys the massive changes that took place in the four-and-a-half decades of the Meiji period. As you go through the readings, please think about the following questions:

• What do you think are some of the key decisions taken by the Meiji leadership in order to consolidate its power?

• How significant was the restoration of the emperor?

• What is your view of the leadership?

• Who were their opponents, and what alternative visions of modern Japan did they have?

• Would you characterise the culture of Meiji as modern?

Essential Readings


Present, (Oxford: Oxford University Press). Chapters 5-8.

Suggested Readings The following are seminal texts to the study of modern Japanese History, with a focus especially on the demise of the Tokugawa settlement and the emergence of a Japanese nation-state. Although these works are, in some places and cases, a bit dated now, they are valuable for their insight and especially because they set out the questions that historians since have worked to and against.

Further Reading

• Beasley, W. G. (1972)The Meiji Restoration

• Gluck, Carol (1985) Japan’s Modern Myths: Ideology in the Late Meiji Period

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• Jansen, Marius B. (ed.)The Cambridge History of Japan, Vol. 5

• Kornicki, Peter (ed.) (1998)Meiji Japan: Political, Economic, and Social History 1868-1912 [This multi-part collection of essays provides a detailed introduction to various aspects of the Meiji Period.]

• Norman, E. H. (1940)Japan’s Emergnece as Modern State: Political and Economic Problems of the Meiji Period

• Irokawa Daikichi (1985)The Culture of the Meiji Period

Session 3: What Is History?

Case Study: The Imperial Rescript on Education One of the main ways that we understand modern and contemporary Japanese culture is to locate this culture, its practices, values, and products within its historical context. In order to understand this image, we should think about the year it was produced in – 1974 – and who liked it – youth, especially girls. In other words, as faceless as this cat is, she (or he?) can introduce us to many kinds of histories.

But, what is history? In the first half of the class, let‟s discuss what you history is. Think about the following

questions:

What? Who?

• Is there only one history of modern Japan, or many?

• Who writes history? What does a historian do?

• Is one history more „correct‟ than another? If so, how do we judge which is more correct?

• Can we really know history? What is a historical „fact‟? What can we use as historical „evidence‟?

How? Why?

• How much is history a „story‟ or „narrative‟?

• What are the differences between the history of a nation and the history of you (or how does your personal history of your life fit to the history of the nation? What do you emphasise?)?

• Is national history men‟s history? When does it become women‟s history?

• Do minorities – ethnic minorities, disabled people, gays, old people, criminals, Morris Dancers – have a history?

Case Study – ‘The Imperial Rescript on Education’ (Kyōiku chokugo)

The Imperial Rescript on Education (copied below) is one of the most important documents of the modern Japanese State. Promulgated in 1890 a year after the Meiji Constitution, this document is highly controversial. Is it a very „backward‟ looking statement, or a distinctively modern one?

Let‟s consider how we might deal with a historical document like this. What are the things we need to think about in order to understand it?

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Essential Readings

a) Pursuing History

Tosh, John (2002) The Pursuit of History. Chapters 1 and 3

b) Case Study

Gluck, Carol. 1985. “IV. The Modern Monarch.” In: Gluck, Japan’s Modern Myths: Ideology in the Late Meiji Period. Princeton UP (TP)

Yoshimi, Shunya. 2000. “The Cultural Politics of the Mass-mediated Emperor System

in Japan.” In: Paul Gilroy et.al. (ed), Without Guarantees: In Honour of Stuart Hall. London: Verso.

Imperial Rescript on Education (Kyōiku ni kansuru chokugo)

Know ye, Our subjects:

Our Imperial Ancestors have founded Our Empire on a basis broad and everlasting, and have deeply and firmly implanted virtue; Our subjects ever united in loyalty and filial piety have from generation to generation illustrated the beauty thereof. This is the glory of the fundamental character of Our Empire, and herein also lies the source of Our education. Ye, Our subjects, be filial to your parents, affectionate to your brothers and sisters; as husbands and wives be harmonious, as friends true; bear yourselves in modesty and moderation; extend your benevolence to all; pursue learning and cultivate arts, and thereby develop intellectual faculties and perfect moral powers; furthermore, advance public good and promote common interests; always respect the Constitution and observe the laws; should emergency arise, offer yourselves courageously to the State; and thus guard and maintain the prosperity of Our Imperial Throne coeval with heaven and earth. So shall ye not only be Our good and faithful subjects, but render illustrious the best traditions of your forefathers.

The Way here set forth is indeed the teaching bequeathed by Our Imperial Ancestors, to be observed alike by Their Descendents and the subjects, infallible for all ages and true in all places. It is Our wish to lay it to heart in all reverence, in common with you, Our subjects, that we may all attain to the same virtue.

October 30, 1890

(Tsunoda, de Bary, Keene (1958). Sources of Japanese Tradition, Volume II, New York and London: Columbia

University Press, p. 139.)

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Session 4: Imagining Culture, Constructing Society – The Taishō Period

This lecture examines the emergence of a plural society from 1900 to 1931. Think about some of the following questions as you go through your readings:

• What are some of the new ideas and ideologies that appeared?

• In what ways might they have challenged the original Meiji leadership and its vision?

• What do you think are the three most important events between 1900-1931?

• What do you think are the three most important developments or trends between 1900-1931?

• Who do you think are the most important individuals between 1900-1931?

• Do you see any resemblances in this time period to the same time period in your own home country?

Essential Readings


Present, (Oxford: Oxford University Press). Chapters 9-11.

Wray, Harry and Hilary Conroy (1983) Japan Examined: Perspectives on Modern Japanese History. Chapter VII (How Democratic was Taisho Democracy)

Suggested Readings The following are seminal texts to the study of modern Japanese History, with a focus especially on the society, politics, and to a lesser extent, culture (covered in the suggested readings for Session 6). Although these works may be a bit dated now, they are valuable for their insight and especially because they set out the questions that historians since have worked to and against.

Beasley, W. G. Japanese Imperialism 1894-1945 (1991).

Bernstein, Gail L. (ed.) Recreating Japanese Women 1600-1945 (1991).

Duus, Peter. The Cambridge History of Japan, Vol. 6 .

Kasza, Gregory J. The State and the Mass Media in Japan, 1918-1945 (1988).

Hane Mikiso Peasants, Rebels and Outcastes: The Underside of Modern Japan.

Large, S. (ed.) Shōwa Japan: Political, Social, and Economic History, 1926-1989.

Minichiello, Sharon (ed.), Japan’s Competing Modernities: Issues in Culture and Democracy, 1900-1930.

Myers, Ramon H. and Mark R. Peattie (eds.) The Japanese Colonial Empire, 1895-

1945 (1984). Rubin, J. Injurious to Public Morals.

Sievers, Sharon Flowers in Salt: The Beginning of Feminist Consciousness in

Modern Japan (1986).

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Silberman, Bernard S. and H. D. Harootunian (eds) Japan in Crisis: Essays on Taishō Democracy (1974, Reprint 1999).

Stegewerns, Dick (ed.) Nationalism and Internationalism in Imperial Japan:

Autonomy, Asian Brotherhood, or World Citizenship? Vlastos, Stephen (ed) Mirror of Modernity: Invented Traditions of Modern Japan.

Session 5: Essay Writing and Topics

Tutor: Jonathan D. Mackintosh In this session, we will discuss the following:

• Expectations of the essay

• How to research your essay

• How to transform description into a critical argument, or how to support your arguments with evidence

• Guidelines on what your essay should include and the conventions it should adopt, including structure

• Citations, references list, Bibliography

• How to transliterate Japanese words

• Marking Scheme

• The uses of Wikipedia

• Library sources including some electronic journal collections

READING WEEK – NO CLASS TBC

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Session 6: The Modern Girl

Case Study: Chijin no ai (A Fool’s Love), Tanizaki Jun’ichirō The „modern girl‟ or moga scandalised Taishō era Japan. Urban, sexually uninhibited, materialistic – and largely a media creation – she was a symbol of a new, modern, and international Japan. Depending on one‟s politics, she might be all that was good and desirable, a figure to soften the brutal and rigid masculine image of Japan in the Meiji era, and a rejection of the fanatical ultra-right wing politics that were only just then beginning to impact on society and culture. For traditionalist conservatives, for whom Meiji was an age of (male) heroes, and for whom Shōwa represented an attempt to recapture that (masculine) heroic spirit, the mōga was bad, slavishly beholden to Western ways.

Bobbed hair and Western style…she cavorts with unsavoury rich foreigners (Jiji manga October 1925).

In 1924, the celebrated author Tanizaki Jun‟ichirō (1886-1965) published Chijin no Ai (A Fool’s Love, also known in English as Naomi), which featured the moga Naomi and the mobo („modern boy‟) Jōji. A caricature of the times, its comic presentation is belied by a critical commentary on Japan‟s Occidentalist desires to raise, in turn, deep-seated questions about the nature of Japan‟s „post-colonial‟ relationship with the West, ones which have continued to impact on debates over cultural identity.

Questions:

Chijin no ai as a Historical Document

• What are the characteristics of culture in the Taishō period as portrayed in

Chijin no ai (Think of specific examples)

• What do the main characters – Jōji and Naomi – indicate about gender relationships in 1920s and early 1930s Japan?

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• To what extent is Chijin no ai a novel about Japanese society and culture? Or, is it a novel about the wider world?

• Is Chijin no ai really a historical „document‟?

Chijin no ai as a novel

• Who is telling the story – Naomi or Jōji? And, how is the story being told?

• Is the voice of the narrator the same all the way through the novel?

• Can you identify any symbols and recurring images? What do these mean?

• Does the author write realistically (i.e. he tries to describe people, settings, events as real as possible) or is his style more like a fantasy?

• What is the author‟s background and what are his concerns? To what extent does the author appear in the novel?

• What literary, cultural, and other influences do you think are operating in this novel?

Essential Readings

Tanizaki Jun‟ichirō (2007) Naomi, trans. Anthony H. Chambers, Vintage Books USA.

Also: Tanizaki Jun‟ichirō (1986) Naomi, trans. Anthony H. Chambers, Secker and

Warburg. [BBK 895.644 TAN Ref only] Essential Readings – Secondary Sources

Ito, Ken (1991) Visions of Desire: Tanizaki’s Fictional Worlds, Stanford University

Press. Chapter 3. Long, Margherita (2002) „Tanizaki and the Enjoyment of Japanese Culturalism‟,

Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique, Vol. 10, No. 2 (Fall), pp. 431-469 [See Project Muse]

Suzuki, Tomi (1996) „Epilogue: Tanizaki‟s Speaking Subject and Creation of

Tradition‟, in Narrating the Self: Fictions of Japanese Modernity, Stanford University Press, 175-188.

Suggested Readings

Karlin, Jason G. (2002) „Gender Nationalism: Competing Masculinities in Meiji

Japan,‟ Journal of Japanese Studies, 28: 1, pp. 41-77. Mackie, Vera (2000), „Modern Selves and Modern Spaces: An Overview‟ in Interwar

Japan‟ in Tipton, Elise K. and John Clark (eds.), Being Modern in Japan: Culture and Society from the 1910s to the 1930s, Australian Humanities Research Foundation, pp. 185-199.

Sato, Barbara Hamill (2003) The New Japanese Woman: Modernity, Media and

Women in Interwar Japan, Duke University Press. Silverberg, Miriam (1998), „The Café Waitress Serving Modern Japan‟ in Vlastos,

Stephen (ed.), Mirror of Modernity: Invented Traditions of Modern Japan, Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, pp. 208-225.

(1991) „The Modern Girl as Militant‟ in Gail Bernstein (ed.), Re-creating

Japanese Women: 1600-1945, pp. 239-240.

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Tipton, Elise. Sex in the City: Chastity vs Free Love in Interwar Japan. Intersections: Gender, History and Culture in the Asian Context, Issue 11, August 2005.

Session 7: Prewar Shōwa - The 1930s The 1930s is one of modern Japan‟s most contentious historical periods. Characterised variously as a „politics by assassination‟ (Storry), „totalitarian‟ or „fascist‟ (see, e.g. Berger), a „dark valley‟ (Storry), and understood by many Japanese as the „bad prewar‟ (Gluck), this period is easily misunderstood and difficult to represent.

In this session, we‟ll approach this historical period in two ways:

First, following the lead of Wray and Conroy (1983), we‟ll consider the following questions:

• Were the 1930s an aberration or a logical outcome?

• Was Japan‟s foreign policy in the 1930s a search for autonomy or naked aggression?

• Was Japanese colonialism enlightened or barbaric?

Second, we‟ll interrogate the representational strategies developed and deployed in the documentary series The World at War, Episode 6 „Banzai!: Japan (1931-1942)‟ (screened originally on 5 December 1973). Widely touted as a groundbreaking documentary, we will consider to what extent and in what ways this kind of representation helps us to understand Japanese history.

Class Schedule: Session 7

• Documentary viewing (19.35-20.30)

• Discussion Preparation (20.30-21.00) Session 8

• Discussion (19.35-20.15)

• Lecture/seminar – Allied Occupation of Japan

Essential Viewing (Is this a primary source or a secondary source?)

Isaacs, Jeremy (1973) The World at War (Episode 6: „Banzai!: Japan (1931-1942)‟

Essential Readings


Present, (Oxford: Oxford University Press). Chapters 9-12. Nichols, Bill (2001) Introduction to Documentary. Chapter 7 „How Have

Documentaries Addressed Social and Political Issues‟ Wray, Harry and Hilary Conroy (1983) Japan Examined: Perspectives on Modern

Japanese History. Please read the following:

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• Chapter VIII – Mark R. Peattie, „Japanese Colonialism: Discarding the Stereotypes (pp. 208-213)

• Chapter IX – Entire (pp. 237-290)

• Chapter X – Michael A. Barnhart, „Japan‟s Drive to Autarky‟ (pp. 293- 300); and Thomas W. Burkman, „The Great Divorce: Japan and Universalism Between the World Wars‟ (pp. 301-307)

Suggested Readings: The following are classic texts to the study of modern Japanese history up to Japan‟s defeat in the Second World War.

Crowley, J. Japan’s Quest for Autonomy: National Security and Foreign Policy:

1930-1938 Dower, John War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War

Dower, John Embracing Defeat

Duus, Peter, Ramon H. Myers, and Mark R. Peattie (eds.) The Japanese Wartime

Empire, 1931-1945 (1996) Large, S. (ed.) Shōwa Japan: Political, Social, and Economic History, 1926-1989

Morley, James William (ed) Dilemmas of Growth in Prewar Japan

Smethurst, R. Social Basis for Prewar Japanese Militarism: The Army and the Rural

Community Storry, Richard Double Patriots

Postwar and Contemporary Japanese Culture and Society

Here is one way of „periodising‟ the postwar period:

Allied Occupation – 1945-1952 Reconstruction & Political Settlement – 1952-c.1960 Period of High Economic Growth – 1960-1973 Japan as Economic Power and Consumer society – 1970s Bubble Economy – 1980s and early 1990s Recession and identity crisis – mid-1990s to present

As you go through the next sessions, think about whether the above accurately portrays history, and think especially about who and what are not represented.

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Session 8: Postwar Shōwa - The Allied

Occupation of Japan Following our discussion on the 1930s, we‟ll turn our attention to the beginning of Japan‟s postwar period. Central to our explorations is the Allied Occupation when Japan once again encountered the West as conqueror and tutor, and in which the key themes of the postwar period were set – democracy, pacifism, capitalism, and consumption; and protest.

Questions:

• What are the key reforms introduced by the Allied Occupation?

• To what extent was the Occupation a programme of Americanisation?

• How significant was it? Class Schedule: Session 7

• Documentary viewing (19.35-20.30)

• Discussion Preparation (20.30-21.00) Session 8

• Discussion (19.35-20.15)

• Lecture/seminar – Allied Occupation of Japan Essential Readings


Present, (Oxford: Oxford University Press). Chapters 13 (and strongly recommended, 14 and 15).

Lu, David J. (ed.) A Documentary History

• Chapter XV, Doc. 4 „Excerpts from the Shōwa Constitution, 1946‟, pp. 471- 476

• Chapter XV, Doc. 6 „MacArthur on the Japanese Constitution‟, pp. 480-482

Wray, Harry and Hilary Conroy (1983) Japan Examined: Perspectives on Modern Japanese History. Chapter XI

Session 9: Nihonjinron or the Theories/Ideologies of Japanese-ness

Japan‟s defeat in the Second World War cast a long shadow over the re-emergence of national confidence. Incorporated into America‟s neo-colonial empire and committed to pacifism, Japanese nationalism could not be built upon a political- military influence in the world. Instead, as Japan claimed the number three and then number two spot in the economic hierarchy, a sense of national identity was grounded in social and cultural characteristics. In many cases, this took the form of Nihonjinron. Defined literally as „theories of the Japanese‟, ideologically, it might be translated as „ideologies of Japanese uniqueness and exceptionalism‟.

In this session, let‟s consider two seminal theories, Nakane Chie‟s vertical society and Doi Takeo‟s amae (dependence). Think about the following questions:

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• What are some of the main ideas and characteristics of Nakane‟s and Doi‟s theories?

• What methods of observation do they employ and is the logic underlying their interpretations sound?

• Do we need to distinguish between nihonjinron as a popular ideology, intellectual scholarship, and publishing phenomenon?

• Although cultural nationalism can be found throughout modern Japanese history, what distinguishes nihonjinron?

Essential Readings

Read either:

Nakane Chie (1970) Japanese Society (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University

of California Press). Chapter 1, Chapter 2 (Sections 1&2 only)

OR

Doi Takeo (1971) The Anatomy of Dependence (Tokyo: Kodansha). Chapters 2 & 3.

And also read:

Gordon, Andrew (2003) A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to

the Present, (Oxford: Oxford University Press). Chapters 14-16.

Yoshino Kosaku (1995). Cultural Nationalism in Contemporary Japan (Routledge). Especially Chapters 2, 3, 6, 7.

Suggested Readings Harootunian, Harry. 1989. “Visible Discourses/ Invisible Ideologies” in: Masao

Miyoshi and Harootunian (eds.), Postmodernism and Japan. Duke UP. Yoda, Tomiko. 2000. “A Roadmap to Millenial Japan” in The South Atlantic Quarterly,

vol. 99, no. 4 (fall), pp. 629-667. Ivy, Marilyn, 1993. “Formations of Mass Culture.” In: Andrew Gordon (ed.), Postwar

Japan as History. California UP. Befu, Harumi, 1992. “Symbols of nationalism and Nihonjinron. In: Roger Goodman

and Kirsten Refsing (eds.), Ideology and practice in modern Japan. Routledge. Goodman, Roger, 1992. “Ideology and practice in Japan: Towards a theoretical

approach.” In: Roger Goodman and Kirsten Refsing (eds.), Ideology and practice in modern Japan. Routledge.

Befu, Harumi (ed.), 1993. Cultural Nationalism in East Asia: Representations and

Identity. Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies, California U. Morris-Suzuki, Tessa. Re-inventing Japan.

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Session 10: Film Screening – Itami Jūzo’s

Tampopo (1985)

In Session 1 of the Spring Term (11 January 2011), we will explore Itami Jūzo‟s classic film, Tampopo. Please ensure that you come to this class so that you can participate in Session 1.

You are also urged to read the essential readings before coming to this class. These will be useful when reflecting on the film (and you won‟t have to do them over the Christmas break!).

Essential Viewing – Primary Source

Tampopo

Compulsory Readings:

Iles, Timothy. 2000. “Tampopo: Food and the Postmodern in the Work of Itami Jûzô.”

In Japanstudien. (copy available).

Wray, Harry and Hilary Conroy (1983) Japan Examined: Perspectives on Modern Japanese History. Chapter XII.

Young, Robert (2000). ‘The Cultural Politics of Hybridity [Excerpt]‟. In Bill Ashcroft,

Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Triffin (eds.), The Post-Colonial Studies Reader,

Routledge, pp. 158-162.

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CHRISTMAS BREAK – NO CLASS

Session 1:

In session 9 of Autumn Term, we discussed the nihonjinron („discussions on Japanese-ness‟). One of the key assertions of this discourse is that the Japanese are a homogenous race/culture and as a result of this homogeneity, they are unique. Itami Jūzo‟s Tampopo challenges this idea by providing his audience with many visual, narrative, filmic, and other examples of mixing and juxtaposition. This mixing and juxtaposition is called hybridity.

Questions:

Using your readings, especially Young, how does Itami represent „hybridity‟ in Tampopo?

In what ways can we use – and not use – Itami‟s film as historically (e.g. as a historical document)?

How might we approach Itami‟s vision of/for Japan in the 1980s to longer-term conceptions of Japanese history?

Essential Viewing:

Tampopo Essential Readings:

Iles, Timothy. 2000. “Tampopo: Food and the Postmodern in the Work of Itami Jûzô.”

In Japanstudien. (copy available).

Wray, Harry and Hilary Conroy (1983) Japan Examined: Perspectives on Modern Japanese History. Chapter XII.

Young, Robert (2000). ‘The Cultural Politics of Hybridity [Excerpt]‟. In Bill Ashcroft,

Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Triffin (eds.), The Post-Colonial Studies Reader,

Routledge, pp. 158-162.

Further Reading:

On Hybridity:

Bakhtin, Mikhail. 1981. The Dialogic Imagination. Texas UP.

Bhabha, Homi. 1994. The Location of Culture. Routledge.

Gilroy, Paul. 2004. After Empire: Multiculture or Post-colonial Melancholia. Routledge

(SOAS)

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Hall, Stuart. 1992. “New Ethnicities,” in James Donald and Ali Rattansi (eds.), Race,

Culture and Difference. Sage

Modooq, Tari and Pnina Werbner. 1997. The Politics of Multiculturalism: Racism,

Identity and Community in New Europe. Zed Books.

Young, Robert. 1995. Colonial Desire: Hybridity in Theory, Culture and Race.

Routledge.

• Do you agree with the characterisation of the Shōwa period in terms of rupture, or „two halves‟ – a bad prewar and good postwar as Carol Gluck has suggested of the conception of Shōwa?

• Taking into account our exploration of the Meiji and Taishō periods, can modern Japanese history be understood in terms of continuity?

Contemporary Japanese Culture and Society

Following on from our historical survey, let‟s begin our explorations of contemporary Japan. We shall look at various themes including: society and language; literature; gender; minorities; film; consumer society and culture; Japan‟s place in (or out of) Asia; and images of Japan.

History is never far from our considerations, but we will be approaching it differently now, less from the discipline of history and more as a tool that can help us to understand varying and contradictory contexts for culture. We won‟t think about history so much in terms of a continuous thread of change and causations – a chronology per se – but as narratives, sometimes related but often not, that we construct as individuals and communities to understand who we are.

That being said, chronology can be a useful way to organise our understanding of history, so here is one way of imagining the postwar period:

Allied Occupation – 1945-1952 Reconstruction & Political Settlement – 1952-c.1960 Period of High Economic Growth – 1960-1973 Japan as Economic Power and Consumer society – 1970s Bubble Economy – 1980s and early 1990s Recession and identity crisis – mid-1990s to present

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As you go through the next sessions, think about whether the above accurately portrays history, and think especially about who and what are not represented.

We will discuss many questions, but as a place to start, please think about the notion that Japan is simultaneously modern and even futuristic, on the one hand, yet traditional, on the other. Is this a useful way to understand Japan? Why does this differ from the United Kingdom, for instance, which maintains its centuries-old monarchy and yet has one of the most cutting- edge pop-art scenes in the world?

Which of the above pictures is the most Japanese? Is Godzilla male or female? Are the two mice Japanese?

Is Kinkakuji real? Is the man in the fourth image a samurai warrior?

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