mass culture on the home front, 1937-1945 Uchiyama, Benjamin 1979- creator author. text bibliography enk Cambridge, United Kingdom New York, NY Cambridge University Press 2020 2019 First paperback edition. monographic eng

print

xii, 280 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm "This book is about the evolution of mass culture into what I term "carnival war" in Japan, reorienting our perspectives on daily life between 1937 and 1945. Although the Asia-Pacific War created the opportunity for the state to expand its control over society, it also fractured Japanese people's sense of identity, which spilled out through a cultural framework which, this book will argue, is best understood as carnival war. Carnival war encompassed both "official" cultural practices shining in the spotlight and "unofficial" cultural practices lurking in the shadows. It requires thinking not only about the activities of official purveyors of entertainment like Kinoshita Circus, but also the "ghetto" circus, the half-man, half-dog circus freaks who echoed, mocked, and inverted the pristine, official national culture the wartime state was trying to build. Second, a study of carnival war examines the unevenness of state attempts to mobilize society for war; the dynamic, improvisational dimension to total war mobilization"-- The reporter -- The munitions worker -- The soldier -- The movie star -- The youth aviator -- Gendering carnival war -- Global echoes of carnival war -- The circus freak next to the policeman. Benjamin Uchiyama, University of Southern California. Revision of author's thesis (doctoral)--University of Southern California, 2013, titled Carnival war : a cultural history of wartime Japan, 1937-1945. First published 2019. Includes bibliographical references (pages 263-276) and index. AAL a-ja--- Popular culture Political aspects Japan History 20th century War and society Japan History 20th century Political culture Japan 20th century Japan Civilization 1926-1945 DS822.4 .U25 2019 940.5352 9781107186743 9781316637449 2018061283 Ayesha Abed Library LBSOR/DLC 260607 20260607175443.0 45853 eng