History 381, Winter 2001                                                                                                                                                Prof. Constantine Vaporis
Adm. 707; tel.: 455-2092                                                                                                                                                TWTh 9-12:10, LH 4
Off. hrs.: TW 12:30-1:30                                                                                                                                                 email: vaporis@umbc.edu

This course examines Japanese history from 1600 to the present through the media of film and literature. It also explores the relationship between history and drama, in particular, how they can illuminate or conceal basic truths and values of the past. Views of feudal life and modern times, obsessions with honor and suicide, the changing role of women in society, the encounter between Japanese and foreign cultures, and themes of war and pacifism will be investigated.

This is not a course in film history; we are not studying changing trends or themes in the movies. Our goal in pairing films with a variety of forms of literature, including first-person accounts, is to compare the methods, insights, and truths suggested by the different approaches to the past.

Format: Film viewing; some formal lectures; discussion, often in small groups; some in-class written analysis of moving image documents.

Requirements:
1) Regular attendance (any unexcused absence or regular tardiness will  adversely affect your final grade)
 2) Active participation in class discussions/group work
 3) Take-home midterm and in-class final examinations

Grading: Discussion/group work, 15%; Take-home midterm, 30%; Final exam (Jan. 25, in class), 55%

Textbooks:
Kenneth Pyle, The Making of Modern Japan  (2nd ed.)
Frank Gibney, ed., Senso. The Japanese Remember the Pacific War.
Akira Iriye, Pearl Harbor and the Coming of the Pacific War.
Elisabeth Bumiller, The Secrets of Mariko. A Year in the Life of a Japanese Woman and Her Family.

Other Assigned Readings: Marked with an asterick on the syllabus; available at library reserved reading desk and on electronic reserves.

Note-taking: It is useful, if not necessary, to take notes on each film while watching it. A set of questions (in addition to those listed below) and a list of characters will be handed out for each film prior to viewing time to facilitate comprehension and stimulate reflection on the film.
 
 

LECTURES, FILMS, AND ASSIGNMENTS

WEEK 1
Session #1 (Tue., Jan. 2): Of Samurai and Men (1)
Lecture: Film and History
Film: "Kagemusha (The Shadow Warrior), dir. Kurosawa Akira, 1980,  160 min.
Focus: What are the defining characteristics of the samurai? What motivates or conditions his behavior? According to what values does he live? What is the nature of loyalty? What is the relationship between reality and illusion? In the film, who is Shingen and what does he represent?
 

Session #2 (Tuesday, Jan. 3): Of Samurai and Men (2)
Film: ìChushingura, dir. Hiroshi Inagaki, 204 min., color.
Required Readings:
Mori Ogai, The Historical Fiction of Mori Ogai, Introduction, ìThe Last  Testament of Okitsu Yagoemonî and ìThe Abe  Familyî (pp. 1-8, 45  52, 67-99)
Kenneth Pyle, The Making of Modern Japan, pp. 11-20.
Focus: How is Chushingura related to Kagemushaî Is there a  common theme? What does Chushingura reveal about the role of  samurai in Tokugawa society?
 

Session #3 (Thursday., Jan. 4): A Critique of Feudal Society
Film:  "Harakiri" (Seppuku), Dir. Kobayashi Masaki, 1962, b/w video, 135  min. Winner of Special Critics Award at Cannes Film Festival.
Readings:  Kenneth Pyle, Modern Japan, pp. 29-74.
Focus:  How does the film critique feudal society? What vision of a better society is contained therein? How does the form of the film (e.g. music, lighting, story format, camera work) affect or reinforce the message? How do the various accounts (the film ìHarakiriî and the short stories of Mori Ogai) deal with the samurai code, particularly the issue of honor. In what way are they critical and/or supportive of samurai values?
 

WEEK 2
Session #4 (Tuesday, Jan. 9)
Film: Nomugi Passî (Ah, Nomugi Toge), 1979, Dir. Yamamoto Satsuo,  color video tape, 154 min.
Readings:
Higuchi Ichiyo, On the Last Day of the Year,î ìThirteenth Night,î in Robert  Lyons Danly, trans., In the Shade of Spring Leaves. The Life and Writings of Higuchi Ichiyo, A Woman of  Letters in Meiji Japan. (*)
Pyle, Modern Japan, 97-112
begin Frank Gibney, Senso (see entry for 1/10)
Focus: What role did women play in Japan's modernization and in   society in general? What can we learn from the film and short  stories in terms of labor relations; gender roles and relations;  rural-urban dichotomies; as well as  industry and nationalism?  Do you note any changes in the areas noted above since early  modern or Tokugawa (feudal) times?
 

Session #5 (Wednesday, Jan. 10): Teachers and Students
Films:
Excerpt from Takahata Isao's "Grave of the Fireflies" (1994), Best  Animated Feature, Chicago Children's International Film  Festival,  1994 (88 min.)
"Twenty-Four Eyes" (Nijushi no hitomi), 1954, Dir. Kinoshita Keisuke,  b/w video tape, 158 min. (will be cut to 120.) Best  Film in Japan,  1954.
Readings:  Gibney, Senso, pp.  3-97, 169-200.
Focus: What type of portrait of the Japanese during wartime has Kinoshita painted? How does it compare with the various accounts  given by Japanese in Senso? How do the Japanese perceive the road to war? (What role did Japan's non-elite play in the country's path to war and destruction?) Why has it taken almost fifty years for the Japanese to begin to come forward with their memories of the war? Why have they started recently to remember? How have they reacted to this outpouring of memory? Do you see any common threads running through the letters in Senso?

Session #6 (Thursday, Jan. 11): The Pacific War
Films:
"Japateurs" (7 min.), b/w animation (Superman series)
"Tokio Jokio" (7 min.), b/w animation, Warner Brothers
"Tora! Tora! Tora!", 1970, Dir. Richard Fleischer, Toshio Masuda, Kinji  Fukasaku, color, 143 minutes
Readings: Akira Iriye, Pearl Harbor and the Coming of the Pacific War, pp. 1-123.
Focus: (Cartoons:) What were the dominant images of the enemy Japanese?  Is there any basis in fact for these stereotypes? (Tora! Tora! Tora!:) What are the Japanese and American versions of the origins of the Pacific War? Where do they overlap or conflict?

Take-Home Midterm (due Tuesday, January 16, at the beginning of class) on Tora! Tora! Tora! and Akira Iriye, Pearl Harbor and the Coming of the Pacific War.
 
 

WEEK 3
Session #7 (Tuesday, Jan. 16): Japan in China
Note: Chronologically, Session 7 should come before Session 6. I have reversed the order, however, so that you can have the weekend to work on the midterm.

Film: The Human Condition: segments of Pt. 1: No Longer Humanî and Pt.  2: The Road to Eternity, dir. Kobayashi Masaki, 1959, b/w, about  180 minutes. Winner of San Georgio Prize, Venice Film Festival.
Reading: Senso, pp. 99-122.
Focus: Compare the views of Japan's descent of Japan's descent into the dark valley, as in today's film, Twenty-four Eyes, and Senso. What are the causes of Japanese militarism? How much did the people support Japanese imperialism? How did the Japanese view  the Chinese and other foreigners?

On-line articles relating to the China War:
Alvin D. Coox, "Waking Old Wounds," Japan Echo 27, 1 (February 2000)
Joshua A. Fogel, "The Controversy over Iris Chang's Rape of Nanking," Japan Echo 27, 1 (February 2000)
Daqing Yang, "Convergence or Divergence? Recent Historical Writings on the Rape of Nanking," American Historical Review 104.3 (2000).

Session #8 (Wed., Jan. 17): The A-Bomb: Memory Suppressed and Transfigured
Films:
Excerpts from: "Black Rain" (Kuroi ame), Dir. Oshima Nagisa, 1990;  Barefoot Gen," Dir. Keiji Nakazawa, color animation; "Godzilla"  (Gojira), 1954,  b/w, Dir. Inoshiro Honda; documentary, Hiroshima  and Nagasaki, by Herbert Sussan, color, shot in 1946, declassified  in 1975, 17 mins.
"Rhapsody in August," Dir. Akira Kurosawa, 1991, color, 98 min.
Reading: Masuji Ibuse, Black Rain, pp. 1-58.*; Pyle, Ch. 12 (pp. 207-225);  Gibney, Senso, 201-14..
Focus: What has been the legacy of the atomic bomb in Japan? How has it  been treated in Japanese literature and film? Which of the  various moving image documents is more truthful to what actually  happened and why?

 www.exploratorium.edu/nagasaki/journey/journey4.html

 http://visualsinpages/nagasaki04.jpg
 

Session #9 (Thur., Jan. 18): Japan Under American Occupation
Film:
Excerpt from "Our Job in Japan," War Department Orientation film  1945  (18 min.)
ìMacArthur's Childrenî (Setouchi shonen yakyu dan) 1983, dir.  Shinoda  Masahiro, color video tape, 120 min.
Readings:
Mark Gayn, Japan Diary pp. 1-13, 27-30, 40-46, 60-65, 487-505.*
Kojima Nobuo, "The American School," pp. 120-144.*
Focus: Compare the various accounts of the Occupation. (E.g., What was our "job" in Japan? What type of an occupation was it, punitive, benevolent, or what? How do the various "authors" (including the filmmaker Shinoda) portrary the "other"? Compare the cultural interaction in Kojima's "The American School" with that in the film. Finally, how much influence did the Occupation actually have in rebuilding or refashioning Japan?

Week 4
Session #10 (Tue., Jan. 23): Contemporary Society (1)
Films:
"Family Game" (Kazoku geimu), 1983, dir. Morita Yoshimitsu, color video  tape, 107 min.
"Dream Girls," dir. Kim Longinotto and Jano Williams (1993), color,  England, 50 mins., BBC documentary
Reading: Elisabeth Bumiller, The Secrets of Mariko (first half).
Focus: What changes in values in contemporary Japanese society can you  observe? What is the balance between tradition and modernity  today? How has the role of women changed in the postwar period? Do  Western notions of feminism apply in Japan?

Session #11 (Wednesday, Jan. 24): Contemporary Society (2)
Film: "The Funeral" (Ososhiki), dir. Itami Juzo, 1987, color, 114 min.
 Excerpts from "Tanpopo"
Reading: Elisabeth Bumiller, The Secrets of Mariko (complete).
Focus: the first two questions for Session #10 also apply here
 

Session #12: Thur., Jan. 25: Final Exam (in class)