Abstract
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.
Notes
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.
Ibid, p. 109.
Ibid, pp. 145–146.
Ibid, p. 140.
Ibid, p. 141.
Ibid, p. 133.
Ibid, p. 139. See also Mushakōji's article “Shōri e no jikaku” [“An Awakening to Victory”],
Ibid, p. 53.
Text in
. 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 . For a description of Sprechchor performances, seeThe 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.” (
Satō, “Aikoku hyakunin isshu shōron” [“A Short Discussion of the Aikpku Hyakunin Isshu”],
See
Text in
. For the background, seeWhen this novel was reprinted in 1947, Dazai made innumerable changes in the text, toning down the patriotic sentiments considerably. See
Discussed in Ozaki,
. An English translation may be found in The Reeds, Vol. VII and Vol. VIII.Meetings of prospective couples, arranged by go-betweens.
Ibid, p. 158. (Entry for June 3, 1943).
Ibid, p. 163. (Entry for June 25, 1943).
Ibid, p. 180. (Entry for October 12, 1943).
Ibid, pp. 195, 262.
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
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. (
. 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?” (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.”
