JAZZ AND CULTURAL MEMORY: RETROSPECTIVE DEPICTIONS OF OCCUPATION JAZZ CULTURE IN POST-WAR JAPAN

Abstract

Depictions of popular music culture in cultural productions are an enduring way of engaging in intimate encounters with the past. With the understanding that shared notions of the past are influenced by culture, I analyse the significance of twenty-first century depictions of jazz music culture from the American Occupation of Japan, a landmark period of Japanese jazz music history. Using frameworks from cultural memory studies, three illuminating case studies from Japan are explored as evidence of a growing collection of cultural productions, where retrospective depictions of Occupation jazz culture serve as a window into the past. Firstly, the film Out of This World (2004) is an expression of cultural memory that delivers an anti-war message, relying on music and plot development to draw its audience into the suffering of people who lived in Occupied Japan. Regional tourism is another form of cultural memory in Japan, where Occupation jazz culture is revisited for the purpose of promoting local regions as tourist spots. The second case study is the Yokosuka Tomodachi Jazz Festival, which enshrines the Yokosuka area as a landmark of Japanese jazz music culture by utilising spaces and symbols associated with Occupation culture throughout its publicity and execution. Finally, the television show Stereo_ONE! (2012) promotes jazz cafés and bars in Yokohama as part of a wider legacy of Occupation jazz culture in the area through a combination of music and cinematography, as well as oral accounts from key figures in these establishments. Ultimately, I argue that jazz music culture in post-war Japan is a powerful platform for expressions of cultural memory, providing an avenue for Japanese-centric recollections of the American Occupation. Besides contributing to the academic study of Japanese jazz music culture, my research offers new ways of discussing the significance of popular music culture in Japanese society and beyond.