Becoming Modern:

Early 20th-Century Japan through Primary Sources

becoming modern header images of meiji and taisho japanese factory, modernization, government session during meiji era, Sugoroku Japanese board games for early 20th century, moga factory girls drawing, modern japanese men drawings, modern japanese literature drawing of woman reading a book, japan's proposal for U.S. relationship 1905-1933

Becoming Modern: Early 20th-Century Japan through Primary Sources offers secondary teachers seven lessons that examine a critical period in Japanese and world history: the period of Japan’s modernization and international expansion from the 1880s through the 1920s, a time span overlapping the late Meiji, Taishō, and early Shōwa periods. The lessons draw upon a range of historical source materials—including art, literature, memoir, interviews, and government documents—to teach Japanese history using pedagogical approaches that address national content standards and Common Core skills. This curriculum is a project of the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia (NCTA) at the , University of Colorado.

Meiji and taisho image of factory


Meiji and TaishĹŤ Japan: An Introductory Essay

Historian Ethan Segal notes that Japan underwent far-reaching transformations from the late 19th to early 20th century, creating critical questions for its government and people. How could the Japanese create a shared sense of national identity? Did “modern” mean “Western”? Could Japan modernize and industrialize without losing its sense of self? These were questions Japanese of the time asked themselves and historians ask today as they consider these decades of Japan’s history. Segal's essay provides a brief overview of key events in Japan’s Meiji (1868-1912) and Taishō (1912-1925) periods and the processes of creating a unified, modern nation.

meiji restoration image blurred

Voices from the Past: The Human Cost of Japan’s Modernization, 1880s-1930s

In many world history curricula, study of modern Japan moves quickly from the Meiji Restoration (1868) to the mid-20th century, with a quick overview of the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese Wars as the beginning of Japan’s trajectory towards empire and World War II. The “big idea” taught about Japan in the late 19th and early 20th centuries is that it played rapid “catch up” to the West. The benefits and costs of this rapid modernization are an important story, paralleling the story of the costs and benefits of modernization in the West. In recent decades, historians have researched the modernization experiences of previously unrecorded voices, contributing to a rich social history that draws on memoirs, diaries, newspapers, and other accounts. In this lesson, students tap into such sources to consider the stories of the “under classes” of Japan’s modernization, beginning to build a picture of those who did not experience the prosperity of Japan’s rapid modernization. Students thereby add another dimension to their understanding of the complex process of modernization and some of its costs in Japan.

drawing of japanese government session from meiji era

The Nature of Sovereignty in Japan, 1870s-1920s

In the Meiji period, Japanese leaders looked to European models of constitutional monarchy, adopting a system of imperial government modeled most closely on the Prussian model. As Japan transitioned from the Meiji to the TaishĹŤ periods, government and politics were increasingly influenced by Western liberal ideas. Tensions arose between the growing interest in liberal political thinking and the established political context, established through the Meiji Constitution of 1889. This lesson looks at those tensions through close reading of historical texts. Among the questions students explore in this lesson is the guiding question: How did prominent thinkers craft notions of sovereignty in this time period, when the relationship between the voice of the individual and the authority of an imperial state was in flux?

drawing of women and girl playing board games, early 20th century japan

A Window into Modern Japan:  Using Sugoroku Games to Promote the Ideal Japanese Subject in the Early 20th Century

Sugoroku, Japanese board games, have been popular since the 19th century, if not earlier. Starting in the Meiji period, sugoroku games were mass produced and distributed free in magazines and newspapers. Many sugoroku distributed during the Meiji and Taishō eras served a purpose: to educate people about societal ideals. With a positive tone and colorful graphics, “educational” sugoroku taught players what they needed to know and do to be good subjects in modern Japan. In this lesson, students examine a sampling of sugoroku games used to convey national goals, societal ideals and informal education in early 20th-century Japan. Working in small groups, students analyze games, gather data, and share information learned from the games to further develop their understanding of roles and goals for Japanese subjects in Modern Japan, 1900-1930s.

drawing of moga factory girls

Moga, Factory Girls, Mothers, and Wives:  What Did It Mean to Be a Modern Woman in Japan during the Meiji and Taishō Periods?

As with any nation, Japan’s modernization in the late 1800s and early 1900s was a complex process. Throughout, the process involved the search for and evolution of new models of organization and function. Japan adapted promising models from some Western nations, who had embarked on modernization earlier in the 19th century, blending those with ideas and structures that would preserve the “Japaneseness” of Japan.  This lesson considers the increasingly complex and differentiated society that emerged in the modern Japan of the late Meiji (1880s-1911) and TaishĹŤ (1911-1926) periods, using the case study of women’s roles. Students undertake close reading of visual and written texts by and about women, begin to formulate a complex definition of what it meant to be “modern womenâ€