Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Retrospective Theses and Dissertations Dissertations 1-1-1992 Images of the enemy : emotional techniques employed and sources used by three Japanese newspapers to portray selected events related to World War II Hiroto Fukuda Iowa State University Follow this and additional works at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd Recommended Citation Fukuda, Hiroto, "Images of the enemy : emotional techniques employed and sources used by three Japanese newspapers to portray selected events related to World War II" (1992). Retrospective Theses and Dissertations. 17611. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd/17611 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Dissertations at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Retrospective Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. T ? •U Images of the enemy: Emotional techniques employed and sources used by three Japanese newspapers to portray selected events related to World War II by r / 9<± Hiroto Fukuda A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE Major: Journalism and Mass Communication Signatures have been redacted for privacy \ Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 1992 ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page I. INTRODUCTION 1 II. JAPAN AND THE PACIFIC CONFLICT, 1931-1945 7 III. EMERGENCE OF THE JAPANESE PRESS, 1868-1945 26 IV. PROPAGANDA AND PRESS CONTROLS, 1914-1945 55 War Propaganda of the Allies: U.S. and 61 Great Britain Axis Propaganda: Germany and Japan under 67 Totalitarianism V. HYPOTHESES 78 VI. METHODOLOGY 81 Sample and Sampling Method 83 Theoretical and Operational Definitions 87 of Variables Coding 97 Data Analysis Technique 98 VII. QUANTITATIVE RESULTS 100 Subhypothesis-Testing 100 Discussions of General Hypotheses 140 VIII. QUALITATIVE RESULTS 149 IX. CONCLUSIONS 167 BIBLIOGRAPHY 181 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 186 APPENDIX A. LAWS AND REGULATIONS OF OFFICIAL 188 CENSORSHIP IN JAPAN FROM 1868-1945 iii Page APPENDIX B CODING SHEET 190 APPENDIX C LIST OF SOURCES CITED IN THE STORIES OF 193 THREE JAPANESE NEWSPAPERS FROM 1937 TO 1945 iv LIST OF TABLES Page Table 1. Number of front pages selected from three 86 papers according to four events from 1937 to 1945 Table 2 . Total and average number of stories selected 87 from three newspapers Table 3 . Kind of stories covered by three Japanese 101 newspapers Table 4. Kind of stories from 1937 to 1945 101 Table 5. Number of stories written by various writers 102 Table 6. Number of stories written by various writers 104 from 1937 to 1945 Table 7. Mean score of emotional techniques employed 105 by three newspapers with ANOVA table Table 8 . Number of emotional and rational stories 106 Table 9. Emotional techniques employed in stories 107 from 1937 to 1945 Table 10. Scores of emotional techniques from 1937 to 109 1945 with ANOVA table and Scheffe test Table 11. Slant of stories used by three newspapers 110 Table 12. Number of slanted and unslanted stories 111 Table 13 . Number of stories slanted toward Japan or 112 Axis and against enemy Table 14. Slanted and unslanted headlines used by 113 three newspapers Table 15. Slanted and unslanted headlines used from 113 1937 to 1945 Table 16. Scores of emotional techniques by slant 115 of story with ANOVA table and Scheffe test Table 17. Scores of emotional techniques by slant 116 of headline with ANOVA table V Page Table 18. Total and average number of sources cited 117 in stories by three newspapers with ANOVA table Table 19. Sources cited in stories per category 118 Table 20. Number of sources used in stories from 119 1937 to 1945 Table 21. Average number of sources used from 1937 120 to 1945 with ANOVA table and Scheffe test Table 22. Number and percentage of stories without 121 sources from 1937 to 1945 Table 23. Stories naming no sources from 1937 to 1945 121 Table 24. Variety of sources used by three newspapers 122 Table 25. Variety of sources used from 1937 to 1945 123 Table 26. Specificity of sources used by three 125 newspapers Table 27. Specificity of sources used from 1937 to 126 1945 Table 28. Attitudes of three newspapers toward enemy 127 Table 29. Attitudes of three newspapers toward Axis 127 Table 30. Attitudes of stories toward individual enemy 129 Table 31. Attitudes of stories toward individual 130 Axis powers Table 32. Attitudes of stories toward enemy from 1937 131 to 1945 Table 33. Attitudes toward Axis powers from 1937 to 131 1945 Table 34. Strong negative words or statements used by 133 three newspapers with ANOVA table Table 35. Strong negative words or statements used 133 from 1937 to 1945 with ANOVA table and Scheffe test vi Page Table 36. Overall category of propaganda emphases 136 employed in all stories from 1937 to 1945 vii LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 1 Japanese newspaper content categories 143 by year 1 I. INTRODUCTION On the morning of December 7, 1941, 350 Japanese aircraft attacked the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, without a declaration of war. On the following day, an outraged U.S. government declared war against Japan. Hostilities between the two countries lasted for nearly four years, until the Japanese government unconditionally surrendered on August 14, 1945. For the Japanese, the war has held a special meaning for the past five decades. The rise of fascism and militarism in Japan before and during the war and their consequences are still a nightmare or dream-like reality. The tremendous human sacrifices to the war are unforgettable. Feelings of regret and remorse are reflected in the fact that most Japanese people support Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution, which eternally prohibits the nation from engaging in any military conflict. Moreover, the "sneak" attack on Pearl Harbor particularly stands as a reminder to the people that Japan initiated the conflict and, therefore, must accept full war responsibility. For many older Japanese, war guilt has not been easy to accept—not because they dispute what happened at Pearl Harbor, but because they were the victims of incessant pre¬ war propaganda that portrayed government and military policy as fully justified in the face of external threats and 2 domestic needs. The Japanese press, under the absolute control of the ruling powers, constantly reinforced the logic of economic and military expansion. As a result, the public, with no other sources to turn to, came generally to accept the justice and necessity of the Japanese cause in southeast Asia and the Pacific. In this sense, the Japanese mass media were also instrumental in transforming this acceptance into enthusiastic support for the national mobilization and war effort. Before and during World War II, the Japanese media were rigidly controlled by the government and military leaders. All news content in the media was forced to adhere to government policy. Access of news reporters to information sources was restricted only to government and military handouts and official news agency reports. Strict press regulations and well-organized pre- and post-publication censorship systems were created. These regulations were gradually extended to the extra-legal range, and violators were seriously punished. As a result, the Japanese media, especially the newspapers, became an effective tool of the official propaganda machine, calling for "national unity" to accomplish the goals inherent in "The Greater East Asia Co- Prosperity Sphere." For example, Asahi Shinbun. then the largest daily, wrote in its evening edition on December 8, 1941: "With respect to the Imperial Decree of war declaration [against 3 the United States and Great Britain], the spirit is trembling with a great excitement. This is the time when all of us devote our lives to the Imperial nation."1 Not surprisingly, all other newspapers followed in the same manner. Lafe Allen, in 1947, reported that government controls over the Japanese press during the war were so successful that "A sameness marked the appearance of all newspapers and little opportunity for even the simplest expression for a free press existed."2 As Allen observed, the official controls brought about the total uniformity of Japanese press coverage. The enemies were portrayed as an aggregate of "evil" and "inhuman" people, with weak morals, morale, and materials, who "ill-treated" the Asian people in their colonies and "plundered" abundant natural resources. Therefore, to accomplish the "independence and peace" of Asians, these enemies had to be removed from the whole of Asia. Only the "virtue of the Japanese spirit" could save the "Asian fellows" by its "strong" leadership. And, of course, the ultimate victory of such "superior spirit" was described as "inevitable." Overall, it has been accepted by scholars that while domestic Japanese war propaganda was effective during World War II, it did not achieve the same levels of saturation, sophistication or malevolence as did that of the Nazis under Joseph Goebbels. The reasons for this have yet to be 4 defined fully, but two factors are doubtless the lack of experience in the realm of propaganda and the unique traditions and culture of the Japanese people. In fact, Japanese war propaganda has been much less studied than the efforts of Germany, Great Britain and the United States, and rarely has it been empirically tested. Therefore, it can be assumed that both quantitative and qualitative analysis of Japanese propaganda not only would contribute to the overall understanding of such wartime techniques, but would also help understand some of the changes in the mass media in Japan after 1945. The main objective of this study is to identify through quantitative analysis the content trends of three Japanese national newspapers that had a significant role in domestic propaganda, with regard to four crucial events from 1937 to 1945.