Kabuki's Forgotten War: 1931-1945

2. Kabuki and the Manchurian and Shanghai Incidents: 1931-1934

c h a P t e r t wo Kabuki and the Manchurian and Shanghai Incidents | – Vengeance now! Slaughter every enemy soldier! —General Offensive against Daijōchin, kabuki play, 1932 Though the three heroes will soon die, they are joyful to be a suicide squad.—Three Honored and Heroic Human Bombs, bunraku play, 1932 This is not the end but the beginning of our battle! —Now the Battle Begins, kabuki play, 1933 A s we have seen, a number of ichiyazuke plays in kabuki dealt with contemporary social and political events in the decade leading up to 1931. And even further back, during the SinoJapanese and Russo-Japanese conflicts, new war plays sprang up like grass after the rain. In 1931, kabuki’s fortunes were firmly tied to the national military adventure that was just beginning on the Chinese mainland. Japan’s FifteenYear War (1931–1945) began September 18, 1931, when extremist officers of the Kwantung Army deliberately blew up a small section of the South Manchurian Railway, blaming the action on “lawless Chinese soldiers.” On September 27, Tokyo assured the world that “Japan has no territorial designs on China and merely has taken necessary protective measures.” Immediately, however, the Kwantung Army initiated a rapid advance inland from their coastal bases, citing the fictitious “Chinese attack” as its excuse. Although the significance of the conflict was masked in Japan by calling the new war the “Manchurian Incident,” within ten days, Japan’s intention of ruling Manchuria was widely publicized.1 In half a year, the Kwantung Army had overrun all of Manchuria, separated the area from China, and in February 1932 selected Pu Yi (Puyi), the last Manchu emperor of China, to be puppet emperor of an “independent Manchukuo Nation.” The League of Nations voted to demand that Japan evacuate Manchuria, which Japan refused to do. In the United States (which was not a member of the League), the administration of President Herbert Hoover 38 | kabuki’s foreign adventure refused diplomatic recognition to a separate Manchurian state. Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson informed Japan that the American government would not recognize any change in the status quo that impaired United States treaty rights with China (the Stimson Doctrine). The American and Japanese positions on Manchuria proved irreconcilable, leading to deteriorating relations and, within ten years, war between the two countries. Japan’s clear-cut political and military success in Manchuria stimulated kabuki producers and playwrights to bring overnight pickle plays to the stage one after the other in 1931 and 1932. Fittingly the first such play was titled The Manchurian Incident. Written by professional kabuki playwright Matsui Shōō, the new script was staged by Ichikawa Ennosuke II’s troupe at the Tōkyō Gekijō in December 1931. Advertisements called it a “Young Stars’ Popular Program Recommended by the Army Ministry.”2 A brief commentary on the play published in Engei gahō adhered to the government’s position that China initiated the Manchurian conflict and that Japan was blameless: “It was announced on August 17, 1931, that in the latter part of July, Chinese army troops butchered special infantry staff officer Nakamura Shintarō and men under his command who were traveling in Mongolia. Further, on September 18, Chinese soldiers blew up a section of our nation’s Manchurian Railway. Thus, the Manchurian Incident burst forth.”3 Act 1 takes up the killing of Captain Nakamura by Chinese “bandits” and the defensive movements of Japanese troops into Manchuria taken to “protect the honor of Japan.” Act 3 is set in Geneva at the League of Nations, October 24, 1931, where Japanese delegate Fujisawa is defending his nation against the motion that “Japan shall evacuate from Manchuria by November 16, 1931.” Matsui closely follows the debate transcript here, and he has written the speeches of chair Aristide Briand, Lord Cecil of Great Britain, and other European delegates in English. In the play’s closing “Geneva Thirteento -One” scene, Briand calls the motion to a vote: briand: I shall call each member by name and request his reply. First the British representative. lord cecil: For. briand: Then the Japanese representative. ambassador fujisawa: Opposed! briand: Then the Polish representative. Polish rePresentative: For. The motion is passed, Japan outvoted thirteen to one. The play closes with a long, impassioned assertion by Fujisawa that Japan’s expansion into Manchuria is both moral and necessary.4 Ennosuke demonstrated his versatility as Kabuki and the Manchurian...