Paper short abstract:

This paper spotlights focuses on the politics of storytelling during wartime Japan through stories told in the media about wartime general and prime minister, Tōjō Hideki. It shows stories of Tōjō’s past as presenting a vehicle of hope for Japan’s future during its time of crisis.

Paper long abstract:

Tyrant. Dictator. Authoritarian. Fascist. War criminal. Buffoon. The very name Tōjō Hideki, like Hitler and Mussolini, has inspired many such epithets. Tōjō, after all, was the Imperial Japanese Army general who became prime minister in October 1941, on the eve of the Pacific War. He presided over the height of army influence in Japanese politics and oversaw Japan’s fateful decision to launch a ruinous war in December 1941. He is remembered alongside the Shōwa Emperor as one of the two most notorious figures of Japan’s twentieth century history.

But early in his premiership, from late October 1941 through early 1943, Tōjō was also a media darling—pundits and authors told stories about his life while heaping praise upon his person. This paper explores the hagiographies and triumphal, propagandistic narratives of Tōjō’s life through the lens of storytelling in wartime Japan. The stories pundits told reveal less about Tōjō’s life than they do about the concerns of the writers themselves. The stories were no doubt taken from events in Tōjō’s life. But the storytellers then took clear liberties in telling their tales, changing details or emphases to fit their messages. The stories of Tōjō’s past became vehicles for a central message of hope. The glorification of Tōjō’s past through stories of his youth was thus part of the emotional politics of the present. Lionizing Tōjō represented a cry of hope for Japan’s future—hope that a strong, compassionate, responsible, and dutiful leader could navigate the rough East Asian waters and help Japan escape its time of crisis unscathed.