‘American Occupation and Cold War Japanism: Containment and Mixed Marriage in Design and Film’

The American Occupation of Japan and the subsequent alliance between the two countries during the Cold War brought a radical change in the image of Japan. This lecture examines the transition of Japan’s prewar art craft to postwar modern craft design in relation to American taste constructed through interventions by the GHQ officers and Russel Wright. The focus of the paper is the successful mixed marriage of Japanese and American design – ‘Asian Modern’