The professor’s lectures were really engaging, you can tell that he enjoys teaching. I wish we could’ve gone deeper into the material, but there just wasn’t enough time to do so. I had TA Suong and she was the best, super nice, encouraged participation in a way that didn’t make things awkward, and very understanding about everything going on. Definitely recommend this class, it’s super easy and fun.

Great GE especially if you're interested in Japanese history! Super interesting. Even if you're not interested in Japanese history, still one of the easiest GE I took. No midterm, no final, just an essay every week that you can rewrite for better grades.

If you are contemplating taking this class with Duthie let me put it short for you TAKE THIS CLASS.
As an incoming STEM freshman having no clue what they are doing and having absolutely zero writing skills, this class was the only thing keeping my GPA and my sanity together. If this class was in person I would have made sure to buckle up on the drive to school and use my turn signals all the time.
Homework wise the class only has a weekly 500-700 word essay based on the content of the week. Personally I never once opened the textbook, the class lectures and slides proved sufficient. But i will strongly advise that you attend the discussion where the TAs will give you practically an outline of how to write your essays. With this if you at least give yourself two hours and some knowledge of the topic you can get a A on every essay.
Most important part, NO MIDTERM AND FINAL. Instead of tests the Professor uses these weeks to allow for revision and regrading of the weekly essays.
If I had to take any class at ucla ever again it most definitely will be this one hands down. Shout out to TA Yueying.

I took this class for a GE and overall it was very very easy. There were no exams and all we had to do each week was write a long response answer to a prompt every week with 500-700 words. They weren't essays and the prompts were always very straightforward (basically just summarize that weeks lectures) and only took a few hours to complete give or take depending on how fast you write.

That being said, your grade/experience in this class depends entirely on the TA you have. My TA, Victoria, was amazing and every week our discussion sections were basically summing up the main points of that weeks lectures. She gave us a blank note sheet/diagram to fill out as we went over each point and then on top of that at the end of every discussion she gave us the same exact note sheet with all the notes pre-typed just in case we missed anything while writing...which we never did because it was all written on the board. This meant that I never had to attend lecture and I would just write my responses based purely off the notes from discussion and I pretty much always got 94+ on the writing assignments. However I know some of the other TAs graded harder and people were still able to get A's they just had to work a little more for it. Also, even if you score bad on an assignment you can rewrite it so overall very very low stress class and highly recommend to anyone.

I will say that this class is a good GE in that the only big requirement is the weekly quizzes, the final essay, and the midterm and the final. However, the tests are SO HARD so prepare for your grade to tank if you don't do well. Don't skip the classes, and if you don't do well on your essay your grade will drop a lot too. The professor is chill tho and this could be a good GE if you find Japanese civilization interesting.

This was a pretty easy and straightforward class. An essay (500-700 words) each week over the lecture material. The professor seems to have a genuine interest in the content and is a decent lecturer. Would definitely take to satisfy the GE requirement.

This class was extremely difficult due to the nature of the tests. Look at the reviews with a grain of salt because he added quizzes and midterm + final. If you are looking for an easy GE this is NOT for you. The grading scale is harsh, the TA teaches you more. I would highly suggest not taking this class unless you would like to cram a lot of random information ex years and names. Tests were extremely difficult.

Very engaging lecturer. Doesn't always clarify the exam content beforehand, but it's fairly straightforward. There's a reading quiz every lecture (I personally found the readings pretty boring), but they drop the worst 2 if you take all of them. There's also an essay and the grading probably depends on your TA, but mine was really generous. Overall, I'd highly recommend the class---the professor is a good lecturer, and I was pretty eager to learn about the content.

I need to change my study habits, because if I consistently did active recall, an A would've been doable. There are 8 quizzes (out of 10, only 5 questions); two of which are dropped. Also, 8 participation/discussion grades (all out of 2, two are also dropped). The midterm was only 20 questions worth 30 points, and the final was worth 40 with 30 questions. The readings were quite a lot with the textbook, historical, and discussion. It's best if you read the textbook and attend his lectures and also review them, but that can be tedious, so if you have questions, attend office hours. Quizzes were every Friday, and the discussion (literary) readings were super interesting. The final exam was cumulative. I am not the best at remembering specific dates and times, so if you are like me, then do active recall or take another class! Professor Duthie and his TA's were always open to questions, so don't be afraid to ask. It is a lot of work that I wasn't expecting for a GE, but it was interesting! Soo, if you are looking for an easy A, this isn't the class for you.

DO NOT TAKE AS A GE. If you have no prior knowledge of japanese history/are not japanese do not take this as a GE course because majority of the people taking it have background knowledge that makes it a lot harder to do well relative. It is ridicoulous for a GE to have this much course work. Weekly quizes in discussion section - three of which are dropped but genuinely they are hard and on two readings per week which can be up to 20 pages each. Then, you have an essay on the readings. And the tests are soooo hard like its crazy. For reference, i went to every single lecture, read every single reading and still stuggled on the tests. They genuinely expect you to memorize over 1000 years of history along with time periods and dates stuff happened. It is not general. The time commitment i put into this class is very similar to the time i put into Econ 11 for context. If you want a chill easy GE this is not it.