A Cultural History of Postwar Japan

by Shunsuke Tsurumi

  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 Hensan
kai, 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 h
is 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.