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Copyright © and Moral Rights for This Phd Thesis Are Retained by the Author And/Or Other Copyright Owners Smith, Martyn David (2014) Representing nation in postwar Japan : Cold War, consumption and the mass media, 1952-1972. PhD Thesis. SOAS, University of London. http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/id/eprint/20307 Copyright © and Moral Rights for this PhD Thesis are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non‐commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This PhD Thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder/s. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. When referring to this PhD Thesis, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the PhD Thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full PhD Thesis title", name of the School or Department, PhD PhD Thesis, pagination. Representing Nation in Postwar Japan: Cold War, Consumption and the Mass Media: 1952-1972 Martyn David Smith Thesis submitted for the degree of PhD in History 2014 Department of History School of Oriental and African Studies University of London 1 Declaration for PhD thesis I have read and understood regulation 17.9 of the regulations for students of the School of Oriental and African Studies concerning plagiarism. I undertake that all the material presented for examination is my own work and has not been written for me, in whole or in part, by any other person. I also undertake that any quotation or paraphrase from the published or unpublished work of another person has been duly acknowledged in the work which I present for examination. Signed: ____________________________ Date: _________________ 2 Abstract This thesis argues that the development of ideas of nation in the 1950s and 1960s strongly tied questions of Japanese national identity to the changing international environment and to the everyday lives of the people. A growing commercially driven mass media helped broaden representations of nation beyond the overtly political and ideological concepts of the immediate postwar period. During the 1950s, the promotion of consumption became tied to the goal of national economic development. This conflicted with calls for rationalisation and thrift and at the same time brought out the contradictions of Japanese economic development under US hegemony. During the 1950s and 1960s, popular magazines, radio and television were put to use promoting consumption through advertising. The same goal was evident in the burgeoning mass circulation magazines, which grew with and in response to consumer society. Articles in these magazines addressed issues of national identity not simply through the advertising of consumer goods, and magazines aimed at young people such as Shūkan Heibon and Heibon Punch and graphic magazines such as the Yomiuri Graph and Mainichi Graph as well as magazines aimed at housewives all created ideals of what Japan represented and what it meant to be Japanese. Through discussion of political and social issues, ideas of nation were flagged in ways which tied those representations to consumption. These ideas of nation reflected the ambiguity and contradictions of the country’s relationship with the United States and the changing nature of the Cold War. By examining the ways in which important political issues were presented in these magazines, this thesis argues that ideas of nation became deeply connected to consumer society and popular culture, making a separation between political and cultural ideas of nation much more difficult. 3 Table of Contents Introduction .................................................................................................................. 7 Chapter 1 .................................................................................................................... 32 Defining the Nation .................................................................................................. 32 The Anti-nationalist Nation ..................................................................................... 36 The Cold War nation ................................................................................................ 42 The Divided Nation .................................................................................................. 47 Chapter 2 .................................................................................................................... 53 Feeding an Autonomous Nation .............................................................................. 53 Food and Power ....................................................................................................... 57 Feeding the Nation ................................................................................................... 65 A Free People (Dokuritsu Kokumin) ........................................................................ 69 Nutrition (Kokumin Eiyō) ........................................................................................ 76 Chapter 3 .................................................................................................................... 87 Defending the Nation ............................................................................................... 87 Cold War Alliance ................................................................................................... 87 Consuming the Cold War ......................................................................................... 91 Soft Money in the Silver Sixties .............................................................................. 97 A Crisis of Indifference ......................................................................................... 104 The Cold War and the ANPO Problem .................................................................. 108 Chapter 4 .................................................................................................................. 119 Japan during the Tokyo Olympics ......................................................................... 119 Consuming the City, Consuming the World .......................................................... 130 Danger within and without ..................................................................................... 142 Opening the System ............................................................................................... 149 High-Speed Growth and Standards of Living ........................................................ 152 Chapter 5 .................................................................................................................. 158 A Mad Age? ........................................................................................................... 158 Angry Young People .............................................................................................. 165 International War and International Lifestyles ...................................................... 171 War and the Importance of Everyday Life ............................................................ 177 Another Occupation ............................................................................................... 181 Chapter 6 .................................................................................................................. 186 4 The ‘Real’ War ...................................................................................................... 186 Okinawa is Cheap! ................................................................................................. 189 Race War? .............................................................................................................. 195 Domestic Discrimination ....................................................................................... 200 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 205 Bibliography ............................................................................................................. 217 List of Illustrations Figure 1. The ‘fabulously fleshy’ Silvana (centre) at work in the rice fields………..78 Figure 2. ‘Even the neighbours have got one!’………………………………………98 Figure 3. Lines of hotel owners outside Atami train station…………………………98 Figure 4. Yoko-san in her apartment in Tokyo…………………………..…………103 Figure 5. The News Square round table with Canadian Lee Smith next to critic Ōya Soichi….……………………………………………………….…………116 Figure 6. The boom in leisure at sea……………………………………..…………117 Figure 7. A MAD AGE…………………………………………………………… 175 Figure 8. Tomorrow is Japan’s Last Day…………………………………………...177 Figure 9. Watching the end of the world……………………………………………179 Figure 10. What would you do if an army invaded?..................................................182 5 Acknowledgments Many people have offered help, advice, support and critique over the years of this research. I particularly want to thank friends and colleagues at the School of Oriental and African Studies for support and criticism in equal measure. Mathew Phillips kindly read and commented on numerous drafts and also provided the opportunity for rigorous academic and not so academic discussions. Fion So, Bianca Son and Lifeng Han offered support and friendship particularly at the beginning when the project was at its most daunting. Stefan Hubner read versions of different chapters and provided useful feedback and interesting
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