Occupation criticism

[j.izbicki@att.net]

Lars,

You might want to try to find a copy of my dissertation (not yet in 
manuscript--hope springs eternal) "Silver Screens and Scorched Cityscapes:  
Negotiating Defeat and Democracy Through Cinema in Occupied Japan" (Cornell, 
1997).  Since the cinema was heavily censored during the first few years 
especially, little criticism could be directly expressed, although I argue 
that within the context of the time, some films could be read by Japanese 
viewers as criticisms of some Occupation practices and policies. Overall, 
however, given the restrictions, the willingness of pro-war filmmakers to 
jump on the new bandwagon, plus a significant pro-democratic sector among 
directors and screenwriters, films tended to explore the possibilities and 
meanings of democracy rather than criticize the reforms.  
Look at Kyoko Hirano's "Mr. Smith Goes to Tokyo" which centers on Occupation 
censorship of the Japanese cinema.

Your message to the list was in MIME format and came out rather garbled on my 
computer.  Would you please clarify: are you looking for examples of Japanese 
criticism of the Occupation within movies of the time; and/or post-Occupation 
Japanese criticism of Japanese movies that were made during the occupation;  
or non-Japanese critique of Occupation-era movies? I will be happy to suggest 
post-occupation, Japanese writings, but the ones I've come across are less 
criticism against reforms as about the failure of the reforms or about the 
hypocrisy of occupation censorship.


Joanne Izbicki
j.izbicki at att.net
OR
jizbicki at ithaca.edu
> 
> 			    KINEJAPAN Digest 1096
> 
> Topics covered in this issue include:
> 
>   1) occupation-critizism
> 	by =%iso-8859-1?Q?Lars-Martin_S=F8rensen?= <lms at hum.ku.dk>