A Modern History of Japan; From Tokugawa Times to the Present

by Gordon, Andrew

• ISBN13: 9780195339222
• ISBN10: 0195339223
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-11-14
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present, Second Edition, paints a richly nuanced and strikingly original portrait of the last two centuries of Japanese history. It takes students from the days of the shogunate--the feudal overlordship of the Tokugawa family--through the modernizing revolution launched by midlevel samurai in the late nineteenth century; the adoption of Western hairstyles, clothing, and military organization; and the nation's first experiments with mass democracy after World War I. Author Andrew Gordon offers the finest synthesis to date of Japan's passage through militarism, World War II, the American occupation, and the subsequent economic rollercoaster. The true ingenuity and value of Gordon's approach lies in his close attention to the non-elite layers of society. Here students will see the influence of outside ideas, products, and culture on home life, labor unions, political parties, gender relations, and popular entertainment. The book examines Japan's struggles to define the meaning of its modernization, from villages and urban neighborhoods, to factory floors and middle managers' offices, to the imperial court. Most importantly, it illuminates the interconnectedness of Japanese developments with world history, demonstrating how Japan's historical passage represents a variation of a process experienced by many nations and showing how the Japanese narrative forms one part of the interwoven fabric of modern history. This second edition incorporates increased coverage of both Japan's role within East Asia--particularly with China, Korea, and Manchuria--as well as expanded discussions of cultural and intellectual history. With a sustained focus on setting modern Japan in a comparative and global context, A Modern History of Japan, Second Edition, is ideal for undergraduate courses in modern Japanese history, Japanese politics, Japanese society, or Japanese culture.

Author Biography

Andrew Gordon is the Lee and Juliet Folger Fund Professor of History and Director of the Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies at Harvard University

Table of Contents

Maps, Tables, and Figures	p. ix
Preface	p. xi
Introduction: Enduring Imprints of the Longer Past	p. 3
Crisis of the Tokugawa Regime	p. 10
The Tokugawa Polity	p. 11
Unification	p. 11
The Tokugawa Political Settlements	p. 13
The Daimyo	p. 14
The Imperial Institution	p. 16
The Samurai	p. 16
Villagers and City-Dwellers	p. 17
The Margins of the Japanese and Japan	p. 18
Social and Economic Transformations	p. 22
The Seventeenth-Century Boom	p. 22
Riddles of Stagnation and Vitality	p. 28
The Intellectual World of Late Tokugawa	p. 35
Ideological Foundations of the Tokugawa Regime	p. 35
Cultural Diversity and Contradictions	p. 37
Reform, Critiques, and Insurgent Ideas	p. 42
The Overthrow of the Tokugawa	p. 47
The Western Powers and the Unequal Treaties	p. 47
The Crumbling of Tokugawa Rule	p. 51
Politics of Terror and Accommodation	p. 54
Bakufu Revival, the Satsuma-Choshu Insurgency, and Domestic Unrest	p. 57
Modern Revolution, 1868-1905	p. 60
The Samurai Revolution	p. 61
Programs of Nationalist Revolution	p. 62
Political Unification and Central Bureaucracy	p. 62
Eliminating the Status System	p. 64
The Conscript Army	p. 66
Compulsory Education	p. 67
The Monarch at the Center	p. 68
Building a Rich Country	p. 70
Stances toward the World	p. 72
Participation and Protest	p. 76
Political Discourse and Contention	p. 77
Movement for Freedom and People's Rights	p. 79
Samurai Rebellions, Peasant Uprisings, and New Religions	p. 84
Participation for Women	p. 87
Treaty Revision and Domestic Politics	p. 89
The Meiji Constitution	p. 91
Social, Economic, and Cultural Transformations	p. 93
Landlords and Tenants	p. 93
Industrial Revolution	p. 95
The Work Force and Labor Conditions	p. 98
Spread of Mass and Higher Education	p. 103
Culture and Religion	p. 106
Affirming Japanese Identity and Destiny	p. 110
Empire and Domestic Order	p. 113
The Trajectory to Empire	p. 113
Contexts of Empire, Capitalism, and Nation-Building	p. 122
The Turbulent World of Diet Politics	p. 125
The Era of Popular Protest	p. 129
Engineering Nationalism	p. 134
Imperial Japan from Ascendance to Ashes	p. 138
Economy and Society	p. 139
Wartime Boom and Postwar Bust	p. 139
Landlords, Tenants, and Rural Life	p. 144
City Life: Middle and Working Classes	p. 148
Cultural Responses to Social Change	p. 154
Democracy and Empire between the World Wars	p. 161
The Emergence of Party Cabinets	p. 162
The Structure of Parliamentary Government	p. 164
Ideological Challenges	p. 166
Strategies of Imperial Democratic Rule	p. 169
Japan, Asia, and the Western Powers	p. 172
The Depression Crisis and Responses	p. 181
Economic and Social Crisis	p. 181
Breaking the Impasse: New Departures Abroad	p. 185
Toward a New Social and Economic Order	p. 191
Toward a New Political Order	p. 195
Japan in Wartime	p. 202
Wider War in China	p. 202
Toward Pearl Harbor	p. 204
The Pacific War	p. 207
Mobilizing for Total War	p. 209
Living in the Shadow of War	p. 215
Ending the War	p. 219
Burdens and Legacies of War	p. 222
Occupied Japan: New Departures and Durable Structures	p. 224
Bearing the Unbearable	p. 224
The American Agenda: Demilitarize and Democratize	p. 227
Japanese Responses	p. 232
The Reverse Course	p. 237
Toward Recovery and Independence: Another Unequal Treaty?	p. 238
Postwar and Contemporary Japan, 1952-2000	p. 242
Economic and Social Transformations	p. 243
The Postwar "Economic Miracle"	p. 243
Transwar Patterns of Community, Family, School, and Work	p. 249
Shared Experiences and Standardized Lifeways of the Postwar Era	p. 251
Differences Enduring and Realigned	p. 256
Managing Social Stability and Change	p. 259
Images and Ideologies of Social Stability and Change	p. 262
Political Struggles and Settlements of the High-Growth Era	p. 268
Political Struggles	p. 268
The Politics of Accommodation	p. 277
Global Connections: Oil Crisis and the End of High Growth	p. 285
Global Power in a Polarized World: Japan in the 1980s	p. 289
New Roles in the World and New Tensions	p. 289
Economy: Thriving through the Oil Crises	p. 296
Politics: The Conservative Heyday	p. 299
Society and Culture in the Exuberant Eighties	p. 303
Beyond the Postwar Era	p. 308
The End of Showa	p. 308
The Specter of a Divided Society	p. 310
Economy of the "Lost Decade"	p. 316
The Fall and Rise of the Liberal Democratic Party	p. 321
Assessing Reforms, Explaining Recovery	p. 328
Between Asia and the West	p. 329
Ongoing Presence of the Past	p. 333
Prime Ministers of Japan, 1885-2007	p. 335
Notes	p. 337
Select Bibliography	p. 357
Index	p. 367
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