War History and Memory in Japan

Term Papers

The deadline for your term papers is Week 16 of normal classes: 6 February. My grades inputting deadline is 9 February, so absolutely no excuses are accepted for late submission. For people who are not sure about the format of academic writing, please follow the guidelines in the video series Academic Writing on Open Courseware.

 

Week 15: 30 January

Final Class: Can the history issue be resolved? Discuss Kurahashi Chapter 5/Epilogue and class discussion. Please submit final term papers by 30 January if at all possible. Failing that, 6 February is the absolute final deadline. Course questionnaire.

 

Week 14: 23 January

War and the Family: A short lecture (lecture materials below) followed by discussion of materials in the Kurahashi text (Chapter 4)

 

Week 13: 16 January

Presentations 5-8 (rearranged from 19 December).

Homework for next time: Read Kurahashi Chapter 4.

 

Week 12: 26 December

Presentations: Groups 9-12

 

Week 11: 19 December (Class Cancelled)

I have been taken ill and am unable to be at today's class. The presentations by Groups 5-8 will be given in the first class in the new year. I should be well enough to be back at work by the end of this week, so unless you hear otherwise, assume the class on 26 December goes ahead as planned. Many apologies for this.

 

Week 10: 12 December

Presentations: Groups 1-4

 

Week 9: 5 December

Atrocities: From Nanking to Nagasaki. Roleplay plus discussing Kurahashi Chapter 3.

Homework: Make sure your presentations are ready for next week. We will decide the order of presentations today.

 

Week 8: 28 November

Education: We consider the differences between textbook controversies as political events and the nature of the classroom teaching of war history in Japanese schools. The lecture materials are below.

Homework for next time: Read My Father's Dying Wish Chapter 3. We will discuss it in class next time.

 

Week 7: 21 November

Discussing Chapter 2 of My Father's Dying Wish (using the classroom materials, about 30 minutes). The rest of the class is time for you to work in your research project groups.

 

Week 6: 14 November

The Yasukuni Shrine issue and remembrance of the dead. Lecture (materials are below) and watching NHK TV news from 15 August 2006.

Homework: Continue work on your group research projects. Read Kurahashi Chapter 2 (we will discuss it in Week 7).

 

Week 5: 7 November

We will start by sorting out the research groups for your presentations.  See the pdf download below.

For the remainder of the class we have a debate in class. The motion is as follows:

"The Japanese government has fulfilled its legal obligations with regard to war responsibility issues stemming from the actions of the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II. Arguments that the Japanese government has "not done enough" to address war responsibility issues, therefore, are merely academic."

Read the following articles:

"60 Years: The Path of a Nation Striving for Global Peace" Pamphlet

The Kono Statement on the "Comfort Women" Issue (4 August 1993)

50th Anniversary of the War End, Diet Resolution (9 June 1995)

Murayama Statement (15 August 1995)

Koizumi Statement (15 August 2005)

MOFA Q&A on Historical Issues

This topic has been in the news again just recently. See these two articles on The Japan Times: Seoul cites war sex slaves at U.N. human rights panel (13 October),  "Comfort Women" Issue Resolved (18 October 2011)

 

Homework for next time: Start preliminary reading for your research project. There might be a little time to discuss your projects in your groups in Week 6. By Week 7, definitely have plenty of materials so you can discuss with your group in class.

 

Week 4: 31 October

Today the lecture is about the role of media in Japanese war memories. Then we discuss the Kurahashi chapter 1 and research projects.

Homework for next time: We will do motion 2 of the classroom debates on page 10 of the OCW materials. Please download the files above in the Week 5 section and bring them to class (either as a printout or on a laptop). 

 

Week 3: 24 October

Today there is a lecture giving a brief overview of Japan at War 1868-1945. Lecture materials are at the bottom of this page. We also start discussing the Kurahashi book.

Homework for next time: Read Chapter 1 of My Father's Dying Wish. Also, start thinking about what topics you would like to do for your group research project.

 

Week 2: 17 October

This week we have the first lectures and class discussions. The lecture notes are available as a download file at the bottom of this page. Download them for your records. Supplementary reading for the lecture is Chapter 1 of Japan's Contested War Memories. Copies are available in the library or to purchase in Seikyo (about ¥4000, strictly voluntary). Start becoming familiar with the online appendix in this website (Research --> Books --> Japan's Contested War Memories).

Next time we will start using the class text: My Father's Dying Wish. Please bring your copy and a printout of the OCW materials (see the explanation below in Week 1).

 

Week 1: 3 October

The course outline is given in the syllabus (see below). Please note there may be some variations in the timetable depending on precise student numbers. In the first week we have had a brief introduction to the course.

We watched documentaries about the HBO series The Pacific and discussed the story of Eugene Sledge. The Pacific homepage is here and contains a lot of interactive content, including one of the videos we watched.

We also discussed the story of Kurahashi Ayako. Her story is the subject of the class text: My Father's Dying Wish. See also the article series on Japan Focus.

For next time:

If you are definitely planning to take the course, please do the following:

1. Go to Seikyo and buy a copy of the course text, My Father's Dying Wish.
2. Watch the video on Hokkaido University Open Courseware and print out the accompanying booklet (pdf file) of discussion questions. Bring the book and materials to class each week.
3. Start thinking about the content of your research project. The topic may be anything related to World War II history or contemporary issues related to war history (difficulties in Sino-Japanese relations etc.). You will do the research project in groups of 2-4 people depending on class size.

About the website:

This class is completely paperless. All materials are on the website under "Supporting Documents" for you to download. If you miss a class, make sure you check the homepage to see if there are any preparations for the next lesson.