Course Syllabus
HI/POL 444: Modern Japan History, Politics & Culture
Chaminade University of Honolulu
Summer 2013

Instructor:              

Terrence Monroe
terrence.monroe@adjunct.chaminade.edu
808.941-7140
Office hours: 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM Mon. - Fri. (not available weekends or holidays) 

Experienced as an instructor of in-class courses (since 1974) and online courses (since 2000) in various disciplines of world history and contemporary Asian civilizations for colleges and universities throughout the United States. Educational background: Master of Arts Degree in Asian Studies, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1974; Bachelor of Arts Degree in Asian Studies, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1973.

Catalog Description:	

Study of the rise, fall and rebirth of Modern Japan, focusing on her internal politics, economics and culture, and how they relate to her international posture. Cross-listed as POL 444. Fulfills interdisciplinary course requirement. Offered alternate years. Prerequisite: any 100 or 200 level history or political science course.

Student Learning Outcomes:

•	Gain an understanding of contemporary Japanese national developments with reference to past traditions; the causes of Japan’s post-WW II economic development; and Japanese behavior and national characteristics in business, international relations, and society.
•	Refine writing and cognitive skills through class discussion.
•	Become proficient in functioning in an on-line learning environment and in the use of on-line resources related to Japan.
     Linkage to Program Learning Outcomes:

•	Students will employ chronology to understand change and continuity, as well as cause and effect, in history. The skills and competencies in this area are developed in all regularly offered history courses.

Text:

•	Morton, W. Scott; Japan: Its History and Culture, Third Edition, McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1994

Course Requirements:

Successful completion of this course depends upon:

•	Completion of three Essays Assignments (EACH comprised of five brief essays).

•	Participation in weekly Discussion Forums.

•	Completion of a proctored Final Exam (the third Essays Assignment).

*Please be sure to carefully read the Orientation Addendum for guidance on these assignments.

Grading Policy:
 
Discussion postings should be posted throughout the week and must be posted before the week closes each Sunday night. Discussion postings may not be made up once the weekly discussion forum closes; if you miss a particular week’s discussion forum, you may not go back in after the Sunday night deadline for that week and post. Still, you are expected to complete all assignments on time. Please bear in mind that an Incomplete is generally not an option, since there is no way to make up the discussion forum participation element of your grade once the course is finished (after all, the group will have moved on, and there wouldn’t be anyone to discuss anything with). Please bear in mind also that participation in the discussion forums is what makes an online course work. 
 
Your essays assignment, discussion forum, and final exam grades will be posted in the Grade book within 7 days of their due dates. Each Essays Assignment will have a maximum value of 200 points (for a total of 600 points). The third Essays Assignment will count as your Final Exam-which is to be written under a proctor’s supervision. Each week’s Discussion Forum will have a maximum value of 100 points (for a total of 1000 points). Total points for this course: 1600. *You must complete the Essays Assignments in order to pass the course. Even if you had enough points (to pass) from participating in the Discussion Forums and the Final Exam, but did not do the Essays Assignments, you will not earn a passing grade. 

Grading Scale:                   
 
A:       90 - 100 (1440 - 1600 points)
B:       80 - 89 (1280 - 1439 points)
C:       70 - 79 (1120 - 1279 points)
D:       60 - 69 (960 - 1119 points)
F:       less than 60 (less than 960 points)

Assignment Schedule:
	 
Week 1 (Jul. 1 – Jul. 7): 	

Reading: 

Week 1 online lecture
Morton, W. Scott; Japan: Its History and Culture (self-paced)

Participate in Week 1 Discussion Forum

Week 2 (Jul. 8 – Jul. 14):	

Reading: 

Week 2 online lecture
Morton, W. Scott; Japan: Its History and Culture (self-paced)

Participate in Week 2 Discussion Forum
 
Week 3 (Jul. 15 – Jul. 21):	

Reading: 

Week 3 online lecture
Morton, W. Scott; Japan: Its History and Culture (self-paced)

Participate in Week 3 Discussion Forum
Submit Essays Assignment 1
 
Week 4 (Jul. 22 – Jul. 28):	

Reading: 

Week 4 online lecture
Morton, W. Scott; Japan: Its History and Culture (self-paced)

Participate in Week 4 Discussion Forum
		
Week 5 (Jul. 29 – Aug. 4):	

Reading: 

Week 5 online lecture
Morton, W. Scott; Japan: Its History and Culture (self-paced)

Participate in Week 5 Discussion Forum

Week 6 (Aug. 5 – Aug. 11): 	

Reading: 

Week 6 online lecture
Morton, W. Scott; Japan: Its History and Culture (self-paced)
 
Participate in Week 6 Discussion Forum
Submit Essays Assignment 2

Week 7 (Aug. 12 – Aug. 18):	

Reading: 

Week 7 online lecture
Morton, W. Scott; Japan: Its History and Culture (self-paced)
 
Participate in Week 7 Discussion Forum

Week 8 (Aug. 19 – Aug. 25):	

Reading: 

Week 8 online lecture
Morton, W. Scott; Japan: Its History and Culture (self-paced)
 
Participate in Week 8 Discussion Forum

Week 9 (Aug. 26 – Sept. 1):	

Reading: 

Week 9 online lecture
Morton, W. Scott; Japan: Its History and Culture (self-paced)
 
Participate in Week 9 Discussion Forum

Week 10 (Sept. 2 – Sept. 8):	

Reading: 

No online lecture
Morton, W. Scott; Japan: Its History and Culture (self-paced)

Participate in Week 10 Discussion Forum
Final exam: complete Essays Assignment 3 under proctor’s supervision (no notes or other references permitted); date, time, and locations to be announced

TO:  Military Students and DOD Employees

In an effort to service our students on the island of Oahu better we are offering a limited number of seats for finals off campus.  Additional locations for the online finals will be available at Pearl Harbor, Tripler, and Schofield Barracks.  

***If you are a civilian and have a MWR student pass you can take your exam at the Main campus or Schofield. You must already have your pass; the Army will not make civilian passes for exam purposes only.  Civilians are not able to take exams at Pearl Harbor.

Instructions to reserve a seat at one of the military installations:

1.	Some instructors prefer students test at the main campus. Please discuss your testing options with your instructor prior to registering for a seat. 

2.	You must have access to the military base you will be attending.

3.	This reservation must be made no earlier than the 7th week of the course.  We do have a maximum seating, so reservations are first come first serve.

4.	You must email the following information to one site only:  Pearl Harbor - aup-pearl@chaminade.edu.,Tripler: aup-tripler@chaminade.edu, or Schofield Barracks: aup-schofield@chaminade.edu

•	Name, Social Security# (last 4 digits)
•	Contact phone #  & valid email address 
•	Type of access (Active duty, Military family member, DOD)
•	Time slot (1 per class) – 13:00 or 15:00
•	Course #, Course Title, & Instructor

5.	You will receive an email confirmation for the site requested, if you do not receive a confirmation email within 2 days, please contact the office you emailed or resend the reservation request. You must print out your confirmation and bring it with you to the exam (along with a valid picture ID).

6.	If you do not pre-register for a seat, no exam will be available for you at either of the sites.

Consultation: 
 
I’m always available via email, or you may call and leave a message at any time, day or night. My phone ringer is turned off, so don’t worry about calling in the middle of the night—it’s okay! I will try to return your call within 12-24 hours. For those of you who are outside Hawaii, calling Hawaii these days is cheap—free on most cell phone plans, several cents a minute with a prepaid phone card, 10-25 cents/minute with phone company long distance plans. If you just leave a quick message, you shouldn’t suffer much financially, and I’ll pay for the return call, of course. As far as email is concerned, I will try to respond to your message within 24-36 hours; however, please do not expect me to respond on weekends or holidays—I need to have a life of some kind!

Orientation 

If this is your first online course, don't be alarmed. I think you'll find it’s pretty straightforward. It may not, however, be what you expect. An online course is not a glorified correspondence course, nor is it a course in directed reading. You are not isolated and out there on your own. To the contrary, you’re likely to become more involved with your classmates than you ordinarily would be in a regular class. One of the nice things about an online course is that your classroom is open 24/7. Time of day (or night) and physical location is irrelevant—we’re living in a global village. For those of who are able to discipline yourselves academically, you’ll find that the freedom of working and studying online is sweet indeed. Another nice thing about learning online is that the discussion forums enable you to leisurely examine everything that everyone in your class has said to date about a particular discussion topic, pick and choose what to respond to, and think through your response before pecking it out on your keyboard. All that tends to make for a much more thoughtful and better quality discussion, and you may conclude, as I have, that it’s a better way to learn. What’s more, you’ll find that the online learning environment can introduce you to the galaxy of online resources including websites, online libraries, subject guides, and lots more.
I am assuming that you are reasonably well acquainted with the use of a computer and with our course management system, which is fairly intuitive and quite forgiving (as such things go), but if you ever have a question about getting around in that, let me know. I promise you immediate and cheerful assistance!
Now, as to course requirements: 
The first thing that makes up your course grade is a series of three Essays Assignments (the third of which will serve as your final exam). The topic for each of these Essays Assignments is the same, as follows:
In each of five (5) brief essays of approximately 200 - 300 words each (1,000 - 1,500 words total), identify a topic (you decide which one, as long as they it something to do with the material you've studied to date in this course) and reflect on its why it matters. You will need to write on a different  topic for each of your five brief essays. Do not write the usual student essay that just recites history (like the text does). Instead, I want you to explain why your topic matters. Does it explain things that are happening now? Or, how did it affect society back then? Or, how was it affected by society back then. Be creative and interpretative, but do not recite the historical record (since we already know what happened). No quotes, no citations, no footnotes—these essays must be 100% in your own words. Everything you write for these assignments must be entirely in your own words, however humble. Plagiarism may result in your eviction from this course. Do not cite or recite anything—I already know what happened in history, so what I want is your insight as to the implications of your topics. I want to see evidence that you’re thinking things through in these matters and wondering about what it all means. Any citation of material from any other sources will result in a mark-down of your grade.
You should be working on these essays assignments continuously, and your work should have the polished feel of being the result of a steady, daily progression of thought and reflection. You can never tell when insight will strike, so you should get into the habit (now) of taking notes as we go along of things like this that occur to you; carry a little notebook and pen around with you always (except in the shower)--it’s a habit that will serve you very well indeed for all kinds of purposes. Polish, embellish, and refine your insights as you go. Don’t even think about trying to sit down to compose these essays all at once—it’s a daunting, unproductive, and highly improbable prospect. If it appears that you have slapped together this assignment at the last minute, your grade will suffer for it. 
Everything you write for these assignments must be entirely in your own words, however humble. Plagiarism will result in your eviction from this course. Do not cite or recite anything—I already know what happened in history, so what I want is your insight as to the implications of your topics. I want to see evidence that you’re thinking things through in these matters and wondering about what it all means. Any citation of material from any other sources will result in a mark-down of your grade.
You must write on five (5) separate topics for each of these Essays Assignments. Your five essays for each assignment should be clearly segregated from each other--do not submit them run together into one big essay.
Here are three essays as an example:
•	Social organization: Asian societies and economies (especially Japan) are the most relationship-driven in the world, with virtually everything proceeding on the basis of who knows whom—making it very difficult for outsiders like Americans to break in. Japan places straightjacket constraints on maintaining the harmony of its society and places the interests of the group—from the emperor on down--far ahead of the interests of the individual. And since China's most abundant resource is people, it has of course made sense to make excellent use of it. China places little stock in such things as contracts and statutes, wisely preferring to invest their trust in relationships. Unfortunately, none of that has changed under communism--it's still very much the old-boy game. The state provides little security such as we know it in the form of entitlements here in the West, and the Chinese continue to look to each other for their support. With marriage, love is not even a consideration; marriages are regarded as alliances between families for their mutual benefit. The Chinese are nothing is not practical! All that harks back to Confucius, whose entire philosophy was based in ordering the relationships among men so that China’s most dreaded condition—social chaos—might be kept at bay. As one might expect from such heavily populated conditions, Asian societies place a great deal more emphasis on social interaction and relationships than does the individual-minded United States.Family in Japan: The fact that Japan is possibly the most relationship-driven society on earth derives from the concept of the individual as part of both the biological and national family headed by the emperor, with the traditional Confucian ethos ordering the whole business from top to bottom. Everything is conceived in terms of the group, and in a nation as crowded as Japan, there just isn’t any room for the individual.
•	China's terra cotta army: Only a monster like Qin Shihuangdi would have set himself to such epic tasks as building the Great Wall, burying China’s army of scholars alive, and assembling an earthenware army for (who knows?) the purpose of conquering even grander horizons that men of mere flesh and blood might shrink from. The old boy seems to have set a precedent for brutality that was not exceeded until Mao Zedong became the most prolific mass murderer of modern peacetime-—accounting for some 70 million deaths largely through maladroit policies like the Great Leap Forward that brought devastating famine to China and which, by the early 1970s, had left the average Chinese poorer than the average Somali. The Chinese are no less heavy-handed in enforcing uniformity of opinion today, largely because of their fear of the burgeoning popular dissatisfaction that has produced thousands of outbursts of public protest in recent years. This is the sort of thing that makes for the loss of the Mandate of Heaven, and which might someday summon Qin Shihuangdi’s terra cotta troops to administer to the regime its coup de grace… and bring the long cycle of Chinese history round once again to whence it began.
•	Japan's loss of traditional arts: I think many if not most Westerners would be greatly surprised--and perhaps appalled--by the reality of what passes for cultural forms in Japan today: a dreary and depressing cemented-over landscape of pointless monuments and brutalized nature. Whatever happened to the sense of harmony with nature that once graced Japan's artistic tradition, and transformed it into something ugly beyond words? The traditional aesthetic began to disappear after the Second World War, and has since been replaced with a consuming passion for post-modern industrial squalor and gigantism that seems to renounce the classic aesthetic. If it can be said that art reflects the popular mood, then something has happened in modern Japan to make the Japanese feel very badly about themselves. Is it the futility of wealth that endows the Japanese with hitherto unimaginable creature comforts, yet denies them the opportunity for self-expression and individual value fulfillment? Are the Japanese lost in a twilight zone, without an identity that fits either the Western or traditional Asian model? Why do they make themselves so ugly if they do not believe themselves to be ugly?
Do you see from these examples that what I'm getting at it is not what happened, but what it means? Don't worry about drawing the wrong conclusions about your topics--I will never penalize anyone for drawing the wrong conclusions. This is your chance to wonder about things, and that's what I'm trying to accomplish in this course: to get students into the habit of wondering about things that happened in history, and to draw upon their lessons to help understand comparable things that are happening now.
I will be sending you the following grade report on your Essays Assignments:
•	Quality of insight (50 percentage points): How well did you interpret the significance of your topic? How well did you consider the implications, in terms of how your topics reflect on comparable developments in the present, past, or even the future? How creative is your thinking in terms of drawing conclusions are where things come from and where they lead and why they're of special significance? To what extent does your writing reflect consistent, in-depth reflection, rather than a last-minute effort?
•	Familiarity with the facts (35 percentage points). You may be forgiven for wondering how you are going to demonstrate familiarity with the facts without reciting history. Let me put it this way: I am concerned that your essays do not reflect a complete ignorance of your subject matter. You need to acquaint yourself (using all kinds of sources, including your text, websites, books, articles, videos, your grandpa, whatever) with what you write about, so that your conclusions as to their significance are not completely at odds with the reality of the historical record. You may make whatever mention of those facts from the historical record that are needed (and only what is needed) to support your conclusions.
•	Quality of expression (15 percentage points): How clearly and articulately is your insight expressed? (I don't like sloppy composition, confused syntax, and bad spelling. Show pride in your facility with the English language--more than anything, this is your key to earning both respect from others and a prosperous future.)
•	Total percentage X total number of points possible = your grade.
Things that can work against you:
•	Five topics for each Essays Assignment are required; for each topic fewer than five submitted, there will be a reduction in your grade. A total of 1,000-1,500 words is recommended--if your effort is appreciably less or more (which is not necessarily better) than this, there may be a proportionate reduction in your grade.
•	Do not recite history for the sake of reciting history, in any sort of narrative form (as, for example, your textbook does)--I already know (more or less) what happened in history. Above all, are your essays entirely in your own words? Any whiff of plagiarism will result in your essay being submitted to Turnitin.com--and if plagiarism is indicated, your continued participation in this course would be at risk.
•	If your essays are not clearly segregated, there will be a reduction in your grade (in other words, do not submit your five essays as one big rambling essay); this is meant to be an exercise in thinking and writing succinctly.
If you would like to discuss your assignment and its grade, please do not expect me to respond in writing--I have too many students to permit me the time I would need to peck out a personalized response to each of you who may have questions and concerns. I ask instead that you email me and ask that I call you so that we can discuss things--that's a lot easier, a lot more productive, and a lot more enjoyable for both us, since I can bring your essay up on screen and roam through whatever points we need to consider, and provide you with guidance on how to improve your work. This way, I can provide you with as much personalized consultation as we feel you need, and hopefully lend a much-needed dimension of student-teacher contact to an otherwise somewhat impersonal medium of instruction. 
The second thing that makes up your course grade is your participation in the Discussion Forums. In each of these forums, you’ll find a number of topics that I’ve posted, and you’ll find them in the discussion forum for whichever week we’re in. In order to do well in this exercise, you should plan to log on several times throughout the week with a total of 5 responses--to your choice of the topics themselves and/or to your classmates’ postings. If you don’t feel that you’ve had enough exposure to deal with a particular topic, then by all means get on the Internet and look this stuff up so that you’ll be better informed (use some initiative here, and take control of your own learning—the text is by no means the Alpha and Omega of your education in history). 
*While you only need to respond to 5 topics and/or your classmates' postings, please try to at least read each of my own responses to these topics. This is also how I teach you, and I am trying to provide you with examples of how to think creatively about these topics, and to help get you into the habit of writing your Exam Essays assignments.
With any of these forums, there will be a number of topics to choose from; go with whichever ones arouse your interest. You do not need to respond to all of the discussion topics—just go with the ones (5 of them) that most interest you. Because of the enormous terrain that we’ll be covering in this course, the discussion topics that I’ve posted are nothing more than a sample, just enough to whet your taste buds for the fantastic variety of things that could constitute a history course of this sort. 
Your responses to these topics should be thoughtful and concise. Don’t ramble--try to make your points succinctly. Not too succinct, however--I’m looking for a lot more than just “Great idea! Wish I had thought of that!” Your postings should each be around 100 words--but that’s just a rough guideline, since I value quality of insight much more than quantity of words. I especially value postings that reflect something of the history that you may have learned thus far; uninformed personal opinion, frankly, is dime-a-dozen, while an opinion that is at least somewhat informed by history will rank very highly in my esteem. Be sure to post your responses in the discussion forum—do not email them to me. If you’re not sure how to post to the forum, just ask and I’ll walk you through it.
Discussion is what makes an online course work; otherwise, an online course is just a glorified correspondence course. Be sure to respond to your classmates! If your classmate posts a response to a topic that interests you, look it over and consider posting a different point of view if, in your opinion, it merits one. We’re trying to get an actual exchange of views going here, and the gods will surely smile upon whatever you can think to do to help that process along. I think you’ll be amazed at how much you’ll learn from each other in these forums.
There’s one last thing I need to say about these discussions: they’re meant to be provocative and, in many cases, relevant to the issues of today. They say that “history is”--not “history was”--and one of the paramount points of why we study history is to apply its lessons and implications in consideration of things that are happening in the here and now. To that end, I encourage my students to think creatively and philosophically about these things, and not just to soak up the historical record for the sake of spewing it out on their exams and then forgetting the whole business. If I can teach my students to wonder about the lessons of history and how they may shed light on the things that are happening in their lives, then hopefully it will become a habit that will flourish (and serve them well) throughout life.
Again, I do not accept late submissions of your Discussion Forum postings. Reason being, the discussion is a group project, and if you miss the deadline, the group will have moved on and you’ll have nobody to discuss anything with. I expect you to log on regularly; by that, I mean that you should log in at the start of the forum, again in the middle, and again towards the end. As with writing your Essays Assignments, your participation in the discussion forums needs to be continuous. If I see (from the time-stamp of your postings) that most of your postings were made at the last moment, your grade will suffer for it, since by posting at the last moment, you will have deprived your classmates of the opportunity to discuss anything with you.
As to extra credit assignments: there are none. Please do not ask for the opportunity to do extra credit work to make up for an assignment that you may have missed.
If you have any dispute over course requirements, policies, grades, or anything else that you haven’t gotten a satisfactory response from me on, you have my phone number: 808.941-7140. I am your court of first appeal, and as your teacher, I have both the right and the responsibility to resolve your concerns before they go anywhere else. Do not take any complaint or concern that you may have to the department chair, the dean, the president of the United States, the pope, or anyone else without giving me a reasonable chance to resolve it first. Granted, there are times when I am just too busy to respond as quickly as I’d like to, but that doesn’t mean that I’m ignoring you; so, please understand if you don’t hear back from me as soon as you think you should. I am well aware that poor responsiveness from an instructor is the single biggest source of student anxiety in a distance learning course (people—myself included--imagine all kinds of things when they don’t hear back). But rest assured: I will always make every effort to deal with you in good faith and in a timely manner, and I expect the same from you. I should add that I always try to be as generous as possible in grading, so the occasional few points that might be in dispute on a particular assignment should not affect your course grade adversely.
In closing, I’d like to think you’re here because you want to learn, rather than just meet a requirement, right? Right??? I would ask you to think about what a college education should really mean to you; the day will come, long after you’ve gone out and conquered the world (or been conquered by it), when you’ll realize that what really matters in life is learning, personal growth, and wisdom—take the word of a wise old hound on that for now. I expect your best effort, but more so, you should expect that from yourself. I’m not some guy sitting on the beach doing this to keep myself in mai tais and suntan lotion (I haven’t been to the beach in more years than I can remember); I take your education very seriously, and I trust that you will do the same. Once the course is finished, I must ask that you not lean on me about your grade, telling me that you really, really need an A (when in fact you’ve earned less), or that maintaining your 4.0 GPA is a matter of life or death, or that your financial aid is in danger if you don’t pass. I do not respond well to such overtures, and they tend to be counter-productive. The time to worry about such things is while you’re working your way through the course--not after it’s over and done with--and again, I think you’ll find that I’m quite generous with the grades as long as you do the required work and make your best effort.
With that said, go ahead and jump into your Week 1 stuff. And relax… despite all the stern-sounding rules and regs, I’m actually very easy to get along with. 
If you want to talk with me about things, send me an email asking that I call you; I’ll then call you back on my nickel. I don’t have time for telephone tag, so please specify in your message the best time(s) for me to reach you, and I’ll try to schedule the call accordingly. In your message, be sure to specify which college you’re in (I teach for more than one), and which course you’re taking; please do not assume that I should know you by name (even if we’ve talked a dozen times); I’m the original absent-minded professor, and I need all the help I can get (don’t we all, though).
Aloha…  Terrence Monroe