War and Words: how literary language changed throughout 1920-1960?

Qualitative draft

Introduction

All throughout history language and the written word were used as powerful tools to spread influence, promote interest and shun opposition, and unsurpingly Japan is not different. In this article, we discuss how state policies and censorship affected literary language usage in Japan from 1920-1960. It is natural for literary tradition, themes and language usage to change in fuction of time, but when looking at Japan during this period, it is remarkeable how literature changed dramatically in the span of just 40 years. From pre-war Taishō period, where there was a push for literary freedom, to wartime Shōwa, where censorship was heavily enforced, and finally to post-war Shōwa, where censorship continued under the occupation.

Pre war

The Taisho period is often regarded as a period of flourishing liberalism, a push towards democracy and the emergence of party cabinets. Therefore the period is often referred to with the term 'Taisho Democracy'. This was accompanied by an upsurge of movements of various actors in Japanese society, including within literary spaces, contesting for an expansion of civil rights and criticizing especially uneven government representation and said government's top-down policies. These progressive actions towards democracy were eventually undermined by the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake and the following economic fragility, which was further weakened by the Global Economic Crisis of 1929. Ultimately the era ended in the early 1930's with a row of assassinations, most notably the 1932 assassination of Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi, and Japan returned to militarism and increased government control. But how did all this affect the literary sphere? It would be very natural to assume that during this period we would see a democratisation of publishing laws and a general tendency towards a broader freedom of speech. Indeed, from a bottom-up perspective this was largely so. According to Richard H. Mitchell, in his work "Censorship in Imperial Japan", books written on matters such as thought- and labour issues jumped from 21 in 1917 to 190 in 1919 to 220 in 1920, indicating an increase in criticism towards censorship laws from intellectuals, writers, journalists, and so on. The main publication legislation in effect during this time, the Publication Ordinance of 1887 (later revised into the Publication Law (出版法) in 1893), had already aged almost 50 years and remained the core of censorship during this time. One of the main controversial elements of this law was the power it gave the Home Ministry to easily ban books, articles, and other written works that didn't fit into their liking. There were considerable attempts by the Writer's Association (文芸家協会) in 1926 to bring a revision to the bill, however ultimately to no avail.

When taking a deeper look into the numbers of prohibitions of publications between 1918-1930, it does appear to show a weakening of censorship in the face of a general upsurge of liberalism in the heyday of Taisho democracy with a swing back towards stiffer controls of the press in 1930 (the only exception being the traumatic year of 1923). This could easily be interpreted to mean that authorities were actually more liberal and conducted less censorship. However, as Mitchell suggests, a closer study of censorship of this time shows that although harsher repression of earlier years was receding, a new more subtle type of censorship was slipping into place in the 1920's. Especially under Hara Kei, the first commoner Prime Minister of Japan, censorship was actually in many ways expanded and could be seen as a blueprint of the wartime censorship apparatus. The purpose of the Taisho authorities was not necessarily to take an active stance against every single infringement, but rather to make examples of certain writers in order to keep the publisher's world's thermostat at a proper temperature. This passive strategy enabled rather the writers themselves to be more careful of what they put out.

Self-censorship

We mostly discuss censorship as a restriction imposed from a higher entity upon a lower entity which is subjected to its filters.

However, a dimension often forgotten about is the matter of self-censorship, where the same entity is both the producer of the work, subjected to censorship, and the entity applying censorship upon itself. In these cases, the individuals consider that there is at least some cost in disclosing this information and they therefore decide to hide it. Important to note here is that the individuals can sometimes be part of a group and self-censor for the benefit of one's own group and not the necesarrily the individual. In relation to our research, if we take authors of literary works as an example, we have to consider two things. Firstly, it is the authors themselves creating and then changing and/or omitting aspects of the written work to censor material they first intended to portray but then went back on themselves. Reasons for this behavior are often related to trying to avoid a negative effect on other people or a negative response from people upon the author. Additionally, it is also possible that they seek to prevent the damage on the self-reputation of the individual or group. Secondly, as a researcher it is a complex matter to diagnose a case of self-censorship, as we need to establish proof of intent of the author. This becomes especially problematic when researching fictional works. The author decides what they wish to write about in their fiction and it is not at all required to resemble reality accurately. Thus establishing what topics the authors intended to portray and which they self-censored becomes quite a salty pickle. However, when prevalent topics do not get mentioned in some form, especially during wartime, it could indicate that the author purposely chose to avoid it.

This not only happens out fear for state-sanctioned reprimands or even capital punishments by going against the 𝘒𝘰𝘬𝘶𝘵𝘢𝘪 (国体), which we mention more in-depth later, but also for commercial interest. During the years of Japanese expansionism, civilians themselves felt and promoted nationalistic thought. Considering this, it is only logical that commercial literature also changed to fit the interest in patriotic themes. Stories shifted towards heroic tales of warheroes and brave deeds for the country and language was adapted to emphasize these themes, while casting a shadow on other, anti-nationalistic themes.

Wartime

War time literature contains the literary works published during the Fifteen Year War (1931-1945). The major theme's found in these books are rejoicing military campaigns, Japanese racial superiority and patrionism. From the China Incident onwards, the government intervened more and more in the literary sphere in order to create a unified national thought. From the lead-up to the Pacific War till the end of the war , how was censorship issued and performed by the state?

In the need for national support, governemental institutions such as the Army Ministry and the Home Ministry sought means to limit the spread of ideas or news deamed unfavorable. As Richard H. states, under Order No.3, periodicals were warned against commenting on military affairs without the permission of the Army Ministry. Throughout the early years of 1930's, multiple attempst were being made to forge a law on censorship. One method they used to enforce the censorship was demanding a copy of the publications yet to be published. By doing that, they could a priori influence the works. With the revisioned Publication Law in 1934 lese majesty became a serious indictment. It is important to note that the standards for censorship were kept quite secret from the public and were left vague on purpose. The Special Higher Police, in charge of catching thought criminals, focussed mostly on writers violating public moral. In 1935 were they mostly interested in the dignity of the Imperial house and communism. Intriguingly, advocating for direct action, advocating for the independence of the colonies or inspiring war would also gain a ban on publishing. Towards the end of the 30's, outing any criticism towards the army or navy was nearly impossible. Even anti-war sentiments would yield a warning in 1937. At the same time suggestions that Japan had imperialistic ambitions or was in any way warlike was outrageous as well. With the promulgation of the National Mobilization Law Bill, all the illegal doings by the Home Ministry were legalized. In 1941 with a new Emergency Law, anything anti-national and anti-governemental was ruled out and could lead to a ban on future sale. Alongside communism, liberalism, which was considerd an evil Western idea, became a taboo.

The contents were not the only center of attention. Publishers, editors, book binders, in other words the entire printing process was being kept an eye on. Police raids were carried out throughout the war time period. In that time frame raids were especially frequent around times of turmoil, as shown from 1936 to 1937 as Japan was engaged in war with China. Leading up to the war publishing houses who went in the wrong too many times were orally blacklisted in so called "friendly discussion meeting" (懇談会). From 1940 onwards, freedom of speech became more confined. As labor unions and parties were dissolved, the rationing and allocation of printing paper became a new way of censorship. These added restrictions amounted to a significant rise in constraint of publishing, as Richard H. pointed out. The publishing market to a final big hit in 1943 with the creation of the Book's Section of the Japan Publishers' Association. This committee would screen the publications and give approval for continuation of business. However it would cause a massive reduction in book firms that year.

Kokutai(国体) which was previously mentioned, is often translated as the national body. It refers to a nationalistic concept dating from the Edo period which would contain values considering the national identity of Japan. This identity is forged through acts of sacrifice, not given by birth. It was used to connect the emperor, the government and the people with eachother. This term remained rather unclear. In this way, harming the kokutai was an easy accusation to make by the police.

Postwar

In September 1945, a month after their organisation in Japan, the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP) conducted its first directives regarding freedom of speech and press— with the condition that they were truthful and didn’t agitate the public. These matters were managed through the Civil Censorship Detachment (CCD), and considered every form of media. According to Dower’s book, censorship wasn’t allowed to be publicly acknowledged, and therefore neither the CCD. So, was this freedom of speech and press actually present, and where did SCAP draw the boundaries?

Until late 1947, publications were censored before they were published, under the guidelines provided by SCAP. This contained full checklists of banned subjects, primarily related to criticism of SCAP and Western powers, (ultra)nationalistic thought and militaristic or general Japanese propaganda. These publications themselves were not allowed to mention censorship or the fact that they passed the SCAP censorship directives. Unlike the Japanese government allowing censored words in X’s and O’s until the late 1930’s, SCAP refused visualisations of censorship at all. Starting October that year, most publishers—and the year after those who remained— were permitted to publish their work with the risk of censorship after publication. Unfortunately, this could put publishers out of business if their books were constantly recalled when SCAP was unsatisfied with the contents. The censorship continued until the end of the occupation in 1952.

Conclusion

Yet to be written

References

Bar-Tal, Daniel, Rafi Nets-Zehngut, en Keren Sharvit. 2017. Self-Censorship in Contexts of Conflict: Theory and Research. 1st ed. 2017. Peace Psychology Book Series. Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63378-7.

Dower, John W. 2000. Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II. Norton Paperbacks. Norton.

Keene, Donald. 1978. “The Barren Years. Japanese War Literature”. Monumenta Nipponica 33 (1): 67-112. https://doi.org/10.2307/2384256.

Richard H. Mitchell. 1983. Censorship in Imperial Japan. Princeton University Press.

Shogimen, Takashi. 2014. “Censorship, Academic Factionalism, and University Autonomy in Wartime Japan: The Yanaihara Incident Reconsidered”. The Journal of Japanese Studies 40 (1): 57-85.

Tyas, Agnes Siwi Purwaning. 2022. “Kokutai Spirit and The Concept of National Identity in Japanese National Policy Film”. Retorik: Jurnal Ilmu Humaniora 10 (1): 34-55. https://doi.org/10.24071/ret.v10i1.4808.