| The Man Who Saved Kabuki: Faubion Bowers and Theatre Censorship in Occupied Japan Subjects: Bowers Faubion 1917–; Bowers Faubion 1917 -- Views on kabuki; United States. Army -- Officers -- Biography; Japan -- History -- Allied occupation 1945–1952; Kabuki; As part of its program to promote democracy in Japan after World War II, the American Occupation, headed by General Douglas MacArthur, undertook to enforce rigid censorship policies aimed at eliminating all traces of feudal thought in media and entertainment, including kabuki. Faubion Bowers (1917-1999), who served as personal aide and interpreter to MacArthur during the Occupation, was appalled by the censorship policies and anticipated the extinction of a great theatrical art. He used his position in the Occupation administration and his knowledge of Japanese theatre in his tireless campaign to save kabuki. Largely through Bowers's efforts, censorship of kabuki had for the most part been eliminated by the time he left Japan in 1948. Leiter Samuel L. : Samuel L. Leiter is distinguished professor of theatre at Brooklyn College, City University of New York, and also teaches at The Graduate Center, City University of New York. |