Paper short abstract:

By focusing on unconventional imagery of the Russo-Japanese War and the role of chief editor Kunikida Doppo in The Wartime Graphic, a widely popular pictorial war magazine in Japan, this paper uncovers an art of publishing critical materials under the difficult circumstances of modern total war.

Paper long abstract:

Examining unconventional war imagery and the role played by the renowned literary writer Kunikida Doppo (1871-1908), who was then chief editor, in the widely popular pictorial Japanese war magazine The Wartime Graphic (Senji gahō), this paper uncovers an art of publishing critical materials under the difficult circumstances of modern total war. The magazine's contents and the activities of the people involved in it suggest that it was a 'masquerading' media, an autonomous space of cultural expressions in the disguise of the war-promoting press. The magazine's critical stance on the state and war was camouflaged by subtle and nuanced expressions and was skilfully interspersed amid conventional contents. By this means, The Wartime Graphic was able to elude censorship. Yet a further corollary of this approach is that its message has hitherto escaped the attention of historians.

This paper critically challenges the antagonistic, dichotomous division of wartime Japanese media and society, and the domination of the pro-war voice over the other in the existing historiography. It draws attention to the less obvious expressions in between, and in doing so, it will shed light on considerable yet hitherto overlooked dimensions of wartime Japanese press, and by extension, Japanese society at large.

Paper short abstract:

This presentation looks at text-and-image sets featuring animals in the coverage of the Sino- and Russo-Japanese Wars by Japanese graphic magazines, shedding light on how they work to expose a less well-known side of war, one that transcends the human-nonhuman divide as well as national borders.

Paper long abstract:

War iconography often features military leaders on horseback, charging into battle or parading in celebration of a victory. One famous example is Jacques-Louis David’s painting “Napoleon Crossing the Alps” (1801)— also reproduced in the Japanese graphic magazine “Gunkoku Gahō” (The Illustrated Monthly War Magazine, 1905, Issue 5). David’s work is one of many similar images that adorn the pages of illustrated magazines covering the Sino- and Russo-Japanese Wars, some reproductions of, or inspired by famous Western works, but most painted or drawn by Japanese artists, and often based on second-hand accounts. While arguably more dynamic than the photographs that could be included in the media of the time, the paintings tend to prioritise the aesthetic, replicating a clichéd and idealised image of war in the description of both their human and nonhuman subjects (the latter, as a result, being limited to horses).

On the other hand, graphic magazines published especially during the Russo-Japanese war also incorporate in their coverage a steadily growing number of less artistically “accomplished,” but more direct representations of war, i.e., contributions from special correspondents and later even soldiers in active duty, who were encouraged to submit rough sketches capturing their immediate reality. These sketches tell a more nuanced story, and the variety of animals included therein is a rich resource for understanding the daily minutiae of war: from the bond between humans and their nonhuman companions (horses, dogs), to the food culture on the front and behind the lines (fishing, hunting wild boars, growing chicken), to issues humans and nonhumans alike encounter when having to adapt to the strictures of war (pests such as fleas, flies, etc). Captions accompanying the illustrations might or might not mention the nonhuman actors; when they do, they sometimes describe them as belonging to a specific nation (especially in the case of companion species), but more often than not the implication is that they are simply “natural.”

This presentation looks at text-and-image sets that feature animals, shedding light on how they work to expose a less well-known side of war, one that transcends the human-nonhuman divide as well as national borders.

Paper short abstract:

Around the turn of the century, Japan observed the industrialization of publishing and shifts in modes of expressing “reality.” Analyzing reporting articles in pictorial magazines published around the Russo-Japanese War, this paper examines ideas and perceptions of the “realities” expressed there.

Paper long abstract:

The period between the First Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War, around the turn of the 20th century, is known for the industrialization of modern print periodicals in Japan. After the end of the Freedom and People’s Rights Movement, newspapers, including those that used to be known for their political columns, increasingly prioritized news reports and entertainment rather than political columns in order to expand their circulation. Big publishers such as Hakubunkan started publishing diverse magazines ranging from “general” magazines like “Taiyō” (the Sun), to literary magazines like “Bungei kurabu” (Literature Club), women’s magazines like “Jogaku sekai” (The World of Female Learning), and others, targeting different readerships in terms of gender, age, and interest.

This is also the time when modes of expressing “reality” gradually changed with the establishment of colloquial writing styles and developments in printing processes. Increasingly more reports directly quoted the featured or interviewed people, a phenomenon that can be observed in the “new journalism” of their contemporaries in the UK and the US. New printing technologies, halftone in particular, allowed periodicals to include photographic images more easily than ever, while, at the same time, they also continued to use highly sophisticated woodblock printing.

Emerging pictorial magazines, launched around the Russo-Japanese War, were the center of such changes in modes of expression. Best known among them were “Kinji gahō” (also Tōyō gahō, Senji gahō), “Shashin gahō” (also Nichiro sensō jikki, Nichiro sensō shashin gahō), and “Teikoku gahō” (also Nichiro senpō, Gunkoku gahō). While employing different editing policies and styles, the editors and contributors—i.e., writers (reporters), artists, and photographers who contributed to these pictorial magazines—showed great interest in different ways of expressing “reality” in their news reporting articles, which, in turn, arguably affected the readers’ perceptions of “reality.” As goes without saying, their realities were not homogenous, suggesting an intriguing co-existence and mixture of old and new modes of expressions and perceptions.

Focusing primarily on pictorial magazines published around the Russo-Japanese War, this paper examines the various “realities” expressed in the periodicals of the time and considers the implications of their diversity.

Paper short abstract:

By examining the representations of Russia in Japanese general magazines during and after the Russo-Japanese War, this paper shows how Japanese conservative and moderate intellectuals understood Russia and its people and promoted Japanese-Russian relations beyond the international hostility.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines representations of, and opinions about Russia in popular Japanese general magazines during the Russo-Japanese War, when the Meiji Government was antagonistic toward the Russian Empire, and afterwards, when it formed a friendship with this nation. It will focus on articles, visual images, such as pictures and photographs, and transnational activities (residence, dispatches, and travels) of writers and correspondents from the nationalistic magazines “Nihonjin” (The Japanese), its successor “Nihon oyobi Nihonjin” (Japan and the Japanese), published by the cultural organization Seikyōsha, and the moderate-imperialistic magazine “Taiyō” (The Sun) from Hakubunkan. These magazines contained articles from various fields— politics, diplomacy, economics, trade and commerce, social problems, science and technology, thought, literature, arts and culture, with plentiful pictures and photographs reproduced at the beginning. Their editors and writers, among which we could mention famous critic Miyake Setsurei and famed geographer Shiga Shigetaka who had founded Seikyō-sha, journalist-editor of “Taiyō,” Toyabe Shuntei, prominent political scientist Ukita Kazutami and others, were seriously concerned about the Russo-Japanese relationships and the state of the War. They attempted to rapidly deepen their knowledge and understanding of Russia during and after the Russo-Japanese War. Therefore, Russian affairs, including the life and culture of its people, were frequently introduced and discussed in their articles. Furthermore, articles from other writers and correspondents from Manchuria, Far Eastern Russia and Siberia were also actively published in these magazines. It can be said that the editors considered the transnational activities of their writers and correspondents as crucial to obtaining new and accurate information about Russia. They looked at postwar bilateral friendship in each field with great interest and did their best to serve the national interests in the Far East, Manchuria and Siberia. This paper shows how Japanese conservative and moderate intellectuals understood Russia and its people beyond war-time hostility, aiming to promote Russo-Japanese relationships in the early part of the 20th century.