“Democratic Kabuki” for a “Democratic Japan”: 1945–1946

Officials in the American Occupation of Japan following the end of World War II promoted “democratic” themes in part by encouraging playwrights to write contemporary plays. This article briefly examines four unusual kabuki plays written and set in devastated postwar Japan (1945–1946), translating portions of the texts and noting how themes of militarism, police thought control, and individualism are handled. Notably postwar “new Japan” is little discussed and the Occupation presence is little acknowledged.