Research Paper on "Growing Up in Post War Japan 1947 to 1967"

Research Paper 4 pages (1383 words) Sources: 4

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Postwar Japan: Women, Education and Society

At the end of World War II, Japan was a nation devastated by defeat, psychologically traumatized by the impact of two atomic bombs and bereft of resources. It would thus be a nation ripe for dramatic reinvention, which would occur in the image of its western occupiers. Steeped in the implications, tastes and peculiarities of Eastern life, Japan is also an example of Western integration at its most thorough, with U.S. led modernization battling Japanese tradition throughout the postwar era.

The first major blow to Japanese tradition would be the surrender of Japanese Emperor Hirohito, whose name itself translates to the claim that he was bestowed upon the people by heaven. Indeed, the Japanese royal legacy was directly correlated to the popular understanding of the Shinto faith which delivered the ruling family. As such, the emperor was generally believed by his subjects to be more than a man. He was a symbol of Japan. So his radio address to the people on August 14th, 1945, admitting defeat and asking all Japanese citizens to follow suit, was inescapably devastating to the psyche of an entire nation. Thousands of years of imperial rule effectively came to an end when Emperor Hirohito advised those loyal to him to accept the terms of the conquerors. Those terms were nothing short of complete submission to the United States. When the Japanese were forced to accept the radical circumstances of military occupation and realignment in a Western image, the emperor's authority was subverted to little more than the jurisdiction over an honorary title. And in a famous photograph that depicts Supreme Allied Commander Douglas MacArthur towering over his recently deposed opponent, Hirohito, the Japanese were presented an image that shattered all illusions.

These illusions would continue to be subjected to dismantling as the forces of capitalism prompted the modernization of Japanese society. With this would come a transition in the role that women had long played as subordinate to male desires and ambitions. Accordingly, a woman born during this time would find the first glimpses at feminism in modern Japan.

It was at this juncture that "a group of women called themselves 'Tatakau Onnatachi' -- 'Women Who Fight', or 'Fighting Women'. They were part of a movement of women's liberationists, disillusioned with the sexism of their male comrades in the 'New Left' and vigilant about threats to their bodily autonomy through proposals to tighten Japan's relatively liberal postwar abortion laws." (Mackie, 1) In Mackie's views, these women had much in common with feminists in other nations coming to embrace the implications of democracy and capitalist modernization. Particularly, Mackie emphasizes the connection between the forces of modernization and the inherent departure from tradition. In this case, this meant departure from long-standing traditions of patriarchy. These, Mackie indicates, extended from the hierarchical prerogatives of the Shoguns who led Japan into war. Accordingly, Mackie defines the transition from feudalism into capitalism as modernization, and therefore connects it with a thrust toward more progressive gender orientation.

And yet, the experience for a young women born into postwar Japan would be one of mixed signals. Mackie reports that this was a period in which the patriarchal implications of Japanese society were essentially transformed into many of the same imbalances as these were formulated in an industrialized society. The projection of the female as wife, mother and home-maker would become a particular feature of the newly stabilizing but occupied nation. Accordingly, Japanese women would struggle to obtain the independence and personal advancement which were key features of the feminist movement throughout the world without sacrificing their roles within the context of family and community. In many ways, this dilemma strikes at the heart of the dilemma for the Japanese nation as a whole following the war. It would be forced to reexamine itself in search of a balance between the modernity demanded by its headlong vault into a capitalist rebuilding process and its desire to retain its identity by preserving core Japanese traditions.

And there was natural frustration for the Japanese people, who initially viewed MacArthur and the U.S. As a threat to the Japanese way of… READ MORE

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