HISTORY OF JAPAN 2

This is one of the main courses within the "Japan" curriculum of the degree programme in "Lingue, Culture e Società dell'Asia e dell'Africa Mediterranea".
The course contributes to the attainment of the teaching goals of the degree programme in the field of humanities.
The main goals of the course are: to provide knowledge on the history of Japan from the Meiji period to the end of the Cold War; to develop skils for the historical analysis of political, economic and social phenomena.

Knowledge and understanding:
- to know and understand the main aspects of the political, economic and social history of Japan from the Meiji period to the end of the Cold War
- to understand the historical context of works discussed in other courses of the degree programme (e.g. literature, visual arts)

Applying knowledge and understanding:
- to distinguish bewteen immediate and underlying causes of historical events
- to analyse complex phenomena by linking their political, economic and social aspects
- to analyse events in relation to the national, regional and world dimension of historical processes

Autonomous judgment
- to assess the relative importance of different factors in a historical process

Communication skills:
- to summarise in an effective way topics discusses in the course

Successful completion of the course "History of Japan 1"

The course traces the history of Japan from the Meiji period to the end of the Cold War, with a focus on political institutions, socio-economic changes and foreign policy. The discussion highlights the relationship between national and international dimensions, as well as the themes of modernization and popular representation.

Lesson 1: introductory remarks on the themes and objectives of the course
Lessons 2-4: the first half of the Meiji period; the constitutional government system
Lessons 5-6: the late Meiji period
Lessons 7-10: from the First to the Second World War
Lessons 11-13: Occupation and reconstruction
Lessons 14-15: the long growth during the Cold War

Required readings:
Revelant, Andrea. 2018. 'Il Giappone moderno: dall'Ottocento al 1945'. Torino: Einaudi, chps. 2-8.
Revelant, Andrea. 2024. 'Il Giappone contemporaneo: dal 1945 a oggi. Torino: Einaudi, chps. 1-5. [forthcoming in July]

A list of digital resources for further study (optional) is available on the Moodle platform.

Written test (30 mins):
- 10 multiple choice questions
- 10 questions that require a short answer (e.g., a name or year)
- 1 open-ended question on a complex topic (e.g., explain the causes of a war or the consequences of a treaty)
Each of the three parts has the same weight. The final grade is the average of marks obtained in the three parts. In any case, the student will fail the exam if at least 4 out of 10 answers in the first part are not correct, or if the space for the final answer is left blank.

The exam has the purpose to ascertain the students' knowledge of topics included in the programme and their analytic skills.
The assessment takes into account the students':
- knowledge of the main topics
- ability to place facts in the correct chronological order
- ability to explain cause-and-effect relations between facts
- ability to summarize

Conventional, with materials for further study available through the Moodle platform.

-Students who are not able to attend class will take the same exam as the other students. There are no additional readings.
-The exam programme will not change for the whole academic year 2024/25.

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