Postwar Japanese History: From Hiroshima to the Present
Your Instructor
PhD in History
University of California, Berkeley
Jonathan Andrew Lear is a historian of modern Japan and Germany whose research focuses on the intellectual, cultural, and environmental history of energy. He is an independent scholar and advisor in UC Berkeley’s Political Economy program; he has taught history at UC Berkeley, Stanford University's Continuing Studies Program, and Santa Clara University. His current book project, Making and Breaking the Atomic Age in Japan and Germany, 1920–2000, examines the history of Japan and West Germany’s commercial atomic energy programs.
$252
What you'll learn
Students will develop a critical vocabulary for engaging with and narrating the history of postwar Japan, with particular attention to politics, economics, society, and science and technology. The learning objectives for each of the six class sessions are as follows.
Students will be able to describe the immediate consequences of defeat in 1945 and understand how the US-led occupation reshaped Japan’s political institutions, constitution, and social order.
Students will be able to explain the emergence of Japan’s postwar political system, including the dominance of conservative parties, the role of protest movements, and the significance of the US–Japan security alliance.
Students will learn how Japan rebuilt its economy and achieved high-speed growth, and understand how cooperation among bureaucrats, politicians, and business leaders structured postwar prosperity as well as its limitations.
Students will be able to discuss the development of Japan’s “nuclear order,” tracing how atomic experience, energy policy, and technological ambition shaped debates about risk, security, and national autonomy from Hiroshima to Fukushima.
Students will be able to describe how urbanization, mass consumption, and changing family structures transformed everyday life, and understand how concepts of society, community, and gender evolved during the postwar decades.
Students will be able to assess the challenges facing Japan since the 1990s—including economic stagnation, demographic decline, and precarious labor—and evaluate whether the institutions and assumptions of the postwar era remain viable in the present.
Course Schedule
What You Get
Live interactive sessions
Engage in real-time discussions with expert instructors
Small discussion groups
Maximum 15 students for personalized attention
Session recordings
Review and revisit class content anytime
Dedicated platform
Track progress and organize your schedule
Your Instructor
PhD in History
University of California, Berkeley
Jonathan Andrew Lear is a historian of modern Japan and Germany whose research focuses on the intellectual, cultural, and environmental history of energy. He is an independent scholar and advisor in UC Berkeley’s Political Economy program; he has taught history at UC Berkeley, Stanford University's Continuing Studies Program, and Santa Clara University. His current book project, Making and Breaking the Atomic Age in Japan and Germany, 1920–2000, examines the history of Japan and West Germany’s commercial atomic energy programs.
$252