US/Allied occupation of Japan Research Papers (original) (raw)

- by Thomas French
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- History, Japanese Studies, Chinese Studies, Maritime History
- by Chad R. Diehl
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- Cultural History, Japanese Studies, Censorship, Urban History

Ethel Weed (1906-1975) was one of the few American women who devised and implemented U.S. foreign policy during the U.S. occupation of Japan from 1945-1952. As Chief Women's Information Officer she was in charge of all initiatives aimed at the "democratization" Japanese women. While previous works on Ethel Weed have examined her public persona, this article turns to her private thoughts by examining letters that Weed wrote home during her time in Japan. These letters show that Weed drew great inspiration from the Japanese women with whom she worked during the occupation. As this article contends that Weed was awed and inspired by the struggles of the women, both prominent and ordinary, whom she came to know. Moreover, through her work in Japan, she came to believe that the people of the world, including those in once warring nations, must begin to learn from one another.

- by Malia McAndrew
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- Gender Studies, Women's Studies, Women's History, Japanese History

The Occupation of Japan by Allied forces following World War II marked an unprecedented incursion of outside (soto) influence into Japanese affairs. From the Meiji Restoration through WWII, the Japanese government had practiced censorship, especially of Western ideas, but General MacArthur’s “Press Code for Japan,” enforced by Occupation forces, codified appropriate topics of national discourse from a new, foreign angle. This paper examines one facet of postwar music culture: the censorship of published ryūkōka, a style of popular song mixing Japanese and Western musical idioms. Ryūkōka—popular in the decades before WWII but ostensibly forced out of public attention in favor of military tunes as Japan focused on the war effort—surged into popularity again after the war, and its publication was subject to Allied censorship following the new Press Code. While this music was first subject to choices made by Japanese songwriters and performers about what kinds of topics should be “in” and “out,” the published music that consumers could purchase was subject to a second, foreign interpretation of appropriateness, and these two viewpoints, one from inside and one from outside, did not always agree. Through an examination of censored materials in the Gordon W. Prange Collection, this paper explores the negotiation of these viewpoints and ideas about Japanese musical identity during the Occupation.

- by Nathanial Gailey-Schiltz
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- Censorship, Publishing, Japanese Language And Culture, Notation (Music)

Jane Barlow and Witaly Osins were ballet teachers working in postwar Japan during the occupation of General Headquarters and the American cultural policy after 1945. Ballet de Bleu came about as a result of their students, and flourished as a star ballet company. The ballet company, Ballet 1957, also emerged from students of Osins. An analysis of their history after compiling historical data and material reveal the ballet and ballet culture of that time.
Keywords: Jane Barlow, Witaly Osins, Ballet, GHQ, American Culture Center

- by Yukihiko Yoshida
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- Japanese Studies, American Studies, Performing Arts, Dance Studies

Visual and cultural analysis of Nihon no hana 日本の花(1946), a book pairing pictures and poetry by diverse artists and poets on the theme of flowers. The book is part of the Pulverer Collection of Japanese illustrated books of the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC and is featured on The World of the Japanese Illustrated Book website. My commentary, along with a complete set of readable images of the book, may be found here: http://pulverer.si.edu/node/462/title/1.

- by Alicia Volk
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- Cultural History, Japanese Studies, Print Culture, Art History

Based upon years of research undertaken in the US Occupation archives, this book provides a history of Japan’s National Police Reserve (NPR), the precursor of today’s Ground Self Defense Force (GSDF). It is the first ever comprehensive and exclusively focused history of the force in any language. The book examines the domestic and international origins of the force, the American constabulary model upon which it was based, the NPR's character and operation, and its evolution into the GSDF. This volume provides numerous insights and fresh perspectives on the character of the NPR, the origins of the SDF, the US Occupation of Japan and Cold War era US-Japan relations.

- by Thomas French
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- History of Japan, Cold War, Modern and Contemporary Japan, Postwar Japanese History
- by Rachael Hutchinson
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- Japanese Studies, Censorship, Film Studies, Japanese Cinema

This article examines the history of the translation into Japanese of perhaps the most quintessentially American children's author – Theodor Geisel or ‘Dr. Seuss’. As this article argues, there have been several waves of translation, but at all times larger ideological currents have played a big role in determining which books were translated and how. This article pays attention to the ways that the choice of text and translation style reflect larger ideas at work within society. For instance, the Japanese version of The 500 hats of Bartholemew Cubbins, translated by Ōmori Takeo in 1949, was published during the postwar SCAP Occupation, an era in which Dr. Seuss’ liberal, anti-imperialist story held special resonance for the Japanese population. Later, during the 1970s, the prominent translator Watanabe Shigeo translated a dozen Seuss works, but in ways that modify the messages in order to better match the zeitgeist of the era in which he was working. The newest translations have been spearheaded by the feminist poet Itō Hiromi, who has translated Seuss in ways that decenter and destabilize the male privilege implied in the original texts, thus carrying his liberal agenda in a new direction appropriate for our contemporary moment.

- by Jeffrey Angles
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- American Literature, Japanese Studies, Translation Studies, Japanese Literature

This paper proposes a new approach to the examination if the US-Japan relationship though the employment of “layers” of analysis. Within this, the different elements of the relationship are examined individually as separate, but often interlinked, strata, providing a more inclusive and holistic picture of a complex, multifaceted, and often politicised subject. Taking the key elements of the ‘macro’ state-level security relationship as its initial starting point and then examining other layers such as trade, military base impact on local communities, and others, the paper illustrates that while certain strata of the relationship clearly favour or disadvantage different groups or actors, these inequalities do not consistently favour one side or the other, indicating that prioritising one layer over others within overall analyses risks oversimplification. This layered approach does not seek to privilege or prioritise any particular strata over another, and through its discrete analysis of each layer permits the maintenance and reflection of opposing viewpoints within itself, hence arguably better reflecting the complexities of this close, but sometimes fractious relationship.

- by Thomas French
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- Japanese Studies, Japanese History, Second World War, Modern Japanese History

After the occupation of Japan by Australian servicemen in the 1940s and 1950s, there was a small group of Japanese-Australian children living in the Kure district where the troops had been stationed. In the late 1950s a discussion took place in Australia about what to do about these children. There were calls from members of the public that the children, as 'half' Australian, should be brought to this country. However, the
government's White Australia Policy made this impossible. This article uses the incident of the children to explore the tensions and contradictions that emerged in this period in
terms of what it meant to be Australian.

Professional baseball, America's pastime, during the period following the Second World War, tells the story of new integration within the sport: Major League Baseball's color-line is smashed with the inclusion of UCLA product Jackie Robinson in 1947. Also during this time, the historic career of Yankee great Joe DiMaggio, a second-generation Italian American immigrant from the Bay Area, was also coming to its end. Missing from this narrative are the Japanese American players, famous on the West Coast for the talented teams produced within their communities. At this time, Japanese American players had much success playing in the professional leagues of Japan. This paper investigates the complex transformation of Japanese American racialization and Japanese American baseball as an agent of United States influence and partnership with Japan following the devastation of the war and the atomic bombs and explores the role of the great American pastime in both the domestic and the international arena.

Visual and cultural analysis of Shinshō Fuji 新頌富士 (1946), a book of poems on Mt. Fuji by Maeda Yugure that was designed and illustrated by artist Onchi Kōshirō. The book is part of the Pulverer Collection of Japanese Illustrated books of the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, and is featured on The World of the Japanese Illustrated Book website. My commentary, along with a complete set of readable images of the book, may be found here: http://pulverer.si.edu/node/460/title/1

- by Alicia Volk
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- Japanese Studies, Print Culture, Art History, Design

The essay examines the regulation of prostitution, venereal disease, and intimacy during the U. S. occupation of Japan (1945 – 1952). In addition to a detailed analysis of medical regulatory practices in the early stage of the occupation period the essay explores the encounter between occupiers and occupied. It will be shown that bodies in their various forms, such as the Japanese " national body " , the bodies of Japanese woman, and the soldierly body of U. S. servicemen, mattered significantly. The practices of regulating these various bodies bore striking similarities to previous imperial power relations – both Japanese and American – and the essay will examine how they were exercised in everyday occupied Japan.

This paper examines the role played by former members of the Japanese Imperial Army (IJA) and Navy (IJN) on Japan's postwar armed forces - the Self Defence Forces (SDF). Taking the Ground Self Defense Force's precursors, the National Police Reserve and National Safety Force as its main focus, the paper examines the role played by former IJA/IJN servicemen both the higher and lower echelons of the new forces. The attempts to influence the force from the outside by former high rank IJA/IJN members are also explored, with the actions of Hattori Takushiro, one of the most important of these, employed as a case study. The paper will be of interest to those studying both the Imperial forces and Japan's postwar armed forces and adds a new perspective to the debates over the continuity between the SDF and IJA/IJN.

The real impact of the Occupation on Postwar Japan’s development still represents a very discussed theme, as much arguable as the efficacy of its reforms. Did the American guidelines really and unambiguously shape the economic model that led to the so-called “Japanese miracle”? How much responsibility bore the U.S.-Japan ties in economic and political choices made by Japanese administrations right in the aftermath of the San Francisco treaty?
This essay attempts to analyze the various aspects related to the U.S. influence over policy-making in the developmental Japanese State, with special regard to Occupation Reforms, the rise of Postwar bureaucracy, Labour-oriented policies, and some considerations about bilateral relations.

In 1958 thousands of Japanese teenagers, heavily influenced by the new “rockabilly” music that had recently swept the U.S., and emboldened by the new post-war consumer culture, fashioned a so-called rokabiri būmu, the first teenage-driven popular culture movement of the post-occupation Japan. The movement was centered around a set of live performances (the “Western Carnival”) held twice a year at the Nichigeki Theater in Tokyo’s Ginza district as well as in jazz cafes in most major cities. Wearing fashions based on the few images they could find in magazines or U.S movies, the teenage “rokubirizoku” (rockabilly tribes) who made up the raucous audience for the new music were soon targeted by police, local authorities and PTAs as a source of juvenile delinquency. Despite this, the movement blossomed into a major subculture carefully managed by Watanabe Misa of the Nabepro talent agency. Dubbed the “Rokabiri Madam” by the media, Watanabe shrewdly reconfigured the movement into a highly commercial pop culture vehicle built around newly developed TV variety programs and youth movies in the early 1960s. This slideshow for both academics and students uses a wealth of photographic images alongside a detailed chronological account of the events to illustrate the way in which the post- war rokabirizoku movement paved the way for the development of highly developed pop culture industry in early 1960s Japan. The Western Carnival continued to play a major role in the Japanese music industry until the demolishment of the Nichigeki Theater in 1981.

The movie Out of This World: Occupation Forces Clubs (Kono yo no soto e - Kurabu shinchūgun, 2004) brought to a general Japanese audience the hitherto largely unknown story of the jazz musicians who played in American oOccupation-era American military base clubs. A year later, researcher Tōya Mamoru’s book From Clubs to Kayokyoku: Dawn of Japanese Popular Music after World War (Shinchugun Kurabu Kara Kyokyoku e sengo nihon popura ongaku no reimiki, 2005) brought this world into Japanese academia by exploring how these bases became a nurturing ground for almost all of the musicians, singers, and entertainment figures who would go on to remake postwar Japan’s entire show business infrastructure. This presentation, based on a 2021 article at the USJWJ website (https://uhpress.hawaii.edu/title/usjwj) brings Tōya’s work to an English audience and also broadens it by examining the role of young Japanese women, whether as dance companions of soldiers at base club dances or as vocalists fronting jazz bands, in making the military base camp an incubator for the careers of legendary vocalists and movie stars Eri Chiemi (1937–82) and Yukimura Izumi (b. 1937). The early lives of these important singers and their experience of the military bases is examined as part of a deeper probe into the complex cultural crucible that allowed them so effectively to embrace the rhythm and romance of American jazz music.

Visual and cultural analysis of Nihon no yūshū 日本の憂愁 (1955), a posthumous book featuring prints, poems and other texts by the artist Onchi Kōshirō. The book is part of the Pulverer Collection of Japanese illustrated books of the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC and is featured on The World of the Japanese Illustrated Book website. My commentary, along with a complete set of readable images of the book, may be found here: http://pulverer.si.edu/node/461/title/1.

- by Alicia Volk
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- Japanese Studies, Print Culture, Art History, Design

"Sexualerziehung und Charakterbildung: Das Erbe der Moralreform während der US-Okkupation Japans, 1945-1952," in: Biopolitik und Sittlichkeitsreform Kampagnen gegen Alkohol, Drogen und Prostitution 1880—1950, hrsg. Judith Große, Francesco... more

This is a more compact version of our book, looking at the wider import of Joseph Dodge in Cold War geopolitics.

- by Marie Thorsten and +1
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- Political Sociology, International Relations, Political Economy, US/Allied occupation of Japan

In 2009 the Democratic Party of Japan came to power promising a foreign policy shift, aiming for a more equal relationship with the United States and improved relations with Japan's Asian neighbors. The policy shift was explicitly designed as a response to a perceived regional and global power shift from the United States to China. However, within nine months the new prime minister, Hatoyama Yukio, resigned, and his successors jettisoned the foreign policy shift. Conventional explanations cite the weak leadership of Hatoyama, the inexperience of his party, and the lack of realism behind the proposed policy shift itself as key factors in the shift's failure. In this article I provide an alternative perspective. Drawing on the concept of discursive power, I demonstrate how Washington turned the Futenma base relocation and other issues into a major crisis in Japan-US relations in order to discredit Hatoyama and the policy shift. What was arguably a modest and pragmatic policy shift was narrated as a grave threat to the very cornerstone of postwar Japanese security. By focusing on the US exercise of discursive power over Japan, I suggest that talk of an East Asian power shift is premature.

Visual and cultural analysis of Nihon no sansui 日本の山水(1946), a book pairing pictures and poetry by diverse artists and poets on the theme of the Japanese landscape. This book is one of two copies of the title in the Pulverer Collection of Japanese illustrated books of the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC and is featured on The World of the Japanese Illustrated Book website. My commentary, along with a complete set of readable images of the book, may be found here: http://pulverer.si.edu/node/456/title/1.

- by Alicia Volk
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- Japanese Studies, Print Culture, Art History, Design

Asia-Pacific Studies Meeting Workshop, Osaka University, 9 June 2019

- by Thomas French
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- Japanese Studies, Japanese History, Communism, Occupied Japan
- by Yoneyuki Sugita
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- Japanese Studies, Health insurance, US/Allied occupation of Japan

In the early morning hours of December 21, 1946, a M 8.0 earthquake struck off the coast of southern Japan, triggering multiple tidal wives, causing major destruction and death in 15 prefectures, and other damage in a total of 25 prefectures. More than 1360 people died. As this occurred during the Allied Occupation of Japan, when the latter country had its military demobilized and it was without its present Self-Defense Forces, U.S. and British Commonwealth Occupation Forces helped in the response, making it an early and first postwar example of an "Operation Tomodachi" in which civ-mil and international cooperation in humanitarian assistance /disaster relief was demonstrated. Part 1 looks at the scale of the disaster and Part 2 looks at the response.

Visual and cultural analysis of Kawakami Sumio's Haraiso (Paradise, 1951), a handprinted book pairing text and images on the Christian paradise theme. The book is in the Pulverer Collection of Japanese illustrated books of the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC and is featured on The World of the Japanese Illustrated Book website. My commentary, along with a complete set of readable images of the book, may be found here: http://pulverer.si.edu/node/439/title/1.

- by Alicia Volk
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- Christianity, Japanese Studies, Visual Studies, Print Culture

Drawing on previously unexplored British, American and Japanese archival sources this paper examines the relationship between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Japanese Communist Party (JCP) and during the latter’s under examined period of ‘armed resistance’ from 1950 to 1955. The paper explores the shifting policies of the JCP in this period and covers the Party's abandonment of the strategy of ‘peaceful revolution’ in favour of an ultimately unsuccessful policy of ‘armed resistance’. The paper analyses the direct and indirect influences the CCP had upon the JCP’s actions and policy during this period and compares them to the more widely known Soviet influences on the JCP in this period. The paper begins with an examination the JCP’s policy shift, focusing on the Soviet and Communist Chinese influences on the JCP at the time. This includes an examination of the reasons behind the abandonment of the hitherto reasonably successful policy of ‘peaceful revolution’, and an exploration of the clear Maoist influence on the JCP’s new policies, structure and approach to ‘guerrilla’ activities.

- by Robert D. Eldridge
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- History, Japanese Studies, Disaster Studies, Japanese History

Visual and cultural analysis of Hiratsuka Un’ichi's Tabi no kaisō 旅の回想 (Recollections of Travel, 1951), a collection of the artist's poetry with an attached portfolio of woodcut illustrations. The book is in the Pulverer Collection of Japanese illustrated books of the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC and is featured on The World of the Japanese Illustrated Book website. My commentary, along with a complete set of readable images of the book, may be found at the following two links: http://pulverer.si.edu/node/430/title/1 and http://pulverer.si.edu/node/430/title/2

- by Alicia Volk
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- Japanese Studies, Visual Studies, Print Culture, Design
- by Thomas French
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- US/Allied occupation of Japan

This paper employs previously unused archival sources to highlight some of the misconceptions and debates which surround the Japanese National Police Reserve (1950–1952), the precursor to today’s Ground Self Defense Force. The paper, which is the first on the National Police Reserve in English, examines much of the current historiography’s categorisation of the Reserve as an army, based on a very thin set of sources, and contrasts this with the content of the primary sources in an attempt to reveal the true character of the force. In doing so it also attempts to assess the relative importance of the internal and external influences behind the NPR’s creation. The article and its conclusions will be valuable in deepening the understanding of the character of the NPR and its position in the broader histories of the Occupation of Japan, Japanese security policy and Japan’s Cold War(s).

- by Thomas French
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- Military History, Cold War, Japanese History, Modern and Contemporary Japan

Canadian Journal of History, Volume 53, Issue 1, Spring-Summer 2018

- by Thomas French
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- Japanese History, Okinawan Studies, Second World War, Modern Japanese History

- by Alicia Volk
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- Japanese Studies, Print Culture, Art History, Japanese Philosophy
- by Thomas French
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- Maritime History, Fisheries, Japanese History, Food Security

Abstract: This article examines the history of the translation into Japanese of perhaps the most quintessentially American children's author – Theodor Geisel or ‘Dr. Seuss’. As this article argues, there have been several waves of translation, but at all times larger ideological currents have played a big role in determining which books were translated and how. This article pays attention to the ways that the choice of text and translation style reflect larger ideas at work within society. For instance, the Japanese version of The 500 hats of Bartholemew Cubbins, translated by Ōmori Takeo in 1949, was published during the postwar SCAP Occupation, an era in which Dr. Seuss’ liberal, anti-imperialist story held special resonance for the Japanese population. Later, during the 1970s, the prominent translator Watanabe Shigeo translated a dozen Seuss works, but in ways that modify the messages in order to better match the zeitgeist of the era in which he was working. The newest translations have been spearheaded by the feminist poet Itō Hiromi, who has translated Seuss in ways that decenter and destabilize the male privilege implied in the original texts, thus carrying his liberal agenda in a new direction appropriate for our contemporary moment.

- by Jeffrey Angles
- •
- American Literature, Sociology, Japanese Studies, Translation Studies