Eddy Dufourmont
The First Greater East Asia Writers Conference (Dai Ikkai Daitōa Bungakusha Taikai) was held from 1 to 13 November 1942. It was a major event in terms of the mobilization of intellectuals during the Asia-Pacific War (1931–1945) and was also the very first occasion that Asian writers met at an official gathering in Japan.
The conference was made possible only as a result of the concurrent Japanese military victories in East and Southeast Asia and the wartime mobilization of Japanese writers that resulted in the formation of the Patriotic Association for Japanese Literature (Nihon Bungaku Hōkokukai) in May 1942. This organization, headed by the novelist and playwright Kikuchi Kan (Hiroshi, 1888–1948), included more than 3,000 members. In July of the same year, the association was sent a proposal for a conference of writers from throughout East Asia from the Information Service of the Cabinet, the body that controlled wartime propaganda (cf. Keene 1964).
However, the collaboration of Kikuchi and other writers with the Japanese government went back much earlier: in 1937, Kikuchi had organized a delegation of writers to China, and in 1940 he was the moving spirit behind the formation of the first Japan-wide writers’ organization. The foundation of the Patriotic Association for Literature of 1942 was simply a reaffirmation of the leading role Kikuchi’s earlier body played among writers in Japan. Alongside the Great Japan Association for Patriotic Arts (Dai Nihon Bijutsu Hōkokukai) and the Great Japan Patriotic Writers Association (Dai Nihon Genron Hōkokukai), the Patriotic Association for Literature in Japan was just one of many tools utilized by the government to achieve the total mobilization of the nation’s cultural life for its wartime objectives (cf. Shillony 1981). The government’s decision to mobilize the cultural sector for the war effort reflected its understanding of the conflict as a “total war” that necessitated the involvement of the entire Japanese population, without exception. The origins of the notion of total mobilization can be traced back in Japan to the end of World War I, when senior Japanese army officers had been strongly influenced by German efforts to mobilize the whole population and the complete resources of the nation for wartime needs. Thus, the “thought war” (shisōsen) and “spiritual mobilization” (seishin dōin) represented elements of “total war” that were seen as of equal importance with industrial mobilization. As part of these efforts, in 1937 and 1941 the Ministry of Education issued a number of ideological manifestos, including the “Cardinal Principles of the National Polity” (Kokutai no hongi) and “The Way of the Subject” (Shinmin no michi).
While the decision to hold the Greater East Asia Writers Conference must be seen in the context of these developments, its effectiveness was greatly increased by the dispatch of some of Japan’s most famous writers to Southeast Asia as members of various propaganda corps: in 1942, for example, the novelist Takami Jun (1907–1965) was attached to the propaganda corps in Burma, the philosopher Miki Kiyoshi (1897–1945) served in the Philippines, and the novelist Ibuse Masuji (1898–1993) was sent to Singapore. These propaganda corps were very active in presenting Japan’s expansion into Southeast Asia as a “liberation of Asia” and the establishment of a “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere” (Daitōa Kyōeiken; see II:24 and II:27); their goal was to convince the populations of the occupied territories of the merits of cooperation with the Japanese military. They were also instrumental in inviting authors from the occupied territories to visit Japan and thus in bringing together a diverse group of writers as a literary manifestation of East Asian cultural cooperation during wartime.
Despite these efforts, in the end no writer from Southeast Asia attended the conference. Apart from the Japanese participants, which included poet Noguchi Yonejirō (1875–1949) and novelist Kume Masao (1891–1952), a number of authors from northeastern Asia attended—including thirty writers from Korea, Taiwan (at that time both part of the Japanese Empire), Manchukuo (a Japanese puppet state), China, and Mongolia—some of whom were Japanese living in these territories. The other delegates were members of literary organizations created by the Japanese and specialists in Japanese literature. For example, Gu Ding from Manchukuo belonged to the Manchurian Writers’ Association (Manshū Bungeika Kyōkai), founded under Japanese “guidance.” Yi Gangju and Yu Chin-o were members of the Korean Writers’ Association (Chōsen Bunjin Kyōkai), also founded by Japanese authorities. The Chinese delegates included Qian Daosun, an expert on Japanese classical literature who specialized in Manyōshū (The Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves, a compilation of classical poetry dating from the eighth century), and Yu Bingxi, a graduate of the Imperial University of Tokyo, well known for his research on the Edo period. Another Chinese, Chang Wojun, had translated the novels of Natsume Sōseki (1867–1916) and was a teacher of the Japanese language.
During the three days of the conference proper, Japanese and English were used as official languages, and the writers organized workshops on ideological themes with titles like “the establishment of the spirit of Greater East Asia” or “winning the Greater Asian war through literature.” These efforts, however, produced no concrete results in terms of publications.
The final declaration translated here was written by Yokomitsu Riichi (1898–1947), a novelist and poet close to Kikuchi Kan, who had been sent to Rabaul, New Guinea, in 1942 and again in 1943. In the final days of the conference, the writers went on a tour of historic sites in the Kansai area, with Yoshikawa Eiji (1892–1962) and Tanizaki Jun’ichirō (1886–1965) serving as their guides. Two further conferences were held in August 1943 in Tokyo and in November 1944 in Nanjing (Nanking), with Chinese being the only non-Japanese participants.
The declaration reproduced here shows the ways in which Pan-Asianism was drawn on to mobilize writers and representatives of the cultural sector in a wartime context. As the document shows, these writers, who often claimed after 1945 to have had no responsibility for the war or to have been victims of the military, were active and enthusiastic supporters of the war effort.
Source (translation from the Japanese original by Eddy Dufourmont)
Final Declaration of the First Greater East Asia Writers Conference (1942), reproduced in Sakuramoto Yoshio: Nihon Bungaku Hōkokukai. Aoki Shoten, 1996.
We have gathered here in hopes of establishing, strengthening and perfecting the spirit of Greater East Asia. We are truly delighted that, after debating the essence of this spirit and discussing the urgent tasks which confront us, we have been able to confirm that our convictions are immovable.
The outbreak of the Greater East Asia War gave all of us, the writers of the Orient (tōyō), a stimulus that penetrated to the bottom of our hearts; it gave us a steely resolve to strive for the reconstruction of the Orient. This is the result of the great heroic thrust of the Japanese nation, on which, it could be said, everything depends. We open our hearts to the radiant Oriental tradition, we appeal to the spirits of our ancestors, and from the depths of eternal subjugation and stupor we swear and proclaim that we will make a fresh start.
The foundation for a new life of the Orient has been laid; our hearts and spirit are strongly united. We declare to all those countries that are our enemy that we are now marching on with intrepid determination. Any remaining problems concerning literature and thought must be resolved through firm belief and long and arduous work. We will retain in our hearts a profound impression of this conference and, in the spirit of ardent faith and love, we will zealously endeavor to extol to the world our great Oriental life. But the success of all this depends entirely on our victory in the Greater Asian War; indeed, the fate of the East as a whole also hinges on the successful completion of this Great War. With Japan in the vanguard, we, the writers of all Asia, facing life or death together, will spare no effort to ensure that this great day will come to the Orient. We swear to the above.
5 November 1942
Greater East Asia Writers Conference