Remembering Wartime in Japan

The terms used to describe the period during which Japan was at war in the mid-twentieth century demonstrate how naming and memory work together. The “Pacific War,” “Fifteen Year War,” World War II,” “Asia-Pacific War” are all terms used to refer to the same general time period and series of events, but have different specific—and often very political—meanings. This course will examine the events and experiences of wartime Japan, the ways they have been remembered by groups and by individuals, and the ways they have been put to political use. While the main focus of our study will be Japan, we will also compare Japanese experiences and memories of war with those of Germany and the United States. The course will start with the beginning of hostilities in Asia in 1937 and deal with the entirety of the wartime experience to 1945. In it, we will examine the way memories of the war have changed and helped shape domestic politics, international relations and national identity up to the present. Sources used for our study will include documentary and narrative film, written documentary evidence, comic books, and scholarly works from the fields of history, anthropology, sociology, literature and political science.

SPRING 2005 OU PRESIDENTIAL DREAM COURSE

Because this course has been selected by President David Boren as a “Dream” course, we are able to host four scholars who have made significant contributions to the fields of Japanese History, American History, and the history of war and memory. The schedule of their visits is as follows:

All of the following public lectures will be held at the Sam Noble Museum of Natural History beginning at 7:30pm, and will be followed by a reception

Carol Gluck, George Sansom Professor of History, Columbia University
Public Lecture: “Past Obsessions: War and Memory in the Twentieth Century”
February 8 (Tuesday)

Mark Selden, Bartle Professor of History and Sociology,

State University of New York, Binghamton
Public Lecture: “Notes From Ground Zero: War and Reconstruction in Two Eras—The American Experience in Japan and Iraq”
February 21 (Monday)

Gary Nash, Professor (Emeritus) of History, UCLA;

Director, National Center for History in the Schools
Public Lecture: "Rethinking the Unthinkable: Could the Founding Fathers Have Abolished Slavery?"
March 7 (Monday)

Takashi Fujitani, Associate Professor of History, University of California, San Diego
Public Lecture: “Remembering Ethnic and Colonial Soldiers: Koreans as Japanese and Japanese as Americans in WWII”
April 18 (Monday)

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

1. Attendance: Because this seminar meets only once a week, attendance at every class is required. If you miss more than one class, your grade will drop one full grade for each class you miss after the first one.. Because our class time is limited, please be sure to arrive on time. Consistent tardiness is unacceptable.

2. Special Guest Lectures: Attendance is required at the four guest lectures listed above. These visitors also will be attending our class as guest instructors, and students should be ready to discuss aspects of their lectures (those that take place on Mondays) as well as all required reading in class.

3. Bb Discussion submissions and leading class: Submissions to the Discussion Forums of Blackboard are meant to get you thinking critically, and to start a discussion before we enter the classroom. Every week no later than Monday at 10pm, students should use the discussion function on Blackboard to submit a paragraph or two to the entire class that consists of thoughtful reactions/questions to the readings for the following day’s seminar. As the semester progresses, you should be trying to relate previous readings and film screenings to whichever readings you are writing about that week. To get the ball rolling, two or more students will be assigned as class leaders each week. These two individuals will be asked to post their responses by Sunday at midnight, and will also be responsible for leading discussions during Tuesday’s class.

4. Participation: Students are expected to speak in every class, and demonstrate that they have done the readings by offering reactions, analysis, and/or substantive questions.

5. Midterm paper: A first formal paper of 6-7 pages will be due in class on March 1. These papers will be based on class readings and a limited amount of outside reading related to your chosen research paper topic. Unlike your final research paper which will use primary sources, this midterm paper is designed to get you thinking about and using secondary sources.

6. Response papers: You will have two or three short response papers (approximately two pages each) due over the course of the semester. These response papers will be based on guest lectures and films. Specific due dates and instructions will be announced during the semester.

7. Presentation of research project: During Week 12 (on April 12) students will come to class ready to hand in a first draft of their research paper, and prepared to present their research topic and findings to the class. Each student will have approximately five minutes to present the main points of their work, which will be followed by a couple of minutes of questions/critique from the class.

8. Final research paper: The object of the history capstone seminar is for students to demonstrate their ability to complete a research paper based on primary sources using proper citational format and solid historical methodology. The final paper should be 15-20 pages (plus notes and bibliography) double-spaced, with proper citations and formatting. There will be deadlines throughout the semester for a topic statement, bibliography, outline and first draft which will be due on April 12. Final papers will be due during our last class period of the semester.

Grade breakdowns are as follows:

Participation 35%

Includes discussion in class on a regular basis, contribution to Bb Discussion Forums, leading discussion on assigned readings, response papers, and presentation of individual research project during Week 12

Midterm paper 25%

Final paper 40%

BOOKS FOR PURCHASE

The following titles are available at the OU Bookstore and are required reading. They can also be purchased online new or used at amazon.com or bn.com:

Mary Lynn Rampolla, A Pocket Guide to Writing in History, 4^th ed.

(Bedford/St. Martin’s)

T. Fujitani, Geoffrey White and Lisa Yoneyama, eds., Perilous Memories: The Asia-

Pacific War(s) (Duke Univ. Press 2001)

Laura Hein and Mark Selden, eds, Living with the Bomb: American and Japanese

Cultural Conflicts in the Nuclear Age (East Gate 1997)

IENAGA Saburo, Japan’s Past, Japan’s Future (Rowman & Littlefield 2001)

Yoshikuni Igarashi, Bodies of Memory: Narratives of War in Postwar

Japanese Culture, 1945-1970 (Princeton 2000)

John Okada, No-No Boy (Univ. of Washington Press 1989)

Julie Otsuka, When the Emperor Was Divine (Anchor 2003)

These additional titles are recommended but not required (Gordon’s book is available at the OU Bookstore under our class number, and under HIST 3863):

Andrew Gordon, A Modern History of Japan, From Tokugawa Times to the Present

John Dower, Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II (W.W. Norton 1999)

Edward T. Lilenthal, ed., History Wars: The Enola Gay Controversy and Other Battles

for the American Past (Henry Holt 1996)

Gary Nash, et. al., History on Trial: Culture Wars and the Teaching of the Past

(Vintage 1997)

Week 1, January 18

Introduction

Week 2, January 25

Igarashi, Bodies of Memory

RECOMMENDED: Gordon, Ch. 12

Week 3, February 1

Special library workshop with Ms. Laurie Scrivener

Meet in Bizzell 149D (if you come in from the main entrance near the circulation desk, walk straight back as far as you can to the other side of the library and you will run into it)

NOTE: You should come to class having decided on a paper topic chosen from the list that will be distributed. This workshop will be an early opportunity for you to research that topic.

READ: A Pocket Guide to Writing in History (entire)

RECOMMENDED: Gordon, Ch. 13

Week 4, February 8 (Carol Gluck)

The Nanjing Massacre and the “Comfort Women”

Film: In the Name of the Emperor (1998; 50 min)

Daqing Yang, “The Malleable and the Contested: The Nanjing Massacre in Postwar

China and Japan,” in Perilous Memories, pp. 50-86.

Dai Sil Kim-Gibson, “They Are Our Grandmas,” positions: east asia cultures critique

5:1 (1997) (e-reserve)

Hyunah Yang, “Remembering the Korean military comfort women: nationalism,

sexuality, and silencing,” in Dangerous Women: Gender and Korean

Nationalism

Frank Gibney, ed., Senso, Introduction and pp. 75-81 (e-reserve)

RECOMMENDED: Gordon, Ch. 14

Week 5, February 15

Tokyo Tribunals

John Dower, “Victor’s Justice, Loser’s Justice,” in Embracing Defeat, pp. 443-484

(e-reserve)

Herbert Bix, Ch. 15, “The Tokyo Trial,” in Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan

(2000) (e-reserve)

KIM Puja, “Global Civil Society Remakes History: ‘The Women’s International War

Crimes Tribunal 2000,’” in positions: east asia cultures critique 9:3 (2001)

(e-reserve)

Violence Against Women in War Network (VAWW-Net)

http://www1.jca.apc.org/vaww-net-japan/english/

Look at section on “Women’s Tribunal 2000”

RECOMMENDED:

Gordon, Ch. 15

Alexis Dudden, “‘We Came to Tell the Truth’: Reflections on the Tokyo Women’s

Tribunal,” in Critical Asian Studies, Vol. 33, no. 4 (2001), pp. 591-602 (e-reserve)

Week 6, February 22 (Mark Selden)

Living with the Bomb (All selections are in the book Living With the Bomb)

Chapter 1, Commemoration and Silencing: Fifty Years of Remembering the Bomb in

America and Japan (Hein and Selden)

Chapter 2, Triumphal and Tragic Narratives of the War in Asia (Dower)

Chapter 3, Between Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima/Nagasaki: Nationalism and Memory in

Japan and the United States (Yui)

Chapter 10, Memory Matters: Hiroshima’s Korean Atom Bomb Memorial and the

Politics of Ethnicity (Yoneyama)

RECOMMENDED: Gordon, Ch. 16

Week 7, March 1

The Emperor and War Responsibility

Herbert P. Bix, “The Showa Emperor's ‘Monologue’ and the Problem of War

Responsibility,” in Journal of Japanese Studies, Vol. 18, No. 2. (Summer,

1992), pp. 295-363 (access through JSTOR)

RECOMMENDED:

Gordon, Ch. 17

Herbert P. Bix, “Inventing the ‘Symbol Monarchy’ in Japan, 1945-52,” in

Journal of Japanese Studies, Vol. 21, No. 2. (Summer, 1995), pp. 319-363 (access through JSTOR)

MIDTERM PAPER DUE IN CLASS

Week 8, March 8

History Wars (Gary Nash)

Gary Nash, et. al., History on Trial: Culture Wars and the Teaching of the Past,

Ch. 7 & 8, pp. 149-222 (e-reserve)

Gary B. Nash, “For Whom Will the Liberty Bell Toll? From Controversy to

Cooperation” (forthcoming journal article)

Edward T. Linenthal, “Anatomy of a Controversy,” in Linenthal, ed. History Wars:

The Enola Gay and Other Battles for the American Past, pp. 9-62 (e-reserve)

Lisa Yoneyama, “For Transformative Knowledge and Postnationalist Public Spheres:

The Smithsonian Enola Gay Controversy,” in Perilous Memories, pp. 323-46.

3pm Wednesday, March 9:

Research paper prospectus and bibliography due in my mailbox

SPRING BREAK: No Class March 15

Week 9, March 22

Textbook Controversies

Ienaga Saburo, Japan’s Past, Japan’s Future

Jordan Sand, “Introduction,” in History and Memory (e-reserve)

Ueno Chizuko, “The Politics of Memory,” in History and Memory (e-reserve)

Fujioka Nobukatsu, et. al., “The Restoration of a National History” (selections)

(e-reserve)

RECOMMENDED:

Nozaki Yoshiko and Inokuchi Hiromitsu, “Japanese Education, Nationalism, and Ienaga

Saburo’s Textbook Lawsuits,” in Censoring History, pp. 96-126 (e-reserve)

Week 10, March 29

Apologies

J. Victor Koschmann, “National Subjectivity and the uses of Atonement in the Age of

Recession,” in The South Atlantic Quarterly - Volume 99, Number 4,

Fall 2000, pp. 741-761 (access through Project Muse)

Norma Field, “War and Apology: Japan, Asia, The Fiftieth, and After,” in

positions: east asia cultures critique 5:1 (1997) (e-reserve)

Chungmoo Choi, “The Politics of War Memories toward Healing,” in

Perilous Memories, pp. 395-410.

Week 11, April 5

The Japanese-American Experience:

film: Know Your Enemy—Japan (dir. Frank Capra, 1945, 63 min.)

John Okada, No-No Boys (entire)

Julie Otsuka, When the Emperor Was Divine (entire)

William Rehnquist, All The Laws But One: Civil Liberties in Wartime,

Ch. 15, WWII Japanese Internments (on the Korematsu Case) (e-reserve)

Nakanishi and Lai, “Korematsu v. United States,” in Asian American Politics: Law,

Participation, and Policy (e-reserve)

Week 12, April 12

First draft of final paper due in class. Student presentations of research topics.

Week 13, April 19 (Takashi Fujitani)

The “Other” Soldiers: Race, Ethnicity, and Nationhood

Chen Yingzhen, “Imperial Army Betrayed,” in Perilous Memories, pp. 181-198.

Utsumi Aiko, “Korean ‘Imperial Soldiers’: Remembering Colonialism and Crimes

against Allied POWs,” in Perilous Memories, pp. 199-217.

George Lipsitz, “‘Frantic to Join…the Japanese Army’: Black Soldiers and Civilians

Confront the Asia-Pacific War,” in Perilous Memories, pp. 347-77.

Yoshikuni Igarashi, “Yokoi Shōichi: When a Soldier Finally Returns Home,” in The

Human Tradition in Modern Japan CP

Week 14, April 26

MFAT Assessment Exam

History majors meet in our regular room for this required exam.

IAS majors will meet at another location (to be announced) to complete the IAS exit questionnaire.

Week 15, May 3

Final Papers Due