HIST 248 Modern Japan

This course covers the history of Japan from the 1868 Mejii Restoration to the present, with particular focus on the emergence of modernity, the Pacific War, and popular culture. The first section of the course will examine Japan's modern revolution in the Mejii Restoration, industrialization and modernization in the Mejii Period, and the development of Japanese colonialism. The second section of the course will focus on the Pacific War, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the American occupation, with particular focus on the politics of gender and race. The third section of the course will look at Japan's explosive postwar economic recovery and the consumer and popular culture it produced.