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rynlingFor one of my classes yesterday, I assigned a chapter from Marilyn Ivy's monograph Discourses of the Vanishing. I explained that this is one of the foundational texts of contemporary East Asian Studies, and that Ivy's research was primarily funded by American institutions. The broader question I wanted to pose was this: Why would American NPOs want to fund research about Japan?
The answer is difficult to summarize, but basically, the United States saw the Japan of the 1980s and 1990s as both an economic threat and a cultural cautionary tale. Certain sectors of the American government were concerned with both "how do we become like Japan (economically)" and also "how do we ensure that we don't become like Japan (culturally)."
As a first step in arriving at this answer, it's necessary to review the major currents of the geopolitical history of the twentieth century. Specifically, it's important to understand how the Cold War affected US-Japan relations.
After the Pacific War ended in 1945, the United States invested a lot money and effort into rebuilding the Japanese economy, starting with the factories that manufactured military munitions. They also took all of the war criminals they imprisoned out of jail, apologized profusely, and placed them back into public office. The reason the United States did this is because they wanted Japan to be a wealthy and stable country that didn't "fall" to Communism.
The United States perceived Communism to be a danger in Japan in the late 1940s and early 1950s partially because Japan was geographically proximate to two large and powerful Communist countries. What were those two countries?
My Ivy League undergrads couldn't answer this question. Can you?
The answer is difficult to summarize, but basically, the United States saw the Japan of the 1980s and 1990s as both an economic threat and a cultural cautionary tale. Certain sectors of the American government were concerned with both "how do we become like Japan (economically)" and also "how do we ensure that we don't become like Japan (culturally)."
As a first step in arriving at this answer, it's necessary to review the major currents of the geopolitical history of the twentieth century. Specifically, it's important to understand how the Cold War affected US-Japan relations.
After the Pacific War ended in 1945, the United States invested a lot money and effort into rebuilding the Japanese economy, starting with the factories that manufactured military munitions. They also took all of the war criminals they imprisoned out of jail, apologized profusely, and placed them back into public office. The reason the United States did this is because they wanted Japan to be a wealthy and stable country that didn't "fall" to Communism.
The United States perceived Communism to be a danger in Japan in the late 1940s and early 1950s partially because Japan was geographically proximate to two large and powerful Communist countries. What were those two countries?
My Ivy League undergrads couldn't answer this question. Can you?
no subject
Date: 2024-10-15 02:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-10-17 12:29 pm (UTC)Now that I've had the chance to reflect on what's going on, I get the feeling that what most of these students actually have trouble with is being asked direct questions in real time. My classes are full of seniors, so hopefully this is the tail end of the cohort that went to high school during the pandemic.
no subject
Date: 2024-10-28 09:52 pm (UTC)