“Maritime Literature” in Wartime Japan

ONISHI, Hitoshi

doi:2020.10.1.57

The Journal of Japanese Language Literature Studies > Volume 10(1); 2020 > Article

Special Issue

Border Crossings: The Journal of Japanese-Language Literature Studies 2020;10(1): 57-75.
doi: https://doi.org/10.22628/bcjjl.2020.10.1.57

“Maritime Literature” in Wartime Japan

Hitoshi ONISHI

Assistant Professor of Tunghai University

戦時下の日本における海洋文学の提唱とその経緯

大西仁

東海大学日本語言文化学系助理教授

Correspondence Hitoshi ONISHI ,Email: uselesspolarbear@gmail.com

Published online: 30 June 2020.

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

ABSTRACT

In this article, I focus on the driving force and background of the movement to promote maritime literature that emerged during the Asian Pacific War. This was a form of propaganda that was advocated by Takamatsu Yoshie, a scholar of French literature, whose work was supported by the Japanese Navy. In the field of Japanese literature, there was a perceived lack of maritime literature, and attempts were made to fill the void. For several years from 1939 on, there was a push to promote marine literature, including a call for new works based on the life of the sea and its relationship with war, and the compilation “A history of maritime literature” was published to enable the study of this literature.

Keywords: Maritime Literature, Literature on National Policy, Asia-Pacific War, Yoshie Takamatsu

キ―ワ―ド: 海洋文学, 国策文学, アジア太平洋戦争, 吉江喬松