Worlds - Past

Robert Croker

Faculty of Policy Studies, Nanzan University

History Definition: The discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. Purpose: To develop a deeper understanding of what occurred before, so as to better understand the present and even the future.

History Assumption: Humans everywhere at all times do the same things (give birth, bring up children, eat and drink, work, love, fight, die) … … but the ways we do these things, and the meanings that we give to them, are different in different places, and at different times.

History First steps: Discover and collect information:

written: letters, diaries, newspapers, books, statistics

spoken: interviews, biographies

visual: photos, cartoons, videos, movies, maps

artefacts: things like toys, clothes, buildings

1930s 1950s Second steps: Look for things that are the same and for things that are different. How did children entertain themselves in the early Showa period and the later Showa period. How did that affect relationships between children, and between children and older people?

1930s 1950s Second steps: Look for things that are the same and for things that are different. How did children entertain themselves in the early Showa period and the later Showa period. How did that affect relationships between children, and between children and older people?

1950s Comics Second steps: Find connections between different parts of people’s experiences. What images are there in comics in the 1950s? How do those images reflect what is happening in the broader world. What did that mean for children growing up in the 1950s?

1950s Comics Second steps: Find connections between different parts of people’s experiences. What images are there in comics in the 1950s? How do those images reflect what is happening in the broader world. What did that mean for children growing up in the 1950s?

1960s Student Life Second steps: Look for things that are the same and for things that are different. Find connections between different parts of people’s experiences.

1960s Student Life

1960s Student Life

1960s Student Life Second steps: Look for things that are the same and for things that are different. Find connections between different parts of people’s experiences.

History Big questions: How is the present different to the past?

How is one period different to another? How is one group different to another?

Why have those changes occurred? Will those changes in the past predict change in the future?

History Big questions: Does change primarily come from changes in technology (eg the TV, computers) … … or does change primarily come from changes in ideas (democracy, freedom, free trade, consumerism, feminism)?

History Final steps: To present your ideas:

photo books stories – biographies, novels documentaries – YouTube local histories articles in newspapers and journals

Homework Interview: an older person who lived in the Showa Period. 1. Make a time-line of their life 2. Interview them about one or two topics that you are interested in Look for things that are the same and for things that are different. Find connections between different parts of people’s experiences.

3. Summarize the information in a mind-map, in bullet-point form, or in an essay