Education About Asia: Online Archives

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Resources, Teaching Resources Essay

Voices of Early Modern Japan: Contemporary Accounts of Daily Life during the Age of the Shoguns

by Kathleen Krauth

We live in an age in which most K-16 educators are required to do more, are held accountable for doing more, and are “rewarded” less and less. The increasing demands for more content (but what?), more skills (which ones?), and better display of “mastery” in ever-changing and higher stakes assessments distract us, at times, from the basic goals of education. To return to those goals and balance the content with skills seem increasingly difficult. Constantine Nomikos Vaporis’s new book, ...

EAA Interview

EAA Interview with Herbert P. Bix, 2001 Pulitzer Winner: Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan

by Kathleen Krauth

Herbert P. Bix is a professor of history and sociology at Binghamton University in New York, where he was recently appointed after three and a half years at the prestigious Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo. In the fall of 2001, I had just moved to Tokyo to teach Japanese history and Asian studies at The American School in Japan. After reading Bix’s biography of Hirohito, I immediately invited him to speak to my senior honors classes, and thankfully, he graciously accepted. The talk Professor B...

EAA Interview

EAA Interview with Herbert P. Bix, 2001 Pulitzer Winner: Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan

by Kathleen Krauth

Herbert P. Bix is a professor of history and sociology at Binghamton University in New York, where he was recently appointed after three and a half years at the prestigious Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo. In the fall of 2001, I had just moved to Tokyo to teach Japanese history and Asian studies at The American School in Japan. After reading Bix’s biography of Hirohito, I immediately invited him to speak to my senior honors classes, and thankfully, he graciously accepted. The talk Professor B...

Book Review Essay, Resources

Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan

by Kathleen Krauth

As a senior high school student, I enrolled in a social studies elective on World War II. As one of only two girls in a class of twenty, I submitted to the group consensus in identifying the most significant figures in the war. Amidst the predictable favorites of high school boys—the military strategists— we also studied the three “bad guys”: Hitler, Mussolini, and Tojo. In the histories we read, Hitler and Mussolini were given some breadth and depth, but Tojo was depicted as a one-dimen...

Book Review, Resources

Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II

by Kathleen Krauth

BY: JOHN DOWER NEW YORK, W.W. NORTON, 1999 HARDCOVER, 1ST EDITION, 676 PAGES For those who teach about Japan, or any country other than their own, the issue of how to reach students is a constant challenge. Teachers are always striving to go beyond the textbook and construct activities which actively engage students in their own learning. Do you use a "hook" to "lure the students in" and then get around to the required material, or cover the required material hoping that, through the interest...

EAA Interview, Feature Article

John Dower on Teaching from Embracing Defeat: An EAA Interview

by Kathleen Krauth, Lynn Parisi

John W. Dower is the Elting E. Morison Professor of History at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His most recent work, Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II (W. W. Norton and The New Press, 1999), has received international critical acclaim from the academic community, the media, and the general public. A long list of awards for Embracing Defeat includes the American Historical Association's 1999 John K. Fairbank Prize, the 2000 Bancroft Prize awarded by Columbia Universit...

New to EAA?

Before viewing the full archives, view Editor’s Choice Articles, handpicked by EAA Editor, Lucien Ellington, which provide a good overview of EAA and introduction for new readers.

The AAS Secretariat is closed on Monday, May 29 in observance of the Memorial Day holiday