Japan, 1972: Visions of Masculinity in an Age of Mass Consumerism by Yoshikuni Igarashi (review)

Abstract

Benito Mussolini’s own valorization in the 1930s of “superior students” who could become “exemplary citizens” (p. 132). This connection gives a clear indication of Sasakawa’s own political leanings (which many of his later supporters and financial beneficiaries managed to overlook). The book relates a number of details concerning the American Occupation of Okinawa that might cause readers confusion. One of these is a suggestion, on page 23, that Okinawa was occupied by the US in 1944; in fact the Occupation took various forms but began with the Battle of Okinawa in 1945. Another misstatement, presumably based on Article 3 of the Treaty of San Francisco, is the suggestion on page 20 that “until 1972 Okinawa was a United Nations protectorate under de facto US control.” In the same section (again on page 23), Gerteis writes that Okinawa had been “retained as a US protectorate since 1952,” which is more accurate. Though the treaty stipulated that “Japan will concur in any proposal of the United States to the United Nations to place under its trusteeship system,” the US never fully implemented such a proposal. For that reason Okinawa was never formally party to a United Nations Trusteeship Agreement, in contrast to other former Japanese territories like the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, and elsewhere. These are minor points in what is an undeniably important and perceptive book on Japanese society since the 1970s. Gerteis’s attention to the movements and political motivations of figures outside of the usual centers of power does much to invigorate our understanding of contemporary Japan.