Take-home Final Examination

Modern History of Japan II

2019/07/01

Answer to all the questions. The answers must be simple and short. A simple copy of my lecture note will be downgraded. Follow the following instruction.

1 Convert your file to a PDF format (.pdf).

2 Name the file as < LAST-First-Course title> like <YAMADA-Taro-History>

3 Upload your pdf file to my JTW-history folder at the file sharing system of the Kyushu University by Monday, July 22. No late submission will be accepted

4 Do not send your work by e-mail. Do not bring it to my office in a USB memory. Thank you for your cooperation

1 Who are the following famous (or notorious) figures in Japanese history?

1. A political-science professor who proposed an original view of Japanese style of constitutional government in Taisho era, in which the government should seek for people’s welfare, while the emperor’s sovereignty is maintained.

2. An operation officer of the Kwantung Army, who developed an apocalyptic view of the upcoming “final war”between Japan and the United States.

3. A minister of finance, who stopped the gold standard and brought a miraculous recovery to Japanese economy after the Great Depression.

4. A prime minister, who was sentenced to be guilty in the war conspiracy crime to wage a war against the United Nations

5. A conservative political leader who led Japan in the late 1940s and signed the San Francisco Peace Treaty in 1951.

6. A conservative political leader in 1950s, who criticized the US-Japan security treaty as “subordinate independence”and normalized the diplomatic relation with the Soviet-Russia in 1956

7. A prime minister who signed the revised US-Japan security treaty in 1960

8. A prime minister who proposed the “income doubling plan”in 1960.

9. A daughter born in a capitalist family, later married with our Crown Prince Akihito in 1959

10. A famous novelist who wrote Kinkakuji and other well-known titles, and later killed himself in Harakiri after a desperate call to the Self Defense Force for a coup d’état in 1970..

11. A famous Tokyo-prefecture governor and a symbol of the progressive local leadership in 1970s

12. A notorious LDP leader of 1970s, who was arrested by police in the Lockheed Scandal

13. A famous opposition party leader, who brought a land-sliding victory to her party in the Upper House election when LDP was involved with the Recruit scandal in 1989.

14. A political leader, who broke LDP leadership to form a reform-oriented coalition government in 1994, later became a leader of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), and now leads a minority “Life Party.”

15. A religious cult leader, who plotted the poisonous gas attack on the subway passengers in Tokyo in 1995.

16. A Harvard graduate, who abandoned her career as a diplomat and married with Crown Prince Naruhito in 1993.

17. An LDP leader who led a “structural reform”of Japanese economy in the early 2000s.

18. A DPJ prime minister, who succeeded Kan in 2011 and passed the consumption tax raising bill through the diet in 2012.

19. A newly emerging local leader in Osaka, who proposes dictatorship as the way to recover the integrity in Japan’s politics today

20. A Tokyo Prefecture governor in 2000s, who is notorious for his discriminating words against immigrants and social minorities.

2 Explain the following special terms (events, incidents, etc.).

1. The “minpon-shugi”

2. The emperor-as-state-organ theory

3. “A Factory Ship”

4. The Nanjing Massacre

5. Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

6. Imperial Rule Assistance Association

7. Kokutai

8. Sazae-san

9. Income Doubling Plan

10. Structural Impediments Initiative Negotiations

11. Plaza Accord 1985

12. “history recognition”issues

13. Futenma Base Problem

14. The Great East-Japan Earthquake

15. The Restauration Party

3 Answer to all the following questions.

1. In the prewar politics, what was the major institutional problem of the relationship between the military or bureaucracy and the Diet?

2. What is the special request made by Japan and rejected by the League of Nations in the Versailles Peace Conference?

3. What is the Manchukuo? What did the League of Nation decide on it? What was Japan's reaction to it?

4. What were the consequences of the temporary economic recovery brought by finance minister Takahashi's policy on Japan's foreign relations and policies?

5. What occurred on February 26, 1936? Why is it important?

6. The Pearl Harbor Attack was politically used by the US President Roosevelt. How?

7. What are the three major characteristics that distinguish Japan's New Constitution from its old Meiji version?

8. Around the Korean War, the US changed its occupation policy on Japan. How?

9. Some major countries did not sign the San Francisco Peace Treaty. Which countries are they? And why?

10. How did the marriage pattern change after WWII?

11. What were the Double Nixon Shocks?

12. Economic policy coordination among leading nations was discussed in the Summit meetings, starting in 1975. How did the participation to them affect Japan?

13. How did the Equal Employment Opportunity Law for Men and Women (1985) change the employment environment?

14. Explain Shinjinrui as the new social trend emerging in 1980s.

15. 1990 was a very important year for Japan as well as the world. Explain it.

16. Why is the 2009 election so important in the development of democracy in Japan?

17. What are the two factors that forced Hatoyama cabinet to fail in 2010?

18. Why is Japan’s criminal justice considered to be so unique?

19. What is the Akihabara case?

20. PM Abe proposes a new interpretation of the Article 9 of the Constitution. Why?