性别气质、成熟度和种族:美国是如何将日本化敌为友的——《美国的艺伎盟友——重新想象敌国日本》读书札记

Gender, Maturity and Race: How Did the USA Turned Japan from a Foe to an Ally? Book Review of America's Geisha Ally: Reimagining the Japanese Enemy

美国在二战结束不久就与昔日的敌人日本结为盟友,这从冷战思维、地缘政治以及战后意在称霸全球的"美国利益"角度不难解释,但这一反转如何在战后获得民众的支持,人们却知之甚少。《美国的艺伎盟友——重新想象敌国日本》一书从政治、文化、心理多方位入手力图解开这一谜团。文章重点落在性别、性别与种族的交叉点之上,对作者所揭示的美国主流媒体如何使用性别气质、成熟度和种族的话语来达到操控民意、化敌为友的内涵进行再解读。

Soon after the Second World War the United States of America turned Japan, an enemy in the war, into an ally. This move was not difficult to explain in the contexts of Cold War, geo-politics, and the ＂America＇s interest＂ in becoming the super power in the world. However, for this move that reversed the conception of Japan from a foe to a friend to be accepted by American people is a puz- zle not widely known. The book, America＇s Geisha Ally： Reirnagining the Japanese Enemy, tries to recover this puzzle from political, cultural and psychological perspectives. This paper takes gender and the intersection between gender and race as points of entry to re- veal how the author of the book discussed that the American mainstream media utilized gender, maturity and race as discourses to ma- nipulate public opinion and explain the meaning of＂tuming a foe to an ally.＂