Barak Kushner

Some new thoughts about humor and the state of affairs in Sino-Japan relations

Online article about the history of ramen and the politics of food in Japan and China.

"'Noodle-ology': the politics of cuisine"
Download the article from the Cambridge University Research Magazine

"Nationality and Nostalgia: The Manipulation of Memory in Japan, Taiwan, and China since 1990"
How history influences politics and culture in Taiwan, Japan and China

Co-authored with Sato Masaharu, “Digesting Postwar Japanese Media: American Propaganda in Occupied Japan,” Diplomatic History, January 2005, p. 27-48.
Read how America used the Reader's Digest for postwar propaganda in Japan.

“Laughter as Materiel: The Mobilization of Comedy in Japan’s Fifteen-Year War,” volume xxvi, 2 (June 2004), The International History Review, p. 300-330.
Who had fun during World War Two?

"'Negro Propaganda Operations': Japan's short-wave radio information broadcasts for World War II Black Americans"
See my co-authored, award-winning article on Japanese wartime radio propaganda.

The Thought War-- Japanese Imperial Propaganda
The only English- language book that delves into the intricacies of WWII Japanese propaganda

"Planes, Trains and Games: Selling Japan’s War in Asia"
An analysis of Japanese wartime kamishibai and the market for children's propaganda

"Gojira as Japan's First Postwar Media Event," in the book, In Godzilla's Footsteps: Japanese Pop Culture Icons on the Global Stage
My chapter on Godzilla as Japan's first international popular culture icon.