Certain Victory: Images of World War II in the Japanese MediaThis unique window on history employs hundreds of images and written records from Japanese periodicals during World War II to trace the nation's transformation from a colorful, cosmopolitan empire in 1937 to a bleak "total war" society facing imminent destruction in 1945. The author draws upon his extensive collection of Japanese wartime publications to reconstruct the government-controlled media's narrative of the war's goals and progress - thus providing a close-up look at how the war was shown to Japanese on the home front. Many of these visual and written sources are rare in Japan and were previously unavailable in the West. Strikingly, the narrative remains consistent and convincing from victory to retreat, and even as defeat looms large. Earhart's nuanced reading of Japan's wartime media depicts a nation waging war against the world and a government terrorizing its own people. At once informed, scholarly, and readily accessible, this lavishly illustrated volume offers an accurate representation of the official Japanese narrative of the war in contemporary terms. The images are fresh and compelling, revealing a forgotten world by turns familiar and alien, beautiful and stark, poignant and terrifying. |
Contents
Introduction A picture worth a thousand arguments | 1 |
1 EMPEROR SHOWA | 11 |
2 The Great Japanese Empire | 37 |
3 Men of the Imperial Forces | 69 |
4 A People United in Serving the Nation | 107 |
5 Warrior Wives | 147 |
6 Junior Citizens | 183 |
7 Now the enemy is America and Britain | 215 |
10 Faces of the Enemy | 333 |
11 Dying Honorably from Attu to Iwo Jima | 375 |
12 The Kamikazefication of the Home Front | 409 |
CONCLUSION ENDGAME | 461 |
Appendix 1 annotated bibliography of Japanese wartime news journals | 477 |
Appendix 2 glossary | 489 |
| 493 | |
| 497 | |
8 The Greater East Asian CoProsperity Sphere | 261 |
9 Uchiteshi Yamamu Keep up the fight | 309 |
About the Author | 531 |
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Common terms and phrases
advertising air raid Allied American appeared Army Asahigraph Asian Association attack Attu August battle became become began bomb bottom British building called campaign caption carried China Chinese citizens civilians Commander continued course cover death December described East Asia effort emperor enemy facing February fight figure final fire forces four gyokusai hand home front human hundred Imperial Incident included Islands issue January Japan Japanese July land lives magazine March military million months nation Navy November October officers Pacific painting Pearl Harbor Philippines photograph picture printed production published reads region Report savings says ships shows soldiers Special spirit surrender thousand Tokyo troops uchiteshi yamamu United victory wartime Weekly Western women young