References

1
Occupation: the American Way of Life as an Imposed Model

1 A controversy arose in 1978 between Et Jun and Honda Shgo concerning ‘unconditional’ versus ‘conditional’ surrender and was argued out in the dailies Mainichi Shinbun and Asahi Shinbun, the weekly Asahi Journal, the monthly literary journal Bungei, and the weekly book review paper Shkan Dokushojin. Et was taking issue with the assumption behind the phrase, ‘as a result of Japan’s unconditional surrender’, used by Hirano Ken in his Shwa Bungakushi (A History of Literature in the Shwa Period), Chikuma Shob, 1963; he claimed that this assumption was an underlying cause of the bankruptcy of postwar Japanese literature.

Honda wrote ‘On the meaning of “unconditional surrender”’ (Bungei, September 1978), taking on the mantle of the late Hirano Ken, one of his fellow editors of the magazine Kindai Bungaku (Modern Literature). This article formed the starting point of the Honda versus Et controversy. Et’s arguments can be found in two books: Wasureta Koto to Wasuresaserareta Koto (Things We Have Forgotten and Things We Have Been Forced to Forget), Bungei Shunjsha, 1979, and M Hitotsu no Sengoshi (An Alternative Postwar History), Kdansha, 1978.

This controversy remained to the end a conflict where the many participants on both sides conceded nothing. This was partly because of the confusion between the aspect of ascertaining the facts, and the ideological aspect of interpreting those facts; and also because each party sought a single meaning corresponding to every term.

First of all, the Potsdam Declaration of 1945 stated the conditions of peace with Japan, so in this sense, the peace was conditional. (On this point, Et was confirming what had already been stated by legal experts Taoka Ryichi and Takano Yichi.) The Potsdam Declaration also demanded the ‘unconditional surrender of all the Japanese Armed Forces’. The postwar Japanese media (as well as Ministry of Foreign Affairs documents) reduced to ‘unconditional surrender’ the legal fact that Japan had accepted the unconditional surrender of the armed forces in an unconditional way that allowed for no bargaining. This abridged term gained wide currency in postwar Japan. A look at postwar monthly magazines shows that the use of the term ‘unconditional surrender’ is taken for granted. The establishment of such a term reflects the wishes of the Occupation forces who controlled the Japanese mass media and did not allow any challenge to their decisions. One could say that this attitude of the Occupation forces deviated from a straight interpretation of the Potsdam Declaration, but the psychosocial reality of ‘unconditional surrender’, including this approach of the Occupation forces, continued for some time after 1945.

The position which tries to reverse this way of thinking by returning to the Potsdam Declaration on which it is based, is also a possibility. Following Taoka Ryichi and Takano Yichi, Inoue Kiyoshi and Suzuki Masashi’s Nihon Kindaishi (Modern History of Japan), Gd Shuppansha, 1956, takes the theory of conditional surrender from the left-wing viewpoint, the exact opposite of Et’s stance. The same line is followed in Mimura Fumio’s ‘Potsudamu sengen judaku wa mujken kfuku de atta ka—sengoshi saidai no mujun ni tsuite’ (Was the acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration an unconditional surrender?—the biggest contradiction of postwar history), Rekishi Hyron, April 1965, and in Inoue Kiyoshi’s ‘Sengo Nihon no rekishi’ (The history of postwar Japan), in Gendai no Me, August 1965.

Et’s conditional surrender argument differed from the opinions of these predecessors and represented a denial of the interpretation of contemporary history by the so-called postwar progressives; so in combination with the change in Zeitgeist, it had considerable influence.

Isoda Kichi’s Sengoshi no Kkan (The Space of Postwar History) Shinchsha, 1983, is a scrupulous record following the oscillations of the term ‘unconditional surrender’, distinguishing four phases: 1945, the early Occupation, post-Occupation, and post-1960s, which saw the recovery of confidence by the Japanese ruling class.

Fujimura Michio’s Futatsu no senry to Shwashi (Two occupations and a history of the Shwa Period) in Sekai, August 1981, places two occupations in a time span of half a century, the first occurring in 1931 when a petty officer of the Japanese Army caused the ‘Manchurian Incident’, and the ‘semi-occupation’ of Japan by the military, and the second being the ‘Occupation’ of Japan by the American forces after the defeat in 1945. According to this view, the war which began with the invasion of China in 1931 was a 40-year war which lasted until the restoration of diplomatic relations between Japan and China in 1972:

The Fifteen Years’ War view of history which directly links the Manchurian Incident (1931) with Pearl Harbour, and the theory of fascism and the Emperor System which goes with the historical view, denied the dynamism of history by underestimating the possibilities which existed for preventing the war between the Manchurian Incident and the Marco Polo Bridge Incident (1937). As a result, postwar democracy was unable to correctly grasp the historical significance of the early Shwa period movement to protect parliamentary democracy, and was not fully able to inherit the prewar democratic tradition in Japan. The Fifteen Years’ War theory needs to be re-examined in conforming to historical reality.

This criticism by Fujimura Michio presents a major point of contention for future research in Shwa history.

2 Baerwald, Hans H., The Purge of Japanese Leaders under the Occupation, University of California Press, 1959 (Japanese translation by Sodei Rinjir, published as Shidsha Tsuih, Keisei Shob, 1970).

3 Since then, detailed records pertaining to war responsibility have been compiled by Yamanaka Hisashi, Takasaki Ryji and Sakuramoto Tomio:

Yamanaka Hisashi, Bokura Shkokumin (We, the Junior Patriots), Henkysha, 1974.

Mitami Ware (Your Faithful Servant), Henkysha, 1975.

Uchiteshi Yamamu (Fight to the Death), Henkysha, 1977.

Hoshigarimasen, Katsu Made wa (I shall want nothing, until victory), Henkysha, 1979.

Shri no Hi Made (Until the Day of Victory), Henkysha, 1980.

Shkokumin Taiken o Saguru (In Search of the Junior Patriot Experience), Henkysha, 1981.

Shkokumin Nto (Notes on the Junior Patriots), Henkysha, 1982.

Shiry: Senji Shkokumin no Uta (Documents: Wartime Songs of the Junior Patriots), Nippon Columbia Records. (Gzt 101–2), 1978. Because of harassment only 1,000 copies were released.

Sench Kyiku no Uramado (The Back Window of Wartime Education), Asahi Shinbunsha, 1979.

Takasaki Ryji, Sens Bungaku Tsshin (War Literature Newsletter), Fbaisha, 1975.

Senjika no Zasshi—sono Hikari to Kage (The Light and Dark Sides of Wartime Magazines), Fbaisha, 1976.

Senjika Bungaku no Shhen (The Periphery of Wartime Literature), Fbaisha, 1981.

Sakuramoto Tomio, Hinomaru wa Mite Ita (The Japanese Flag Was Watching), Marujusha, 1982.

Shkokumin wa Wasurenai (The Junior Patriots Will Not Forget), Marujusha, 1982.

Khaku to Sekinin (Void and Responsibility), Miraisha, 1983.

Konno Toshihiko and Sakuramoto Tomio, Sabetsu Sens Sekinin

Nto (Notes on Discrimination and War Responsibility), Yachiyo Shuppan, 1983.

The importance of these publications lies in the fact that they were achieved by the individual efforts of their respective authors. The nation got by with drawing a veil over wartime responsibility. Members of political parties and professional literary circles avoided criticism of those they associated with publicly as fellow members of such groups. For this reason isolated individuals took on the task of collecting records of wartime speech and actions. This is the actual state of postwar Japanese cultural history, whether we are talking about popular or highbrow culture.

The documents reproduced by Yamanaka, Takahashi and Sakuramoto are reliable; the fact of the very existence of these documents must surely be acknowledged. Interpretation and evaluation of their work must eventually be carried out, but a tendency to avoid fact-finding and move straight on towards the evaluation of poets, writers, philosophers and academics has still not been reversed.

For an index of basic materials available, the following can be listed:

Fukushima Chr and kubo Hisao (eds.), Dai T-a Sens Shshi (Bibliography of the Greater East Asian War) (3 vols.), Nichigai Associates, 1981.

Senjika no Genron (Wartime Public Opinion) (2 vols.), Nichigai Associates, 1982.

4 Matsuura Sz, Senryoka no Genron Dan’atsu (Suppression of Speech under the Occupation), Gendai Jnarizumu Shuppankai, 1969; Urada Minoru, Senrygun no Ybin Ken’etsu to Yshu (The Occupation Army’s Mail Censorship and Philately), Nippon Yshu Shuppan, 1982; Et Jun, Wasureta Koto to Wasuresaserareta Koto (Things We Have Forgotten and Things We Have Been Forced to Forget), Bungei Shunjsha, 1979.

5 Uchimura Sukeyuki, Keynaru Ryjoku Satsujinjiken no Seishin Kantei Kiroku (A Record of Verdicts with Mitigating Factors on an Unusual Sex Murder Case), Sgensha, 1952; Kodaira jiken (The Kodaira Incident), in Uchimura Sukeyuki and Yoshimasu Nobuo, Nihon no Seishinkantei (Japanese Verdicts with Mitigating Circumstances), Misuzu Shob, 1973.

6 Hogben, Lancelot, From Cave Painting to Comic Strip, 1949. Japanese translation, Iwanami Bunko, 1979.

2
Occupation: on the Sense of Justice

7 Redfield, Robert, The Litle Community, University of Chicago Press, 1955.

8 Ministry of Foreign Affairs (ed.), Shsenshiroku (Historical Record of the End of the War), Shinbun Gekkansha, 1952.

9 Asahi Shinbunsha Legal Reporters (eds.), Tokyo Saiban (The Tokyo Trials) (3 vols.), Tokyo Saiban Kank-kai, 1962.

10 Keenan, Joseph Barry, and Brown, Brendan Francis, Crimes against International Law, Washington, D.C., Public Affairs Press, 1950.

11 Maruyama Masao, ‘Gunkoku shihaisha no seishinkeitai’ (Psychological types of leaders of military states), in Gendai Seiji no Shis to Kd (Philosophy and Practice of Modern Politics), Miraisha, 1964.

12 Sat Ryichi, Gyakutai no Kiroku (Records of Atrocity), Ushio Shob, 1953; Sugamo Prison Legal Affairs Committee, Harukanaru Minami Jjisei—Senpan no Jiss (The Distant Southern Cross—the True Face of War Criminals), Sann Shob, 1967. Shiojiri Kimiaki’s Aru Isho ni tsuite (Concerning a Certain Will), Shakai Shis Kenkykai Shup panbu, 1951, was published during the Occupation and testified to the unfairness of the trials of B and C grade war criminals. Published later were:

Utsumi Aiko, Chsenjin B C ky Senpan no Kiroku (Record of B and C grade Korean War Criminals), Keis Shob, 1982.

Kamisaka Fuyuko, Sugamo Purizun Jsang Teppi (Iron Door Number Thirteen, Sugamo Prison), Shinchsha, 1981.

Nokosareta Tsuma (The Wives who were Left Behind), Ch Kronsha, 1983.

13 Sugamo Isho Hensankai, Seiki no Isho (Wills of the Century), Sugamo Isho Hensankai Kank Jimusho, 1953.

14 The classification which I carried out can be found in Tsurumi Shunsuke et al., Atarashii Kaikoku (Second Opening of the Country); Vol. I of Nihon no Hyakunen (Japan’s Hundred Years), Chikuma Shob, 1961; Tsurumi Kazuko, Social Change and the Individual, Princeton University Press, 1970.

15 Sakuta Keiichi, ‘Shi to no wakai’ (Reconciliation with death), in Ningen Keisei no Shakaigaku (Sociology of Character Formation), Gendai Shakaigaku Kza, Vol. 5, Yhikaku, 1964. Reprinted in Haji no Bunka Saik (A Reassessment of the Culture of Shame), Chikuma Shob, 1967.

16 It would certainly have been rare for such an opinion to be expressed so clearly to the media. Rather than the direct influence of Occupation army censorship, it can be interpreted as self-regulation coming from the awareness of being under occupation, which existed widely among the Japanese.

17 ‘Seven Heads—to the seven war criminals, including Tj Hideki, who were sentenced to death by hanging’, Tsuboi Shigeharu:

Seven heads
soon
will hang

For the seven heads
we will not shed tears
not because we do not know sorrow
but because we know
the tears the People shed
are so salty

If we could
put the noose around the seven necks
with our own hands
the dead would rise up from their graves
such deep sorrow
the people have been made to taste

You who feel sorrow
for those seven heads soon to hang
weep your fill
till your bag of tears bursts
we will not forbid it
as we were once forbidden
to shed tears for sorrow

That is not all
we will
give black necklaces
as a last gift for the seven necks
so that they can cease to breathe
with certainty

Iron guillotine
you
were not prepared
for revolutionaries only
the seven necks soon to be hanged
will give you greeting
which you should accept
mercilessly

Tsuboi Shigeharu wrote two poems using the metaphor of a kettle made from the superlative iron of the Nanbu region (Iwate Prefecture). One, ‘To an Iron Kettle’, was written during the war, and praised the great war efforts of the people; the other, ‘Song of the Iron Kettle’, written after the war, extolled the struggle of the people in the society restored to peace. This continuity was pointed out ironically by Yoshimoto Takaaki in his article ‘Poets of Yesterday’ in Shigaku, November 1955.

Tsuboi’s ‘Seven Heads’, which was written immediately on hearing the verdict of the Tokyo Trials on 11 November 1946 reveals the attitude of the Communist Party that even a person who had written poems in praise of the war, and might thereby have sent an indefinite number of young people to their death, if he returns to the Party after the war, will be given the right to look down on the war leaders in this way.

18 Pal’s dissenting opinion was first translated into Japanese as Nihon Muzairon (Japan Not Guilty), Nihon Shob, 1952. The title gives the impression that Pal condoned the Japanese war, and was received by the Japanese in this mistaken way. In this, it is quite similar to the Japanese reception earlier of Gandhi, Tagore and Lu Hsun, praising their criticism of British imperialism while overlooking their criticism of Japanese imperialism. Pal’s view was more accurately presented later in Tokyo Saiban Kenkykai, Kyd Kenky Paaru Hanketsusho (A Joint Study of Pal’s Judgement), Tokyo Saiban Kankkai, 1966.

19 Looking at the shifts in attitude to altering Article 9 of the constitution, which renounces war, at the end of the Occupation in 1952, revisionists were in the majority; by 1955 this trend had been reversed; and since 1970 the anti-revisionists have outstripped the revisionists. NHK Hs Yoron Chsajo (ed.), Zusetsu Sengo Yoronshi (Illustrated History of Postwar Public Opinion), Nippon Hs Shuppan Kykai, 1975.

Nishihira Shigeyoshi and others from the Mathematical Statistics Research Institute have conducted public opinion polls under the title Nihonjin no Kokuminsei (The Japanese National Character) every five years on six occasions since 1953. The most recently published results are of the poll conducted in 1978, published as The Japanese National Character: Four, Idemitsu Shoten, 1982.

‘In the Mathematical Statistics Research Institute’s ‘Japanese National Character’ polls, held every five years since 1953, respondents were asked which of the following three opinions they agreed with:

1. Japan as a whole will improve only when the individual achieves happiness.

2. The individual will not achieve happiness until Japan has improved.

3. The good of the country and the happiness of the individual are one and the same thing.

The first opinion which favours the individual remained steady between 25% and 30%, with no great fluctuations. The second statement which favours the nation, fell from 37% to 27%, showing a clearly declining trend, while the third opinion, which views both individual and nation as inseparable, increased from 31% to 41%. In other words, the opinion which puts the nation first, equating national prosperity with individual happiness, has decreased, but the view which emphasizes the individual has not increased: only the view which equates the nation and individual happiness has increased.

In 1978 respondents were asked more precisely to which opinion of the following they felt more inclined:

1. Even if the country prospers, only one section of people profits, and each individual citizen’s life will not improve.

2. If the country prospers, each individual citizen’s life will improve.

The result was 37% versus 57%. However in a 1971 opinion poll of the Mainichi Shinbun, a mere 18% agreed with the statement, ‘The national interest and the interest of the individual are more or less in agreement’, with 75% denying it. Therefore, this probably means that increasing the national interest does not directly bear on individual happiness but that individual happiness is unthinkable without national prosperity.’ Nishihira Shigeyoshi, Nihonjin ni totte no kokka—yoron chsa kara mita (How the Japanese view the Nation State—as seen in public opinion polls) in Shis no Kagaku, June 1982. This essay was written as part of Nishihira’s yet unpublished Yoron chsa ni miru Djidaishi (Contemporary History as Seen in the Opinion Polls).

Opinion polls have shown since 1955 that a majority has supported the anti-war Article 9 of the constitution, and that, parallel with this, a majority has also accepted the existence of the Self Defence Corps. This fact may be seen against the background of the view of the nation state indicated by Nishihira. As Maruyama Masao states in Kenp Daikyj o meguru jakkan no ksatsu (A few thoughts concerning Article Nine of the Constitution), in Kei no Ichi kara (From the Position of the Rearguard), Miraisha, 1982, it is possible to interpret Article Nine and the Preface to the Constitution as existing in order to define the direction of the Self Defence Corps, the fact of whose existence cannot actually be denied. It is difficult to predict with any certainty whether this direction will continue to be kept open, but at least it can be said that the Japanese at present possess such a set of values, however fluid.

20 Hayashi Fusao, Dai T-a Sens Kteiron (In Support of the Greater East Asian War), Banch Shob, 1964; Zoku: Dai T-a Sens Kteiron (In Support of the Greater East Asian War: a Sequel), Banch Shob, 1965.

Hayashi Fusao’s writings originally appeared in serial form in Ch Kron, parallel with Ueyama Shunpei’s Dai T-a Sens no Imi (The Meaning of the Greater East Asian War), Ch Kronsha, 1964, which was also included in Dai T-a Sens no Isan (The Legacy of the Greater East Asian War), Chk Ssho, 1972. In his wish to be free from the Occupation army’s view of the Greater East Asian War, he is in the same mould as Hayashi’s works. Ueyama’s argument, however, inclines towards fixing his gaze on the original sin of the nation state, Japan included, to prevent another eruption of the power structure of the nation state.

21 On 8 April 1982, a decision was brought in the Supreme Court concerning the second appeal in the textbook authorization case (first lodged in 1967). The verdict ordered a return to the Tokyo High Court, with the result that the appeal was continued. Subsequently, a third appeal was lodged in January 1984.

Several more problems arose with textbook authorization. The previous year pressure had been brought to bear to delete the picture by Maruki Iri and his wife Toshi from the senior high school textbook Gendai Shakai (Contemporary Society). Following on this, in 1984, cuts were required in a Grade Six primary school textbook. On 5 July 1982, both the Okinawan Times and the Ryky Shinbun protested against the authorization by Monbush of cuts from Japanese history textbooks of atrocities committed against the citizens of Okinawa by Japanese troops in the Battle of Okinawa.

On 26 July 1982, the Chinese Foreign Ministry protested against the replacing in Japanese history textbooks of the word ‘invasion’ of China with the vaguer ‘advance’. South Korean, Thai and Hong Kong newspapers all published protests about Japanese textbooks. After a long time, the offensive term was changed back to what it had been before, but the basic system of authorization together with its policy have remained unchanged.

22 Shiroyama Sabur, War Criminal, the Life and Death of Hirota Kki, tr. by John Bester, Kdansha International, 1977.

The Dutch judge Bernard Röling, who took part in the Tokyo Trials, made a speech entitled ‘Aspects of the Nuremberg and Tokyo Trials’ in the Dutch Academic Council in 1978, in which he reaffirmed his judgment that Hirota was innocent, which he had expressed as a minority opinion at the time of the Trials. He also maintained that ‘his policies should not be called criminal in the light of the legal concepts current at the time’, and expressed the opinion that he had adopted dangerous policies whose methods were not those of military aggression but of indirect aggression; once these policies were connected with the build-up of armaments, they increased the strength of the military, and in due course enabled the military to wrest the leadership from Hirota. This article appeared in Japanese as ‘Hirota Kki o saishin suru’ (Retrial of Hirota Kki) in Ch Kron, July 1983. Röling took part in the International Symposium on the “Tokyo Trials”’ which was held in Tokyo on 28 and 29 May 1983. This symposium made possible, 35 years after the event, a wider perspective on the Tokyo Trials. numa Yasuaki writes that the Trials ‘are related to the responsibility of leadership and to the noteworthy concept of obligatory civil disobedience towards illegal commands by the state’, in ‘“Bunmei no sabaki” “shsha no sabaki” o koete’ (Beyond the ‘trials by civilization’ and ‘trials by the victors’), Ch Kron, August 1983.

23 Takeda Taijun, Luminous Moss, tr. by Shibuya Yasabur and Sanford Goldstein, in This Outcast Generation and Luminous Moss, Tuttle, 1967.

24 Kinoshita Junji, Between God and Man, a Judgement on War Crimes, tr. by Eric J.Gangloff, University of Tokyo Press, 1979.

25 Included in the previously mentioned Testaments of the Century.

26 See reference 25.

27 Inoue Kiyoshi, Tenn no Sens Sekinin (The Emperor’s Responsibility in the War), Gendai Hyronsha, 1975.

Kojima Noboru, in Tenn (Emperor), Bungei Shunjsha, 5 vols., 1974, weaves in episodes such as the Emperor’s rejection by his own decision of a peace initiative when the Army General Staff desired peace with China (just before Konoe’s statement that he would not deal with Chang Kai Shek’s government), but on the whole he presents an image of an upright Emperor trying to be a constitutional monarch.

28 Postwar opinion polls on the issue are as follows:

See Table

NHK Hs Yoron Chsajo (ed.) Zusetsu Sengo Yoronshi (Illustrated History of Postwar Public Opinion Polls).

29 Sasaki Gen, ‘Orokamono no hi’ (The Monument to the Stupid), in Shis no Kagaku Kenkykai (ed.), Kyd Kenky—Shdan (Joint Research: Groups), Heibonsha, 1976.

3
Comics in Postwar Japan

30 Coulton Waugh, The Comics, The Macmillan Co., New York, 1947.

31 George McManus, Bringing Up Father, Herb Galewitz (ed.), Bonanza Books, 1973. Looking back through this book at Bringing Up Father, one can understand how it was received in Japan as a guide to styles of living after the First World War. One look at this comic must have immediately made clear what a flapper, for example, was. A revolution in sex and marriage, a weakening of parental authority, a challenge to masculine culture through the feminization of culture: all these themes were found in visible form in this comic strip.

32 Asahi Graph, January 1925.

33 Niijima J, Hakodate Kik (Journey to Hakodate); Hakodate Dasshutsu no Ki (Escape from Hakodate); Hakodate yori no Ryakki (Brief Note from Hakodate). Unpublished journals.

34 Kishida Gink, Usun Nikki (Wusung Diary). Unpublished journal.

35 Miyao Shigeo, Nippon no Giga: Rekishi to Fzoku (Japanese Cartoons—their history and social background), Daiichi Hki Shuppan, 1967. The following books deal in detail with the cartoons in the Hryji ceiling: Kuno Takeshi, Hryji kond tenjita rakugaki (Ceiling cartoons on the ceiling of Hryji Golden Pavilion), in Bijutsu Kenky . No. 140, 1947; Nara Rokudaiji Taikan (The Six Major Temples of Nara), Vol. I, Hryji (1), Iwanami Shoten, 1972.

36 See reference 35.

37 Yashiro Yukio, Watashi no Bijutsu Henreki (My Pilgrimage in Art), Iwanami Shoten, 1972.

38 Ichikawa Hakugen, Ikky, NHK Bukkusu, Nihon Hs Shuppan Kykai, 1970.

39 Tominaga Ken’ichi (ed.), Nippon no Kais Kz (The Class Structure of Japan), Tokyo Daigaku Shuppankai, 1979, where he writes: ‘One reason for the difficulty in drawing a sketch map to illustrate contemporary Japanese society is that people have practically no concept of “boundary” between the different strata…. Even when discussing the question of nearly all Japanese thinking of themselves as middle class, the above-mentioned awareness is vital.’ For this reason, Tominaga described Japanese class structure using the multiple variables of occupational status, education, income, assets, life style and power, without combining them into one variable. This means that it is more appropriate in the case of Japan to talk specifically in terms of the position of a graduate of the law faculty of Tokyo University in the Ministry of Finance. Apparently there is a strong sense of belonging to groups such as being an employee of Electric Power Supply, or a player with the Giants Baseball Team, but an awareness of belonging to the working class or the middle class is lacking in Japanese class structure.

40 Because of the great economic growth since 1955, the real spending power of the individual Japanese citizen rose four to five times in the 20 years to 1975. In addition to this is the fact that class divisions are not strong in Japanese culture. Consequently, opinion polls since 1977 have continued to show that fully 90% of people reply that they belong to the middle class. Bureau of Economic Planning, Kokumin Seikatsu Senkdo Chsa (Surveys of Preferences in National Life), November 1975.

41 Kata Kji, Kamishibai Shwashi (History of the Picture-card Show in the Shwa Period), bunsha, 1979.

42 Kajii Jun, Sengo no Kashihon Bunka (The Culture of Postwar Lending Libraries), Tksha, 1976.

43 During the seventies and eighties the number of manga titles published in Japan was phenomenal; while publishers of normal books were going bankrupt, those who relied mostly on manga could rest easy. The year 1977 was a bad one for ordinary magazines, but boys’ and girls’ comic magazines significantly increased their sales. In that year, manga amounted to 28% of all material published in Japan. In the following year, 1978, boys’ manga had a growth of over 20%. According to a survey by the Shuppan Kagaku Kenkyjo (Research Institute for Publication Science), with 4,044 new titles published between January and October 1978, and total sales of 123,460,000, 65% of titles and 70% of total sales were taken by manga. Hyakka Nenkan (Annual Encyclopaedia Supplement), Heibonsha, 1979. To mention new types of manga, not just quantity, Shirato Sanpei, Mizuki Shigeru and Tsuge Yoshiharu all started out with the small circulation comic magazine called Garo.

It is a difficult task to make a comprehensive survey of manga. In Sengo Mangashi Nto (Jottings of Postwar Manga History), Kinokuniya Shinsho, 1975, Ishiko Junz has recorded names of works, their date of publication and the names of the magazines they appeared in. Soeda Yoshiya’s Manga Bunka (Manga Culture), Kinokuniya Shoten, 1983, treats manga quantitatively and considers their significance in postwar Japanese society. The first foreign book written about Japanese manga is Schodt, Frederik, L., The Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics, Kdansha International 1983.

44 Inaba Michio, ‘Sore de mo anata wa osuki?—Shnen mangashi ni miru taik gensho’ (So you still like them?—the retrogressive phenomenon as seen in boys’ comic magazines) in the monthly Shy, January 1978; Tsumura Takashi, Mangateki na keikan no joshidaisei koroshi jiken (The Manga-like murder of female college students by a policeman), in Shy, March, 1978. This controversy was waged for a year in the pages of Shy .

45 See note 39.

4
Vaudeville Acts

46 Don Rodrigo de Vivero, Don Rodrigo’s Record of Things Heard and Seen in Japan (Appendix: Report on the Exploration of the Biscay Gold and Silver Islands) Japanese translation by Murakami Naojir, Ikoku Ssho, Shnnansha, 1919; Kawazoe Noboru, Kon Wajir no rykron (Kon Wajir’s fashion theory), in Gendai Fzoku Kenkykai (Research Institute for Contemporary Customs), ed. Gendai Fzoku, No. 3, 1979; see also Kon Wajir (1888–1973), Kon Wajirsh (A Collection of Kon Wajir’s Works), Vol. 9, Domesu Shuppan 1972.

47 See reference 46.

48 E.S.Morse, Japan Day by Day, 1–3, 1917, Japanese translation by Ishikawa Kin’ichi, Ty Bunko, Heibonsha, 1970. Morse first visited Japan in 1877. His biography was written by Dorothy Wayman: Edward Sylvester Morse (2 vols.), 1942. Japanese translation by Ninagawa Chikamasa, Ch Kron Bijutsu Shuppan, 1976.

49 B.H.Chamberlain, Things Japanese (2 vols.), 1905. Japanese translation by Takanashi Kenkichi, Ty Bunko Heibonsha, 1969. Chamberlain was in Japan from 1873 to 1911.

50 Ernest Satow, Ichi Gaikkan no Mita Meiji Ishin (The Meiji Restoration as Seen by a Foreign Diplomat). Japanese translation by Sakata Seiichi, Iwanami Bunko, 1960.

51 Orikuchi Shinobu, Nihon Bungaku no Hatten (The Development of Japanese Literature), 1931. Reprinted in Orikuchi Shinobu Zensh (Collected Works of Orikuchi Shinobu), Chk Bunko, 1976. Orikuchi’s theories about banquet entertainments, or art forms which developed specifically for use at drinking parties, were expounded in several of his writings. They were developed by scholars who were influenced by Orikuchi, and who attempted to verify his theories: Ikeda Yasabur, Nihon Gein Denshron (The Transmission of Japanese Performing Arts), Ch Kronsha, 1962; Tada Michitar, Shigusa no Nihon Bunka (The Japanese Culture of Gesture), Chikuma Shob, 1972.

52 Fujiwara no Sadaie (1162–1241) was 38 years old at the time, and had just been granted leave to attend the palace as a court poet.

53 For the history of manzai, refer to the following specialist historical research: Morita Yoshinori, Chsei Senmin to Zatsugein no Kenky (Research in Medieval Outcasts and Miscellaneous Performing Arts), Yzankaku, 1974; Hayashiya Tatsusabur, Chsei Geinshi no Kenky (Research into the History of the Medieval Performing Arts), Iwanami Shoten 1960.

54 For a history of manzai since the Meiji Period see Yoshida Tamesabur, Manzai Taiheiki (A Manzai Chronicle of the Great Peace), Sanwa Tosho, 1964; Yoshida Tamesabur, Manzai Fsetsuroku (Manzai Weathering the Blizzard), Kygei Shuppan, 1978. For a history which comes up to the present day see: Maeda Isamu, Kamigata Manzai Happyakunenshi (Eight hundred years of manzai in the Kamigata Region), Sugimoto Shoten, 1975; Misumi Haruo, Sasuraibito no Geinshi (History of the Performing Arts of Wayfarers), NHK Bukkusu, Nihon Hs Shuppan Kykai, 1976.

55 The two wits were Akita Minoru (1905–1977) and Nagaoki Makoto (1904–1976). Nagaoki Makoto, Kamigata Shgei Kenbunroku (Record of my Experiences as a Comedian in the Kamigata Region), Kygei Shuppan, 1977; Akita Minoru, Watakushi wa Manzai Sakusha (I am a Manzai Writer), Bungei Shunjsha, 1975.

For an appraisal of Akita Minoru, see Yamamoto Akira ‘Akita Minoru no warai to wa nan de atta ka’ (The Humour of Akita Minoru) in Kimigata Gein, Special Issue on Akita Minoru, April 1978.

56 It is difficult to make adequate records of a popular art like manzai, which is always in a state of flux. The earliest treatment is Yanagita Kunio’s (1875–1962) Kebzuk (Reflections of a Long-haired Priest), 1914. Taking a hint from this, Hayakawa Ktar wrote in 1927 Sansh Tokura no Kagura no Saiz no Koto (On the Saiz in the Kagura of Tokura, Mikawa County). Further, the magazine Gein Tzai published from 1975 to 1977 ‘An exchange of letters concerning the Saiz market’ by Ozawa Shichi and Nagai Hiro’o, which investigated the way in which the tay-saiz team was formed.

A book which deals with manzai in relation with other popular performing arts is Ei Rokusuke’s Geinintachi no Geinshi (History of Performing Arts and Artists), Bunshun Bunko, Bungei Shunjsha, 1975 (first appeared 1969).

57 Collier, John Payne, Punch and Judy, Thomas Hailes, 1823. The importance of the role of Punch seems to have been early realized in Japan among people involved in the puppet theatre, and is commented on by Minamie Jir (1902–) who was concerned with puppet drama since the Taish Period. For example: Kindai Ningygeki no Genry o Saguru— Fuausto to Panchi (Tracing the Origins of the Modern Puppet Theatre— Faust and Punch), Ikadasha, 1972. This book originally appeared in 1942 during the war, with a preface by Naruse Mukyoku giving an account of his friendship with the author since the Taish Period.

58 When these lectures were given in the spring of 1980, unknown to me there had already been in Japan a revival of manzai. A new style with a new designation, ‘The Manzai’, presumably signifies an internationalization of manzai art. Detailed discussions of the development of this new stream can be found in the following: Inoue Hiroshi, Manzai—Osaka no Warai (Manzai—the Humour of Osaka) Sekai Shissha, 1981; Minami Hiroshi, Nagai Hiro’o, Ozawa Shichi (eds.), Irodoru—Iromono no Sekai (Makeup—the World of Vaudeville), Hakusuisha, 1981; Tsuganezawa Satohiro, Masumedia no Shakaigaku—Jh to Goraku (The Sociology of the Mass Media—Information and Entertainment), Sekai Shissha, 1982.

The plain-speaking narrative style of Biito Takeshi, the new starplayer of Manzai, slashing out at wheedling humanism, is quite different from the style which has been broadcast on the mass media in the 30-odd years since the war, and arguments for and against it enlivened the print media in 1982. By 1983, the television programme which features Biito Takeshi’s character Takechan Man, an extraordinary character who disregards realism, had become one of the most popular programmes on television.

5
Legends of Common Culture

59 The generations are divided first by whether or not one is old enough to remember the defeat in 1945—that is, whether one remembers the war or not; the next big division is whether one accepts television as a normal part of everyday life or not. This is the division between the television generation and the pre-television generation. This is the degree to which television has changed the lives of the Japanese.

One might try to pinpoint this exactly with the date of the first television transmission in 1953, but it was not until 1961 that the number of people watching television surpassed those listening to the radio. In 1962, the number of sets registered as NHK viewers reached 10 million and the average daily viewing time passed the three-hour mark. Kitamura Hideo and Nakano Osamu (eds.), Nihon no Terebibunka (Japanese TV Culture), Yhikaku, 1983.

60 The word tarento (‘talent’, TV personality) was not associated with the beginning of radio in the mid-1920s but entered the Japanese language with the start of television. This is because the methods of television production were learnt from America, and American-English terms came along with the knowhow. According to Fukuda Teiry, the term tarento refers to a person appearing on television who displays a talent for communication, which is fully exploited in the relationship with the mass audience of television. ‘The talent of the TV personality is acknowledged as something truly outstanding amongst the talents produced by the masses,’ Okamoto Hiroshi and Fukuda Teiry, Gendai Tarentorojii (Contemporary Talentology), Hsei Daigaku Shuppankyoku, 1966.

The masses entrust a part of their emotions to the TV personality. This is enacted on a daily basis by such dating programmes as Panchi de deeto (Dates with Punch), and on a larger scale, like a big festival, by the end-of-year NHK Song Contest.

61 Yanagita Kunio, Koky Nanajnen (Seventy Years of my Birthplace), Nojigiku Bunko, 1959.

62 The word ‘parody’ (parodii) was not commonly used in Japan even before the war, and certainly not during it. Not until the 1970s did it become part of everyday Japanese, being used widely in weeklies and in pictorial magazines and comics. This probably means that, because the movement to criticize authority lost the vigour it used to have in the period 1945–1970 and was stifled in the 1970s and 1980s, interest was shown in a mode of expression which tried to hint at something different under the cover of universally accepted sayings. This was also a revival of the popular culture which had existed in the middle Edo Period, when the foreign loan word parodii did not exist.

However, even if parody does not incur the harsh sentence of exile to a distant island as in the Edo Period, it does not necessarily get off scot-free. Maddo Amano replaced the skiers in the photograph of a snow-covered mountain by mountain photographer Shirakawa Yoshikazu with big tyres rolling down the slopes. He was sued by Shirakawa in 1970 and brought to trial. At the first hearing he was found guilty, innocent at the second hearing, while the third hearing (at the Supreme Court), on 28 March 1980, ordered a rehearing of the second trial’s verdict.

63 A look at the Sunday Great River Dramas of the 1970s shows that of ten works two were dramas about the Meiji Restoration (Katsu Kaish and Kashin), and one was on the Chshingura theme (Genroku Taiheiki). Furthermore, three years later in 1982, another Chshingura drama (Tge no Gunz) appears.

See Table

As of 16 July 1983, the morning serialized novel Oshin has reached an unprecedented popularity rating of 58.4% (since a rating of 1% represents a million viewers, this represents 58 million viewers throughout the country). Since Oshin is the life story of one woman including the period of the Fifteen Years’ War, it is in the same dramatic mould as other Great River Drama favourites. In both Oshin and Hatoko no Umi a deserter from the Japanese Army appears in the supporting role.

NHK Television’s morning serialized novels in the seventies were as follows:

See Table

64 Shiba Rytar’s works, taking as their theme the Meiji Restoration, were presented to the Japanese public in the sixties and seventies serialized in the newspapers, in book and paperback form and as television dramas:

Moeyo Ken (Burn, Sword!)

Junshi (Self-immolation)

Saigetsu (Years and Months)

Saka no Ue no Kumo (Cloud on top of the Hill)

Tobu ga gotoku (As if Flying)

Ryma ga Yuku (Here Goes Ryma)

Yo ni Sumu Hibi (Days of my Life)

Kashin (The Gods of the Flower Seeds)

Koch no Yume (Butterfly Dream)

65 Amano Ykichi, Santorii Sendenbu (Suntory Promotion Section) in Kza Komyunikeeshon (Series on Communication), Vol. 7, Kenkysha, 1973.

66 Matsumoto Seich, Hansei no Ki (The Chronicle of Half a Lifetime), Shinch Bunko, 1970, enlarged ed., Kawade Shob Shinsha, 1977, first appeared in the magazine Bungei, August 1963 to January 1965). Asukai Masamichi, Matsumoto Seich no sekai (The World of Matsumoto Seich), in Taish Bunka no Sz (The Creation of Mass Culture), (Kza Komyunikeeshon [Series on Communication], Vol. 4), Kenkysha, 1973.

67 Matsumoto Seich, Shsetsu Teigin Jiken (The Imperial Bank Incident: a novel), Bungei Shunjsha, 1959. Morikawa Tetsuro’s Gokuch Ichimannichi (Ten Thousand Days in Gaol), Tosho Shuppansha, 1979, deals with Hirasawa Sadamichi, the man who was suspected of being the criminal and was imprisoned.

68 Tachibana Takashi, Tanaka Kakuei Kenky Zenkiroku (A Complete Register of Research on Tanaka Kakuei), 2 vols., Kdansha, 1976.

69 Kim Dae Chung, Minsh Kykoku no Michi (The Path to Save the Democratic Nation), Shinky Shuppansha, 1980. T.K.Sei, Kankoku kara no Tsshin (Letters from South Korea), Iwanami Shinsho, 1974; Zoku: Kankoku kara no Tsshin (More Letters from South Korea), Iwanami Shinsho, 1975. Wada Haruki, Kankoku kara no Toikake (Enquiry from South Korea), Shis no Kagakusha, 1982. Nakazono Eisuke, Rachi (Abduction), Kbunsha, 1983.

70 Sawachi Hisae, Mitsuyaku—Gaimush Kimitsu Roei Jiken (Secret Agreement—the Foreign Affairs Ministry Top Secret Leaks), Ch Kronsha, 1974.

6
Trends in Popular Songs since the 1960s

71 Sonobe Sabur, Nihon Minsh Kayshik (Thoughts on the History of Japanese Popular Song), Asahi Shinbunsha, 1980. The work of Minami Hiroshi and Inui Takashi and others on the analysis of Japanese popular songs is collected in the Shis no Kagaku Kenkykai publication Yume to Omokage (Dream and Image), Ch Kronsha, 1950. Mita Munesuke analyzes the lyrics and the mood of popular songs up to the era of rapid economic expansion in Kindai Nihon no Shinj no Rekishi (Emotional History of Modern Japan), Kdansha, 1967. For an analysis of singers and their connection with the mood of the time, including the era of rapid economic growth, see Zak Jun, Itsumo Kaykyoku ga Atta (There Have Always Been Popular Songs), Shinchsha, 1983. See also Izawa Sensei Kinen Jigykai, Gakuseki Izawa Shji Sensei, Gakusekisha, 1919.

72 Koizumi Fumio and Dan Ikuma, Ongaku no sekaizu (World Map of Music) in Enajii Taiwa, Esso Petroleum Company Ltd, April 1976.

73 Koizumi Fumio, ‘Nihon ongaku no rizumu’ (Rhythm in Japanese Music) in Koky suru Minzoku Ongaku (Vital Ethnomusicology), Seidosha, 1983. First appeared in programme notes for the seventh programme of the National Theatre series Nihon Ongaku no Nagare (The Stream of Japanese Music), 1979. See also Koizumi Fumio, ‘Kaykyoku no ongaku kz’ (The musical structure of popular songs), in Koizumi Fumio et al. (eds.), Uta wa Yo ni tsure (Song Changes along with the World), Kdansha, 1978.

74 Satomi Ton, Uzaemon Densetsu (The Uzaemon Legend), Mainichi Shinbunsha, 1955; Sawachi Hisae, Densetsu no naka no purimadonna (The prima donna in legend) in Zoku: Shwashi no Onna (Sequel to Women in the History of the Shwa Period), Bungei Shunjsha, 1983.

75 In the history of Japanese popular song, the speed of the diffusion of ‘Katyusha’s Song’ was amazing. When Tanabe Wakao went on tour after the première of the play Resurrection, arriving in Nagasaki at night, he heard young women already singing this song in various places: ‘Arriving ahead of our performance, Katyusha’s song was already being sung in this southern province.’ Tanabe Wakao, Haiy—Butai Seikatsu Gojnen (My Life as an Actor—Fifty Years on the Stage), Shunjsha, 1960.

76 Miyauchi Kanya, Shichirigahama, Shinchsha, 1978. An exile from student life, as a new recruit in the army and connected with a youth institute, Miyauchi composed a melody which merged into the Korean arian. See Mihashi Kazuo, Kinka no Seitaigaku (Ecology of Forbidden Songs), Ongaku no Tomosha, 1983.

7
Ordinary Citizens and Citizens’ Movements

77 It Toshio, ‘Skuru zenshi e no kokoromi’ (Investigating the history of the ‘circle’), in Shis no Kagaku Kenkykai (ed.), Shdan (Groups), Heibonsha, 1976.

78 Wada Yichi, Haiiro no Ymoa (Grey Humour), Rironsha, 1958. It Toshiya, Maboroshi no ‘Stajio Tsshin’e (In Pursuit of the Phantom ‘Studio Despatch’), Renga Shob, 1978. This book deals with the history of Saturday, based on the memoirs of the small-part actor Sait Raitar, and provides a clue to treating this magazine as a citizens’ movement. Its viewing of the coffee shop as an arena for the exchange of citizens’ opinions also anticipates the postwar citizens’ movements of the sixties.

79 Nakai Masakazu Zensh (Collected Works of Nakai Masakazu) (4 vols.), Bijutsu Shuppansha, 1981.

80 During this period, one person who lent strength to the citizens’ movement was Hani Gor (1901–1983). His writings throughout the whole period of the Fifteen Years’ War showed a clear trail of civilian protest against militarism: ‘Jid no rekishikan to sono hygen’ (Children’s view of history and its expression), in Kyiku (Education), Iwanami Shoten, May, July and August issues, 1936; Hakuseki Yukichi (Arai Hakuseki and Fukuzawa Yukichi), Iwanami Shoten, 1937; Mikeruangero (Michelangelo), Iwanami Shinsho, 1939; Kurooche (Croce), Kawade Shob, 1939; ‘Meiji Ishin kenky’ (Research on the Meiji Restoration), in Ch Kron, January to June issues, 1940; Bakumatsu ni okeru rinri shis (Ethical thought in the Bakumatsu period) in Kza—Rinrigaku, Book 2, Iwanami Shoten, 1940; ‘Rekishi oyobi rekishigaku’ (History and the study of history), in Kawai Eijir (ed.), Gakusei to Rekishi (Students and History), Nihon Hyronsha, 1940.

Hani’s Toshi no Ronri (The Logic of Cities), Keis Shob, 1968, is an enlargement of Toshi (Cities), Iwanami Shinsho, 1949, and had a great influence on the student movement of the 1960s. It argues for the development of a new political system based on citizens’ self-rule, which does not siphon off the citizen’s taxes into the national budget of a central government, but allows for a greater portion to be used in regional self-government bodies. For a treatment of Hani’s work as a historian during the Fifteen Years’ War, see Kitayama Shigeo, Nihon kindai shigaku no hatten (The development of the study of history in modern Japan), in Iwanami Kza Nihon Rekishi 22 Bekkan 1 (Iwanami History of Japan, No. 22, Appendix 1), Iwanami Shoten, 1963.

81 Tamaki Akira, ‘Ajiateki fdo to nson’ (The Asiatic climate and agricultural villages), in Keizai Hyron (Economic Review), Nihon Hyronsha, August 1974; Inasaku Bunka to Nihonjin (Rice Cultivation and the Japanese), Gendai Hyronsha, 1977; Mizu no Shis (The Philosophy of Water), Ronssha, 1979.

82 Tanaka Shz Zensh (Collected Works of Tanaka Shz), Iwanami Shoten, 1977–80. After a long period of neglect, Tanaka Shz came to attract attention again through the efforts of two people: the research of the philosopher Hayashi Takeji, and, later, technologist and scientist Ui Jun who expounded his significance in the anti-pollution movement and the student-initiated lecture series (Jishukza), ‘Theory of Pollution’ (begun 1970).

Hayashi Takeji, ‘Teik no ne’ (The Roots of resistance), in Shis no Kagaku, September 1962 issue, commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Tanaka Shz; Tanaka Shz—sono sei to tatakai no ‘konpongi’ (The ‘basic meaning’ of Tanaka Shz’s Life and Struggle), Nigatsusha, 1974; Tanaka Shz no Shgai (The Life of Tanaka Shz), Kdansha, 1976.

Ui Jun, Kgai Genron (Theory of Pollution) 1–3, Supplementary vols. 1–3, Aki Shob, 1971–4; Kgai no Seijigaku—Minamataby o otte (The Politics of Pollution—in pursuit of Minamata Disease), Sanseid, 1968; Watakushi no Kgai Ts (My Pollution Struggle), Ushio Shuppansha, 1971.

Hinata Yasushi, Tanaka Shz Nto (Notes on Tanaka Shz), Tabata Shoten, 1981; Hatenaki Tabi (Endless Journey) (2 vols.), Fukuinkan, 1979.

Tamura Norio, Kdoku Nmin Monogatari (A Tale of Farmers and Copper Poisoning), Asahi Sensho, 1975. Tamura edits a research magazine, Tanaka Shz to sono Jidai (Tanaka Shz and his age), published by Warashibe Shob.

Kenneth Strong, Ox against the Storm, The University of British Columbia Press, 1977.

83 Taketani Mitsuo (ed.), Anzensei no Kangaekata (Attitudes towards Safety), Iwanami Shinsho, 1967. Since then Taketani has contributed towards contemporary criticism with the distinction between special privilege (tokken) and human rights (jinken), a line of thinking which provides a clue to linking the citizen’s life with the work of specialists. ‘University professor’ is a concept which denotes privilege, whereas ‘scholar’ is a concept linked with human rights. In this society, our everyday work is carried on by means of privilege; if this does not continually recreate a new direction by an interaction with human rights, privilege will automatically conflict with human rights. See Taketani Mitsuo (ed.) Tokken to Jinken (Privilege and Rights), Keis Shob, 1979. At the present time (1983) when 90% of Japanese think of themselves as middle class, there are many kinds of links between privilege and the internal life of the citizen which are difficult to control. Because of this difficulty, criticism on behalf of the citizen against science, technology and, even more broadly, against the academic world in general, which exist as privileged forces severed from human rights, must constantly experiment with new and original ideas.

84 Irokawa Daikichi (ed.), Minamata no Keiji—Shiranui-kai Sg Chsa Hkoku (The Revelation of Minamata—Report of the Joint Inquiry into the Shiranui Sea), Vol. I, Chikuma Shob, 1983.

On the links between outsiders and the village see the following works by Ishimure Michiko: Kugai Jdo, Kdansha, 1969; Ten no Sakana (The Heavenly Fish), Chikuma Shob, 1974; Tsubaki no Umi no Ki (Chronicle of the Camellia Sea), Asahi Shinbunsha, 1976.

85 Miyaoka Masao, Sunagawa Ts no Kiroku (Record of the Struggle at Sunagawa), San’ichi Shob, 1970.

86 Tomura Issaku, Tatakai ni Ikiru (Living in Struggle), Aki Shob, 1970; No ni Tatsu (Standing in the Field), San’ichi Shob, 1974; Waga Jujika Sanrizuka (Sanrizuka, My Cross), Kybunkan, 1974; Shosetsu Sanrizuka (Sanrizuka: a Novel), Aki Shob, 1975.

For the biography of ki Yone, a Sanrizuka farmer, see Makise Kikue, Kikigaki, Sanrizuka—Dochaku suru Ksantachi (The Local-born Mothers of Sanrizuka), Taihei Suppansha, 1973.

Maeda Toshihiko, Doburoku o Tsukur (Let’s make home-brewed sake) Nson Gyoson Bunka Kykai, 1981. The home-brewing of sake seen as a form of resistance can be found in Nozoe Kenji and Makabe Hitoshi (eds.), Doburoku to Teik (Home-brewed Sake and Resistance), Taimatsusha, 1976, and further back still in Yanagita Kunio, Meiji-Taishshi: Seshen (History of Modern Japan—Signs of the Changing Times), 1930.

87 The magazine Chiiki Ts (Regional Struggle), Roshinantesha.

88 Nagaoka Hiroyoshi, Genbaku Minshshi (A People’s History of the Atomic Bomb), Miraisha, 1977.

89 Shinobu Seizabur, Anpo Tsshi (A History of the Security Treaty Struggle), Sekai Shoin, 1961; Hidaka Rokur (ed.), Senkyhyaku Rokujnen Gogatsu Jkunichi (Nineteenth of May, 1960), Iwanami Shinsho, 1960; Koenaki Koe no Kai (ed.), Mata Demo de A (Let’s meet again at the Demonstration), Tokyo Shoten, 1962.

Since these two years of demonstrations, both Koenaki Koe no Tayori (News of the Voice for those who have no Voice) and Ten to Sen (Dots and Lines), have continued to be active right up to the present.

Kobayashi Tomi, Kaigara no Machi (City of Shells), Shis no Kagakusha, 1980.

90 Betonamu ni Heiwa! Shimin Reng (ed.), Shiry ‘Beheireri’ Und (Documents of Materials on the ‘Peace for Vietnam’ Committee Movement) (3 vols.), Kawade Shob Shinsha, 1974; Beheiren Nysu Shukusatsuban (Pocket Edition ‘Peace for Vietnam’ Committee News), Beheiren, 1974; Nandemo Mite Yar (We’ll look at everything), by Beheiren spokesman Oda Makoto, Kawade Shob, 1961, shows clearly the wide support enjoyed by this movement.

91 An early critical appraisal of ‘Sazaesan’ was Imamura Taihei’s Amerika Manga to Nihon Manga—Sazaesan to Burondii (American comics and Japanese comics—Sazaesan and Blondie), in Shis no Kagaku, April 1951 and February 1953.

The wide popularity of Sazaesan among Japanese urban dwellers in the 1960s was discussed in Roku Daitoshi to Shimin (Six Large Cities and their Citizens), published by the Council of Chief Commissioners of the Planning Enquiry of Specific Cities, Kyoto Town Planning Office, in 1966.

92 Kuno Osamu, ‘Heiwa no ronri to sens no ronri’ (The logic of peace and the logic of war), in Sekai, November 1949.

93 I am indebted to Taketani Mitsuo for pointing out this distinction to me soon after the war.

8
Comments on Patterns of Life

94 Some idea of how unusual Yanagita was can be gained from reading what he wrote in a magazine article written towards the end of the war when all was dyed in the single colour of nationalism:

The sad thing about conservatism is that it can only learn from the recent past. For example, the idea of the Preservation of the National Essence in the beginning of the Meiji Period. One can only return to something very soon after the event; therefore old in this sense would only be about as far back as the Tenp Era (1830– 1843). Conservatism then would have meant something like wearing a tzan haori jacket.

This is what conservatism tends to mean. It can probably be seen as a reaction…. Any really conscientious scholar will recognize that the times are always changing. The Meiji Period had its own way of life; the Taish Period had its own way of life. This may include frivolous, or even unnecessary reform, or improvements which are made only in imitation of other people. By and large, each age makes its own different demands. Therefore, while there is sometimes a return to the past, one must recognize that we are going in a different direction. That is the most important thing. (Yanagita Kunio, ‘Minkan densh ni tsuite’ (On folklore), in Bungei Shunj, September 1943.)

95 Many hitherto secret documents relating to the Occupation are now being released to the public in America. There are no doubt many things which should be added to the text of this book.

Sodei Rinjir, Makkasa no Nisennichi (MacArthur’s Two Thousand Days), Ch Kronsha, 1974; Sodei Rinjir and Fukushima Chr (eds.), Makkasa (MacArthur), Nihon Hs Shuppan Kykai, 1983; the letters of Japanese civilians to MacArthur which are now being printed in Shis no Kagaku, August 1983 onwards. The difference between Japanese and American tastes in personal style is clearly seen in the fact that MacArthur, who was the emotional mainstay of the Japanese, was not popular with Americans in the same period. The Japanese found it difficult to understand how MacArthur failed to gain endorsement as a candidate in the presidential election.

96 Shis no Kagaku Kenkykai (centring on Tsukuda Jitsuo) (ed.) Nihon Senry (The Occupation of Japan), Tokuma Shoten, 1972; Nihon Senrygun—sono Hikari to Kage (Light and Dark Sides of the Japanese Occupation Army), 2 vols., Tokuma Shoten, 1978; Takemae Eiji, Amakawa Akira, Hata Ikuhiko, Sodei Rinjir, Nihon Senry Hishi (The Secret History of the Japanese Occupation), 2 vols., Asahi Shinbunsha, 1977; Kojima Noboru, Nihon Senry (The Occupation of Japan), 3 vols., Bungei Shunjsha, 1978.

Books based on newly released materials: Takemae Eiji, Senry Sengoshi (Occupation Postwar History), Sshisha, available through Keis Shob, 1980; Morita Yoshiyuki, Tainichi Senry Seisaku no Keisei (The Formation of the Occupation Policy towards Japan), Ashi Shob, 1982.

For a testimony from within the Occupation army there is Thomas A.Bisson’s Bisson’s Memoirs of the Occupation of Japan, translated into Japanese as Bisson Nihon Senry Kaiski, by Nakamura Masanori and Miura Yichi, Sanseid, 1983.

I myself would pick out Robert King Hall’s Education for a New Japan, Yale University Press, 1949, as the record most clearly showing the aspirations of a young officer in the Occupation authorities. Now that a considerable time has elapsed since the Occupation, the people involved tend to underplay the idealism of the Americans at the time who feared nothing; this book, published during the Occupation, gives a good picture of the atmosphere of the Occupation army at the time, and an aspect which we are apt to lose sight of is in fact well represented.

97 See the reference to Tominaga Ken’ichi (ed.), The Class Structure of Japan, in reference 39, above.

98 A Ministry for Agriculture publication, Shokury Jukyhy (Table of Supply and Demand of Foodstuffs) gives the following rates of self-sufficiency in grain (these figures assume that supply and demand of rice have levelled out since 1966):

See Table

According to the Secretary of the Survey Department in the Ministry for Agriculture, the definition of self-sufficiency in food is as follows:

National consumption=production+imports−exports−variations in stockpiles.

‘Grain’ means rice, barley, wheat, rye, miscellaneous grains (corn, buckwheat and so on), and does not include lentils (beans) and potatoes.

It should be noted that since 1980, owing to enforced regulation of production and to irregularities of weather, self-sufficiency in rice has dropped to below 100%.

The generation of Japanese who grew up in the period of rapid economic growth and the generation who grew up before, during and immediately after the war had such different food, were so different in height, that physically they might almost be called a different race of people. Taking the age of 20 as the cut-off point, the Ministry of Social Welfare published the following table of average heights (measured in centimetres), starting ten years after the beginning of rapid economic growth:

See Table

If we select those between 30 and 39 years, the figures are as follows:

See Table

In 1965, at the age of 43, I was 162 cm in height, which probably made me slightly shorter than the average 43-year-old Japanese at the time. (I was extremely short among city dwellers.) Now at this height, when I put myself against 20-year-olds whose average height is over 170 cm, I feel they are outlandishly big. Add to this the differences in body language which come from the cultural changes, one realizes that a totally different culture has been born in Japan since the 1960s.

Nevertheless, putting aside such bodily changes and the world of physical gesture, we cannot say that the Japanese people are losing their Japanese culture on the level of thought. In fact there has been a tendency since the 1960s among the younger generation towards conservatism of thought, and according to Hayashi Chikio, basing arguments on the surveys of national spirit by the Research Institute of Statistics, they demonstrate an ethos which respects tradition. He argues that in younger groups the modern and tradition are not in conflict. Hayashi Chikio, Nihonjin Kenky Sanjnen (Thirty Years of Research into the Japanese), Shiseid, 1981.

99 Society for the Study of Contemporary Customs (ed.), Gendai Fzoku (Contemporary Customs), No. 3, 1979. This research society strives to define ‘contemporary customs’ in their differences from pre-contemporary customs, based on the sense of the contemporary as defined by Kuwahara Takeo, ‘Gendai Nihon Bunmei ni tsuite’ (On contemporary Japanese civilization) in Bunmei Kanssh (Collection of Reflections on Civilization), Chikuma Shob 1975:

Next, I would like to point out that by ‘contemporary’ I mean by and large the 1960s and onwards…. I would include the frustration of the Ampo demonstrations, but mainly I believe that rapid economic growth and the concomitant radical social changes became evident in the 1960s and after.

100 According to the Prime Minister’s Office’s Kokumin Seikatsu ni Kansuru Yoron Chsa (Public Opinion Polls relating to National Life), the proportion of people regarding themselves as middle class has not changed greatly from the 1960s to the early 1980s. In the same period, those replying that their circumstances are upper class ranged from 0.6% to 0.7%, and lower class as shown in the table. Since it is based on subjective assessment the survey cannot be said to represent actual conditions, but even with making such allowances, it cannot be denied that in this period a middle-class consciousness was widespread.

The meaning which can be placed on these poll results was debated by Murakami Yasusuke, Kishimoto Shigenobu, Tominaga Ken’ichi, Takabatake Michitoshi, and Mita Munesuke in the Asahi Shinbun, 20 May to 24 August 1977.

According to the investigation of Tominaga et al. ten years after the defeat in 1955, 42% of Japanese assessed themselves as between ‘upper middle’ and ‘lower middle’, and by 1975 this had become 76%. All participants of the debate agreed on this. However, Kishimoto said that even in the sixties and seventies people who represented the ‘power of the organisation’ in the corporate world were still exceptional in that they were merely large individual shareholders, or the highest management executives, and that homogenization of income did not signify the establishment of a homogeneous new middle-class stratum. Tominaga saw the increase of ‘status inconsistency’, compared with before the 1960s, as an important change. People with high income are not necessarily those with the highest prestige; people with high prestige and status are not necessarily those in the highest positions of power. Thus, there are large discrepancies between multiple constituent factors of class status.

See Table

It should be noted that while there is a high degree of correlation between education and occupational status (0.42), the correlation between education and income is only 0.38.

The significance of the concept of the middle class for postwar Japanese culture was early pointed out by Kat Hidetoshi, Chkan Bunka (Middleclass Culture), Heibonsha, 1957, which in retrospect was a highly prophetic book. For a book which explains what kind of pitfalls were faced in this period by the Japanese masses (or rather, to put it my way, the Japanese as a mass,) as ‘people who abandoned scepticism towards industrialism and democracy’, see Nishibe Susumu, Taish e no Hangyaku (Treason against the Masses), Bungei Shunjsha, 1983.

101 The Tokyo Metropolitan Council survey of workers’ household budgets shows that after peaking in July–August 1948, the Engel coefficient decreases; in 1949, it is 10% less than in 1946 and 1947. In January 1948, monthly wages averaged Yen 5,205, actual expenditure was Yen 7,084, of which food was Yen 4,220, giving an Engel’s coefficient of 59.5%. In January 1949, monthly wages averaged Yen 11,194, actual expenditure Yen 14,046, of which food was Yen 7,987, giving an Engel’s coefficient of 56.8% (Asahi Nenkan, 1950). On changes since that time, ‘Household Income and Expenditure of City Dwellers in all Japan’ in Hitotsubashi University Economic Research Institute (ed.), Kaisetsu: Nihon Keizai Tkei (Japanese Econometrics Interpreted), Iwanami Shoten, 1961, gives the following Engel’s coefficients:

See Table

It is relevant to mention here increased life expectancy and the ageing of Japanese society. Average life expectancy in Japan in 1980, according to Kseish Tkei Ykan (Statistical Survey of the Ministry of Health), was, for men, 73.32 years, for women 78.83 years. This surpassed the United States, and was about equal with northern European countries (Ksaka Masataka (ed.), Sji de miru Sekai no Ayumi—1982 (The Development of the World seen in Statistics—1982), PHP Research Institute, 1982). In 1983 the Guinness Book of Records listed Izumi Shigechiyo, a Japanese man (aged 118) as the oldest living person. The proportion of the population over the age of 65 has risen from 4.8% in 1930 to 9% in 1980, and is likely to go on increasing.

102 Aratani Makoto, Kieta Mizuumi Hachirgata—Kantakumae no Mizuumi de no Shnen no Hi no Rd (The Lake that Disappeared—a Boy’s Working Day before the Reclaiming of Lake Hachirgata), Mumei no Nihonjin Ssho Bessbon 2, Yamanami Shuppan no Kai, 1977.

103 Iinuma Jir, ‘Hachirgata to Sanrizuka’ (Hachirgata and Sanrizuka) in Kyoto Daigaku Gakusei Shinbun, 1 June 1979.

104 Nomura Masakazu, in Shigusa no Sekai—Shintai Hygen no Minzokugaku (The World of Gesture—the Ethnology of Body Language), NHK Bukkusu, Nohon Hs Shuppan Kykai, 1983, says that in Japan toleration of a degree of nakedness in everyday life, a legacy of the southern islands, continued in places right through till the 1960s.

105 Nakano Osamu, ‘Kapuseru ningen to katarogu bunka’ (Capsule man and catalogue culture), in Narushisu no Genzai (Narcissus Today), Jiji Tsshinsha, January 1983. The typology of ‘capsule man’ comes from Nakano, Kopii Taiken no Bunka (The culture which has experienced copying), Jiji Tsshinsha, 1975.

106 Gendai Fzoku Kenkykai (ed.), Gendai Fzoku (Contemporary Customs), No. 2, 1978.

107 According to Ienaga Sabur, in Zh Kaitei: Nihonjin no Yfukukan no Hensen (Changes in Japanese Attitudes to Western Dress: expanded and enlarged ed.), Domesu Shuppan, 1982 (1st ed., 1976), for primary school students in central Tokyo, Western dress came to predominate over Japanese dress between 1922 and 1926.

Yamamoto Akira (ed.) Shwa no Kyk (Shwa Panic), third volume of Zusetsu: Shwa no Rekishi (Illustrated History of the Shwa Period), Sheisha, 1979, treats the change towards Western clothes in both men and women in various places. It was towards the end of the Taish Period (that is, the early 1920s) that Western clothes took precedence among urban men in the workplace. A survey by Kon Wajir in the streets of Ginza and Nihonbashi on a public holiday in 1937 showed that only 25% of women were in Western dress. Women’s dress did not become predominantly Western throughout the country until after the war.

108 The results of this film were later collated as a survey report. See Shhin Kagaku Kenkyjo and CDI (eds.), Seikatsuzai Seitaigaku— Gendai Katei no Mono to Hito (Ecology of Livelihood Assets—Things and People in the Contemporary Family), 2 vols., Riburoripto, 1980–3.

109 Hoshino Yoshir, Kkishin to kyhakukan no akekure (Absorption in curiosity and a sense of urgency), in Tsurumi and Hoshino, Nihonjin no Ikikata (How the Japanese Live), Kdansha, 1966:

The boldness with which the Japanese jump at new foreign goods and technologies is in strong contrast with European industry. What is more, Japanese industry often does not accurately calculate the practical value of the importation. The introduction of foreign technology has greater economic influence than just on an individual, with the result that a whole industry often causes a stir by falling into ruin.

However, on the other hand, characteristic Japanese attitudes and capabilities are eloquent. Japanese technologists tinker indefatigably with foreign technologies which were never meant for Japanese conditions; by making carefully thought-out improvements, they produce an exquisite balance, and make them into something Japanese which finally realize great profits for the industry.

Hoshino here draws attention to the social psychology whereby the excitement of the discovery of new foreign technologies spreads like wildfire because of a common curiosity among engineers of the same generation.

110 The rate of increase in the postwar Japanese population fell in 1957 to single figures per thousand and has not increased significantly since then up to the present:

See Table

111 In this period there was no government regulations aimed at limiting births as in the case for example of China over the same period; it was a voluntary population restraint on the part of the Japanese citizens.

112 Morishima Michio, ‘Shin “Shin gunbi keikakuroron”’ (New ‘New armaments planning’) and Seki Yoshihiko, ‘Hibus de heiwa wa mamorenai’ (Peace cannot be kept without arms), in Bungei Shunj, July 1979; Morishima Michio, ‘Shin “Shin gunbi keikakuron” horon’ (Supplement to New ‘New armaments planning’) and Seki Yoshihiko, ‘Hibus de heiwa wa mamorenai horon’ (Supplement to Peace cannot be kept without arms), in Bungei Shunj, October 1979.

9
A Comment on Guidebooks on Japan

113 Fay Adams, Walker Brown, Gordon W.Leckie, R.W.W.Robertson, Lester B.Rogers, Carl S.Simonson, The Story of Modern Nations, Henry Holt and Co., New York, 1958. For an extensive collection of images of Japan presented in foreign textbooks, see Kokusai Kyiku Jh Sent, Kaigai no Kykasho ni miru Ikoku Nippon Gurafiti (Exotic Nippon Graffiti seen in Foreign Textbooks), Jatekku Shuppan, 1983.

114 Richard Tames, The Japan Handbook, Paul Norbury Publications, Kent, England, 1978. For a treatment of the not necessarily rosy conditions of Japanese workers, see Satoshi Kamata, Japan in the Passing Lane, Pantheon, 1983, with a foreword by Ronald P.Dore. The Japanese version, Jidsha Zetsub Kj (Automobile Despair Factory), was first published by Gendaishi Shuppankai in 1973. Ronald Dore’s foreword to the English edition was published in Japanese in Keizai Hyron, Nihon Hyoronsha, October and November issues, 1983.

115 Usami, Mitsuaki and Cheung Hon Chung, Tokyo, Chartwell Books, New Jersey, 1978.

116 Ayukawa Nobuo and Yoshimoto Takaaki, Bungaku no Sengo (The Postwar Period in Literature), Kdansha, 1979.

117 Kat Shichi et al., Tenkeiki, Hachijnendai e (The Age of Transformation—Towards the Eighties), Ushio Shuppansha, 1979.

118 Kyokutei (Takizawa) Bakin (ed.), revised by Rantei Seiran, Zho Haikai Saijiki (The Book of Seasons for Haikai Poets: enlarged edit.) (2 vols.), Seikatsu no Koten Ssho, Nos. 9 and 10, Yasaka Shob, 1973. First appeared in November 1851.

119 In the realm of popular culture, there are the essays of Uekusa Jin’ichi, and the parodies and novels of Inoue Hisashi. In the portraits of Yamafuji Shoji, there is a self-conscious effort to recapture the culture of the Edo Period. The 1983 NHK Great River Drama presented an idealized picture of the Edo Period, strategically planned by Tokugawa Ieyasu, in contrast to the civil wars of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and in contrast also to the overseas aggression of Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

120 The literature written in Japanese by Korean residents of Japan is not strictly Japanese literature, but it is an important section of literature written in the Japanese language, and to ignore it one cannot satisfactorily relate the story of Japanese literature, especially in the postwar period.

121 Edwin O.Reischauer wrote in The Japanese. Harvard University Press, 1977, that Japan differed from the United States in that there were virtually no underprivileged ethnic and regional groupings, but followed with the statement that there were, however, the problems of the unliberated burakumin (descendants of a class of outcastes) and of Koreans resident in Japan. In the Japanese version of this book— Kunihiro Masao (trans.), Bungei Shunjsha, 1979—this line is omitted.

This fact reveals a situation where, even more than the Americans, the Japanese are made not to see the discrimination against burakumin.

A book by Marie-Josée Balbeau, edited by Morooka Sukeyuki, Shiritagaranai Nihonjin: Furansujin no mita Burakumondai (The Japanese Who Turn a Blind Eye: the Buraku Problem as seen by a Frenchwoman), Kashiwa Shob, 1983, analyses accurately the reaction of the Japanese who are who are coming into contact with Westerners.

122 Nagata Hidejir, ‘Nettai kidai no kangaekata’ (How to consider seasonal themes [in haiku poetry] in the tropics), in Nagata Seif Kush (A Collection of the Haiku of Nagata Hidejir), 1958. Quoted in Kamishima Jir, ‘Nihongata hoshushugi—Nagata Hidejir o tegakari to shite’ (Nagata Hidejir as a clue to the Japanese mould of conservatism), in Rikky Hgaku, No. 6, 1964.

123 Tsukuda Jitsuo, Senry no Sekaishi (A World History of Occupation) in Shis no Kagaku Kenkykai (ed.), Nihon Senrygun— sono Hikari to Kage (The light and shadow of the Japanese Occupation Army), Vol. 1, Tokuma Shoten, 1978.

In 1918 the problem arose of the god to be enshrined in a Shinto shrine in Korea. The Korean Governor’s headquarters had began preparations on the basis of the decision to enshrine the two mainstays, Amaterasu mikami and the Emperor Meiji, but Imaizumi Sadasuke, Ashizu Kjir, Kamo Momoki, and Hida Kageki among others argued strongly that ‘the god to be enshrined in the Korean shrine should naturally be a god with a close connection with the land of Korea; that is, the god who was responsible for the creation of Korea should be venerated’. Ashizu in particular had been thinking along these lines ever since the annexation of Korea, and had explained his position to the first Superintendant-General of Korea, It Hirobumi, when he visited Shimonoseki on his way to take up his new post. Ashizu’s August 1925 article, ‘Chosen Jing ni Kansuru Ikensho’ (A statement of personal views on the Korean Shrine), which is included in Jinja Shinpsha Seiky Kenkyshitsu (ed.), Kindai Jinja Shintshi (A Modern History of Shinto and Shinto Shrines), Jinja Shinpsha, 1976, is also quoted by Tsukuda in his book, cited above.

124 The International House of Japan Library, Modern Japanese Literature in Translation, Kdansha International, 1979. According to this Ibuse Masuji’s works have been translated into English, German, French, Russian, Korean, Portugese, Thai and Polish. Nakano Shigeharu has been translated into Russian, German, Korean, French, Chinese and English. See Three Works by Nakano Shigeharu, translated by Brett de Barry, Cornell University East Asia Papers, No. 21, 1979.