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Women And Children First: American Magazine Image Depictions Of Japan And The Japanese, 1951-1960, Alexander Adorjan Somogyi

Honors Papers

By the close of the American Occupation of Japan in 1952, Japan was a sovereign nation, a lingering World War II menace, and much needed Cold War ally of the United States. American magazine print media imagery and advertising therefore had to erase its earlier wartime propaganda depictions of the Japanese while rebranding Japan as a harmless friend to the U.S. In the hundred years after Commodore Matthew Perry’s opening of Japan in 1853, American magazines have utilized several visual trends, stereotypes, and tropes in order to cast the Japanese as peaceful, simple, and eager followers of U.S. culture and …