Genre and Gender, Culture and Ideology - The American Occupation of Japan and Japanese Mélodrame -

Abstract

This chapter attempts to understand what the Japanese melodrama is about and what sort of influence the American Occupation (1945-52) may have had on the genre, it may have been a stimulating challenge but this suggestion calls for some preliminary remarks. First, Japan was not immune to Western influence, even before the Meiji era (1868). From the end of the nineteenth century, the Japanese curiosity about Western technology as well as about culture, literature, theatre, cinema, increased. Intellectuals, artists, actors travelled through Europe, Russia, the United States, sometimes staying for a long time. Upon their return, they began to familiarize their society with new ways of thinking and new ways of life. This influence however stopped quite completely when the Japanese military government restrained more and more the rights of access to freedom in travelling, writing, even thinking. On the other hand, since the European and US influence of the American Occupation proper, in so far as the European and American influence was already apparent in pre-war Japanese melodrama, the actual influence on post-war Japanese melodrama, the exact nature of the influence of Us occupation Forces on post-war Japanese melodrama may be elusive. In fact, it can be said that Japanese melodrama had existed since the beginning of the film industry. However, as the word ‘melodrama’ did not exist in any Asian language at the time, but was taken from the Western tradition, it is necessary to begin by examining the accepted meaning of the term today. In order not to work with an inadequate concept, I will trace its roots and characteristics as a cinematic genre, and how the concept can be applied to Japanese cinema. Was it an equivalent of the main traits of the Western melodrama in general? Or did it present some peculiar features connected to another civilization, different historical, religious backgrounds, social organization, relations between genders i.e. culture and ideology? On the other hand, it might prove interesting to examine the reasons why the American forces were so much interested in melodrama. What cultural and ideological purposes were at stake? What did they propose? How did the Japanese directors deal with American orders and censorship? Some melodramas from the post-war years – mostly directed by Kenji Mizoguchi – will illustrate tensions characteristic of the genre, as well as the complexity of the shock between such different cultures and ideologies. This chapter will try to ascertain whether the American Occupation (1945-1952) changed the Japanese melodrama or altered some of its traits, the degree to which these films became representative of Japanese immediate and later post-war society?