I’m really into socio-political history, and I’ll soon be going to Japan for the second time.
In my first time there, I visited a couple of museums (stayed in Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka), but I couldn’t learn anything related to Japan’s recent political history. I thought it was because, being a milenar culture, its very recent history (past 200 years) doesn’t matter as much or haven’t yet been processed by local historians.
But another thing I noticed is that the understanding of a historical exhibition seems to be different than in the west. In Osaka Castle, for example, they don’t exactly tell the story of the castle and the region and group dynamics related to the wars in an easy-to-understand way. It’s just a BUNCH of ancient artifacts exposed, stating what they are, and sometimes, the history about that specific object (e.g. a piece of cloth or a letter), with expectations that you have some prior context.
I also went into a couple of “free walking tours”, which, if you don’t know, are not free, but you should pretend that they’re free and that you’re just generously tipping at the end — you have to guess an amount in the end, and it’s super uncomfortable, but that’s another topic. Anyway, in these tours, the guides told me some of what I wanted to know. But since they’re done with a group of strangers, I didn’t want to monopolize the guide’s attention.
Here’s a few of the things I’d like to explore:
– How did the country’s urbanization happen? People seem to live a super small town life, even in the biggest cities.
– How did they process the colonization of China and Korea in their recent past? Is the average person aware of it? What do they make of it?
– What’s the population’s current understanding of their international affiliations? I’ve seen it described as a modern colony of the US (after WWII), but not by any Japanese person.
– Are there any prominent marxist organizations?
I really don’t like watching documentaries or any movies made more than 15 or 20 years ago. And I absolutely can’t read books (haven’t been able to finish more than a couple in over 10 years), so the only way I can learn this type of thing is with YouTube videos or by talking to people (I know lol).
Does anyone know about these things and is up for a chat or maybe is able to point me to an online video or something?
by itsvitoracacio