ＷＡＲ　ＷＩＴＨＯＵＴ　ＭＥＲＣＹ

～Ｔｈｅ　Ｄｅｍｏｎｉｃ　Ｏｔｈｅｒ～

Insider and Outsider

・ Within Japanese society, consciousness of purity and pollution combined with other attitudes to shape in-group behavior toward outsiders since ancient times.

・ It was believed that outsiders possess both beneficent and malevolent powers.

・ The outsider usually was considered to have mystical and supernatural powers.

・ From early times in Japan’s towns and cities, there existed exclusive groups based on blood ties (the uji clans) as well as occupations (the be “corporations”).

・ Some anthropologists argue that the Japanese imperial house also has represented a force “outside” the society as a whole.

The structures of discrimination between Self and Other, or core group and outsiders applied to the European and American foreigners.

Encounter with Southern Barbarians

・ The first strangers from the West whom the Japanese encountered were Portuguese and Spanish seafarers and clergy in the mid-sixteenth century.

・ They were called “southern barbarians” (nanbanjin) and believed to perform magic.

・ As fear of the first wave of European intruders grew, the demonic persona was pulled more sharply to the surface.

・ For example, in was said that the Christian missionaries upset proper relations between people and turned this world “into the Realm of Beast”.

・ In the 1630s, the Europeans were expelled from Japan except Deshima in Nagasaki.

・ During these years of isolation (sakoku), various other characterizations of the white strangers were nurtured. The Westerners were known as “red hairs”(kōmō or kōmōjin)

Various Animal Images

・ During the WWⅡ, the Anglo-American enemy fitted from bird to beast form, reptile to worm.

・ The use of specific animal imagery by Japanese cartoonist tended to be highly personalized. The creatures represent the enemy often had Roosevelt’s face, or Churchill’s, or Chiang’s.

Beast

・ In wartime, many Japanese people considered the Americans were brutes wearing the mask of humanity.

・ The Japanese printed media added “kemonohen”, a part of kanji, which means beast, to 米 (America) and 英 (Britain).

英

The Appearance of Demon

・ Many popular wartime writings and drawings fell into the pattern of the demonic Other, and in some instances their kinship to the traditional perception of the ambiguous outsider, half superhuman and half subhuman, was overt.

・ Depiction of the enemy as demons or beasts or simply despicable people appeared and phrases such as “devilish Americans and English” (kichiku Bei-Ei) and the vocabularies of pureness, pollution, defilement, and beastliness became thoroughly integrated.

Demon as ambiguous being

・ The oni possessed a benevolent, tutelary face as well as a demonic one.

・ It was often associated with violence and destruction.

・ However, the oni could be brought over to one’s own side.

・

Momotaro

・ Momotaro paradigm is one of the variation which indicated that the demonic foe could be subdued short of extermination, and even turned into amiable ogre.

・ Momotaro appeared in many wartime cartoons and magazines and was translated into other languages.

・ Momotaro is driving

off the demons

Churchill and

Roosevelt.

(Manga,1945)

Momotaro-Divine Troops of the Ocean

・ Momotaro →a great commander of Japan

・ His retainers(dogs, bears, monkeys, pheasants)→the Japanese fighting men ・ Wild beasts→the people of southern Asia ・ Demons→Churchill and Roosevelt

Significace of this movie

・ Both Momotaro and his adversaries were depicted in human form.

・ It gave a sense of personality and individuality as well as humanity to the enemy.

・ The common human quality shared by Momotaro and demons points to an important alternative to the sense of Self and Other as polar opposite.

New Japan

・ The naturalized Momotaro evoked youthful vigor. Also, the Japanese people have a sense of entering a new period like the image of a new Japan.

・ The enemy was depicted as elderly, a declining force in the face of the new Japan .

・ However, what remained after 1945 was the image of the Anglo-American powers and Japan as elder and younger modern nation-states.

Opinion

・ Propaganda like Momotaro was very effective for all Japanese to understand the implication.

・ Both sides had distorted perception of their enemy because it was based on stereotypes or racism. This led to the disastrous result.

Opinion

・ I think this chapter was interesting because Japanese expressions of the enemy were similar to America’s in some points, for instance, both of them compared their enemies to animals or beasts. However, there are also some differences. In Japan, the enemies were often described as demons, but demons has good sides as well as bad sides. It represents the attitude of many Japanese people in the postwar period: once enter the inside, it turns to a good being.

Thank you for listening