3 - Germany in Nonfiction

Summary

Chapter 3 examines interwar Japanese nonfiction’s depictions of Germany, which fall into two phases. In the first, spanning the 1920s, authors and translators explored topics that reflected the liberal Weimar and Taisho zeitgeists. Publications dwelling on the postwar gloom soon gave way to ones marveling at Germany’s recovery in the mid-decade, though opinion makers could not agree what resurgent Germany should look like. But just as the revival was accepted as a fixture, the world economic crisis altered Germany so fundamentally that it forced commentators to reassess the country. The second stage, from the early 1930s, marks the ascent of transnational Nazism. The once-diverse interests in Germany narrowed down to interpretations of Hitler and Nazism. Although many writers fixated on the Führer, their discussions were often superficial and indulged in personality tidbits or Nazi propaganda. Nevertheless, the charismatic leader elicited such enthusiasm that publishers responded with multiple biographies and graphic covers. Well before the Anti-Comintern Pact, authors and editors had already formed a chorus extolling the virtues of Nazism and rapprochement with Germany.