The Great Courses – The Rise of Modern Japan


Event Details


In August 1945, Japan’s future looked bleak. Its navy had been destroyed, and its cities were being razed by US bombers, which had turned to launching atomic weapons. Meanwhile, a million-man Soviet army was crushing Japanese forces in China. Facing annihilation, the country’s leaders had little choice but to surrender, bringing World War II to a smoldering, near-apocalyptic end. How does a country go from the brink of collapse to a global economic powerhouse over the course of a few decades?

Fast-forward to the late 1960s. Japan is in the middle of an economic miracle like few others, making it second only to the United States in the size of its economy. Indeed, by the 1980s, Americans will be justifiably worried that they are doomed to be surpassed by Japan’s industrial and technological might.

How did Japan’s fortunes shift so dramatically? And why did the country’s economy then crash catastrophically in the 1990s, indefinitely stalling its seemingly unstoppable climb to world dominance?

In 12 wide-ranging, half-hour lectures, The Rise of Modern Japan probes the culture, economy, and politics of post-World War II Japan, presented by Professor Mark J. Ravina, the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Chair in Japanese Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.

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