Japanese Homeland: censorship
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Throughout World War II citizens, military men and victims of Japan were subject to secrecy in their daily life through strong censorship by the Japanese government. With post WWII studies and oral histories, historians in the modern day can study personal interpretations on events that were hidden by the Japanese government and military at the time. In many instances the government limited the civilians to minimal resources including rations. Koshino Ayako, a dressmaker discussed each person living in a city being limited to 100 points per year in equivalent to currency, eventually forcing bankruptcy on her company. The powerless small business owners and commoners had no say in the policies by the government that largely disabled the people of Japan.
Radio networks in Japan were greatly censored in Japan under the Newspaper Law which forbid the Freedom of the Press even before the start of the Second World War in 1909. This law restricted the publishing of all governmental documents and legislations, leaving much of the Japanese population ignorant to economic and military happenings.
As a war correspondent Hata Shoryus job was to examine articles before they reached the military to make sure they didn’t break the rules. Many people were distrusting of the Japanese government leading up to the war, Shoryu was a student at the Osaka Foreign Language Institute in the midst of the Manchurian Incident of 1931 and in his writing, he said he “felt he must oppose the growth of fascism in Japan”.[3] He recalled that leading up to the war, news publishing had taken off and sparked competition in reporting quick news of the war that would never be seen again, because of strong censorship being applied at the commencement of the Pacific War.
For wartime journalist and photographer Asai Tatsuzo sharing pictures and videos with the people of Japan was particularly difficult due to restrictions by the head of the moving picture division. Tatsuzo recalled people forming long lines to get into newsrooms often asking, “Are we winning this war?”.[1] Many pictures that were presented to the public were staged derived through emotional settings, veering away from factual evidence of the war, and was mostly available to upper class citizens who could afford the viewings. Tatsuzo also stated that the footage he compiled was taken by the Japanese government and that he himself couldn’t gain access to it even today. He also recalled not being able to shoot footage at the Nanking Massacre, but was there and saw the corpses of the Chinese victims.
With the implementation of the Kamikaze pilots towards the end of the war, young men who sacrificed their lives to die with dignity for their country were also strongly censored before their missions to swear into secrecy even to their family members prior to their deaths. Journalist Kawachi Uichiro remembers reporting the take off the Kamikaze and seeing mothers and fathers in attendance holding rosaries implying that they knew the fate of their sons without even being told so.[2]
These guidelines set by the Japanese government didn’t only pertain to commoners, but sectors of the military as well during critical milestones of the war. Yoshida Toshino, a member of the Maritime Self-Defense Force reflected on her experience of hearing about the attack on Pearl Harbor over radio broadcasting on December 8, 1941 quoting “The people in my section didn’t know anything, I was supposed to be an insider”.[4]
Many citizens of Japan fell victim to the mass confusion between them and the Japanese government and forced them to depend on one another for their sanity and daily duties to suffice. One survivor Tanaka Tetsuko recalls the noncompliance from the Japanese government without warning, and how women were subjected to arranged marriages often with military men to remain stable in society.
One way the Japanese government enforced censorship was “the imprisonment of authors, journalists and publishing figures accused of secretly plotting to revive the communist movement in Japan”.[5] With the Peace Preservation Law of 1925, “thoughts crimes” were prohibited outlining that communists, labor organizers or alleged radical groups would be arrested and jailed before the war even began. Freedom of the press was substantially diminished by removing opposing opinions and making them a war crime, secluding the Japanese public from differentiating interpretations.
Censorship in japan also took place in classrooms in regard to art and entertainment being filtered at the time of war. Hirosawa Ei wrote about loving American movies that they sometimes showed in his sixth-grade classroom and asking to watch more but it was forbade “because of December 8”.[6] In 1941 news reached young students that American production companies such as Universal, Paramount and MGM were all going to be closing their offices in Japan. He recalled that government officials or senior Kempeitai officers were in charge of altering movies and shortened the length of them substantially.
Oral History
From the historiography, Japan at War I chose Kawachi Uichiro’s oral history that tells the story of being a photographer journalist with the Japanese warfront throughout the war and dealing with censorship by being a mediator between the battlefield and the Japanese people. He spoke about seeing the Kamikaze pilots first hand prepare for their first and only flights for the Japanese war efforts, and being told what he was and wasn’t allowed to shoot pictures of. Uichiro had to become a swift military component and be able to stay alive throughout battles, because many other journalists were vulnerable to death on the battlefields as well.
Bibliography
Tatsuzo, Asai. 1992. Japan at War Wielding Pen and Camera: Filming the News
Uichiro, Kawachi 1992. Japan at War Reporting from Imperial General Headquarters
Shoryus, Hata 1992, War Correspondent, Homeland: Wielding Pen and Camera
Toshio, Yoshida 1992. December 8, 1941: I heard it on the Radio, Faith in victory
Hatanaka Shigeo, Nihon Fashizumu [Suppression of Free Speech in Japanese Fascism: An Abridged History] (Tokyo: Kobunken, 1986) p. 178
Ei, Hirosawa. 1992. Art and Entertainment, Japan at War “I loved American Movies
[1] Tatsuzo, Asai. 1992. Japan at War Wielding Pen and Camera: Filming the News
[2] Uichiro, Kawachi 1992. Japan at War Reporting from Imperial General Headquarters
[3] Shoryus, Hata 1992, War Correspondent, Homeland: Wielding Pen and Camera
[4] Toshio, Yoshida 1992. December 8, 1941: I heard it on the Radio, Faith in victory
[5] Hatanaka Shigeo, Nihon Fashizumu [Suppression of Free Speech in Japanese Fascism: An Abridged History] (Tokyo: Kobunken, 1986) p. 178
[6] Ei, Hirosawa. 1992. Art and Entertainment, Japan at War “I loved American Movies”