研究ノート

Takarazuka under Occupation:
Transnational Female Performers andFemininity in Japan, 1945-1952
Toshiko Irie

I. Introduction
In April 1946, after the long and demoralizing war, the Takarazuka Revue
finally came back to perform in the Takarazuka Grand Theater in Hyogo
prefecture. Several Takarazuka female performers posted their opinions about
the future of Japan and Takarazuka in Kageki, a magazine re-published rightafter the war.1 For example, a performer named Shijō Hideko expressed her
excitement for the American Occupation, saying, “In my hometown Kyoto, we
could see the Occupation forces’ cool jeeps passing on Shijō Street and listen toswing jazz everywhere. Kyoto suddenly became a modern city.”2 On the other
hand, another Takarazuka performer, Awashima Chikage, related a more
ambiguous opinion about the Occupation: “I am not sure whether imitating‘America’ truly leads to building a ‘New Japan.’ But during the war, we could
not even emulate America. Now, we have to make a new start by selecting
what we need to revive ‘ New Japa n.’” 3 As we see here, each woma n in
Takarazuka had a different view of the American Occupation.
However, each shared a decisive passion to play a role in constructing a New
Japan by standing on the stage as Takarazuka performers. For example, Shijōmentioned the important role of Japanese women in this endeavor by saying,“Our brilliant new future is waiting for us young females.”4 She also illustrated
her decision to do her best as a new woman through performing onstage as a“gorgeous flower,” and in so doing, encouraged Japanese people to look ahead tothe future. 5 Koshiji Fubuki, a famous otokoyaku (male role) star, demonstrated
her pleasure in performing Western-inspired otokoyaku characters by saying,“Finally, I will play a prince called Antonio. It has been a while since I havedanced or given any Western-inspired performances… I know I have to take
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研究ノートover the dreamy and traditional Takarazuka.”6 Koshiji showed a high degree ofmotivation to overcome these difficulties and protect Takarazuka by performing
onstage.
A lt hough t here a re st i l l ver y few academ ic works on Ta ka ra z u ka’s
Occupational history, Baku Sonmi, Kevin J. Wetmore and Kawasaki Kenko
mention about Takarazuka’s occupational era in each work. In her book,
Teikoku to Sengo no Bunka Seisaku, Baku explains what the Takrazuka
compa ny d id du r i ng t he O ccupat ion a nd d id not pay at tent ion to t he
Takarazuka women nor their voices about the time period.7 In his article, “A
Note on Takarazuka”, Wetmore offers an analysis of the transformation of the
Takarazuka performance through the Occupation. While he examines several
repertoires, Wetmore does not see any voice of Takarazuka females performingon the stage. 8 Furthermore, in her book, Takarazuka to iu ūtopia, Kawasaki
illustrates the Occupation of Takarazuka, but she also does not show theactiveness of Takarazuka females, and neglects to pay attention to what the
Takarazuka women actually said about the Occupation and Americans. 9 In
portraying Takarazuka females as subjugated and voiceless, the aforementioned
works did not treat the Takarazuka females as active figures nor mention thevoices of these women. But as the anecdotes of female Takarazuka performers
show, each woman had strong opinions about her own role in invigorating thevision of a New Japan.
There are two main specialties for this particular focus on the Takarazuka
performers. The first is for the wider range of femininities that they enacted,
including those of otokoyak u (male-roles), which involved dressing a nd
performing as “males” onstage. Since Takarazuka performers' wide range offemininities also included forms of “masculinity,” attending to them allows foranalysis of a broader spectrum of Japanese femininity during the Occupationera. Secondly, since Takarazuka had been performing Euro-American inspired
repertoires since the 1920s, the Occupation policy of “Americanization” was nota new development for the troupe. That is, while “Americanization” suggests thepowerful influence of an “aggressive” American Occupation, for these women it
simply meant returning to the original repertoire that they wished to perform
aga in . This pa rt icula r fema le perspect ive a llows us to reexa mine t herelationship between the American Occupation and Japan by revealing that“Americanization” was not merely a one-sided policy imposed by the U.S. in the
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Takarazuka under Occupation: Transnational Female Performers and Femininity in Japan, 1945-1952

postwar years.
In his article, “Transnational Perspectives on United States History,” David
Thelen explains that an exclusive focus on nation-state borders and inter-state
relations only illuminates the power relations between powerful nations andstate actors.10 This, however, overlooks the complexity of the multi-layered
historical interactions between Japan and the U.S. As a result, Thelen proposes
the concept of “transnational history,” because it allows us to focus more on
actors who challenged, reinforced and negotiated the constructions andunmaking of nation- states. Drawing on transnational theory, with this research
I offer a more nuanced and multilayered analysis of Japanese females during theoccupation era. This viewpoint allows us to see a more complex set of relations
that were not clearly divided into active Americans and passive Japanese
females. To achieve their goal of performing on the better stages, Takarazuka
females used the opportunities available to them within the framework of theirinteractions, and negotiated by turns with Americans.
In this paper, Japanese names are written with the family name first followedby the first name. Translations into English are my own unless otherwise noted.

II. American GIs and Japanese Women
In general, American GIs depicted Japanese women differently from Japanesemen, and showed clear preference for the former. In Atlantic Monthly, forexample, Lieutenant John Ashmead stated, “I have seen a few samples of theJapanese male at work, both here and in the Philippines, and I trust very few ofthem. But certainly this feeling of mine does not apply to the women andchildren.”11 Moreover, Lucy Herdon Crockett, a female Red Cross worker for the
Occupation, bluntly suggested the Japanese men and women “might be twodifferent races entirely.”12 While Japanese men were depicted as barbarous
enemy race, American GIs saw in Japanese women “a vision of excellent,
attentive service and pampering.”13 At the same time, they saw Japanesewomen as a romanticized, “Oriental Eden” from which to procure sexual
services.14 In fact, in addition to a Japanese government-sponsored brothel
system employing 70,000 Japanese women as prostitutes, there were at least
59,000 women working outside the government system as well.15
Moreover, in the context of the Occupation's promotion of civilization and
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研究ノートdemocracy, Japanese women were regarded as important gendered figures indemonstrating the successful tra nsformation of a “ New Japa n.” GHQ’s
predominantly male policy makers, starting with General Douglas MacArthurand SCAP (the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers), regarded theemancipation and electoral participation of Japanese women as a key reform inconstructing a New Japan. In his autobiography, Reminiscences, MacArthur
portrayed himself as an advocate and liberator working for Japanese women.16
Although a number of previous works have accordingly celebrated him as ahero who offered a new path for Japanese women, MacArthur and otherexecutives were in fact quite cautious about the radical feminist movement inJapan. Furthermore, MacArthur suggested that Japanese women should revert
to the “home.”17 He argued that the emancipation of Japanese women should beundertaken upon the premise that women pursue social activities based on
gendered divisions of labor. Moreover, while MacArthur likened Japan to “a boyof twelve” who had the potential to become a “man,” he did not think Japanesewomen could become anything other than women, let alone leaders of a modern
society.18 While the Occupation encouraged “restricted” freedoms of Japanesewomen, and sexual relationships between American males and Japanese
females had been a problem, American GIs still allowed Takarazuka performers
to return to the stage. However, it was also clear that there was a power
hierarchy between them, and the majority of GIs treated Takarazuka women as
immature and submissive girls.

III. Occupation and Takarazuka
In 1945, the Occupation forces took over the Takarazuka Grand Theater andthe Tokyo Takarazuka Theater. While the Takarazuka Grand Theater was
returned to Takarazuka within a month of the Japanese surrender, however, theTokyo Takarazuka Theater was transformed into the Ernie Pyle Theater andremained under Occupation control until 1955.19 Although the Occupation
censors oversaw all the repertoires and publications that Takarazuka had
published, they still allowed a great deal of freedom for Takarazuka and its
performers. For example, from the earliest performances of the Occupation
period, censors completely allowed the theater to perform Western-themedrepertoires and allowed for male role performers who had been banned by the
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Takarazuka under Occupation: Transnational Female Performers and Femininity in Japan, 1945-1952

Japanese government during the war. 20 While the censors strictly hampered orbanned Kabuki and other forms of traditional theater that seemed to reflect“feudal” inclinations toward “revenge” and “suicide,” they did not do so as
strictly for Takarazuka because, as mentioned in the Introduction, Takarazuka
had relied on Western models of repertoires and did not feature “feudalistic”
themes before the interference of the Japa nese military government . 21
Furthermore, since the writers, choreographers, and female performers in
Takarazuka were accustomed to Euro-American inspired repertoires andtechniques since prewar era, accepting orders by the Occupation censors was
not difficult for them. However, it did not mean that they simply followed what
the Censor commanded. Although a certain power relationship always existed
between the Occupation forces and the company's female performers, to makeTakarazuka flourish again, Takarazuka females were able to adapt to andnegotiate with the authorities in order to revive their original repertoires inwhich otokoyaku and musumeyaku performed romantic, Western-inspired lovestories.

IV. The Voices of American GIs about Takarazuka Females
American GIs occupied, seized, and censored Takarazuka, but at the sametime, they enjoyed Takarazuka as an entertainment in various ways andwillingly reached out to Takarazuka performers with their curiosities. An
article from the newspaper En Corps illustrates the popularity of Takarazuka
among Occupation forces in the Kansai area in particular. En Corps was a
weekly newspaper published by the Kyoto Occupation forces authorities. It
states,Each month the world famous Takarazuka Girl’s Opera School presents a
new show to the public, which has for many years been flocking there to
see the performances of one of the world’s most unusual and outstandingorganizations. And since the coming of the U.S. Army to Japan, so popular
have been these shows with the GI audiences that a special invitation isextended to all military personnel for the April performance, which is tostart on the 22nd of this month with a double feature- the opera “Carmen”
and the revue “Spring Dances”- given each day from 1 p.m… Their stage109

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研究ノート

art is unusual in that it combines the most ancient and beautiful ofJapanese work, with some of the most modern music and dancing of theWestern world. For anyone who enjoys music and theatrical performancesof any sort, the presentations by these girls in the picturesque valley town
to Takarazuka, midway between Kyoto and Kobe, promise one of the mostinteresting and valuable experiences in Japan. 22
Here, En Corps advertises Takarazuka and its special invitation for the
Occupation forces. It portrays Takarazuka as a form of entertainment in which
the Occupation forces could enjoy both “the most ancient and beautiful ofJapanese work” and “some of the most modern music and dancing of theWestern world.” Analyzing these parts, the newspaper clearly divided“uncivilized” Japanese works and “civilized” Western works. Yet, at the sametime, it celebrated the combination of Japan and the West and promoted theplays performed by Japanese girls. Although the newspaper did not mention
anything about otokoyaku, the article contained a photograph by Edward P.
Holland of an otokoyaku wearing male kimono at the center of the stage.
Whether Takarazuka female players were otokoyaku or musumeyaku, many
Americans (and especially male GIs) mentioned Takarazuka performers’common beauty and cuteness. For example, Lt. Be Randolph MC sent a letterwith his opinion of the performance Rōzu Marī to Takarazuka. He illustrated
the beauty of the Takarazuka females, stating:Above all shining out as a brilliant celestial body was the most delightful
Rose Marie. 23 I hold no reservation in declaring that she is one of the mostbeautiful of all the lovely ladies that I have had the fortune and privilege oflooking upon. She seemed as a Goddess brought from the days of yore andset upon our Earth for the pleasure of mortal beings. There are no words
that can express the beauty of this creature of the heavens, this nymph ofglory. 24
From descriptions such as this, it is clear that American GIS were captivatedby the beauty of Takarazuka performers. For example, Randolph marveled at
Awashima’s “ brilliant celestial body.” The word “celestial ” suggests an
untouchable and dreamy physique. Furthermore, he identified Rōzu Marī
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Takarazuka under Occupation: Transnational Female Performers and Femininity in Japan, 1945-1952(played by Awashima) as a “Goddess,” suggesting that he had even deified
Awashima’s sacred beauty. Since this letter needed to be translated into
Japanese and approved by the censors, it did not clearly mention anything
associated with sexuality. Yet, phrases such as “celestial,” “Goddess,” and“creature of the heavens” more than implied Randolph’s romanticized andOrientalized gaze towards Awashima.
While Randolph illustrated female roles, some of the American voices
introduced the otokoyaku. Second Lieutenant William Haim, for instance,
watched Karumen and Haru no odori, and wrote that,
It was my first time ever seeing the Girls’ Revue. I was so impressed towatch such a beautiful and entertaining show… Kasugano Yachiyo andShinryoku Natsuko in Karumen were perfect…While watching the twoshows, the finale of Haru no odori with its many American hit songs mademe feel nostalgic. Although they were sung in Japanese, it still seemed very
natural… Having otokoyaku is another specialty in Takarazuka. But, I
think it was less kitsch than I had expected. Rather, they were very pretty
and natural. 25
Overall, Haim had a very positive reaction, even considering the otokoyaku as“pretty.” He also did not distinguish male roles and female roles clearly in
Takarazuka. While otokoyaku performing Western inspired male characters
seemed to represent “new women” and showed the justification of GHQ’s
practices as helping to “civilize” native Japanese women, the GIs continued
feminizing Takarazuka females. Moreover, since the otokoyaku’s masculinity
was laced with a certain kind of femininity in their makeup, costumes andvoices, the GIs never fully regarded Takarazuka girls as entirely “masculine”
males. Haim’s use of the word “pretty” represented this perceived adolescence,childishness, and innocence in Takarazuka females.
Considering these examples, American GIs seemed to view Takarazuka
merely as entertainment performed by beautiful, adolescent Japanese females.
At the same time, giving Takarazuka females a chance to perform a variety ofcharacters including otokoyaku could have also served to emphasize their own
American self-image as liberators of Japanese women. And indeed, theOccupation forces' allowance of such masculine forms within Takarazuka's
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研究ノートbroader representation of femininity can certainly be taken as a suitable
example of the emancipation of Japanese women. However, it did not mean thatGIs permitted complete freedom for Takarazuka female performers. While the
Occupation forces banished certain Japanese male displays of masculinity forseeming too tightly bound to nationalism, otokoyaku, which included a certain
femininity and was played by innocent Japanese females, did not seem to pose athreat to the demilitarization and democratization of Japan. In other words,
otokoyaku did not present the same peril as the seemingly savage Japanesemales. Rather, the American male GIs’ infantilizing gaze towards Takarazuka
girls can be associated with a broader colonial gaze that sought to shore up
feminine roles for Japanese women after the war.

V. The Voices of Takarazuka Females about the Occupation
Even if American GIs had treated Takarazuka females as immature andsubmissive in a romanticized and Orientalized way, however, Takarazuka
females were never passive and subjugated women. Rather, many of them wereadventurous, curious, and eager to learn more about America through the
Occupation, a nd so cleverly exploited specia l opportunities to join the
Takarazuka theater.
Various Takarazuka females expressed their thoughts and opinions about
getting permission to perform at the Takarazuka Theater again. Most of themcompared the theater's re-opening to “spring,” implying new Japan and new life.
In so doing, they showed great hopes and pleasures in performing bothtraditional-style as well as Euro-American inspired repertoires with bothotokoyaku and musumeyaku onstage. For example, one performer, Kodama
Haruka said, “During the wartime, all repertoires in Takarazuka were far from
ideal art forms. We had few pleasures performing those highlighting militarismand nationalism. Now, we can re-perform the gorgeous Takarazuka we've had
had since the prewar era.”26 In addition to Kodama, in another article of Kageki,
Fujino Takane explained how long she had waited to be in the Takarazuka
Theater again: “While I experienced a lot of difficulties and sadness during thewar, I got some courage in return. I became mentally strong. When I performedin the Grand Theater even for the solace of the Occupation forces, I could not
help crying because I was glad to be at the Grand Theater again.”27 Considering
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Takarazuka under Occupation: Transnational Female Performers and Femininity in Japan, 1945-1952

their voices, although it was the Occupation forces that gave Takarazuka
females the chance to be back to the stage, the Takarazuka performers did notcare who exactly gave them the permission to return to the theater. Rather,
their main concern was being on the stage and performing their original
repertoire again. That is, Takarazuka females had manipulated the permission
to return to the stage on their own terms, rather than being passive victims orfollowing orders directly from the Occupation forces.
At the same time, it was also clear that some of them had maintained apassionate admiration for Euro-American-style repertoires. For example, a malerole performer, Kasugano Yachiyo, who had passionately studied the “ideal”
otokoyaku technique since the prewar era, discussed the importance of learning“ideal” male figures from Euro-American films in her autobiography. She
defined Euro-American male actors as “the best examples for me to learn theway to smoke, walk and make gestures.” 2 8 Kasugano also mentioned her
struggles and efforts to imitate those males in the films; “To look my legs much
longer, I ordered the special shoes that looked me very tall… and to havesquare and big shoulder, I secretly began exercising.”29 Furthermore, Kasugano
was the first otokoyaku in Takarazuka to get a perm haircut: “In 1937, I askeda hair stylist working in Ginza Shiseidō whether I could get a hair style like a
Euro-American actor in a film, and he said, ‘Yes’.”30 Even during the Occupation,
Kasugano expressed clear excitement in meeting with the Broadway director
Billy Rose and his wife Eleanor. In her diary, she wrote that when she
welcomed the Roses at Haneda airport, she gave them a bouquet of flowers andsaid, “Welcome to Japan” in English. From there, she continued,
February 15th , Takarazuka invited Mr. and Mrs. Rose to the Nichigeki
theatre at Yurakuchō in Tokyo. We performed Futari hakama, a play basedon Kyōgen, in front of them. In the middle of the show, while I was greetingthem in Japanese, Kei-chan (Awashima Chikage) was translating my words
into English. I was telling them that when I toured around America about
ten years ago, I was very impressed by seeing the technical skills of Mrs.
Rose in the production. I also said that we Takarazuka girls were very
proud of ourselves t hat M r. a nd M rs . Rose would come to see ourrep er t o i re… A f t er t he p er for m a nc e , M r. B i l ly R o s e pr a i s e d ou r
performances and called us ‘Zuka Girls’! To this, we all screamed like,
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研究ノート‘Kyaaa!!’ We and Mr. and Mrs. Rose swung together to the tune of the
finale, Reinbō... 31
According to Kasugano’s diary, the whole cast was proud to be seen andpraised by such a famous Broadway producer. But while they treated him like astar, they were excited for themselves as well. Although the war prevented
Kasugano from gaining exposure in America, her admiration towards America
continued to endure.
Another example of showing the interactions between Takarazuka females
and Americans is the shooting of USSBS (United States Strategic Bombing
Survey). 32 In addition to filming areas damaged by bombings such as Hiroshima,
Nagasaki and other cultural facilities in color, the USSBS filmed Takarazuka
performances as part of its survey of sceneries of Japan and Japanese cultural
facilities. It is also an articulate example demonstrating that American male GI,
Lieutenant Sassoon clearly regarded Takarazuka females as immature girls.
For example, when the girls were sweating during the performance, Sassoon
brought tissue cases to the girls and wiped their faces with tissue papers. 33 By
analyzing the description, a white male Sassoon treated Takarazuka female
performers as children. Helping wipe their faces with tissues associates withtaking care of babies or children.
Even if t he GIs had t reated Ta ka ra zuka fema les as immature g irls ,Ta ka ra zuka fema les were never passive a nd subjugated women wheninteracting with American male GIs. Rather, they willingly communicated with
the GIs and used cleverly the special opportunities they got that usual Japanesewomen could not experience. They had other opportunities, beyond performing
stage shows, to interact with American male occupiers, such as when shooting
the US SB S , which gave Ta ka razuka fema les to touch the new filming
technology coming from America. Since the technology of filming in color inJapan was not developed enough yet at that time, it was the first time for
Takarazuka females to be filmed in color. Also, since it was filmed for theAmerican audience, one of the Takarazuka females said, “Takarazuka females
finally go to Hollywood!”34 Regarding their words, we can see how Takarazuka
females had global cultural admirations. They were pleased with getting thechance to be seen by wider audience beyond the small theater in Takarazuka.
Moreover, an otokoyaku, Kodama Haruka said that she was putting more make114

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Takarazuka under Occupation: Transnational Female Performers and Femininity in Japan, 1945-1952

up than usual because she was so excited and cared being filmed in color for
the first time. 35 Although this filming was one of the orders by the Occupation
forces, Takarazuka females were excited to get the chance to be filmed in color
and released their films in America for the first time. In Kageki, they expressed
their admirations toward Hollywood by saying that “Our films will be
developing in Hollywood. It was like a dream for us.”36 Considering their words,
Takarazuka females enjoyed the filming and their promotions by utilizing thechances they got from the Occupation forces. Through Takarazuka, they
opened for themselves new worlds, and new opportunities to present themselves
as performers who had fully ambitions to revive Takarazuka and even promote
it beyond the national border.
While some Takarazuka females expressed pleasure in being onstage again
and venerated the Occupation for opening the door for them, others also pointed
out the value of preserving the Japanese-ness that they had cultivated before
the Occupation had begun. For example, one finds Takarazuka females’ voices
discussing their images of the Japanese female after the war. Ōmi Fujiko
mentioned that, “We should not forget the gentleness of yamato nadeshiko.”37
Furthermore, Hanamura Yuriko said that, “These days, since the number ofworking women (shokugyō fujin) is increasing, some have totally forgotten thebeauty of traditional feminine Japanese females who were modest and polite.”38
In addition to that, Kojima Isoko indicated that, “By advocating democracy, we
now have freedom of speech. But I do not want to lose my dignity as a Japanese
female.” 3 9 Their words lead us to think that while Takarazuka females
appreciated and caught up with the postwar reconstruction for Takarazuka
undertaken by the Occupation forces, they emphasized the importance ofpreserving their identities as gentle, humble, yet strong Japanese females evenunder the Occupation. Accordingly, they did not simply follow the policy of
emancipation and democratization of Japanese females to the point of throwing
their own gender and national identities as Japanese females away entirely.
From these accounts, we can see that Takarazuka females actively chose their own
ideal figures of Japanese femininity from both their past as well as their future.
These fema le per for mers celebrated t he restorat ion of t he or ig i na l
Takarazuka repertoire with the assistance of the Occupation forces. They
valued their permission to play various styles of characters, including the
masculine otokoyaku. Moreover, through the Occupation, they rekindled their
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研究ノートsuppressed aspirations, and willingly learned, appropriated and absorbed
western-style modes of performance. At the same time, they were neversubmissive dolls controlled by the Occupation forces. Some of them valued thefeminine identities that they had constructed before the war, and sought topreserve those qualities that would allow them to take on active roles as womenin reconstructing a New Japan. Regardless of the gender roles they played, they
nonetheless shared definite opinions and thoughts about the ideal and future
images of Japanese females.

VI. Conclusion
While American GIs portrayed themselves as liberators who could rescue
Takarazuka females by granting them the rights to perform a wider range of
womanhood, the majority of them still treated Takarazuka females as immature
girls. They were attracted to the immaturity and the oriental beauty of
Takarazuka females, and gazed upon the performers in a romanticized manner.
On the other hand, however, the performers themselves refused to be passive
obser vers a nd i nstead worked ha rd to rebu i ld t hei r ow n place i n t he
Takarazuka Theater. By negotiating and utilizing various opportunities tointeract with Americans, Takarazuka female performers eagerly took actions toperform original Takarazuka repertoires in which otokoyaku and musumeyaku
played Euro-American-inspired characters. With an enduring admiration forEuro-American cultures, some enjoyed meeting various Americans directly andlearning of “America.” At the same time, they also had strong opinions about
what they should be like as Japanese females in the future. In examining themultiple discussions surrounding Takarazuka females during the Occupation
period, this paper reveals that Takarazuka females’ diverse opinions and actions
played a major role in restoring the all-female Takarazuka Theater.
By taking a look at Takarazuka female performers who actively manipulated
their positions as performers to take on a wider range of femininities, this paper
introduces a figure of Occupation-era Japanese womanhood. For Takrazuka
female performers, even under the power hierarchy, the Occupation constituteda more complex turning point in rethinking their own identities as Japanesewomen living in a New Japan.

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Takarazuka under Occupation: Transnational Female Performers and Femininity in Japan, 1945-1952

Notes
This essay is based on my oral presentation on September 20 th , 2019 at the American
Studies Association of Korea’s 54th Annual Conference, held in Seoul at the Korea
University.
1

2
3
4
5
6
7
8

9
10

11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19

20
21

22

Kageki was one of the magazines published by the Takarazuka Company for its
Japanese fans. Of the many official Takarazuka publications, it also contains the greatest
number of articles, comments and photographs. During the Occupation, these included
commentary by the various Takarazuka females, the members of Takarazuka
administration, and letters from American GI viewers of Takarazuka.
“Haru toukaraji,” Kageki no. 248, April 1946, 45.
“Sōshun zakkan” Kageki no. 248, April 1946, 40.
“Haru toukaraji,” Kageki no. 248, April 1946, 45.
Ibid.
“Haha heno tegami,” Kageki no.248, April 1946, 43.
Baku Snomi, Teikoku to Sengo no Bunka Seisaku (Iwanami-shoten, 2017).
Wetmore, Kevin. “A Note on Takarazuka.” In Rising from the Flames: the Rebirth ofTheater in Occupied Japan, 1945-1952. Eds Leiter, Samuel. Lanham: Lexington Books,
2009. 381-390.
Kawasaki Kenko, Takarazuka to iu ūtopia (Iwanami-bunko, 2005).
David Thelen, “Nation and Beyond: Transnational Perspectives on United States
History,” The Journal of American History, Vol.86, No.3, A Special Issue (1999): 968.
Besides Thelen, there were numerous scholars defining the “transnational framework.”
Pierre Yves- Saunier, Transnational History (New York: Palgrave, 2013), Ian Tyrrell,
Transnational Nation: United States History in Global Perspective since 1789 (NewYork: Palgrave, 2007). Janet Hoskins and Viet Thanh Nguyen eds., Transpacific Studies:
Framing an Emerging Field (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2014).
Lt. John Ashmead, “The Japs Look at the Yanks,” Atlantic Monthly (Atlantic, April
1946), 88, 90.
Lucy Herdon Crockett, Popcorn on the Ginza: An Informal Portrait of Postwar Japan(New York: William Sloane Associates, 1949), 131.
Shibusawa, Naoko, America’s Geisha Ally: Reimagining the Japanese Enemy (Harvard:
Harvard University Press, 2010), 51.
Ibid., 22.
Takemae, Eiji, Inside GHQ: The Allied Occupation of Japan and Its Legacy, trans.
Robert Ricketts and Sebastian Swan (New York: Continuum, 2002), 580, note 28; 69-71.
Douglas MacArthur, Reminiscences (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964), 305.
Kazama, 209.
Shibusawa, 57.
Kevin Wetmore, “A Note on Takarazuka,” in Rising from the Flames: the Rebirth ofTheater in Occupied Japan, 1945-1952, eds. Leiter, Samuel and others (Lanham:
Lexington Books, 2009), 383.
Ibid., 384.
According to the official document, Political Reorientation of Japan, Sep, 1945- Sept,
1948, CIE had censored public information media such as newspapers, news agencies,
radio broadcasting, magazines, books, motion pictures and theaters. (59)“Takarazuka shōjo kageki from EnCorps,” Kageki no. 250, June 1946, 34.

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23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32

33
34
35
36
37

38
39

Rōzu Marī was played by Awashima Chikage at that time.
“Rōzu Marī no kansou,” Kageki no. 254, October 1946, 20-21.
“Takarazuka no inshō,” Kageki no.250, June 1946, 8.
“Zuihitsu,” Kageki no. 248, April 1946, 44.
“Kurou banashi areya koreya,” Kageki no. 248, April 1946, 25.
Kasugano, Yachiyo, Shiroki Bara no Shō, (Takarazuka Kagekidan Shuppan, 1987), 100101.
Ibid., 98-99.
Ibid., 101.
“Birī Rōzu fusai wo mukaete Tokyo dayori,” Kageki no.282, 1949, 14-18.
USSBS (United States Strategic Bombing Survey) was filming the bombed areas like
Hiroshima and Nagasaki and cultural facilities in Japan. To restore the sources clearly,
they filmed in color. We can see the video taken by USSBS in the National Archives
catalog https://catalog.archives.gov.
“Tennen iro eiga satsuei kengaku ki,” Kageki (Takarazuka kagekidan shuppanbu,
no.251,1946), 38-39.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
“Yoron chōsa,” Kageki no.249, May 1946, 29.
“yamato nadeshiko” stands for the Japanese women who are delicate but have a strong
spirit. “yamato” means Japan and “nadeshiko” originates from a flower of the same
name.
Ibid., 36.
Ibid., 37.

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Takarazuka under Occupation: Transnational Female Performers and Femininity in Japan, 1945-1952

Abstract

Takarazuka under Occupation:
Transnational Female Performers andFemininity in Japan, 1945-1952
Toshiko Irie
This research focuses on the Occupation-era history of the all-female
Takarazuka Revue Theater, one of the most recognized theatrical revuecompanies in Japan. Having been unable to perform over the wartime period,
the U.S. Occupation marked a turning point for Takarazuka female performers
in allowing them to return to the stage. In this new era, however, theirperformances were subject to censorship by Occupation authorities, as well as
the pressures of a new racial and cultural hierarchy introduced by theAmerican presence.
Under this paradigm, scholars on Takarazuka history have tended to highlightt he subjugat ion t hat Ta ka ra zuka fema le per formers faced duri ng t heOccupation. It very often neglects to pay attention to the voices of theperformers themselves, and can therefore fail to recognize more complex anddiverse forms of femininity that fall outside this established gender binary.
In contrast, this article offers a more nuanced and multilayered analysis ofJapanese female experience during the Occupation era by focusing on theperspective of Takarazuka performers. Given their ability to inhabit a wide
range of roles across the gender spectrum, attending to the voices of these
performers affords a more complex picture of Japanese females’ role in shaping
the transnational landscape of Occupation culture. Moreover, given theirexperience in performing Euro-American style musical repertoires dating backto the 1920s, I argue that Takarazuka women took on far more active andcollaborative roles in advancing their careers than has been acknowledged inexisting scholarship. Far from passive, sexually and racially “inferior” observers,
then, this article explores how these performers approached the Occupation era
as a turning point in rethinking their own identities as Japanese women living
in a New Japan.

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