Paper short abstract:

In my paper, I will present the results of my doctoral research on Japanese wartime literature as a genre positioned between the poles of propagandistic and autobiographical writing on the case study of Hayashi Fumiko (1903-1951), one of the most prolific wartime writers in Japan.

Paper long abstract:

As one of the most prominent writers of the early Shōwa era (1926-1989), Hayashi Fumiko’s (1903-1951) writing during the wartime years of 1937-1945 can be seen as one of the most representative examples of Japan’s war propaganda both due to her popularity and her prolific output during this time. In my paper, I will present the results of my doctoral research focusing on Hayashi Fumiko’s wartime texts as a case study for an analytical framework of wartime literature as a genre combining elements of state propaganda with autobiographical writing. I will show how Hayashi’s wartime writing reflected the contemporary media and broader trends in Japanese wartime literature, while also maintaining stylistic and thematic continuities with her pre-war texts, which might at first glance appear radically different in their worldview and ideology. Hayashi had traveled to China twice in 1938, with particularly the second trip bringing her a large amount of publicity; later, she would also travel to Manchuria (1940) and Southeast Asia (1942-1943), each time in a different context, which also resulted in texts with different focal points and attitudes towards the respective ‘other’.

In this way, Hayashi’s wartime texts display different facets of Japanese imperial ideology, and through establishing their connections to the wider literary and media discourses on war, as well as elements familiar from her earlier writing, the mechanisms of Hayashi’s own construction of propagandistic narratives as well as those providing them with a perceived authenticity can be clearly revealed. Especially important in this regard is to examine Hayashi’s texts between the stylistic poles of bidan (military propaganda) reportage and shishōsetsu (‘I-novel’), linking it to other prominent texts of wartime literature. By providing an analytical framework for wartime literature and a comprehensive case study of Hayashi Fumiko’s texts under consideration of contemporary media and literary discourses, my aim is to show the importance of wartime literary texts as artifacts of collective memory and historical documents contributing to the construction of narratives of war, both significant at a time of historical revisionism and rising nationalist sentiment in Japan.