Take-home Final Examination

Modern History of Japan II

2020/07/12

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 20. 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 reformist politician, born as a heir of one of the most aristocratic families in Japan, and then became the prime minister of the first non-LDP cabinet since 1955.

15. A political leader, who broke LDP leadership to form a reform-oriented coalition government in 1993, later became a leader of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), and then led a minor “Life Party.”

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

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

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

19. A DPJ prime minister who failed in the relocation of the US military base in Okinawa and resigned in 2010?

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

21. A current LDP leader, who is maintaining the longest tenure as a prime minister in the history of Japan’s constitutional government?

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

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

24. A reelected Tokyo prefectural governor, who is a graduate of the Cairo University, was a TV news show anchor woman, and then turned to be a conservative party member?

25. A populist leader in the late 2010s, who started his career as an actor, later turned to be a social activist, and then organized his own party, to call for anti-austerity fiscal policies?

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