Japan’s historical outcasts, the Burakumin, whose lives had always been disadvantaged due to a caste system, also bore the burdens of industrialization. Farmers,factory workers, women who went into prostitution, and miners were among those people who worked long hours at dangerous jobs for low pay or who contracted tuberculosis as a result of their working conditions. Several groups of people did not benefit immediately from this modernization in fact, their situations may have declined. Sharon Sievers (1983, 57) emphasizes the role of women in modernization, “Without the work of Japan’s women, the apparent miracle of Japan’s economic growth might not have been possible.” While the industries boomed, these workers, typically, did not share in the prosperity experienced by their employers (Bingham and Gross 1987, 157).

The mining and textile industries were fueled by the labor of women recruited from poor rural areas. This lesson considers Japan’s domestic stories of modernization in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with a focus on segments of Japanese society that did not immediately reap the benefits of modernization and change-people in the lower levels of the social order, particularly the peasantry (Hane 1982, 9-10). The complex dynamics of this rapid modernization-both its benefits and costs-are often overlooked in a crowded curriculum, but it is an important story, paralleling the story of the costs and benefits of modernization in the Western nations that preceded Japan in this process. The “big idea” taught about Japan in the late 19th and early 20th centuries is that Japan played rapid “catch up” to the West with a deep and broad transformation and modernization. If time allows, a quick overview of the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese Wars may be included as the beginning of Japan’s trajectory towards empire and World War II. In many world history curricula, the study of modern Japan moves from the Meiji Restoration (1868) directly to the beginnings of World War II. Lori Snyder, Longmeadow High School, Longmeadow, MA Introduction

Susan Flickinger, Glenbrook South High School, Glenview, ILīarb Podkowka, Friends School of Virginia Beach, Virginia Beach, VA

Civ 6 japan strategy