Defeated Nation and Contested Womanhood : The Impact of the U.S. Occupation on the Reconstruction of National Identity in Postwar Japan / Masako Endo.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Endo, Masako, author.

Series:

Asian Studies E-Books Online, Collection 2026.

Gendering the Trans-Pacific World ; 5.

Asian Studies E-Books Online, Collection 2026

Gendering the Trans-Pacific World ; 5

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Asian Studies.

Social sciences.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (241 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

The Impact of the U.S. Occupation on the Reconstruction of National Identity in Postwar Japan

Place of Publication:

Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2025.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This book investigates the impact of the U.S. occupation of Japan on the discursive remaking of Japanese womanhood. While exploring historical dynamics of Japanese femininity, it focuses on the context of the occupation in which meanings of gender, sexuality, race, and social class became particularly fluid. Drawing on insights from studies of gender, sexuality, race, and nation, Masako Endo considers how the occupation overtly sexualized and situationally or essentially racialized certain groups of people. She argues that they, by challenging traditional Japanese gender roles and sexual mores, shaped national discourses of Japanese womanhood and nationhood in occupied and post-occupation Japan.

Contents:

Acknowledgements

List of Figures

A Note on Japanese Names

Introduction

1 Rethinking Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Class in the Occupation

2 Womanhood and Nationhood

3 Defeat and Female Sexuality

4 Gendered Work, Sexualized Work, and Emotional Work

5 Beyond the Conceptualization of Panpan as the Symbol of the Occupation

6 Exploring Ambiguous Boundaries of Race and Sexuality

7 The Structure of This Book

1 The Making of Modern Japanese Womanhood

1 Japan and “Civilization”

2 Civilizing Japanese Women

3 Wars, Nationalism, and Women

4 Japanese Women at War

5 The Virtuous Japanese Woman

2 Defense of Japanese Womanhood

1 “Sudden” Defeat

2 Panic over the Occupation

3 Operation “Floodwall of Chastity”

4 Serving the Occupier

5 The Weakening State and the End of the RAA

3 Devious Women of the Occupation: Blurring Gender and Racial Lines

1 Panpan—Devious Women of the Occupation

2 Humanizing Panpan: Interviews with a Sex Worker

3 Who Became Panpan?: Women from Diverse Backgrounds

4 Unclear Boundaries between “Good” and “Bad” Women

5 Challenging Womanhood and Nationhood

4 Sexualizing Japanese Womanhood

1 Getting to Know America, Its Culture, and Its People

2 The Impact of Panpan on Occupied Japan

3 Sexualizing Japanese Women

4 Panpan Culture and the Youth

5 “Panpanizing” Womanhood and Nationhood

5 Transgressing Boundaries: Interracial Intimacy and Racial Mixing

1 Stigma and Interracial Intimacy

2 Stigma and Mixed-Blood Children of the Occupation

3 Stigmatized Mothers and Racialized Children

4 Interracial Romance as Cautionary Tales

5 International Romance to Represent Exemplary Japanese Femininity

6 Reclaiming Japanese Femininity

1 Growing Nationalist Sentiment after Independence

2 Searching Japanese Identity: Ideal and Reality

3 The Resurgence of Chastity Discourse

4 Otoki and Post-Occupation Japanese Womanhood

Conclusion

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

Other Format:

Print version: Endo, Masako Defeated Nation and Contested Womanhood

ISBN:

9789004724600

OCLC:

1552081951

Publisher Number:

10.1163/9789004724600 DOI