Section 3a, Modern Literature | Session 3, Panel
Yoshida Morio, Kogakuin University
Kume Yoriko, Mejiro University
Tsuboi Hideto, University of Nagoya
Discussant: Nakayama Akihiko, University of Hokkaido
Just before the beginning of the Sino-Japanese War (1894-5), the history of modern children's literature in Japan began with Iwaya SazanamiA°fs (1870-1933) creative retellings of folk tales which helped to construct national identity. Then from the Taisho period a liberal and humanistic children's literature flourished with Suzuki Miekichi's (1882-1936) magazine Akai tori (1918-36, Red Bird) at the center of the movement. How did the do^shin philosophy (humanistic view of children's spirit) of the Taisho period connect with the propaganda effort of the 15-year war? Beginning with the Manchurian incident of 1931 and from the outbreak of the Pacific War in 1941 not only male soldiers battling at the front but women and children behind the lines were mobilized for the effort as part of modern Japan's first total war. In this panel we will consider animal tales, girl's fiction, and visually-oriented young people's magazines as a means of exploring the representation of boys and girls during the wartime period.
Yoshida Morio, Kogakuin University
Looking back on the history of children's books in modern Japan, kagaku yomimono (entertainment stories introducing scientific knowledge) that promoted Western knowledge deserve greater attention. For example, children gained new knowledge of and interest towards animals not only through exhibitions and zoos but also through children's magazines that combined education with entertainment. However, the discourses of animals and colonialism often overlapped. By considering stories including Muku Hatoju's (1905-1987) Do^butu-domo (1943, The Animals) and Miyazawa Kenji's (1896-1933) "The Crow's Big Dipper"(1924, in The Restaurant of Many Orders ), I will bring to light the intersection between the knowledge brought through kagaku yomimono and the structure of animal tales and also consider the place to which this finally led science-loving youth under a Japanese nation totally mobilized for war in the early 1940s.
Kume Yorik, Mejiro University
Modern Japan's strict gender order has helped to give birth to a uniquekind of children's culture in Japan, shôjo shôsetsu (young girl's fiction). While shôjo shôsetsu is a genre occupying a position at the margins of literature, it includes stories of escape from the system of coercive heterosexuality, and is a text that problematizes standard systems of sexuality. Yoshiya Nobuko (1896-1973) was one of the genre's foremost authors, becoming a popular writer of mass literature in the early Showa period. She was the first woman selected to accompany the troops to the front lines. When Yoshiya, who had until that time been critical of Japan 's male-dominated system, was drawn into being used to support government policies by the war bureau what kind of pressure did women's fiction receive and how was it incorporated into the dominant system? While drawing out the links to the situation of the first great mobilization of Japan 's women into the war effort, I will examine the relationship between the culture of women's writing in modern Japan and war reporting.
Tsuboi Hideto, University of Nagoya
Using Shûkan Shokokumin (Weekly National Youth), which was published during the Pacific war until its end, as my text I will examine the wartime visual culture of pictures and graphic materials. I will examine how these visual materials and the literary representations carried out by authors merged together in some ways, but in other ways could become mutually quite distinct. Also comparing Shônen kurabu (Youth Club), Shokokumin bunka (National Youth Culture) and other youth magazines as well as young women's magazines and visually-oriented magazines aimed at adults such as Asahi Graph, I will consider the meaning of visually-oriented magazines aimed at children during the war. Without just ending my analysis with the conclusion that these materials were simply propaganda, I will consider the relationship between child reader's reactions to these serials and tie-in media events beyond just print culture, including local and school events.