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Japanese Writers and the Greater East Asia War

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Donald Keene
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Extract

Japanese literature of the war years (1941–45) has hardly been discussed abroad, and in Japan the tendency, until very recently, was to dismiss the entire production as “sterile,” or even to deny that any existed. Obviously more than strictly literary criteria have occasioned this reluctance to consider a most important though painful period in modern Japanese writing. Foreign scholars have hesitated to uncover dirty linen; the Japanese, embarrassed by old remembrances, naturally prefer to allude to the war in terms of its suffering, rather than in terms of the joy which most people had experienced when sharing certain ideals. On occasion, polemicists have attempted to discredit an opponent by quoting his wartime publications, but the sting of their attacks is dulled by the unspoken awareness that almost everybody was involved and, if guilty, equally so.

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Articles
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 23 , Issue 2 , February 1964 , pp. 209 - 225
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1964

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References

1 Motoichi, Sasaki, “Gendai tanka wa dō naru ka” [“What will happen to the modern tanka?”], Tanka Kenkyū. XV (01 1958), 112–113.Google Scholar

2 Ken, Hirano, “Nihon Bungaku Hōkokukai no seiritsu”Google Scholar [“The Establishment of the Japanese Literature Patriotic Association”], Bungaku, XXIX (May 1961), 6.

3 I leafed through wartime issues of three important American literary periodicals, Harper's, Nation, and New Yorker (roughly parallel to Bungei Shunjū, Kaizō, and Shinchō), but found no “patriotic” poetry or prose of the kind which regularly appeared in the best Japanese magazines.

4 Susumu, Odagiri, “Zoku jūnigatsu yōka no kiroku” [“A Record of December Eighth, Continued”], Bungaku, XXX (04 1962), 104.Google Scholar

5 Ibid, p. 109.

6 Odagiri, , “Jūnigatsu yōka no kiroku” [“A Record of December Eighth”], Bungaku, XXIX (12 1961), 142.Google Scholar

7 “Zoku jūnigatsu,” p. 99.Google Scholar

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10 Ibid, p. 140.

11 Ibid, p. 141.

12 Ibid, p. 133.

13 Ibid, p. 139. See also Mushakōji's article “Shōri e no jikaku” [“An Awakening to Victory”], Bungei Shunjū, XXII (11 1944), 10–13.Google Scholar

14 “Jūnigatsu,” pp. 148–149.Google Scholar

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18 “Jūnigatsu,” p. 149.Google Scholar

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21 Shiga Naoya Zenshū (Iwanami Shoten ed.), IX, 104–105.Google Scholar

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23 Zemmaro, Toki, Nōgaku ShinraishōGoogle Scholar, contains five of his modern Nō plays. Genkō, on Kublai Khan, appeared in Nōgaku, I, (08 1944), 18–22.Google Scholar

24 Text in Kanze, XIV (05 1943), 2–6Google Scholar. This short work was commissioned by the Japanese Navy and set to music by Kanze Muneie. It was first publicly performed in May 1943 by a brilliant cast including Umewaka Manzaburō as the shite (the God of the Equator), and Kanze Tetsunojō as the chief tsure (the captain of the warship). The play is devoid of poetry and even of taste, but the presentation in the traditional Nō style apparently produced a powerful impression. Photographs may be found in Kanze, XIV (07 1943)Google Scholar. For a description of Sprechchor performances, see Korenari, Senda, “Shingeki to watakushi” [“The Modern Drama and Myself”], Bungaku, XXIX (08 1961), 96.Google Scholar

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26 See Hirano, , p. 2Google Scholar, for a detailed listing of personnel.

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29 The special features of this collection, according to the compiler, were: pure feelings of loyalty, praise of the national polity, and the “basic spirit of our pious ancestors.” (Kawada, , Aikoku Hyakunin Isshu Hyōshaku, p. 25Google Scholar). Poets represented included such atypical “masters” as Sakuma Shōzan, Hayashi Shihei, Hirata Atsutane, and Tokugawa Nariaki.

30 Satō, “Aikoku hyakunin isshu shōron” [“A Short Discussion of the Aikpku Hyakunin Isshu”], Kaizō, XXV (06 1943), 81.Google Scholar

31 See Hideki, Ozaki, “Daitōa bungakusha taikai ni tsuite” [“The Greater East Asia Writers Congress”], Bungaku, XXIX (05 1961), 9–27.Google Scholar

32 “Bungakusha no teikei ni tsuite” [“On the Cooperation of Writers”], Kobayashi Hideo Zenshū, VI, 207–210.Google Scholar

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34 Kaizō, XXIV (09 1942), 123.Google Scholar

35 Dazai Osamu Zenshū (Chikuma Shobō ed.), V, 17–18Google Scholar. First published in the February 1942 issue of Fujin Kōron.

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38 Text in Dazai Osamu Zenshū, VII, 158–270Google Scholar. For the background, see Hideki, Ozaki, “Daitōa Kyōdō Sengen to futatsu no sakuhin” [“The Greater East Asia Mutual Declaration and Two Literary Works”], Bungaku, XXIX (08 1961), 20–38.Google Scholar

39 When this novel was reprinted in 1947, Dazai made innumerable changes in the text, toning down the patriotic sentiments considerably. See Dazai Osamu Zenshū, VII, 374–376.Google Scholar

40 Discussed in Ozaki, “Daitōa Kyōdō Sengen,” pp. 33–37Google Scholar. An English translation may be found in The Reeds, Vol. VII and Vol. VIII.

41 See Jun, Takami, Shōwa Bungaku Seisui Shi, II, 274–275.Google Scholar

42 Shigeo, Hatanaka, “‘Ikite ini heitai’ to ‘Sasameyuki’ wo megutte,” Bungaku, XXIX (12 1961), 98–99.Google Scholar

43 Meetings of prospective couples, arranged by go-betweens.

44 Kaizō, XXV (04 1943), 118–119.Google Scholar

45 Nagai Kafū Nikki. VI, 148Google Scholar. (Entry for April 7, 1943).

46 Ibid, p. 158. (Entry for June 3, 1943).

47 Ibid, p. 163. (Entry for June 25, 1943).

48 Ibid, p. 180. (Entry for October 12, 1943).

49 Ibid, pp. 195, 262.

50 The Japanese fondness for keeping diaries, a tradition dating back to the Heian Period, was so strong that even writers fully aware of the danger that they might be searched continued to record their daily thoughts. “I shall have to be careful with this diary,” wrote Takami Jun as he began what was to develop into a 3,000 page diary for 1945 alonel See his “Ankoku jidai no Kamakura bunshi” [“A Kamakura Writer during the Dark Ages”], Bungei Shunjū, XXXVI (07 1958).Google Scholar

51 Takami, , p. 298Google Scholar. This entry was written on August 12, 1945, three days before the surrender.

52 The noted painter Fujita Tsugiharu expressed the belief in “Ōshū gadan e no beibetsu” [“Farewell to the Painting Circles of Europe”] that Japan had become the centre of world culture and no longer needed to look to Europe. (Kaizō, XXV, [02 1943]Google Scholar. Mushakōji Saneatsu in “Shōri e no jikaku” decried all American art, except for the etchings of Whistler, which show the influence of Japanese ukiyoe. He stated moreover that he would like to drop bombs on New York and Washington on the day of the presidential inauguration in 1945 together with leaflets asking, “Have you learned your lesson?” (Bungei Shunjū, XXII [11 1944], 10–13.)Google Scholar

53 Jōruri Zasshi, No. 424 (10 1944), 20.Google Scholar

54 Among the author's other indictments we find:

“Villains who in place of the independence they promised the Philippines,

Forced them to buy electric phonographs, refrigerators and sewing machines.”

55 Tanaca Kōtarō Zenshū, III, 257–258.Google Scholar

56 Noguchi, , Hakkōshō Ippyakuhen, pp. 119–121.Google Scholar

57 Venture to the Interior, p. 225.Google Scholar