Lesson: Popular Culture and Japan’s Gross National Cool
Grade Level: SecondarySubject Area: Social Studies
Modern Japan's pop culture, from Hello Kitty to Wii, has been successfully exported worldwide. This lesson explores the varied roots of these cultural trends and their significance in a global context.
Lesson: The Bubble Economy and the Lost Decade
Grade Level: Secondary,Post-SecondarySubject Area: English and Language Arts,Social Studies
This lesson uses well-know editorials, speeches, and poems to explore the Japanese reaction to the Bubble Economy and Lost Decade.
Lesson: Japan in the World Since 1945
Grade Level: SecondarySubject Area: Social Studies
This lesson explores Japan's politics after the Allied Occupation, in particular the close but conflicted relationship with the United States, the sometimes strained relations with China and South Korea, and Japan's military policy.
Lesson: Empire At All Costs, 1932-1945
Grade Level: SecondarySubject Area: Social Studies
In retrospect, the decision for war clearly led to disaster for Japan. Through the use of maps, diaries, and photographs, this lesson helps students understand why Japan pursued this course towards destruction, consider alternatives Japan could have followed, and understand the cost of the war for the Japanese populace.
Unit: Imperial Democracy and Colonial Expansion, 1890-1945
Grade Level: SecondarySubject Area: Social Studies
In five activity and primary source-intensive lessons that address the major social and political shifts of the period from 1890 to 1945, the authors emphasize that these shifts were interdependent forces that operated on both international and national levels.
Lesson: Empire And Imperial Democracy, 1918-1932
Grade Level: SecondarySubject Area: Social Studies
Utilizing role playing, debate, and primary source analysis, this lesson explores Japanese history during this period in the context of larger issues such as the relationship between imperialism and democracy.
Lesson: The Fifteen Year War, 1931-1945: Promoting the National Agenda Through Censorship and Propaganda
Grade Level: SecondarySubject Area: Social Studies,Visual & Performing Arts
This lesson encourages a richer understanding of both Japan’s national self-concept and international image leading up to and during the Pacific War through an exploration of the interplay between artistic expression, popular perception, and governmental control of contemporary visual and performing arts of Japan, as well as comparisons with international propaganda.
