Godzilla's Forever War: Aftermaths of the Cold War in Contemporary Asian Art

The atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 compelled the unconditional surrender and defeat of the Empire of Japan to the Allied Forces, effectively ending World War II. Driven by militarist ideology and the dream of unified Asia under the Yamato race, wartime Japan had ruled over nearly three million square miles of the Asia-Pacific region, making it one of the largest maritime empires in history. It was also one of the most brutal. But with the U.S.-led Occupation and its quick adoption of Japan as a principal ally in the rising Pacific front of the Cold War, Japan’s history and memory of the war were officially erased. American elite academies, working closely with the Department of State, successfully recast the image of Japan from an aggressor to a victim nation.  Demilitarized and in the throes of rapid reconstruction, postwar Japanese society also did an about-face and embraced America’s influence.  This keynote explores the complexity of Japan’s “culture of defeat” by looking at the ways certain artists, including Godzilla director Honda Ishirō, responded to this acute state of political and ideological ambiguity. Using this period as a threshold, we will discuss artists Takashi Murakami, Minouk Lim, Park Chan-kyong, Tiffany Chong and Jitish Kallat whose work has been shaped by the unresolved histories of Cold War geopolitics on individual and national identities.

Time: October 24, 2025, 3:50 - 4:50pm

Location: Archives 1st Conference Hall, Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica, Taipei