Memory And The Transformation Of Social Experience In Modern Japan: Rethinking The Song ‘Home’  

Oleh:

Ryuzo, Uchida

Jenis: Article from Journal - ilmiah internasional
Dalam koleksi: Media, Culture & Society vol. 21 no. 2 (Mar. 1999), page 205-219.
Fulltext: 205MCS212.pdf (137.16KB)

Isi artikel

In modern society, memory is often constructed, and sometimes erased, in conformity with the political purposes of the nation-state. From this point of view many historians have analysed the construction of memory. However, cultural resources such as media and technologies support the concrete formation of memory; in other words, we can reconsider the problem of memory in the phase of social experience that is closely connected with the media, technologies and the flow of capital. It is this phase of social experience that makes possible the political projects of the nation-state. In this article, I consider the songs published in 1910 for musical education at primary school by the Ministry of Education. The song was considered to be an effective strategy for state education, because it is easier for children to learn and is internalized more directly and unconsciously through the medium of music, than literary texts such as novels, poetry, etc. In 1890, the Imperial Rescript on Education was promulgated as the fundamental principle of national education. Its main object was to build up the faithful subject of the Emperor system of Japan and musical education was also coordinated with this policy. In the society after the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–5 discipline relaxed among the people and social disaffection increased. The Ministry of Education songs were designed as a device to reinforce moral education. However, not all of people’s memory was edited and manipulated by the government. In the song ‘Home’ (1914), the scene took on a character of anonymity. How was this scene deeply impressed on the private feelings of individuals? At that time, due to changing social conditions, there appeared an abstract social space constructed from reproducible images and extended across national boundaries. The song ‘Home’ mobilized the mass public not toward specific political goals, but to experience as actual that abstract social space.

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