Biography

This course will trace the history of Japan from the Meiji Restoration through its empire-building project of the twentieth century and beyond. Crucially, we will place Modern Japan in relation to the West and its East Asian neighbors, China and Korea, to investigate how these interactions impacted its transformation into an empire. How did Japan’s history engender one of the most developed economies and democracies in the world and how is the nation negotiating its status today? Students will examine the rise of Japan as a major power in the early twentieth century, the political impact of WWI on Japanese society, and Japanese cultural and military expansionism in the 1930s and 1940s. What was at the crux of Japan’s wartime aims? How does the rest of Asia’s historical memory of this period continue to influence Asian politics? How did Japan understand pan-Asianism and what are the larger historiographical debates surrounding this era? The latter portion of the course will focus on the aftermath of total war, Japan’s postwar boom, and Japanese-United States relations against the backdrop of the Cold War.

Note: Honors option available to juniors and seniors.

Prerequisites: Open to seniors and juniors, and sophomores if space is available.