A Cultural History of Postwar Japan 1945-1980

First Published in 1987. Japan's surrender on 15 August 1945 was an unprecedented event in Japanese history. The shift from the life of hunger to the life of saturation that took place between 1945 and 1980 has brought about a great change in life style. The significance of this change will be a subject of reassessment for many years to come. This books presents an outline of such a change in the domain of mass culture, a sector of Japanese culture most indicative of the change after the defeat and the subsequent economic recovery.

Shunsuke Tsurumi

Preface 1 Occupation: the American Way of Life as an Imposed Model 2 Occupation: on the Sense of Justice 3 Comics in Post-war Japan 4 Vaudeville Acts 5 Legends of Common Culture 6 Trends in Popular Songs since the l960s 7 Ordinary Citizens and Citizens' Movements 8 Comments on Patterns of Life 9 A Comment on Guidebooks on Japan