2017 Fiscal Year Annual Research Report
Screening Social Change: Investigating the Impact of Cinema on Viewer Attitudes and Memories in Japan 1945-1960
| Project/Area Number |
16K16747
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| Research Institution | Kyoto University |
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Principal Investigator |
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| Project Period (FY) |
2016-04-01 – 2018-03-31
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| Keywords | Film Studies / Japanese Studies / Postwar / Memory |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
This research investigated the impact of Japanese cinema on public attitudes and memory during the first 15 years of postwar Japan. During the occupation, GHQ attempted to use the cinema to shape attitudes to social change. Did cinema really have such an impact, and if so, how did the cinema shape public attitudes in the years after occupation? Using an interdisciplinary approach combining archival research, iconographic analysis and audience interviews, I addressed this issue.
I produced a number of peer-reviewed journal articles on the topic, published in recognized research journals. I have also completed a documentary film titled When Cinema Was King, and a book manuscript titled Feelings Without Words: Growing Up with the Cinema in Postwar Japan.
I hosted an international symposium on the theme 'Cinema and Social Change in Japan' in 2017, inviting leading researchers on Japanese cinema from all over the world. From the conference papers, I developed a book proposal for an edited volume titled Politicization and De-Politicization in Japanese Visual Culture, now under consideration at Hong Kong University Press.
I was able to complete the research project in 2 years, and so I closed the project in March 2018.
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