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Front to Rear: Architecture and Planning during World War II, March 7-8, 2009 >
Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
http://hdl.handle.net/2451/30266
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| Title: | Compromising Modernity: Japanese Monumentality during World War II |
| Authors: | Jacquet, Benoit |
| Keywords: | architecture
Japan
World War II |
| Issue Date: | 15-Sep-2011 |
| Abstract: | Among the unwritten chapters on the architecture produced during World
War II, the case of Japanese monumental architecture is representative
of the ideological agenda of a whole generation of Japanese architects.
The construction of war monuments started after the Japanese
colonization of East Asia and was a critical issue at the end of the
thirties. The creation of a Committee for the Construction of the
Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere by the Architectural Institute of
Japan after the start of the Pacific War catapulted the issue of
National Architectural style to the forefront. The discourses
produced on the occasion of architectural competitions for the Memorial
Tower for the Fallen Soldiers (1939), the Memorial of the Greater East
Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere (1942) and the Japanese Cultural Center in
Bangkok (1943), reveal how modern architects participated in the
invention of a national monumentality. How were such discourses on
Japanese monumentality constructed theoretically? Firstly, they were
rooted in the geopolitical context of the conflicted relationship
between both Japan and its Asian 'Orient' and the European-American
'Occident'. After assimilating western techniques, Japanese architects
started to look back at Oriental architecture, thus engendering a
perspective from which Japan could estimate its own degree of modernity.
At this juncture, intellectuals were engaged in an ongoing debate
regarding the 'overcoming of modernity' and were looking for original
forms of 'Japanese' thought. In the field of architecture, the critic
of the Occident was funded in criticism of the so-called western forms
of monumentality. Japanese (modern) architecture was mostly presented as
an alternative to the westernization of Asian architecture. The Japanese
occupation of East Asia was said to provide the opportunity to
experiment with architectural and urban planning in Asia, and to develop
a regional modern architecture. The Japanese architects who took part
in the birth of Japanese modern architecture in the thirties were
particularly active during the war. These same figures later became
major participants on the international architectural scene in the
postwar era. This paper will focus on the fate of this generation of
architects who, after carrying the ideals of modernization, contributed
to the discourses on Japanese National architecture in the forties. We
will also see how these discourses have been incorporated into forms of
Japanese contemporary architecture. |
| URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/2451/30266 |
| Appears in Collections: | Front to Rear: Architecture and Planning during World War II, March 7-8, 2009
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