Pen Butai
{{Short description|Japanese government organisation 1938–1942}}
{{use dmy dates|date=July 2023}}
The {{nihongo|Pen Butai|ペン部隊|lit. "Pen Corps" or "Pen Brigade"}} was a Japanese government organisation which existed between 1938 and 1942.{{cite web|url=https://kotobank.jp/word/%E3%83%9A%E3%83%B3%E9%83%A8%E9%9A%8A-192482 |title=ペン部隊 |website=Kotobank |language=ja |access-date=24 July 2023}} 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.{{cite book|title=Routledge Handbook of Modern Japanese Literature |editor1-first=Rachael |editor1-last=Hutchinson |editor2-first=Leith Douglas |editor2-last=Morton |publisher=Routledge |year=2019 |isbn=9780367355739 | pages=128–129}}
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.{{cite book|title=Kabuki's Forgotten War 1931-1945 |first=James R. |last=Brandon |year=2009 |publisher=University of Hawaii Press |isbn=9780824832001 |page=83}} 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.{{cite book|title=A Flock of Swirling Crows And Other Proletarian Writings |first=Denji |last=Kuroshima |year=2005 |publisher=University of Hawaii Press |isbn=9780824829261 |chapter=Introduction |page=8}}{{cite book|title=Under Fire: Women and World War II |chapter=Tales of a Wartime Vagabon: Hayashi Fumiko and the Travels of Japanese Writers in Early Wartime Southeast Asia |first=William |last=Bradley Horton |editor1-first=Eveline |editor1-last=Buchheim |editor2-first=Ralf |editor2-last=Futselaar |year=2014 |publisher=Verloren Publishers |isbn=9789087044756 |page=40}}{{cite web|url=https://apjjf.org/-Zeljko-Cipris/1625/article.html |title=Responsibility of Intellectuals: Kobayashi Hideo on Japan at War |first=Zeljko |last=Cipris |website=The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus |date=24 November 2005 |access-date=24 July 2023}} 22 men and two women were flown overseas in September 1938; a smaller group followed two months later. These included Kikuchi, Kume, Yoshikawa, Yoshiya, Fumiko Hayashi, Matsutarō Kawaguchi, Kunio Kishida, Masajirō Kojima and Tadao Kumei.{{cite book|title=The Human Tradition in Modern Japan |chapter=Yoshiya Nobuko: Out and Outspoken in Practice and Prose |last=Robertson |first=Jennifer |editor1-first=Anne |editor1-last=Walthall |publisher=SR Books |year=2002 |isbn=9780842029124 |page=169}}{{cite book|title=Negotiating Censorship in Modern Japan |editor1-first=Rachael |editor1-last=Hutchinson |chapter=Kawabata's wartime message in Beautiful Voyage (Utsukushii tabi) |first=Hiromi Tsuchiya |last=Dollase |publisher=Routledge |year=2013 |isbn=9780415520782 |page=88}}
The subsequently published works by the writers involved were supportive of the war as had been expected, and only very few exceptions dared to present its brutal reality. Tatsuzō Ishikawa's{{efn|Ishikawa travelled the Sino-Japanese front for the magazine Chūō Kōron, not as a member of the Pen Butai.{{cite web|url=https://apjjf.org/-David-Askew/1553/article.html |title=Living Soldiers/Dying Soldiers: War and Decivilization in Ishikawa Tatsuzo's Soldiers Alive |first=David |last=Askew |website=The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus |date=28 September 2005 |access-date=24 July 2023}}}} Ikite iru heitai ("Soldiers alive"), which depicted the war in a realistic manner, was censored.
In 1942, the Pen Butai was assimilated by the Nihon bungaku hōkokukai ("Patriotic Association for Japanese Literature"), led by Sohō Tokutomi and Kume, and a subordinate of the Cabinet Intelligence Bureau.{{cite web|url=https://kotobank.jp/word/%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E6%96%87%E5%AD%A6%E5%A0%B1%E5%9B%BD%E4%BC%9A-110297 |title=日本文学報国会 |website=Kotobank |language=ja |access-date=24 July 2023}}
See also
Notes
{{Notelist}}