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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.