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The Confusion Era: Art and Culture of Japan During the Allied Occupation, 1945-1952. byMark SandlerReview by: Tom HavensMonumenta Nipponica, Vol. 53, No. 2 (Summer, 1998), pp. 295-296Published by: Sophia UniversityStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2385690.

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BOOK REVIEWS 295The Confusion ra: Art and Cultureof JapanduringtheAllied Occupation,1945-1952. Edited by Mark Sandler. Asian Art and Culture Series.Washington,D.C.: ArthurM. SacklerGallery,Smithsoniannstitution,nassociationwithUniversityfWashington ress,1997. 112 pages. $19.95.

TOM HAVENSUniversityf California,erkeleyThis slender, andsomelyllustratedolume ffersantalizingignettesboutfilmand thevisual rts uringhebrief lliedoccupationf Japan half-centurygo. Itcomplementsumerous apanese-languagetudiesof thetopic,as well as TheOccupation fJapan:Arts nd Culture,d. ThomasW. BurkmanNorfolk, a.:General ouglasMacArthuroundation,988)andKyokoHirano's mportantr.SmithGoes to Tokyo: Japanese Cinema under the AmericanOccupation,1945-1952Washington,. C.: Smithsoniannstitutionress, 992).TheConfusionEra offers o fresh erspectivesn Japanese ultural istory ritarge,but someindividualontributionsontainurprises orth ondering.The venerable ilm ritic onald Richiereminds s that he occupation adnoarts r literatureolicy, nly mediapolicy.Painters uchas YokoyamaTaikan,whoopenly upported artimemilitarism,werenever alledto account p. 13).Kabukiwas censored,utmodernramashingeki) as not.KishidaKuniowastheonlyplaywrighturged-for collaboration p. 17), although e was simultane-ouslybranded leftist. ichie'sdeft,ightheartedetellingf a familiar torysmuch nriched y exquisitellustrations.EmikoYamanashi rovides conventionalaxonomyfpost-1945rtists' roupstogether ith pectaculareproductionsfkeypaintings.he chief nterestfherchapters the areer f KazukiYasuo (1911-1974),a painternd llustrator hoseworkdone nChinaas a militaryrafteefter 943 and n Siberia s a prisonerftheU.S.S.R. in 1945-1947showshowJapanesertiststruggledto accommodatetheirwartimexperiences p. 35).Linda C. Ehrlich xamines wopost-occupationilms or heir ontrastingor-trayals f theera: ShinodaMasahiro'sSetouchi honenyakyudanMacArthur'sChildren, 984) and Imamura hohei's Buta to gunkan Pigs and Battleships,1961).She finds hinoda'swork lyrical,lmost ostalgic n tsview of theoccu-pation s a period fhardship etopportunityp. 39); Imamura ocusesmore nexploitationndcorruption.Women nscreen rethe ubject fKeiko . McDonald's chapter.henotes hehypothesishat ilm ensorship ytheAmericanshelped ocus henation's tten-tion n thenewJapanese oman p.54). Reviewinghefemale haractersnmajorworks ythegreatestirectorsftheage,McDonaldconcludes hat y 1952filmmakers adreached an ndependencentheportrayalf women, ven hough,hewrylydds, t took notherhirtyears for ealityocatchupwith his ilmmageofthenewJapanese oman p. 70).JamesHowardFraser's xtraordinaryelection foccupation-eraoster rt s ahighpoint f thevolume.Althougheprovides ll too brief omments,hebeauti-ful llustrationsargelypeakfor hemselves:ublic-serviceosters,magazine ds,moviebroadsheets,nd theubiquitousignsfrom heTobaccoand SaltMonopoly

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296 MonumentaNipponica 53:2touting eace cigarettes.One interestingrt posterby Kono Takashi criticizing heSan FranciscoPeace Treaty f 1951 is appended.

ShermanE. Lee, directormeritus f the Cleveland Museumof Art andauthor fthe most widelyused textbook n East Asian arthistory, rovidesa briefmemoirofhis effortst preservinghistoricbuildings and art objects during he early days ofthe occupation.Lee gives full credit o Japanesescholars,curators, nd dealersfortheir onsiderablepart nconserving ndpreserving ighlyvulnerableworks.This attractively riced,beautifully roducedvolumeis a visual delight. ts chiefinterpretiveontributionsre contained n the chapterson filmby McDonald andEhrlich ndpainting yYamanashi.

Ozu's Tokyo Story.Edited by David Desser. CambridgeFilm HandbooksSeries. Cambridge University Press, 1997. ix + 172 pages. Hardback?30.00/$49.95; paperback?10.95/$13.95.CAROLECAVANAUGHMiddleburyCollege

Ozu called ithis most melodramatic ilm, description s open to interpretationsTokyoStory tself. ts simplenarrative-parentsgetting n in yearsvisittheir hil-dren n thebig cityonlyto find heir on and daughteress successfuland less wel-comingthan expected; soon afterwardshemother alls ill and dies-may seem tohave had little eft to say to us. But isn't thatthe appeal of melodrama,after ll?The essays assembled by David Desser in this slimhandbook show thatthe tear-jerkerthat t first ringsout ourhandkerchiefsan eventuallybringout,as StanleyCavell has demonstratedor omeAmerican films, he mostfundamentalhallengestoour moral magination.The sense of revisitation nd feelingsof familiarityvoked by a filmsuch asTokyoStory ome from heconcernof themelodramaticwithwhathas gonebefore,even as it takes as its ambition the denial of any but the present moment.Melodrama arisesfrom hetransitions etween ifephases, intervalswhenselfhoodis suddenlyat stake. It is a selfhooddefined n relationto others,formelodramadraws its moods and rhythms rom the family.Melodrama is also rooted in themodern.As othershave noted,modernityroducesthepersonaland social transitionmost susceptibleto the melodramatic.Parentaldisappointmentnd theingratitudeof children re surelynothingnovel (thereseems to have been no end to unfilialsons and daughters ven in the good old days of Edo), but the postwarmomentin whichTokyoStory ituates hesesentimentsllows thefilm o acknowledgeandtoprocessemotional tates hat n 1953 musthave seemed theresidue of a lostpast.The qualityof the residual is expressedvisually in the transitional mages andintermediatepaces notable in TokyoStory, egmentsdescribed by Desser in hisintroduction,A Filmmakerfor All Seasons, as prime examples of the ellipsescharacteristic f Ozu's style.The sense of somethingmissingin the film nvitesreplenishment,nd so TokyoStory llows readings hat xtendfrom careful naly-sis of the indebtednessOzu and his scriptwriteroda owe Hollywood, on the onehand,to interpretationsf the film ccordingto the regulations fBuddhist aesthet-

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