Claim OwnershipHistory of Japan
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This podcast, assembled by a former PhD student in History at the University of Washington, covers the entire span of Japanese history. Each week we'll tackle a new topic, ranging from prehistoric Japan to the modern day.
555 Episodes
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This week's footnote: the first of two parts on the postwar extreme right. This week, we're mostly focusing on the extreme right in the first few decades of the Cold War, and in particular on the story of Akao Bin and his Aikokuto. How did a convicted socialist end up as one of Japan's foremost violent anticommunists--and how did his ideas shape a new reality for the postwar right? Show notes here.
1This week, we're continuing last week's footnote on daily life in Meiji Japan. Topics covered this week include life as a conscript in the army, changes to Japanese cuisine during the Meiji years, and entertainment from kabuki to early movies. Show notes here.
This week on the Revised Introduction to Japanese History Footnotes: what was it like to live in the Meiji Era? Join us on a journey through a day in 1900, as we discuss breakfast foods, education, and factory jobs in the "new Japan." Show notes here.
For our second footnote to the Revised Introduction to Japanese History: a simple question that definitely won't result in an overpacked episode. Was Imperial Japan a fascist state? How can we even define fascism in a productive way that lets us engage in historical comparison? How quickly can I summarize four different definitions of what fascism is? Should be easy enough. Show notes here.
This week, we have our first Footnote to the Revised Introduction to Japanese history, expanding on questions we didn't get to touch on during the main series. This week, our question is: what do we know about the origins and practice of early Japanese religion, and how does it relate to what we call Shinto today? Show notes here.
On the final episode of the Revised Introduction to Japanese History: the LDP completely fails to meet the challenge of the bubble collapse, and the Lost Decades see Japan's economy stagnate and its political and social system under severe pressure. Where to from here? Only time will tell. Show notes here.
In the penultimate episode of the Revised Introduction to Japanese History: the 1980s sees the rise of Japan's asset bubble and the peak of the high-rollin' postwar. But the new prosperity is built on faulty ground that is already beginning to creak... Show notes here.
This week on the Revised Introduction to Japanese History: how did Ikeda Hayato and the LDP build a system that would redefine postwar Japan? And how did the political opposition utterly fail to rise to the challenge of matching them? Show notes here.
This week on the Revised Introduction to Japanese History: the Occupation comes to an end, but what happens next? This week is all about the 1950s, when clashing visions of Japan's future would culminate in one of the largest protests in the nation's history, laying the groundwork for the political world that has existed ever since. Show notes here.
This week on the Revised Introduction to Japanese History: The US Occupation of Japan after World War II represented a truly massive undertaking. American military and civilian personnel spent just over a decade rebuilding Japan's government, economy, and society from the ground up. What did that look like in practice, and how does the legacy of the Occupation era remain with Japan today? Show notes here.
This week on the Revised Introduction to Japanese History: the descent towards the Second World War. Why did the leadership of imperial Japan start a war many of them were aware they were unlikely to win? And how did the failures of the Meiji system enable the descent into militarism and defeat? Show notes here.
This week on the Revised Introduction to Japanese History: during the 1920s, Japan's political system became more democratic and representative--an "imperial democracy" that evolved out of the Meiji system. How did this happen, and why did those democratic gains prove to be so unstable in the long term? Show notes here.
This week on the Revised Introduction to Japanese History: Japan joins the ranks of the great powers by building its own colonial empire. How did Japan come to be a great colonial power, what made its empire different from the others of the age, and more importantly: what made it the same? Show notes here.
This week on the Revised Introduction to Japanese History: the economics of Meiji Japan, and a brief foray into social attitudes towards Westernization. How did Japan transform itself from being largely cut off from the world economy to central to it within half a century, and what impact did all this change have on the national self-image and culture? Show notes here. Also: there will be no episode next week, as I will be on a school trip touring Japan with students.
This week on the Revised Introduction to Japanese History: the politics of the Meiji Period! After a coalition of samurai, nobles, loyalists, and others succeed in overthrowing the Tokugawa shogunate, they must ask themselves: what comes next? And, in the time honored tradition of revolution, they answer that question by killing off or removing from office anyone they disagree with. Show notes here.
This week: the age of feudalism comes crashing down, as in the span of just two years the Tokugawa shogunate goes from victory to crushing defeat. How did the final years of Tokugawa rule play out? Show notes here.
This week on the Revised Introduction to Japanese History: the sudden assassination of the tairo Ii Naosuke sparks the rapid ascension of imperial loyalism, an ideology devoted to the undoing of the unequal treaties and the overthrow of the shogunate. How did loyalism come to be a dominant force in the politics of the early 1860s, and how did its following collapse in just a few years? Show notes here.
This week on the Revised Introduction to Japanese History: the beginning of the end of the Tokugawa shogunate. Commodore Perry's expedition to Edo will begin a process of radical political change as a teetering Tokugawa shogunate is forced to confront a challenge of Western imperialism that it will not prove equal to resisting. Show notes here.
This week on the Revised Introduction to Japanese History: crises about during the late Edo period. A crisis of samurai identity! Questions around vengeance, honor, and duty! And of course, the most confounding subject of them all: macroeconomics. But hey, I'm sure we can figure this all out as long as no pesky Americans show up to ruin things, right? Show notes here.
This week on the Revised Introduction to Japanese History: "closed country" isn't quite the full story. How did Japan maintain its connections to the outside world during the Edo Period? And how do some of those connections, particularly in the Ryukyus and Hokkaido, lay the groundwork for future imperial expansion? Show notes here.
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If you're looking for the best japanese food nyc has to offer, you have to check out this place. The flavors are authentic and unforgettable! https://www.sakuraofjapan.com/8th-avenue/
I assume the term at 7:00 should be "keiretsu" instead of zaibatsu for the second time.
STOP SWEARING. It demeans both you and your dimwitted female interlocutor. At a minimum, WARN listeners ahead of time, that the show contains gratuitous foul language likely to decrease listeners' respect for Japanese civilisation.
just finished replaying this series... Wow.
Do not swear. Do not have an airhead female interlocutor. This episode breaks both rules. You ought to be ashamed of it, given that your other episodes set a high standard. Leave bathos to the English.
FIVE continents, yes. 5 in 1707 and 5 in 2021 and 5 forever, Commie propaganda to the contrary notwithstanding.
😍😍
An otherwise interesting episode ruined. By what? By a stubborn refusal to use he and his, and an insistence on using instead THEY and THEIR. A lord of the 1500s-1700s was never 'they'. Defy political correctness and use the proper word, HE, please.
How many kids did the average Japanese family have, say, around the beginning of the 20th century?
Just as a thing cannot be "extremely unique" it cannot be "extremely unprecedented." To insist on this point is not pedantic. Terminological exactitude is what makes nuanced language possible.
There are no gradations within UNIQUE. Thus, contrary to what this episode asserts, something cannot be "extremely unique."
i like your podcast a lot and you are doing a great job , thanks for making this great podcast , i really want to know about mongols invasion of japan . i really hope there is a way that i can contact you for a project that im working on .
Lay off the cheek. British Empire rule was the best thing that ever happened to India.
show notes link leads to 404 error message
Thanks for a very good episode. (^^,) P.S. All the movies and TV series he talks about here, you can get at InternetArchive.com
LOVE this podcast! Really interesting, and has some really funny parts too! Highly recommend :)
This podcast is sooooo amazing!!!!
Thanks for your podcast! I've personally read 3 nonfiction books that have disagreed with my school teachings, eachother, Wikipedia & oddly manga/anime. (Yeah, I know the last one shouldn't be taken seriously but when it's set in the past & is from Nippon, one must assume there's some truth to it) but this seems to correct it all and put everything in place!
On Episode 30 - Listening 5 years late and loving the podcast so far. Apologies if you've already corrected this somewhere in the 230 episodes I haven't yet listened to, but Blackthorne was not single in the books. He was married and had children he left behind, and does feel some guilt and angst over the situation. And while he isn't offered the chance to return home in the book, you are given the sense that he increasingly considers Japan his home and very possibly wouldn't go back even if given the chance. And my theory on why the author would choose to change names is that that way, he can feel more free to take tons of creative license and invent fake love stories and whatnot without feeling like he's lying about real people. The characters are based on them - they aren't actually them.
An especially good episode, with excellent poetry quotations.