LONDON -- In 1945, as the Japanese contemplated defeat, devastation and occupation by a foreign power for the first time, the future must have seemed bleak and uncertain. But along with the terrible toll on life and property, the war years damaged Japanese society in ways that were harder to see.
The military regime had distorted the fabric of Japanese culture to serve its own ends. Nihonga, traditional Japanese-style painting, was especially favored and so suffered a backlash at the war's end. Previously innocuous national symbols, such as Mount Fuji, a favorite subject of earlier woodblock artists, were appropriated and became sensitive in the postwar years.
Along with the physical rebuilding of the country came artistic renewal. A new exhibition here at The British Museum (accompanied by a fine book by Lawrence Smith, Keeper Emeritus of the museum) explores in detail how a group of printmakers -- with Japanese and international members -- tentatively began to create a new Japanese cultural identity from the ruins.