Reeducation Revisited: Transnational and Comparative Perspectives on the Post-World War II Period in the US, Japan, and Germany

这个跨学科的项目以跨国和比较的视角考察了二战后美国在德国和日本的再教育政治的各个方面，并考虑到了文化想象、大众媒体和整个公民社会的纠缠。它试图找出美国和日本、美国和德国以及日本和德国之间的多方向影响、影响和相互依存关系，作为合法化基础话语的一部分，这些影响既在国内也在外国背景下发挥作用。例如，在日本和德国观众面前，美国作为民主典范的积极自我表现表明，美国试图缓解“国内”的社会紧张和冲突。个别项目涉及性别制度(在再教育和好莱坞电影中以及在日本妇女杂志中)，关于种族的论述(在非裔美国士兵的文化表现中和在日裔冲绳人的身份建构中)，以及舆论(日本和德国的广播和舆论研究)；其目的不是主要关注国家发展，而是研究跨国关系、文化内差异和国家以下各级的形成。主要的重点是建立想象中的社区，以及在权力关系不对称的特定背景下开展再教育工作的方式。最终，这个项目寻求建立“比较再教育研究”作为一个跨学科的研究领域。

This interdisciplinary project examines US-American reeducation politics in its various aspects in Germany and Japan after World War II in a transnational and comparative perspective taking into account entanglements in the cultural imaginary, the mass media, and civil society at large. It seeks to identify the multidirectional influences, ramifications, and interdependencies between the US and Japan, the US and Germany as well as Japan and Germany which work in each of those domestic as well as a foreign setting as part of foundational discourse of legitimation. For instance, the positive self-representation of the US as a democratic exemplum to Japanese and German audiences points to attempts to mitigate social tensions and conflicts ‘at home’. Individual projects address gender regimes (in reeducation and Hollywood films as well as in Japanese women’s magazines), discourses on race (in cultural representations of and by African American soldiers and in Japanese-Okinawan identity constructions) and public opinion (broadcasting and public opinion research in Japan and Germany); instead of looking primarily at national developments, the aim is to study transnational relations, intra-cultural differences and subnational formations. The main focus is on the construction of imagined communities as well as on the ways in which reeducation efforts unfold in specific contexts characterized by asymmetrical power relations. Ultimately, this project seeks to establish “comparative reeducation studies” as an interdisciplinary field of study.