A Modern History of Japan From Tokugawa Times to the Present

by Gordon, Andrew

• ISBN13: 9780195110616
• ISBN10: 0195110617
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-01-09
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

In The Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present, Andrew Gordon paints a richly nuanced and strikingly original portrait of the last two centuries of Japanese history. He takes students from the days of the shogunate--the feudal overlordship of the Tokugawa family--throughthe 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. Gordon offers the finest synthesis to date of Japan's passagethrough militarism, World War II, the American occupation, and the subsequent economic rollercoaster. But 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 onhome 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, itilluminates 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. With a sustained focus on setting modern Japan in a comparative and global context, The Modern History of Japan is ideal for undergraduate courses in modern Japanese history, Japanese politics, Japanese society, or Japanese culture.

Author Biography

Andrew Gordon is Director of the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies and Professor of History at Harvard University.

Table of Contents

Maps, Tables, and Figures	ix
Preface	xi
Introduction: Enduring Imprints of the Longer Past	1	(8)
PART 1. CRISIS OF THE TOKUGAWA REGIME
The Tokugawa Polity	9	(11)
Unification	9	(2)
The Tokugawa Political Settlements	11	(9)
The Daimyo	13	(1)
The Imperial Institution	14	(1)
The Samurai	14	(1)
Villagers and City-Dwellers	15	(1)
The Margins of the Japanese and Japan	16	(4)
Social and Economic Transformations	20	(14)
The Seventeenth-Century Boom	20	(7)
Riddles of Stagnation and Vitality	27	(7)
The Intellectual World of Late Tokugawa	34	(12)
Ideological Foundations of the Tokugawa Regime	34	(3)
Cultural Diversity and Contradictions	37	(5)
Reform, Critiques, and Insurgent Ideas	42	(4)
The Overthrow of the Tokugawa	46	(15)
The Western Powers and the Unequal Treaties	46	(4)
The Crumbling of Tokugawa Rule	50	(4)
Politics of Terror and Accommodation	54	(2)
Bakufu Revival, the Satsuma-Choshu Insurgency, and Domestic Unrest	56	(5)
PART 2. MODERN REVOLUTION, 1868--1905
The Samurai Revolution	61	(16)
Programs of Nationalist Revolution	62	(8)
Political Unification and Central Bureaucracy	63	(1)
Eliminating the Status System	64	(2)
The Conscript Army	66	(1)
Compulsory Education	67	(1)
The Monarch at the Center	68	(2)
Building a Rich Country	70	(3)
Stances toward the World	73	(4)
Participation and Protest	77	(17)
Political Discourse and Contention	78	(2)
Movement for Freedom and People's Rights	80	(5)
Samurai Rebellions, Peasant Uprisings, and New Religions	85	(3)
Participation for Women	88	(3)
Treaty Revision and Domestic Politics	91	(1)
The Meiji Constitution	92	(2)
Social, Economic, and Cultural Transformations	94	(21)
Landlords and Tenants	94	(2)
Industrial Revolution	96	(4)
The Work Force and Labor Conditions	100	(5)
Spread of Mass and Higher Education	105	(3)
Culture and Religion	108	(3)
Affirmations of Japanese Identity and Destiny	111	(4)
Empire and Domestic Order	115	(24)
The Trajectory to Empire	115	(8)
Contexts of Empire, Capitalism, and Nation-Building	123	(3)
The Turbulent World of Diet Politics	126	(5)
The Era of Popular Protest	131	(5)
Engineering Nationalism	136	(3)
PART 3. IMPERIAL JAPAN FROM ASCENDANCE TO ASHES
Economy and Society	139	(22)
Wartime Boom and Postwar Bust	139	(5)
Landlords, Tenants, and Rural Life	144	(4)
City Life: Middle and Working Classes	148	(6)
Cultural Responses to Social Change	154	(7)
Democracy and Empire between the World Wars	161	(21)
The Emergence of Party Cabinets	162	(3)
The Structure of Parliamentary Government	165	(2)
Ideological Challenges	167	(2)
Strategies of Imperial Democratic Rule	169	(4)
Japan, Asia, and the Western Powers	173	(9)
The Depression Crisis and Responses	182	(22)
Economic and Social Crisis	182	(4)
Breaking the Impasse: New Departures Abroad	186	(6)
Toward a New Social and Economic Order	192	(4)
Toward a New Political Order	196	(8)
Japan in Wartime	204	(22)
Wider War in China	204	(3)
Toward Pearl Harbor	207	(2)
The Pacific War	209	(3)
Mobilizing for Total War	212	(5)
Living in the Shadow of War	217	(4)
Ending the War	221	(3)
Burdens and Legacies of War	224	(2)
Occupied Japan: New Departures and Durable Structures	226	(19)
Bearing the Unbearable	226	(3)
The American Agenda: Demilitarize and Democratize	229	(5)
Japanese Responses	234	(4)
The Reverse Course	238	(2)
Toward Recovery and Independence: Another Unequal Treaty?	240	(5)
PART 4. POSTWAR AND CONTEMPORARY JAPAN, 1952--2000
Economic and Social Transformations	245	(25)
The Postwar ``Economic Miracle''	245	(6)
Transwar Patterns of Community, Family, School, and Work	251	(3)
Shared Experiences and Standardized Lifeways of the Postwar Era	254	(5)
Differences Enduring and Realigned	259	(3)
Managing Social Stability and Change	262	(2)
Images and Ideologies of Social Stability and Change	264	(6)
Political Struggles and Settlements of the High-Growth Era	270	(21)
Political Struggles	270	(9)
The Politics of Accommodation	279	(8)
Global Connections: Oil Crisis and the End of High Growth	287	(4)
Global Power in a Polarized World: Japan in the 1980s	291	(19)
New Roles in the World and New Tensions	291	(7)
Economy: Thriving through the Oil Crises	298	(3)
Politics: The Conservative Heyday	301	(3)
Society and Culture in the Exuberant Eighties	304	(6)
Beyond the Postwar Era	310	(23)
The End of Showa and the Transformation of the Symbol Monarchy	310	(2)
The End of LDP Hegemony	312	(2)
The Economic Bubble Bursts	314	(6)
The Japanese Disease at Century's End?	320	(8)
Issues for the Future	328	(5)
Appendix A. Prime Ministers of Japan, 1885--2001	333	(2)
Appendix B. Vote Totals and Seats by Party, 1945--2000 Lower House Elections	335	(10)
Notes	345	(18)
Select Bibliography	363	(8)
Index	371