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Paper short abstract

This paper analyzes propaganda kamishibai produced in Japan during during WWII, showing how graphic images of Japanese soldiers' death in battle were used in efforts to mobilize both military and homefront audiences. Such depictions challenge dominant theories of effective wartime propaganda.

Paper long abstract

This presentation examines popular culture images of the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Asia Pacific War as they were happening, 1937-1945, as curated for use by creators of propaganda intended to mobilize the Japanese empire. In contrast to retrospective narratives of war intended to reframe history to suit subsequent ideological needs, the images of a war in progress must be accurate enough to appear plausible to a viewer who has immediate daily experience of that war, but must also be manipulated and aesthesticized to suit the needs of the propagandist. Propaganda kamishibai plays for viewers of all ages were one of the most widely distributed and frequently viewed forms of persuasive media across the Japanese home islands, colonies, and occupied lands. An examination of the ways they framed the war both visually and narratively reveals strategies of persuasion that defy commonly accepted arguments about effective wartime propaganda. While most scholars contend that effective mobilization propaganda relies on creating a hateful and dehumanized image of the enemy, kamishibai virtually ignores the enemy in image and story to concentrate on love as the compelling affective force. Additionally, it is extremely rare in mobilization propaganda to depict the deaths of domestic soldiers, but kamishibai plays frequently pictorialize the painful and agonized death of Japanese soldiers. This presentation will introduce the images of frontline battle presented in kamishibai plays with the twofold purpose of: 1) demonstrating how they work as mobilization propaganda despite the seeming truthfulness of their content, and 2) revealing a new theory of effective propaganda strategy.