Complex and Challenging Phenomenon of Japanese Culture - Essay Example

? Japanese Culture Introduction Japanese culture is a complex and challenging phenomenon. Nowadays a lot of arguments can be heard about different possible interpretations of Japanese culture. The one fact is known for sure: the culture in this country has changed after 1945. Allied Forces occupied Post-War Japan (1945-1952) and the General Douglas MacArthur of the United States ruled there. This order and these changes have exerted a significant impact on Japanese culture. A democratic world order has seized Japan’s military rule of the world. The war was devastating and many territories of Japan had to be subjected to the newly existent order. There was a constant intention of the Japanese nation to gain superiority in some spheres of their activities. For example, Japanese engineers came to the US companies made systematic attempts to improve different production modes. At this point technological background of popular culture development can be found. Thesis: Therefore modern culture of Japan is developed with respect to military context, changes of post-war period, social oppression and innovative social order of the society. Japan after war After war Japan intended to find new ways of profits gaining. In the result of their practices, Japan turned into a consumer-oriented producer. Electronics was one of the most important concerns for Japan. Moreover, a great attention was paid to innovative automobile design (which was borrowed from the principles of Japanese aesthetics). After 1980s Japan gained reputation of the largest creditor nation on earth, and America turned into the largest debtor. Japanese popular culture has been spread all over the globe after rapid growth of industrialization and information bum. The Asian world wanted to reach pace of Japan development1. Post-war period of the country's development was marked by unique and vibrant culture, which is often associated with innovations in China and Korea and the rest of the Asian world. It cannot be denied that "markers of loss" after the war have been gradually disappearing from the Japanese culture. Culture development from the 1950s to the mid-1960s it was difficult for Japanese people to find their identities. They were puzzled by numerous losses after the war. For example, we can refer to the drama and film, Kimino na wa, the film Gojira (Godzilla), and the professional wrestler Rikidozan, where specific features and cultural templates of Japanese culture can be identified2. In the chapter "From the Anti-Security Treaty Movement to the Tokyo Olympics: Transforming the Body, the Metropolis, and Memory" the restructuring images of the resurfaced memories of the past are discussed. It can be claimed for sure that the memories should have been transformed and cleansed till 1964, the year of Tokyo Olympic. Tokyo has been changed into a clean and successful city. The Japanese volleyball team gain victory against the former Soviet team and this team signified the path of Japan's progress and a gradual restoration. Thus, there is a consequential transformation of the Japanese culture. The central principle of cultural development of Japan after war was a peaceful strategy3. The eternal peace was very important issue for the Japanese culture. A rejection of military service in Japan has left a significant impact on the country's development. Igarashi integrates post-war concerns of the country in the context of popular culture development4. Igarashi claims that post-war crisis in the Japanese culture can be identified at different levels and different factors are influencing the process of cultural development in post-war Japan. The author is focused on psychological aspects of nation history development. Identity of historical development can be traced with respect to historical factors. In Barefoot Gen by Keiji Nakazawa (2004), the issues of family difficulties after war are considered. Family members showed their following social norms though they were puzzled by challenges of post-war period. Gen's family cannot understand the policy of a government and they were opposing to the government's intentions to send teenagers on suicide missions in battle5. Gen is ridiculed in school and he repeats his father's views about war at school: "He was born in Hiroshima [in 1939] and was in the city when it was destroyed by an atomic bomb in 1945. All of his family members who had not been evacuated died in the bombing except for his mother and an infant sister who died several weeks after the bombing" DIRECT QUOTE FROM BAREFOOT GEN6. There are many different themes, which are portraying different issues of struggle between war and peace. This turmoil between war and peace is a complicated and challenging issue in the context of modern globalization. Post-war families in Japan could not stand their living. They put on their social masks, but in their inner worlds they were intimidated and scared by post-war consequences. Conclusion Therefore, the modern pop culture of Japan depends on refined tastes of Japanese, on their genetic striving for being unique and on a strong desire of the Asian world to go global, to overcome challenges and difficulties of post-war world. The roots of current global expansion of Japanese culture can be found in the post-war period of the country and challenging paths of development: "women supported first the postwar recovery and then the high-speed economic growth"7.CITATION FROM NIHON! Rejection from military oppression and peaceful development path are determinant factors and triggers for Japanese culture development. No one would argue that modernization of Japan and a great success in the modern arena confirms positive changes of the Japanese culture. References Azuma, Hiroki. “A New Nation, A New Constellation.” In Nihon 2.0, edited by Azuma Hiroki, 7-15. Tokyo: Shisochizu, 2012. “Connections: World War II.” In East Asia: A Cultural, Social, and Political History. Edited by Patricia Buckley Ebrey, Anne Walthall, and James Palais, 417-425. Second ed. Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2009. Igarashi, Yoshikuni. Bodies of Memory: Narratives of War in Postwar Japanese Culture, 1945-1970. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000. Nakazawa, Keiji. Barefoot Gen. San Francisco, Calif.: Last Gasp of San Francisco, 2004. Oe, Kenzaburo. “Japan, the Ambiguous, and Myself.” In Sources of Japanese Tradition, edited by Wm. Theodore de Bary, Carol Gluck, and Arthur L. Tiedemann, 466-471. New York: Columbia University Press, 2005. Tipton, Elise K. “Cleansing the Nation: Urban Entertainments and Moral Reform in Interwar Japan.” Modern Asian Studies 42/4 (2008): 705-31. Read More