CULTURE / Amekaji
World War II
"We lost the war, you know." The first couple of times I heard Japanese twentysomethings saying this I was surprised. How can this relatively distant event in history – the experiences of their grandparents or even great-grandparents – still play such an important role in their daily lives? Moreover, how can this be an explanation for the attraction to American fashion? The more I heard the comment, the more I started to realize that the association of Japan's defeat by the United States and the attraction to things American may not be as strange as it first appears. Fashion, as with other "everyday things and luxury objects," played an important role in this interesting turn of America from archenemy to role model. After Japan's surrender, the devastated country was occupied by the Allied Powers, mainly the United States (1945-1952), and the modernizing project that the country had itself already initiated, took a different route than before. The occupier's agenda was on reviving the shattered Japan, but more importantly, on molding Japan into a pro-American democratic state. Public life, infrastructure, the political and educational system were to be transformed in a way that suited the American idea of civilization and modernity. After the occupation, America was no longer in charge, but to this day, the so-called security treaty allows US forces to keep military bases in Japan. No doubt these seven years of occupation and its aftermath established the general foundation for Japan's focus on America. However, the everyday life of the Japanese also became "Americanized" on a whole different level: through objects and images. American soldiers drove by in fancy cars and went to bars listening to blues, jazz and a brand new genre of music: rock & roll. Foreign couples in Western clothing walked by holding hands – something not done in Japan – and went shopping in so-called PX stores (general stores or department stores for U.S. military overseas). Japanese companies started manufacturing Western furniture and appliances, encouraged and financially supported by the American government that wanted to be sure that its military servicemen overseas could keep their American living standards and lifestyles. Slowly but surely American popular culture seeped into the lives of Japanese. Being surrounded by these images and material aspects of American culture turned out to be very effective in getting Japan's gaze turned towards the United States. Even if these things were only to be looked at from a distance. Still recovering from the mental blow of losing the war and experiencing the hardship of post-bellum times, the only thing Japanese people could do was dream of a different life, a life represented by the nearest "other" that surrounded their lives: the "American other". Particularly Japan's youth was aspiring to everything the Americans fancied and featured. The fact that Japan lost the war, which immeasurably effected the nation's collective sense of self, could not outweigh the attraction of all that American beauty and luxury: the power of images and objects. Dreaming about the American life was in a way an indication of Japan's resilience: the willingness to look towards the future and to create its own "dream," a "Japanese American dream."
JOURNAL DE Nîmes / Nº 7 the north american issue, spring 2011
Fashion
Japan started its modernizing project in the Meiji Period (1868) when it – after being relatively isolated for about 200 years – opened its doors to "things and ideas foreign". Foreign influences and expertise in industry, technology and education were widely adopted to build a modern Japan. In terms of fashion this meant an enormous change: traditional dress was still to be seen in the streets, but "Western" clothing and hairstyles dominated the streetscape. Not without criticism. Particularly in the 1920s, young Japanese women who dressed in Western style and took on "western attitudes," so called moga's (modern girls - モダンガール), caused public consternation. People began to openly discuss topics such as modesty and the dangers of foreign influences. After 1952, when Japan became independent again, there was no way back. It started recovering from all the distresses of the post-war period and "the American life" was no longer just something to look at, but something you could actually take part in, or consume. In the sixties and seventies, Western style furniture – unusual in the typical Japanese household – televisions, big refrigerators, music and movies were available for an increasing number of Japanese. On my way to find people who could help me explaining the AmericanJapanese riddle, I happened to come across a signpost indicating: "Vintage records from USA". I went upstairs and walked into the smallest record store I have been in - and the most full. Brimming with 78, 45 and 33 r.p.m vinyl's of rock & roll, doowop, jazz and r&b, the first five minutes I couldn't do anything but gawk. I met Abe, the owner of the store, and Bo, a friend and American vinyl freak. The two, both born in the early seventies, explained to me that American culture was almost their own culture. "It was America all over the place, you can say we are America's 51st state," Abe said with a smile. "The fact that our youth nowadays is actually breathing amekaji, is something that feels quite natural to us". "American Casual," in Japanese abbreviated into amekaji (アメカジ), became the desired fashion and lifestyle. The concept of amekaji includes everything "American" from sneakers to Western boots, from dungarees to oversized t-shirts. In the sixties, amekaji more particularly referred to the "Ivy" look that was made popular in Japan by Kensuke Ishizu, designer and founder of VAN. Rin Tanaka, one of the world's most famous American vintage collectors and writer of the magnificent "My Freedamn!" series also experienced the amekaji influence during his own youth. Growing up in the seventies and eighties in Yokohama, the city with one of the biggest American naval basis, he was exposed to American fashion at a very young age and kept running with it. Still too expensive, he dreamt about having the same Levi's jeans as the Americans living in his neighborhood. While amekaji is used for everything from the land of dreams, I think Rin Tanaka would agree with me that the number one icon of amekaji is a pair of 'good ol' jeans'.
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