The Rise and Fall of Postwar Japan

In this course we examine the history of Japan from the end of World War II to the present. It is tempting to frame this history as one of rise and fall. From the literally devastated landscape of August 1945—cities destroyed by firebombs and atomic bombs, a countryside deforested by wartime demand for resources—the nation has been likened to the mythical phoenix rising from the ashes. Japan became a global economic power by the 1970s, for several decades boasting the world's second largest economy. It came to boast a large and optimistic middle class, and a self-understanding as an unusually successful society. Then, from the 1990s, the stock market crashed, the economy stagnated, the population began to decline, social inequality increased, and a self-understanding of loss set in, encapsulated by the catchphrase lost decades. The natural catastrophe of one of history's largest earthquakes then brought on social and environmental disaster whose consequences are still unfolding. The years of economic growth and growing national power came at high cost for many people—and the natural environment. The years of apparent stagnation possibly offer global lessons for realizing a sustainable future. Across the entire postwar era, explaining and taking responsibility for the previous embrace of empire and war proved divisive in Japan, and increasingly set the Japanese government against other nations. In this course we seek to understand the value and the limits of the narratives of rise and fall. We focus on two sorts of diversity: the wide range of experience and understandings held by historical actors themselves and the varied opinions of historians seeking to make sense of the past. We give attention to differences of city and country, and of gender and social class within Japan, and to divergent understandings of Japan's modern past both inside Japan, and between people in Japan and in other nations.