Japan Seminar Course Overview

Taught by: Kathy Krauth

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Japan Seminar (Honors) (1 unit)

Japan Seminar is a unique class to the American School in Japan. It is a senior level honors course; students must apply to enroll in this course and are only admitted if they have a very strong academic record in social studies and have an overall solid grade point average. The emphasis in Japan Seminar is a humanities approach to history; Japanese history is studied through art, literature, and primary documents. The historiography of the major periods of Japanese history is also covered. There is an overnight field trip in Japan involving additional costs to the students of approximately ¥60,000.

Texts:

• Field, Norma. In the Realm of a Dying Emperor. New York: Vintage Books, 1993.

• Dower, John. Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II. New York: W.W. Norton, 1999.

• Bix, Herbert. Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan. New York: Harper Collins, 2000.

• Gordon, Andrew. A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.

Prerequisites: 12th grade standing; a minimum of a B average in all Social Studies courses and overall GPA, and consent of the department