Michael Hom

Stevi Costa

Englis 131 T

1 March 2017

Japanese Contact Zone: Anime as a Form of Transculturation

Globalization in the modern world has led to a wide array of cultural works being shared

internationally. However, works that are marked by a certain culture belie the global influences

that went into the work that it has readapted. This idea of influence and adaption is an idea that

Mary Louise Pratt discusses in "Art of the Contact Zone." Part of her concept of the "contact

zone" is the idea of "transculturation," which she says is a term "to describe the process whereby

members of subordinated or marginal groups select and invent from materials transmitted by a

dominant metropolitan culture" (36). Many events in history have created contact zones that lead

to transculturation, but the event this essay will focus on in particular is the rebuilding of Japan

after World War II, when the United States occupied and oversaw its redevelopment.

Mainstream anime films from Japan, specifically from Studio Ghibli, are interesting Japanese

cultural works that both embody the Japanese characteristics of animated films and culture, yet

are strongly influenced by American themes. This adaption of American ideas into Japanese

anime films embodies Pratt's concept of the contact zone and specifically its transculturation

effect, where Japanese culture adapted American values of world peace and industrial progress

during its occupation and transfigured it into ostensibly Japanese concepts through the Japanese

style of animated film. Pratt helps us see how Japanese anime films have adapted American ideas

that came from their contact zone, and how the ideas presented in these films can be seen as a

Japanese take on American concepts as opposed to simply traditionally Japanese concepts.

 The idea of transculturation from the contact zone highlights the themes of Hayao

Miyazaki’s movies, which are credited as the best representations of Japanese animation and are

thus used as examples of Japanese anime as a medium of expression. Many Miyazaki films deal

with two main motifs of industrial progress achieved through war and the evil consequences of

war. These two themes go hand-in-hand with each other and are explored concurrently within the

films, but ultimately these ideas can be seen as adaptions of American values through the lens of

the contact zone.

The first motif to observe is Miyazaki’s conflicting appreciation of technological

innovation, which can be viewed as an adaption of the American ideal of striving for industrial

progress. Japan’s technological growth can be attributed to its wartime industrial production,

which lasted beyond the war in modernizing Japan’s infrastructure. Erstwhile, Japanese

animation in the war era was pro war, propaganda-like, and very nationalistic in presenting

Japan’s historical and mythological culture; however, in the post-war era, Miyazaki brought in

his steampunk vision of society; futuristic machinery but with a nostalgic, old-fashioned

semblance. Whereas older anime films were set in Edo era Japan, highlighting bushido and

presenting Japanese folklore, Miyazaki includes modern technologies such as the ironworks in

Princess Mononoke, the automaton house in Howl’s Moving Castle, and modern planes in many

of his movies including Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and The Wind Rises. The settings of

his films differed from that of his predecessors because of how his films embrace technology and

modern culture. It is interesting to see how Miyazaki so drastically changes the mainstream

anime narratives from what it once was during the war, which coincides with the period after the

war where the United States oversaw Japan’s reconstruction.

 Through the lens of Pratt, we can argue that Miyazaki’s shift in setting is a product of the

contact zone made when the US was rebuilding Japan. In Arts of the Contact Zone, Pratt uses

Guaman Poma’s letter to the king of Spain as an example the resulting consequences formed by

the contact zone in the Andes. In the text, she discusses how “Guaman Poma constructs his texts

by appropriating and adapting pieces of the representational repertoire of the invaders” (36) to

talk about “transculturation,” where the subordinate culture takes parts of the dominant culture

and adopts it as their own. This idea of transculturation can act as a framework in understanding

how American occupation led to a change in Japanese culture, as reflected in Miyazaki’s films.

The contact zone, where the US is the dominant, metropolitan culture, and the Japanese is the

subordinate, occupied culture, creates a transculturation of the American idea of technological

innovation and rapid industrial growth. As an American paradigm, technological innovation was

pertinent because of wartime production during World War II, but also because of how

American animation studios such as Disney would embrace new technology available to them to

dominate the market. This ideal of ever-expanding technology was adapted by the Japanese and

by Miyazaki, both in how Japanese animators begin to use cel animation after the war, and also

by the imagery in Miyazaki’s movies. Specifically, Miyazaki’s fascination in aeronautical

technology mirrors the rapid growth in airplanes during both world wars. In Nausicaa of the

Valley of the Wind and Howl’s Moving Castle, Miyazaki creates flying apparatuses that are both

fantastical in the way they fly with wings and oddly shaped bodies, yet antique in their rustic

metal frames, primitive propeller and biplane technology. This reimagination of western aircraft

reflects a Japanese fascination in western, or rather American, technological advances during the

war, which present a more modern take on society than in older anime films.
 However, Miyazaki takes his motif a step further to talk about the consequences of this

technology, which is different, additional, and nuanced perspective on technology compared to

the American ideal of rapid growth. Within a contact zone, Pratt specifies how the subordinate

culture “does not simply imitate or reproduce [ideas], [it] selects and adapts it along [the

culture’s] lines” (36), which Poma does in the case of using Spanish language and culture to

articulate Andean culture. Pratt goes on further to say that “while subordinate peoples do not

usually control what emanates from the dominant culture, they do determine to varying extents

what gets absorbed into their own and what it gets used for” (36). In this respect, Miyazaki adds

his own nuance by portraying about how technology, while beneficial to humanity, can destroy

the environment and ultimately harm people biologically. The motif of man’s effect on nature is

most heavily explored in Princess Mononoke and Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. In Princess

Mononoke, Miyazaki sets the tone with the opening narration, “In ancient times, the land lay

covered in forests, where, from ages long past, dwelt the spirits of the gods. Back then, man and

beast lived in harmony, but as time went by, most of the great forests were destroyed. Those that

remained were guarded by gigantic beasts who owed their allegiances to the Great Forest Spirit.”

Already, Miyazaki delineates the conflict between man and nature in the film, which is

aggravated by the ironworks that the main antagonist, Lady Eboshi, creates in order to produce

iron used in flame lance guns. The conflict is resolved when Great Forest Spirit, along with

Princess Mononoke, take down the ironworks as vengeance for the destruction of the forest.

Miyazaki portrays the forest’s ire through the different spirit animals and through Princess

Mononoke, who was raised by wolves in the forest, to show his audience that the environment is

being harmed and personified by the angry beasts that attack the humans at the ironworks. In

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Miyazaki once again depicts a world stricken by conflict that
has created a “toxic jungle” with large, mutated creatures that inhabit it. The conflict heightens

when one of the warring factions tries to use an ultimate weapon of destruction against the other,

to which Nausicaa says, “Every one of us relies on water from the wells, because mankind has

polluted all the lakes and rivers, but do you know why the well water is pure? It's because the

trees of the wastelands purify it! And you plan to burn the trees down? You must not burn down

the toxic jungle!” Miyazaki once again personifies nature’s vengeance when the giant insectoid

creatures from the toxic jungle begin to attack the human civilizations, which is finally quelled

by Nausicaa’s efforts to mediate with them. Ultimately, this view of technology as both a source

of fascination but also of ruination is quite different from the American view on technological

advances at the time, and is shaped into the Japanese view on technology. Pratt would argue that

the way in which the Japanese have adapted the American view on technology after the war, then

adding their perspective on environmental preservation after the disastrous effects of World War

II is a result of transculturation in the contact zone. What started as an American idea became a

paradigm of modern Japanese technological advancement, mixed with the old idea of nature

rising against human civilization when provoked by the destruction that it wreaks to create the

motif in two of Miyazaki’s films.

The consequences of rapid technological growth are a part of the recurring theme of war

and the negative impacts that it has on both people and the environment. Because Japan’s

technological growth and ecological footprint both spurred from the war, Miyazaki builds upon

the first motif to depict the evils of war on society, on top of its effect on the environment.

Miyazaki’s strong anti-war sentiment seems to reflect Japan’s anti-war sentiment, which still

remains to this day, as evinced by the controversial reception of his latest movie, The Wind

Rises, which some people interpreted as a pro-war movie. While Japan was once a nationalistic
and militant nation, after its reconstruction under the US and the provisions in Japan’s

constitution that restricted military strength were implemented, the culture became very opposed

to war because of how atrocious World War II was with the atomic bombs. Through the lens of

Pratt, we can view this as a paradigm shift caused by the contact zone created by the US, who

emanated their demilitarization sentiments to the Japanese, who then internalized this concept

and readopted it as their own. This is portrayed by various scenes within Miyazaki’s movies,

which reflect his views on war. In the previously discussed Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind,

the opening scene depicts a devastated and barren landscape, as the narrator describes the fall of

“industrialized civilization” and how the remaining humans are threatened by both the toxic

jungle as well as another rising war. In Princess Mononoke, a black ectoplasm that infects

Ashitaka along with the other forest spirits is described as the manifestation of “hatred,” which

metaphorically portrays the ongoing war that the humans are engaging in. Because of the war,

the guns produced at the ironworks poison the forest spirits, which ultimately force the spirits to

attack and destroy the ironworks. In Howl’s Moving Castle, one of Miyazaki’s beautifully

imagined aircraft is shown flying over a calm field where Howl’s peaceful abode resides, and

some striking dialogue is presented:

Howl: “What is that thing doing out here?”

Sophie: “A battleship?”

Howl: “Looking for more cities to burn.”

Sophie: “Is it the enemy’s or one of ours?”

Howl: “What difference does it make? Those stupid murderers.”

Howl’s cynical view of the warships captures Miyazaki’s strong anti-war sentiment in that he is

disgusted by war regardless of who it is perpetrated by. However, it is ironic that Howl says this
given how detailed and marvelous Miyazaki’s depiction of the aircraft is. Howl’s sad tone when

he cynically dismisses the aircraft importantly reflects Miyazaki’s conflicted feelings towards his

long-time fascination with airplanes and his dislike of the environmental and societal

consequences of war. This ultimately is reflected upon in The Wind Rises, where Miyazaki

directly confronts his qualms with technology inevitably becoming tools of war, through the

imaginary character Giovanni Battista Caproni, who appears only in Jiro’s dreams. In Jiro’s first

encounter with him, Caproni states that “Airplanes are beautiful dreams, but they are cursed

dreams.” In another dream, Caproni tells Jiro, “This is my true dream. When the war is over, I

will build this. What do you think? Magnificent, isn’t she? Instead of bombs, she’ll carry

passengers,” while describing his large passenger plane. However, Caproni finally concedes in a

final dream that “Humanity has always dreamed of flying. But the dream is cursed. My aircraft

are destined to become tools for slaughter and destruction.” When Jiro states that none of his

planes returned from the war, Caproni replies, “There was nothing to return to,” which describes

Japan’s loss in World War II, but also describes the plot of the film in which Jiro’s relationship

falls apart while he completes his plane design, which also was unsatisfying in the end because it

was used for war and never anything else.

Ultimately, Miyazaki’s expresses his deep resentment of war through these movies,

which can be seen as another product of transculturation. Pratt’s concept of the contact zone

helps to understand why Miyazaki’s anti-war sentiment differs from the US, which sought to

validate war for “righteous” causes. The US demilitarized Japan in order to stop their imperial

and nationalistic desires, because their goal from war was not righteous. However, Miyazaki’s

resentment of war does not distinguish between righteous war and unjustified war. In

understanding transculturation, we can see how the Miyazaki readapts the US’ industrialization
and demilitarization policies during its reconstruction of Japan to formulate his own view on how

the technology provided by war can be fascinating, yet war can never be justified because of the

harm done to both the environment and to humanity. Writer Dan Sanchez perfectly analyzes

Miyazaki’s anti-war theme in comparison to US films: “[The] antagonists are not treated as

devils, but as deeply flawed human beings. The heroes do not harbor vendettas and thirst for

vengeance against them, as the typical western action hero does. Rather, the heroes try to

convince them to abandon their disastrous plans, while also striving to foil those plans directly.

The climax of the film comes not with the hero impaling or detonating his foe, as in so many

Hollywood movies, or in the villain falling to his doom, as in so many Disney animated films.

Miyazaki’s heroes achieve victory, not through the destruction of their enemies, but by foiling

their plans enough such that the belligerents finally relent. The loving and forgiving attitude of

the hero sometimes even prevails to the point of converting villains into friends” (Sanchez).

Ultimately, Miyazaki does not follow the Disney or Hollywood formulas for his anti-war stories;

Miyazaki, as Pratt would say, adapts and repurposes these American paradigms to depict the

irreparable and unforgivable environmental and societal impacts of war to create a nuanced,

Japanese experienced perspective.

 Works Cited

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. Dir. Hayao Miyazaki. Topcraft, 1984.

Princess Mononoke. Dir. Hayao Miyazaki. Studio Ghibli, 1997.

Howl’s Moving Castle. Dir. Hayao Miyazaki. Studio Ghibli, 2004.

The Wind Rises. Dir. Hayao Miyazaki. Studio Ghibli, 2013.

Pratt, Mary Louise. “Arts of the Contact Zone.” Profession ofession. (1991): 33-40

Sanchez, Dan. “Miyazaki’s Beautiful Antiwar Dreams.” Antiwar.com.

http://original.antiwar.com/Dan_Sanchez/2015/04/27/miyazakis-beautiful-antiwar

dreams/. Accessed 1 March 2017.