Representations of ‘Mixed-Race’ Children in Japanese Cinema from the 1950s to the 1970s

Abstract

This paper examines the representations of ‘mixed-race’ children in Japanese cinema. In particular, it focuses on the films made from the 1950s to the 1970s that feature mixed-race children and teenagers who were born between Japanese women and US military servicemen during American occupation after the end of Second World War. The paper examines the way in which mixed-race characters were mobilised in Japanese films of this period and analyses the relationship between these representations and their socio-historical context. The paper starts with an examination of the films made in the 1950s, which provides an overview of the way in which mixed-race children were, as in other mass media, represented mainly as a ‘social issue’. The paper then moves on to explore the more complicated representations in the 1960s and 1970s, with a particular focus on their gender and sexual politics. It is argued that the representations of mixed-race characters reveal less about their experiences than the problem of Japanese masculinity created by Japan's defeat in Second World War and the subsequent US occupation.