What do you think?
Rate this book
The United States in the World
Screening Enlightenment: Hollywood and the Cultural Reconstruction of Defeated Japan
During the six-and-a-half-year occupation of Japan (1945-1952), U.S. film studios--in close coordination with Douglas MacArthur's Supreme Command for the Allied Powers--launched an ambitious campaign to extend their power and influence in a historically rich but challenging film market. In this far-reaching "enlightenment campaign," Hollywood studios disseminated more than six hundred films to theaters, earned significant profits, and showcased the American way of life as a political, social, and cultural model for the war-shattered Japanese population.
In Screening Enlightenment, Hiroshi Kitamura shows how this expansive attempt at cultural globalization helped transform Japan into one of Hollywood's key markets. He also demonstrates the prominent role American cinema played in the "reeducation" and "reorientation" of the Japanese on behalf of the U.S. government. According to Kitamura, Hollywood achieved widespread results by turning to the support of U.S. government and military authorities, which offered privileged deals to American movies while rigorously controlling Japanese and other cinematic products. The presentation of American ideas and values as an emblem of culture, democracy, and sophistication also allowed the U.S. film industry to expand. However, the studios' efforts would not have been nearly as extensive without the Japanese intermediaries and consumers who interestingly served as the program's best publicists.
Drawing on a wide range of sources, from studio memos and official documents of the occupation to publicity materials and Japanese fan magazines, Kitamura shows how many Japanese supported Hollywood and became active agents of Americanization. A truly interdisciplinary book that combines U.S. diplomatic and cultural history, film and media studies, and modern Japanese history, Screening Enlightenment offers new insights into the origins of this unique political and cultural transpacific relationship.
In Screening Enlightenment, Hiroshi Kitamura shows how this expansive attempt at cultural globalization helped transform Japan into one of Hollywood's key markets. He also demonstrates the prominent role American cinema played in the "reeducation" and "reorientation" of the Japanese on behalf of the U.S. government. According to Kitamura, Hollywood achieved widespread results by turning to the support of U.S. government and military authorities, which offered privileged deals to American movies while rigorously controlling Japanese and other cinematic products. The presentation of American ideas and values as an emblem of culture, democracy, and sophistication also allowed the U.S. film industry to expand. However, the studios' efforts would not have been nearly as extensive without the Japanese intermediaries and consumers who interestingly served as the program's best publicists.
Drawing on a wide range of sources, from studio memos and official documents of the occupation to publicity materials and Japanese fan magazines, Kitamura shows how many Japanese supported Hollywood and became active agents of Americanization. A truly interdisciplinary book that combines U.S. diplomatic and cultural history, film and media studies, and modern Japanese history, Screening Enlightenment offers new insights into the origins of this unique political and cultural transpacific relationship.
280 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 2010
2 people are currently reading
32 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 28, 2013
Excellent examination of Hollywood's role in Occupation-era Japan. Kitamura gives film scholars concrete proof of a phenomenon that is often spoken of in the discipline, but rarely made clear with examples: the role that the US government has played in furthering the business interests of Hollywood. Of course, it wasn't benevolence that drove the government to be in cahoots with the film industry; Hollywood helped the Occupation out by providing a model (via film) of how the new Japan should look, how Japanese citizens should act, and what democratic (American) values should replace Imperial Japanese ideals.
Kitamura looks at every intersection between Japanese culture and American film, from government agencies, to exhibition owners, to mass consumers. One criticism I have is that the section on fans seems to focus solely on those Japanese who were most interested in American films. The picture painted by the sources used in the section, however, is that highly-engaged fans were not the norm. I would have liked to have seen a wider spectrum of voices represented in that section.
Regardless, this is an excellent work that sheds new light not only on American film in Occupation-era Japan, but also the complex relationship between Hollywood and the US government.
Kitamura looks at every intersection between Japanese culture and American film, from government agencies, to exhibition owners, to mass consumers. One criticism I have is that the section on fans seems to focus solely on those Japanese who were most interested in American films. The picture painted by the sources used in the section, however, is that highly-engaged fans were not the norm. I would have liked to have seen a wider spectrum of voices represented in that section.
Regardless, this is an excellent work that sheds new light not only on American film in Occupation-era Japan, but also the complex relationship between Hollywood and the US government.
September 10, 2024
Pretty embarrassing it took me so long to read considering how short and uncomplicated it is, but here we are. Interesting more often than it isn't.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews