Persistently Postwar: Media and the Politics of Memory in Japan (Forced Migration, 38)

From melodramas to experimental documentaries to __anime__, mass media in Japan constitute a key site in which the nation’s social memory is articulated, disseminated, and contested. Through a series of stimulating case studies, this volume examines the political and cultural representations of Japan’s past, showing how they have reinforced personal and collective narratives while also formulating new cultural meanings, both on a local scale and in the context of transnational media production and consumption. Drawing upon diverse disciplinary insights and methodologies, these studies collectively offer a nuanced account in which mass media function as much more than a simple ideological tool. Contents Figures and Tables Acknowledgements Note on Language Introduction. The Politics of Media and Memory Representation in Japan Part I. War’s Aftermath Chapter 1. The Death of Certainty: Memory, Guilt and Redemption in Ikiru Chapter 2. Postwar Narratives and the Avant-garde Documentary: Tokyo 1958 and Furyō Shōnen Chapter 3. Radical Subjectivity as a Counter to Japanese Humanist Cinema: Ōshima Nagisa’s Nūberu Bāgu Part II. The Past in the Present Chapter 4. Recreating Memory? The Drama Watashi wa Kai ni Naritai and Its Remakes Chapter 5. From Myth to Cult: Tragic Heroes, Parody and Gender Politics in the 1960s–1970s ‘Bad Girls’ Cinema of Japan Chapter 6. Collective Remorse for the Past: Japanese Film and TV Representations of the 1960s Student Movement Part III. The Persistence of Memory Chapter 7. Depicting the Persistence of Being Postwar: Eden of the East Chapter 8. Rethinking Anime in East Asia: Creative Labour in Transnational Production, or What Gets Lost in Translation Conclusion: The Persistence of Trauma Index "From melodramas to experimental documentaries to anime, mass media in Japan constitute a key site in which the nation's social memory is articulated, disseminated, and contested. Through a series of stimulating case studies, this volume examines the political and cultural representations of Japan's past, showing how they have reinforced personal and collective narratives while also formulating new cultural meanings, both on a local scale and in the context of transnational media production and consumption. Drawing upon diverse disciplinary insights and methodologies, these studies collectively offer a nuanced account in which mass media functions as much more than a simple ideological tool"-- Provided by publisher Persistently Postwar approaches the topics of social memory and political discourse through an exploration of Japan's post-war mass media. Diverse disciplinary backgrounds and contrasting perspectives offer a nuanced dialogue in which the functions of mass media are explored as more than a simple ideological tool.