The rest of the world sees the extraordinary originality and creative genius of the American people. American films created a whole new form which imitated nothing from previous cultural achievement. While old culture struggled with stagnation, America invented jazz and rock and roll. The popular cultures in most of the world are not at all creative, but long-standing and heavy with tradition. In America, two individuals can meet and create something.
Nothing stands in the way of a new departure.
Kato - As long as the creativity of America continues, then I think its mass culture will dominate. Gardels - Japan, meanwhile, is bounding along, wrestling economic leadership from the United States. Yet, critics charge that artistically, it has become a leveled wasteland. Especially in the 1950s as we rebuilt, there was a sense of openness and possibility. Individual writers explored alternative paths for Japan's future.