The Man Who Saved Kabuki: Faubion Bowers and Theatre Censorship in Occupied Japan

Faubion Bowers, who served as personal aide and interpreter to General Douglas MacArthur in Japan, was appalled by the Occupation's censorship policies aimed at eliminating all traces of feudal thought in Japanese media and entertainment, including kabuki. Bowers used his position in the Occupation administration and his knowledge of Japanese theatre in a tireless campaign to save kabuki. This lively and skillfully adapted translation from the original Japanese offers fascinating and little-known details about Occupation censorship politics and kabuki performance while providing yet another perspective on the history of an enduring Japanese art form.

Okamoto Shiro spent most of his career as a journalist for the Mainichi Shinbim and is now a freelance writer Samuel L. Leiter is head of the graduate program of the Department of Theatre, Brooklyn College, City University of New York, and faculty member of the Ph.D. program, City University of New York