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Pen Butai
The was a Japanese government organisation which existed between 1938 and 1942. It was composed of Japanese authors who travelled the front during the Second Sino-Japanese War to write favourably of Japan's war efforts in China. History The Pen Butai was formed in 1938 after a meeting between the Cabinet Intelligence Department and writers Kan Kikuchi, Masao Kume, Eiji Yoshikawa, Riichi Yokomitsu, Haruo Satō, Nobuko Yoshiya and Fumio Niwa. The aim was to have popular authors travel the Sino-Japanese front and write favourably of their experiences in form of stories, novels, plays, poems and personal journals for propagandistic purposes. Those who participated were offered free travel, accommodation and food, access to off-limits war areas and the possibility to interview important military figures. The invitation sent out by the government met with such an enthusiastic response that not all writers who wished to join could be accommodated. 22 men and two women were flown ov ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Second Sino-Japanese War
The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Theater of the Second World War. The beginning of the war is conventionally dated to the Marco Polo Bridge Incident on 7 July 1937, when a dispute between Japanese and Chinese troops in Peking escalated into a full-scale invasion. Some Chinese historians believe that the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 18 September 1931 marks the start of the war. This full-scale war between the Chinese and the Empire of Japan is often regarded as the beginning of World War II in Asia. China fought Japan with aid from Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, United Kingdom and the United States. After the Japanese attacks on Malaya and Pearl Harbor in 1941, the war merged with other conflicts which are generally categorized under those conflicts of World War II a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Matsutarō Kawaguchi
was a Japanese writer of short stories, novels, dramas and screenplays. He repeatedly collaborated on the films of director Kenji Mizoguchi. Biography Kawaguchi was born in the plebeian Asakusa district of Tokyo into an impoverished family. He was forced to leave home at the age of 14 to seek employment. He started to write in his spare time, while working at various jobs, which included working in a pawn shop, as a tailor, a policeman and as a postman at one point in his life. He came to be acquainted with author Kubota Mantaro, who encouraged him in his literary efforts. Kawaguchi was arrested in Kamakura, Kanagawa in 1933, along with fellow literati Kume Masao and Satomi Ton for illegal card gambling. In 1935, Kawaguchi won the first Naoki Prize for a short story titled ''Tsuruhachi Tsurujirō''. He followed this with a serialized novel, ''Aizen Katsura'', a melodramatic love story involving a nurse and a doctor, which ran from 1937–1938. The story became a tremendously po ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Senbu
The term was used by the Imperial Japanese Army to refer to psychological warfare operations intended to pacify local populations and accelerate the process of Japanization. Summary The first ''senbu'' team was organized in 1932 by (1895–1944), a civilian employed by the Kwantung Army, as part of the preparations for the Battle of Rehe. The term comes from the (宣撫使) envoys dispatched in ancient times by Chinese states to maintain control over regions destabilized by war. Remnants of defeated Chinese armies frequently broke apart into marauding gangs of ''honghuzi'' who terrorized the rural population. This, combined with reports of Japanese war crimes, violence by Japanese forces as well as the general chaos that followed the fires of war, contributed to panic and brought about a collapse of functioning society as masses of civilians fled to urban areas where they could expect protection by garrisoned Japanese troops. According to the scorched earth policy (''jianbi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
