04 February 2013, 02:29 PM IST
It's interesting to note that while most adults tend to ignore comics and label them as "children's books", governments have always been wary of their influence on the common man. This series of articles looks at various instances in history when comics were used as propaganda.
Coming out on the losing side of WW2 took its toll on all the Axis powers. When the Allied Forces took up the job of rebuilding the nations' economies, Japan was probably the most affected culturally.
Following the surrender of Japan in 1945, US President Truman appointed General MacArthur to supervise the occupation of Japan under the terms of the 'US Initial Post-Surrender Policy for Japan' – a document which laid down the primary objectives of the occupation as:
* Eliminating Japan's war potential
* Turning Japan into a western style nation with pro-American orientation
As part of this, the US State Department instructed MacArthur to "abrogate and immediately suspend all restrictions…restriction on freedom of thought…of speech" and "…restrictions on the collection and dissemination of information." The "all restrictions," however, referred to all Japanese restrictions on intellectual freedoms (as discussed in my previous post). And, over the next four years, the occupation government developed and enforced its own policies restricting Japanese intellectual liberties.
These weren't just guidelines implemented at an economic level, but were also translated mandatorily into as many aspects of Japan's life, art and culture as possible. For instance, educational policy, procedure, and content were re-organized almost completely. Previously accepted histories were replaced with new ones, and even the subject 'History' was renamed to 'Social Studies'. All feudalistic, nationalistic, militaristic, authoritarian, Shinto-religious texts were removed, and replaced with texts that decried Japan's feudal past and exalted American customs and values.
For those Japanese who had lived through the war, this meant that they moved overnight from a monarchy to a democracy (albeit limited in nature). They faced the concept of 'free speech'. The code of 'death before dishonor' was fast becoming obsolete and being replaced by more capitalist thoughts.
For the business of print (books, magazines, comics, newspapers etc) this meant that publishers were expressly forbidden from printing any material that referenced Japan's imperial past – especially battles, wars, and warriors. The Commando-type comics that we read while growing up, therefore, were not allowed.
(Pic: Tezuka's Astroboy)
Given Japan's largely feudal past, for the mainstream writers, this left only the contemporary to work with. Working under these restrictions gave rise to some seminal work in the medium. Osamu Tezuka, for instance, created the classic Astro Boy, a boy robot that emulated a boy scout's behavior and helped those in need. Machiko Hasegawa's Sazae-san told the story of a clever and witty housewife who solved problems intelligently.
The characters represented the type of behavior (i.e. helping one's neighbors) that was needed in the local population in post-war Japan. The Americans, in turn, gladly allowed it because for children growing up, these were important social traits to imbibe.
So strong was the ban that it's only in the last 20 years that we've seen Japanese comics based on Japan's feudal past come into the mainstream.
Japan wasn't the only country to use comic books as propaganda. The Nazi Party, for example, used it extensively in their campaigns… more on that next time.
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