Essay Questions
1:
With reference to the records of the 1941 Policy Conference (Ike), examine the role of ONE of the following government leaders in the policy discussions between July and December 1941 which led ultimately to war with the U.S.A.:
- Prince Konoe Fumimaro
- Foreign Minister Togo Shigenori
- Prime Minister Tojo Hideki
2:
Were the Tokyo War Crimes Trials seriously flawed by the failure to indict Emperor Hirohito as a war criminal?
3:
“Despite intense pressure on a vulnerable topography, the people of Japan have done less to ravage their land and bring ruin upon it than have many other societies past and present that have been favoured by a less dense population and more benign terrain” (Conrad Totman). Discuss.
4:
“Movies assist audiences in negotiating major changes in identity; they carry them across difficult periods of cultural transition in such a way that a more or less coherent national identity remains in place, spanning the gaps and fissures that threaten to disrupt its movement and to expose its essential disjointedness.” (John Belton Movies and Mass Culture) Discuss this statement in relation to any TWO Japanese anime or films.
5:
Examine the tensions between history and memory in ONE of the following contemporary issues:
a) The Comfort Women
b) The Rape of Nanking
c) The Yasukuni Shrine
6:
Analyse Ozu’s critique of the postwar Japanese family in his ‘Noriko Trilogy’ films.
7:
What role did MITI (Ministry for International Trade and Industry) play in achieving the ‘Miracle’ economy in the 25 years after Japan’s defeat?
8:
Examine government responses to the ‘big four’ pollution cases of the 1960s and 70s.
9:
To what extent did the Occupation period constitute a distinct break in the history of modern Japan?