Course Syllabus
HI/POL 444
Modern Japan History, Politics
& Culture
Chaminade University of Honolulu
Instructor:
Terrence Monroe
4954-3 Kilauea Ave.
Honolulu, HI 96816
(808) 734-8079
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.
Diverse professional and personal interests in liberal arts, science, and business, and a published author of original writing on Hawaii’s lifestyle and of articles on Asian history. Author of a novel, Wolohu’s Sunday School, concerned with the various excesses visited upon Hawaii from historic through contemporary times. Publisher of “Hawaii: A World Apart” —a print-version and Internet (www.hawaiiaworldapart.org) magazine that portrays “the inside story” of Hawaii’s way of life. Magazine features writing on Hawaii’s lifestyle, Island-style graphics and arts, and an editorial focus on courses of constructive long-term change for Hawaii.
Course Overview:
This course examines those major events and issues in
Japan’s modern history that shaped its politics, culture, and
industrialization. It makes comparisons and describes linkages, historically
and culturally, between Japan, its Asian neighbors, and the Western powers. Its
addresses Japan’s conflicts in its modern history and surveys its unprecedented
economic development and impact on the global community.
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 weekly essays and class discussion.
Become proficient in functioning in an on-line learning environment and in the use of on-line resources related to Japan.
Text:
Morton, W. Scott; Japan: Its History and Culture, Third Edition, McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1994
Johnson,
Chalmers, Japan: Who Governs? The Rise of the Developmental State; W.W.
Norton & Co., 1995
Course Requirements:
Successful completion of this course depends upon:
Completion of one website summary each week on any topic of your choice having to do with modern Japanese history, politics, or culture. The website summary should be 300 – 500 words in length, and should explain why your topic matters—in other words, how it affected the Big Picture of Japanese history. Be sure to refer to the Orientation for further details on how to write these summaries.
A careful reading of the online lectures and your textbooks, and the exercise of initiative in researching websites that relate to the topic that you’ll write about each week.
Participation in weekly online discussions. You should try to make a total of at least five or six substantive postings (of 100 words or more each) in the course of responding to at least several of the discussion topics posted for that week and to the responses posted by your classmates.
Completion of two quizzes based on your reading of the assigned texts and online reading. These quizzes will be open-book, and comprised of a series of essay questions that will be provided to you in advance. You will write these essays on your own, and email them to me.
Completion of a proctored final examination, to be comprised of a comprehensive essay of approximately 1,000 words discussing the main points of the course material.
Schedule and Grade Policy:
Since this course begins on a Monday, each course week runs from Monday through Sunday of that week. 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 discussions close; if you miss a particular week’s discussion, you may not go back in after the Sunday night deadline for that week and post. Similarly, the weekly essay is due by the Sunday that ends each week of instruction. I do accept late essays (not discussion postings), but I will assess a two percentage-point penalty for every day that your weekly essay is late. So, if your essay is four days late, and your grade is otherwise a 90, your adjusted grade (including the “late fee”) would be an 82.
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 group discussion 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 online discussion is what makes an online course work.
There are ten weeks of instruction in this course:
instruction begins Monday, July 5th and ends Wednesday, September 14th.
Your website summary, discussion, quiz, and final exam grades will be posted in
the Gradebook within ten days of their due dates. Each website summary grade
will have a maximum value of 100 points (for a total of 1000 points), and each
week’s discussion participation will have a maximum value of 100 points (for a
total of 1000 points). The two quizzes will each have a maximum value of 300
points (for a total of 600 points), and the final exam will have a maximum
value of 500 points. Total points for this course: 3100.
Grading Scale:
A: 90 - 100 (2790 - 3100 points)
B: 80 - 89 (2480 - 2789 points)
C: 70 - 79 (2170 - 2479 points)
D: 60 - 69 (1860 - 2169 points)
F: less than 60 (less
than 1860 points)
Reading and Exam Schedule:
Week 1:
Online: Introducing the Japanese; Some Relevant History
Text: Japan: Its History and Culture, by Scott
Morton
Introduction, p. 1-4
Chapter 1: The Origins and Early History of the Japanese,
p. 5-16
Chapter 2: The Introduction of Chinese Thought and
Culture, p. 17-26
Chapter 3: The Stimulating Effect of Chinese Culture, p.
27-34
Chapter 4: The Japanese Pattern, p. 35-48
Week 2:
Online: The American Years; Rough Trade
Japan: Its History and Culture
Chapter 5: The Rise of the Warrior Culture and the Gempei
War, p. 49-64
Chapter 6: Government by the Military Shogun, p. 65-88
Chapter 7: The Ashikaga Shogunate, p. 89-96
Chapter 8: The Golden Age of Japanese Art, p. 97-104
Week 3:
Online: Recovery and Prosperity; Uniqueness and Hierarchy
Japan: Its History and Culture
Chapter 9: The Unification of Japan, p. 105-122
Chapter 10: Japan in Isolation, p. 123-136
Chapter 11: The Winds of Change, p. 137-148
Chapter 12: The Meiji Restoration and the Modernization of
Japan, p. 149-180
Week 4:
Online: The Group and Conformity; Reason, Feeling, and
Religion
Japan: Its History and Culture
Chapter 13: Expansion, Liberalism, and Militarism, p.
181-190
Chapter 14: Manchukuo, the China War, and World War II, p.
191-202
Chapter 15: Postwar Japan, p. 203-212
Week 5:
Online: Culture and Language
Japan: Its History and Culture
Chapter 16: Japan Today—Economy, Foreign Affairs, and
Political Life, p. 213-250
Chapter 17: Contemporary Japanese Society, p. 251-278
Quiz on online readings for Weeks 1 – 5 and Japan: Its
History and Culture
Week 6:
Online: Culture and Language; Japan at Play
Japan: Who Governs? The Rise of the Developmental State, by Chalmers Johnson
Introduction, p. 7-20
Chapter 1: La
Serenissima of the East, p. 21-37
Chapter 2: Social Values and the Theory of Late Economic
Development in East Asia, p. 38-50
Week 7:
Online: Sex Roles; The Corporation
Japan: Who Governs? The Rise of the Developmental State
Chapter 3: Comparative Capitalism: the Japanese
Difference, p. 51-68
Chapter 4: Trade, Revisionism, and the Future of
Japanese-American Relations, p. 69-95
Chapter 5: The Foundations of Japan’s Wealth and Power… p.
96-114
Week 8:
Online: Business as Usual; Japan and the World
Japan: Who Governs? The Rise of the Developmental State
Chapter 6: Japan: Who Governs? An Essay of Official
Bureaucracy, p. 115-140
Chapter 7: The Reemployment of Retired Government
Bureaucrats… p. 141-156
Chapter 8: Omote
(Explicit) and Ura (Implicit)… p.
157-182
Week 9:
Online: The Economist Japan Survey
Japan: Who Governs? The Rise of the Developmental State
Chapter 9: Tanaka Kakuei, Structural Corruption, and the
Advent of Machine Politics… p. 183-211
Chapter 10: Puppets and Puppeteers: Japanese Political
Reform, p. 212-234
Chapter 11: The Patterns of Japanese Political Relations
with China, p. 235-263
Week 10:
Japan: Who Governs? The Rise of the Developmental State
Chapter 12: Reflections on the Dilemma of Japanese
Defense, p. 264-280
Chapter 13: Rethinking Asia, p. 281-295
Chapter 14: History Restarted: Japanese-American
Relations… p. 296-324
Quiz on online readings for Weeks 6 – 9 and Japan: Who
Governs? The Rise of the Developmental State
Final Exam
Participation Policy:
One of the reasons why
people take an online course is that other obligations make it difficult or
impossible to attend traditional classes. When you work on your assignment is
entirely up to you, but you should plan to spend at least ten hours a week on
this course--in reading, researching websites, thinking, writing, and in
discussion in online forums. You should log onto WebCT to attend the classroom
at least several times a week, and when you do so and from where, of course, is
up to you. It is best to log onto WebCT once a day, if just to check for announcements
and to read through the discussions. If you procrastinate and fail to log in
for more than a few days, you will begin to get lost. What’s more, if most
students wait until the end of the week to make their discussion postings, then
there won’t be much until then for others to respond to; therefore, a good
discussion grade depends on the student making consistent postings from the
beginning of each week on through the end of the week; students who wait until
the end of the week to make their discussion postings will be penalized for
their procrastination. Many people who drop out or fail online courses do so
because they have not developed the habit of logging in often to stay in touch
with things.
Academic
Integrity (DO NOT FAIL TO READ THIS):
It is important for you to keep
in mind that all of your work for this course must be in your words, however
humble. Your website summaries and exam essays are not evaluated on
compositional excellence, but on quality of insight. Please understand that
after some thirty years of reading student writing—and of reading and
researching the corpus of professionally produced writing on our subject--it is
usually instantly recognizable to me when a submission is not a student’s own
work.
My policy is to submit anything
that arouses suspicion to Turnitin.com, an academic service to which I
subscribe that utilizes an algorithm-based methodology to compare the suspect
sample to all published material on the Internet. Keep in mind that the
Internet these days includes many web-based counterparts of conventionally
published materials (meaning that, if it’s been published anywhere in
print—whether in an old encyclopedia, a magazine or newspaper, or in a
brand-new bestseller—it’s probably on the Internet somewhere). If Turnitin
indicates that there is a significant match between your work and a previously
published source, some very pointed questions will be asked
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!
Now, don’t forget to read the Orientation!