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James Greer

Hist 300

Professor Hinz

What Does it Mean to Be Japanese After WWII? (Final)

During WWII Japan had followed the ways of Germany and Italy with a military tyrannical

form of govt with the exception of that they did have kind of a representational body of govt for the

people but their voice had little effect. They were often called to work out treaties and such but the

United States govt by this time were looking for war. Once the atomic bomb was dropped and the war

was over they still had an emperor but more of a public figure rather than a politician as the United

States placed several elements in the new Japanese constitution to ultimately “attempt” stop Japan from

ever being involved in a war again and the occupation of the United States had begun. Now the

question was how to wrestle with the new Japan in terms of identity? The new movement of the world

at this time became more of an international cooperation and trade movement rather than imperialism

and conquest. To look at this question of Japanese identity I will be looking at three films namely

Rashonan, Tanpopo, and Godzilla.

Rashonan became a trademark film and one of the first films after the United States occupation

had ended. The overall story was about a murder of a Japanese male and had four different eyewitness

accounts of the sequence of events that occurred. Each account has distinctive features that the

individual demonstrates in terms of their overall character which contributes to the questions about

Japanese identity. The first was a famous bandit Tajomaru who in his account he viewed the female

witness as in a sense seductive and he could not help himself but be attracted to her beauty. This

characteristic of the inner males absolute need for the opposite sex over here is considered rape but

over in Japan is known by a different term or hyper-masculinity which shows that a male is seen

commonly to do these things to prove he is masculine. However, there are other traits considered to be

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masculine which is demonstrated later in the film. The idea of honor and shame can be reflected during

the honorable sword fight according to the bandit and later the peasant's account. Reflecting on the

term Japanese identity, this boils down to Bushido ideology in which Japan had been influenced by

since the early samurai.

The second eyewitness testimony was of the female involved who viewed herself as the victim

and her tears as the film quotes “could fool any man”. She viewed herself as the victim of rape and she

presented herself docile and submissive. However, Tajamoru she stated was not the direct cause of the

man's death. She said that the man wrestled with the ropes that were tied around him and those are

what killed him not the sword. Let's pause for a minute and look at this symbolically in accordance

with a person or group of people that are entangled by ropes. Japan at this time was caught between

two very distinct presentations of identity. The external which was meant to please the business world

and the other nations in terms of international economic cooperation and the internal feelings or

thoughts as a result of not knowing who to really blame for the events of WWII. These two views and

representations of identity were at odds with one another.

However, lets look at the third testimony which was the dead man himself through a medium.

In this testimony he viewed the woman as unfaithful and a traitor and the bandit Tajomuru as an

honorable man for recognizing the woman's unfaithfulness to her husband when Tajomuru quoted

“Spare her or kill her?” though she ran off. The man after he got free walked and stabbed and killed

himself in response to shame. This can be viewed as also this idea of a hard outer manly shell being

filled with uncertainty and great despair on the inside as to who to blame for a series of events. This

samurai Bushido identity was very present still in the Japanese soul. The fourth witness contained

elements from all three previous witness testimonies in terms of honor, shame, fear, and emotional

plead for life reflecting the troubled inner Japanese soul aside from the hard outer shell.

The second film Tanpopo had a very different overall theme reflected in terms of Japanese

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identity. The film in short is about Japanese woman business entrepreneurship though with some

hidden themes behind the simplest of actions sex and food. However, just in these the presentation and

description of these are made to be exquisite with much thought and passion integrated. Over here in

the United States we tend to just be good with food and I really wish to criticize lack of passion for the

most part today in the way we work, live, and the media we are entertained by. Our heroes tend to be

muscular, manly, and more oriented towards the action rather than the thought. In Tanpopo the woman

owns a noodle restaurant and she has not the slightest clue as to how to prepare nice exquisite meals

nor interact or talk with her customers but throughout the film while the main hero helps her better

understand the passion for preparing meals and the steps involved in doing so she encounters some of

the unlikeliest of people to better improve her shop. A Chinese immigrant, homeless people, and a gay

chef all three as viewed to be lesser in societal ladder.

Just the simplest of things are made exquisite and interactive and brought to the attention of the

populous. Japan had to find a way to still attain their ideas of human heartedness that were originated in

the early Shinto culture Pre-Tokugawa period in which through media and entertainment were

presented. During the Tanpopo movie there were various short-clips that portrayed this very idea in

different ways from a mother's life and will to cook for the family and always to provide to the intimate

inventive ways of sexual activity and deep passion for the opposite sex in their relationship. Food was

used in coalition to show this relationship taking place. These are ways in which though Japan was

actively busy and oriented or dedicated in their business and relations to the world they formed an inner

identity. However, there is one more area in which we see this sort of identity reflected and that is in

media creativity in terms of story and presentation.

The movie Godzilla released in 1954 and one of the most wide acclaimed internationa l movies

to hit the market was in general about a mutated or transformed lizard that became a great destructive

monster that at specific times would rise out of the waters to wreak havoc on Japan. The movie itself

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was a simple idea but as in Tanpopo this idea was made exquisite in its presentation. Today's market

might not view it so much but then the simple times in which Godzilla raised above the hills to scare

the people off for just a couple minutes with no actual deaths or bloodshed were enough to bring

meaning and entertainment to the masses or when he first came out of the water or you just heard him

roar were very well presented though the actual backings of this beast and reason for coming up to

wreak havoc were very much human and life oriented. Though business leaders and military tried to

stop him they could not. Japanese identity through entertainment and presentation like various movies,

tv shows, and even their toys as well as anime market demonstrate the very essence of what it means to

be truly Japanese. The simple being made into exquisite and well presented style and story in addition

to the outer economic business and inner humanhearted shell reflected through the very minds of

innovators and story writers captured the world by storm in the later years and if one looks at also the

amount of heart and handwork put into handcrafted items and unique ideas of the simplest of things

this is what makes Japanese identity special.