Janice Bardsley, associate professor of Japanese, teaches courses in Japanese literature, women's writing, and women and work.
Her first talk considers the influential role played by American women in promoting democracy to Japanese women when the Allied forces occupied Japan from 1945 to 1952.
Cartoons, advertisements, and articles from Japanese women's magazines of the era show how Japanese understood American women's freedoms in marriage, work, and public life.
Professor Bardsley's second talk explores how royal women stand at the controversial divide between Japan's imperial past and globalizing pressures of the new century. Photographs of royal weddings show how the mass media present a romantic picture of the empress and crown princess to the nation and the world.
The third talk, "Of Princesses and Politics in the 1950s" concerns how the royal marriage between a prince and a commoner was heralded as a major step for Japanese democray in 1959, and how Japanese compared their "modern" royals to those in Europe. This talk features slides, and looks at the worldwide fascination with princesses in the 1950s and how this interest played out in Japan.