"In Mr. Smith Goes to Tokyo, Kyoko Hirano examines American censorship of Japanese cinema during the occupation of 1945-1952, exposing how the occupation government effectively used the Japanese film industry to serve its own ends: to inculcate "democratic" principles, to guard against a return to militarism, and, ultimately, to create a trustworthy ally in the Pacific." "The first history of Japanese cinema under the American occupation, Mr. Smith Goes to Tokyo makes extensive use of declassified occupation-government documents from Washington and Tokyo, censored screenplays, several hundred films, and interviews with Japanese directors, producers, and writers. Through an analysis of such classics as Akira Kurosawa's No Regrets for Our Youth (1946), long considered a standard in the "democratization film" genre, Hirano reveals that American authorities approved of films that featured baseball, American-style comedy, gunfights, kissing scenes, and Japanese men and women resisting fascism. She addresses prohibited topics - ritual suicide, gambling, depictions of Mt. Fuji, and, above all, criticism of the United States - in discussions of such censored films as The Japanese Tragedy (1946) and Desertion at Dawn (1950)." "Hirano traces the history of occupation censorship from its beginnings, when the United States became the almost sole Allied occupying force under General Douglas MacArthur (who wished to make Japan the "Switzerland of Asia"), to its conclusion, with the signing of a bilateral defense treaty. The author distinguishes between an early, more liberal period of occupation, in which many of Japan's own repressive restrictions on political expression were lifted, and a longer regressive period, in which growing antilabor policies of the Cold War era sparked labor unrest in the Japanese film industry." "Well illustrated with contemporary photographs and film stills, Mr. Smith Goes to Tokyo provides a singular account of the postwar export of American democratic ideals and it contributes to an understanding of both film history and modern U.S.-Japanese relations."--BOOK JACKET.
