HIH 1595
Japan in Transition
History Sources and Skills
Module Tutor: Alan Booth
This module is designed primarily to teach you about the historical use of primary sources, documentary, visual, electronic and quantitative, organised around a particular theme. It has the added attraction/complication that the society studied is Asian and does not use the English language. I am assuming however that no-one really understands much about Japan at the outset and so am including preliminary reading for each topic each week. Much of this is taken from a course textbook with the same title (but not written by me!). The reading selected below is designed to help you to understand the primary sources, and to place them into historical context. It is essential therefore that you do the background reading as well as examining the primary sources. This will enable you to complete your assignments more successfully.
Japan since 1952: General Reading
The course textbook is:
Jeffrey Kingston, Japan in Transformation, 1952-2000 (Longman, London, 2001). (pbk). 952.04 KIN
Other useful introductions are:
Gary D. Allinson, Japan’s Postwar History (Cornell UP, Ithaca, 1997) (pbk) 952.04 ALL
W.G. Beasley, The Rise of Modern Japan (Weidenfeld, London, 2000) (pbk) 952.03 BEA
Internet links
(Japanese Government Statistics)
(Economic Planning Agency)
Diet Library)
(Japan Centre for Economic Research)
(Japan Policy Research Institute)
(Current news on Japan culled from various sources)
(Business Insights Japan)
(Japan Information Network)
(Daiwa Foundation (UK) Information Resources)
(Stanford University Jguide – Information clearing house)
(Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars)
(Asahi Shimbun – daily newspaper)
(Yomiuri Shimbun – daily newspaper)
(Mainichi newspaper)
(Japan Times – English language newspaper)
War and Occupation
W.G. Beasley, The Rise of Modern Japan (Weidenfeld, London, 2000), chs. 12, 13 952.03 BEA
John W. Dower, War without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War (Pantheon, New York, 1986). 940.5352 DOW
Mary L. Hanneman, Japan Faces the World, 1925-52 (Longman, London, 2001), chs. 5-7: 952.033 HAN
J.L. Henderson, Hiroshima (Longman, London, 1974), 940.544973 HEN (additional primary sources)
Akira Iriye, The Origins of the Second World War in Asia and the Pacific (Longman, London, 1987), 940.53 IRI
Jeffrey Kingston, Japan in Transformation, 1952-2000 (Longman, London, 2001), ch. 2: 952.04 KIN Robert J. Lifton, Death in Life: The Survivors of Hiroshima (Weidenfeld, London, 1968), chs. 1, 2, 12: 940.5442 LIF
Michael Schaller, The American Occupation of Japan (Oxford UP, 1985), 327.73052 SCH
H.P. Willmott, The Second World War in the East (Cassell, London, 1999), ch. 5: 940.5426 WIL/X
Peter Wyden, Day One: Before Hiroshima and After (Warner Books, New York, 1986), chs. 16-25: 940.5442 WYD
Background web site for useful material of all sorts on Hiroshima
Home page for information on the medical aspects of the Nagasaki bomb
For a basic chronology of the US Occupation (This is designed as a commentary on a film, but ignore those aspects)
Postwar Japanese Politics
Hitoshi Abe et al., Government and Politics of Japan (Tokyo UP, 1994), 354.52 ABE
James Babb, Tanaka: The Making of Postwar Japan (Longman, Harlow, 2001), 952.04 TAN/BAB
W.G. Beasley, The Rise of Modern Japan (Weidenfeld, London, 2000), chs. 14, 15, 17: 952.03 BEA
Kent Calder, Crisis and Compensation: Public Policy and Political Stability in Japan (Princeton UP, 1988), chs. 1-4: 952.04 CAL
Louis Hayes, Introduction to Japanese Politics (Random House, New York, 1992), part 2: 952.04 HAY
Takeshi Ishida, Japanese Political Culture: Change and Continuity (Transaction Books, London, 1983): 320.0952 ISH
Jeffrey Kingston, Japan in Transformation, 1952-2000 (Longman, London, 2001), ch. 3: 952.04 KIN Minoru Nakano, The Policy-Making Process in Contemporary Japan (Macmillan, Basingstoke, 1996), 354.52 NAK
Albrecht Rothacher, The Japanese Power Elite (Macmillan, Basingstoke, 1993), 301.44920952 ROT
J.A.A. Stockwin, Dynamic and Immobilist Politics in Japan (Macmillan, Basingstoke, 1988), chs. 1-5: 952.04 DYN
The Defence System and the Cold War
W.G. Beasley, The Rise of Modern Japan (Weidenfeld, London, 2000), ch. 14: 952.03 BEA
R. Buckley, US-Japan Alliance Diplomacy, 1945-90 (Cambridge UP, 1992), chs. 1-3: 327.73052 BUC
Jeffrey Kingston, Japan in Transformation, 1952-2000 (Longman, London, 2001, ch. 6: 952.04 KIN
Charles E. Neu, The Troubled Encounter: the United States and Japan (Wiley, London, 1975), chs. 6-7: 327.73052 NEU
Right wing Think Tank on the US-Japanese relationship
For those of you with Adobe Acrobat, you can download a full version of the paper summarised (on US-Japanese relations since 1945) at the following site, which is a major Anglo-Japanese Research Institute
The Economic Miracle
James Abbeglen, ‘The Economic Growth of Japan’, Scientific American 222 (March 1970), 31-5, S-P505 S21
G.C Allen, The Japanese Economy (Weidenfeld, London, 1981), 330.95204 ALL
W.G. Beasley, The Rise of Modern Japan (Weidenfeld, London, 2000), ch. 15: 952.03 BEA
W. Mark Fruin, The Japanese Enterprise System (Oxford UP, 1992), chs. 1-2: 330.95204 FRU
Richard Katz, Japan the System that Soured (M.E. Sharpe, New York, 198), chs. 1, 2, 5-6: 330.95204 KAT
Jeffrey Kingston, Japan in Transformation, 1952-2000 (Longman, London, 2001, ch. 4: 952.04 KIN
Hugh Patrick and Henry Rosovsky, Asia’s New Giant: How the Japanese Economy Works (Washington, Brookings, 1976), ch. by Patrick/Rosovsky, 330.95204 ASI
Steven Tolliday, ed. The Economic Development of Modern Japan, volume 1, (Cheltenham, Elgar, 2001), extracts 1-2, 12, 17, 20: 330.95204 TOL
Shigetu Tsuru, Japan’s Capitalism: Creative Defeat and Beyond (Cambridge UP, 1990), chs. 1-4: 330.95204 TSU
The Policy System
W.G. Beasley, The Rise of Modern Japan (Weidenfeld, London, 2000), ch. 15 952.04 BEA
Janet Hunter, The Emergence of Modern Japan (Longman, London, 1989), ch. 13, 952.03 HUN
Jeffrey Kingston, Japan in Transformation, 1952-2000 (Longman, London, 2001, ch. 4: 952.04 KIN
Shumpei Kumon and Henry Rosovsky, eds. The Political Economy of Japan, volume 3 (Stanford UP, 1992), chs. by Imai and Kumon. 330.95204 POL
Chalmers Johnson, MITI and the Japanese Miracle (Stanford UP, 1982), chs. 1, 2, 7: 338.0952 JOH
Richard Katz, Japan the System that Soured (M.E. Sharpe, New York, 198), chs. 5-6: 330.95204 KAT
Phillipe C. Schmitter and Gerhard Lehmbruch, Trends Towards Corporatist Intermediation (Sage, Beverly Hills, 1979), ch. by Pempel and Keiichi: 321.9 TRE
J.A.A. Stockwin, Dynamic and Immobilist Politics in Japan (Macmillan, Basingstoke, 1988), chs. 4-7: 952.04 DYN
Shigetu Tsuru, Japan’s Capitalism: Creative Defeat and Beyond (Cambridge UP, 1990), ch. 4: 330.95204 TSU
Demography and Social Structure
B. Ecclestone, State and Society in Postwar Japan (Polity Press, Cambridge, 1989), chs. 1, 6: 309.52 ECC
Bill Emmett, The Sun Also Sets (Simon Schuster, London, 1989), ch. 4: 330.95204
European Commission, Ageing and Pension Expenditure Prospects in the Western World (OOPEC, Luxembourg, 1996): Law Library, KV37 EUR
Tadashi Fukutade, Japanese Society Today (Tokyo UP, 1981), chs. 1-6: 309.52 FUK
Kenneth G. Henshall, Dimensions of Japanese Society: Gender, Margins and Mainstream (Basingstoke, Macmillan, 1999), pt. 3.3 (for the seminar, but the whole book is useful): 301.2952 HEN
Jeffrey Kingston, Japan in Transformation, 1952-2000 (Longman, London, 2001), ch. 8: 952.04 KIN
Gavan McCormack, The Emptiness of Japanese Affluence (M.E. Sharpe, Armonck, 1996), chs. 2, 6: 952.04 MCC
Paul Halmos, Japanese Sociological Studies (Sociological Review, Keele UP, 1968), pp. 15-44: 309.52 JAP
(good piece on ageing in Japan by one of the world’s leading economic historians, W.W. Rostow)
(the web-site created by Rostow from the contributions to a UN conference on ageing)
Women in Japan
Liza Crihfield Dalby, Geisha (Vintage Books, New York, 1983), Part 1: 301.4120952 DAL
Kenneth G. Henshall, Dimensions of Japanese Society: Gender, Margins and Mainstream (Basingstoke, Macmillan, 1999), Part 1: 301.2952 HEN
Jeffrey Kingston, Japan in Transformation, 1952-2000 (Longman, London, 2001, ch. 7: 952.04 KIN
Dorinne K. Kondo, Crafting Selves: Power, Gender and discourses of Identity in a Japanese Workplace (Chicago UP, 1990), chs. ?: 310.4120952 KON
Takashi Koyama, The Changing Social Position of Women in Japan (UNESCO, Paris, 1961): 301.412 KOY
Lisa Louis, Butterflies of the Night (Tengu Books, New York, 1992): LENDING/LOU
Good basic web-site
Japanese Art and Culture
J. I. Anderson and Donald Richie, The Japanese Film: art and Industry (Tuttle, Tokyo, 1959), esp. pp. 197, 359-63, 399: 791.4 AND
David Bordwell, Ozu and the Poetics of Cinema (Princeton UP, 1988), ch. 1 & pp. 328-33: 791.425. OZU/BOR
David Burch, To the Distant Observer: Form and Meaning in Japanese Cinema (Scolar Press, London, 1979), ch. 16: 791.430952 BUR
Eiichiro Ishida, Japaneswe Culture (Tokyo UP, 1974): 309.52 ISH
Ross Mouer and Yoshio Sugimoto, Images of Japanese Society (Kegan Paul, London, 1986), chs. 1-4: 309.52 MOU
(Summaries of Yasujiro Ozu’s films, including Tokyo Story)
(Derek Malcolm, The Guardian’s long-time – and great – film critic on Tokyo Story
(Difficult translation of a Japanese view of Ozu)
Japan’s Changing Place in the World
R. Buckley, US-Japan Alliance Diplomacy, 1945-90 (Cambridge UP, 1992), chs. 5-8: 327.73052 BUC
Gerald L. Curtis, ed. Japan’s Foreign Policy after the Cold War (M.E. Sharpe, Armonck, 1993), chs.1-4, 14-16: 327.52 CUR
Reinhard Drifte, Japan’s Foreign Policy for the Twenty-First Century (Macmillan, Basingstoke, 1998): 327.52 DRI
Taskahashi Inoguchi, Japan’s International Relations (Pinter, London, 1991): 327.52 INO
Michael Schaller, The American Occupation of Japan: The Origins of the Cold War in Asia (Oxford UP, 1985), chs. ?: 327.73052 SCH
Japan’s Current Problems
Richard Katz, Japan the System that Soured (M.E. Sharpe, New York, 198), chs. 7-8, 11-14: 330.95204 KAT
Jon Woronoff, The Japanese Economic Crisis (Macmillan, Basingstoke, 1993): 330.95204 WOR
(US views of Japan’s problems)
(Marxist views of Japan’s current problems)
(further contribution (in summary) from one of Japan’s fiercest current critics)
Sources
In studying these sources it is important to focus on a number of questions.
For documentary sources:
- Who has produced the source, and what perspective might the producer have about the subject?
- How does the information in the source relate to historians’ interpretations of the subject? Does it support or contradict these interpretations?
- What has not been included in the source? Are these omissions significant?
- How far do these sources reflect the views of ordinary Japanese, or are they an attempt to influence opinion?
For visual representations:
- Who has produced the image, what were they attempting to convey?
- Who are the intended consumers, what are they intended to receive?
- Are there visual signs in the image that are designed to evoke mood, memory, associations?
Week 2: The End of the Pacific War and the Occupation
Diaries as an historical source:
Henry Stimson, US Secretary of War
Hiroshima survivor
Question
What do these two sources tell us about the usefulness of diaries to understand the decision to drop the atomic bombs on Japan and their impact?
Week 3: Postwar Politics
Web sites as a tool for historians
Politics web-site maintained by Len Schoppa at the University of Virginia
Site on Japanese politics maintained by Mizuho Securities
Site maintained by an Italian radical organisation
Question
Assess these web-sites as a resource for the historian of postwar Japanese politics.
Week 4: Japan’s Defence in the Cold War Era
What can we glean from the text of international treaties?
Treaty of Surrender
1960 Security treaty between the US and Japan
1978 guidelines for Japan’s defence
Question
To what extent can we discern changes in Japan’s international status from the text of these three treaties?
Week 5: The Economic Miracle
Using quantitative information
(Official Japanese data on output and income per head)
(Official Japanese data on growth rates)
Compare these sources with the tables and graphs reproduced in Lecture 4
Question
How useful are these tables in understanding Japan’s postwar economic miracle?
Week 6: The Policy Process
Government reports as a source for the historian
I am placing copies of two Japanese government White papers on economic policy (one of them the famous ‘income doubling’ plan) into TR. Use them to answer the following question.
Question
Government White Papers can be just as important in illustrating how policy is made as in giving the details of policy. Discuss in relation to these two reports.
Week 7: Demography and the Social Structure
Reports from international organisations
(Report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies – but you need Adobe Acrobat to open it)
(another report made for an international organisation (the OECD), but again you will need Adobe Acrobat to open it).
Question
Can reports from major international organisations add anything to our understanding of national problems? Compare these two reports with those given by the Japanese Ministry of Health and Welfare on pp. 166-75 of Kingston, Japan in Transition.
Week 8: Women in Postwar Japan
Images as a source for historians
Kimono
japanesefiction.html
Kick-boxers
natsumibio.htm
Question
To what extent do these images help historians to understand the role(s) of women in postwar Japanese society? What are the advantages and disadvantages of pictures as an historical source?
Week 9: Changing Cultural Patterns
Film as source material
I will arrange a showing of a feature film from the early 1950s, Tokyo Story (1953), directed by Yoshi Ozu.
Question
Ozu offers incomparable insights into the cultural dislocation felt by many Japanese in the early postwar years. Discuss
Week 10: Japan’s Changing Image of Itself
How useful are political autobiographies/polemics for the historian?
Shintaro Ishihara, The Japan that can say no (Simon and Schuster, New York, 1991), (try to read as much as you can): 327.52073 ISH
Background on Ishihara:
Shigeru Yoshida, The Yoshida Memoirs: The Story of Japan in Crisis (Heinemann, London, 1961), (again try to read as much as you can): 952.04 YOS
Background on Yoshida
Question
Japan’s politicians are faceless nonentities and their autobiographies and mission statements are simply too dull for historians to bother with. Discuss in relation to Ishihara and Yoshida.
Week 11: Current Economic and Social Problems
Newspaper articles and contemporary history
a) The Japanese economy
(Japan Times story)
(Same story from Mainichi Daily News)
(same day news on the BBC)
(Time magazine)
b) Ageing and Social Structure
(The Guardian on ageing)
(BBC on the same topic)
(Asia Times on ageing)
Question
Are newspapers a useful resource for historians of Japan? Does it matter much whether these newspapers are domestic of foreign?
Assessment
- The module will comprise seminars plus independent assignments based on source work. There will be one contact hour per week, plus nine hours per week of private study (total ten hours).
- Sources will be marked in class by self-assessment. Each week you will bring with you the piece of written work required (normally a source commentary of around 500 words). The work will then be discussed in the class. On the basis of the discussion and the comments by the tutor you should then assess your work using the form that will be provided. The tutor will then collect these forms, along with your answers. After the class, the module tutor will moderate the answers and the student self-assessments, to check that the marks are broadly in line with the whole group.
- You should not expect a detailed marking of the work separate from your own self-assessment. The module is assessed entirely on the basis of coursework assignments. There are eight of these, based on the sources from weeks 2 to 10. If you fail to attend anyclass or to complete anyassessment, you will incur a mark of zero for that week. Persistent absence will mean that you fail the module.
- Coursework assignments should be submitted each week that they are due, unless permission to defer is given by the module tutor. Any outstandingcoursework must be submitted within two weeks of the end of the second semester, or students will incur a mark of zero for the whole course.
Contact Details
My office is Amory 132 (on the main History Department corridor)
My office hours are Mondays: 2-3 and Fridays 1-2.
Other times by appointment only.
Office phone 263296; e-mail: