Suggested topics (these are prompts designed to stimulate your own thinking. Feel free to
prune or revise them, or to develop subjects of your own):
1. Adam has raised questions about how unified the Japanese public was during certain periods
of history. Here are a few approaches to addressing that issue:
– Total-war rhetoric touted the 100-million hearts beating as one, but womens groups, the media, young radicals (2-26, etc.), rural reformers, politicians, industrialists, competing factions in the military, settlers in Manchuria, and others brought an array of interests to their participation in the war effort. What were these interests? Do your examples suggest a general merging of interests or the presence of serious fault lines?
Discuss the role of factionalism or competition among institutions in the various inflection points weve encountered — for example, competition among political elites in the 20s, within the military in the 30s, or among conservative politicians in the 1950s.
Were the aims of 1920s internationalism and 1930s regionalism the same?
From the Meiji period on, Japan’s presence in the wider world took many forms and reflected domestic interests that sometimes conflicted with each other. What needs and/or ideas contended with each other in Japan’s early empire-building, in its embrace of Western racial hierarchies, in its assimilationist ideology in the colonies, or in its relationships with its emigres?
Imperial Japan had a dual character as both victim and victimizer. Discuss Japans experience of the hierarchy of nations, races, and ethnicities, and how Japan challenged some prevailing ideas while reinforcing others. Consider its early treaties with the western powers, transnational migration, empire, multilateralism, pan-Asian and coprosperity rhetoric, and its handling of ethnic or racial diversity within the empire.
Be sure to ground your discussion in TIME and PLACE.
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