Color Insert

Plate 1.

During World War II, Japanese intellectuals lavished praise on The Treasury of Loyal Retainers (Kanadehon chüshingura). Such scenes as Öboshi Yüranosuke (Don Kozono) licking blood from his master's suicide dagger as his oath of vengeance against his lord's enemy (Act IV) made this the most impassioned drama of loyalty and revenge in the kabuki repertory. American censors, with memories of fanatic kamikaze suicide bombers fresh in mind, did not allow the play's production until November 1947. (Production by Department of Theatre and Dance, University of Hawai'i, 1979; photo: James R. Brandon)

[Return to Text]

Plate 2.

General Headquarters (GHQ) for General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP), and his immediate staff was the former Dai Ichi Insurance Building, facing the Imperial Palace across the moat. Left is the Teikoku Gekijö (Imperial Theatre), where kabuki actor Onoe Kikuorö is said to have quipped from the stage: "if we have any troubles we can just ask Mac next door." (Photo: James R. Brandon, 2004)

[Return to Text]

Plate 3.

Rejected play script of The Subscription List (Kanjinchö) submitted to Theatre Sub-Section, CCD, November 1945. A Shöchiku scribe has written in red roman letters across the Japanese play title: "Shochiku, Tokyo Theatre (2–26), December, Kanjincho, Subscription Book." The pencil "65" (upper right) means this is the 65th script received by CCD. Theatre censor Earle Ernst's decision regarding the production is written in pencil (lower right): "Voluntary withdrawal." (Script, gift of Earle Ernst to the author)

[Return to Text]

Plate 4.

Theatre censors in Tokyo sometimes fixed a vermilion personal seal (hanko) to indicate approval of a script in place of the censor's signature or initials and with or without the mandatory CP-CCD stamp. Top, Earle Ernst's modest round seal of three small characters is fixed below the script receipt number 112 and the date of approval, "18 Dec 1945"; Seymour Palestin has placed his bold three-character vertical seal between the CP-CCD J-2033 stamp and the date, "25 Nov 46"; Alexander Calhoun's assertive seal, "ca ru-fun," is placed below and to the side of the CP-CCD 610 stamp and an incomplete date, "26/8 [1946]." (Scripts in Stanley Y. Kaizawa Collection, Hamilton Library, University of Hawai'i)

[Return to Text]

Plate 5.

Theatre censors in Tokyo sometimes fixed a vermilion personal seal (hanko) to indicate approval of a script in place of the censor's signature or initials and with or without the mandatory CP-CCD stamp. Top, Earle Ernst's modest round seal of three small characters is fixed below the script receipt number 112 and the date of approval, "18 Dec 1945"; Seymour Palestin has placed his bold three-character vertical seal between the CP-CCD J-2033 stamp and the date, "25 Nov 46"; Alexander Calhoun's assertive seal, "ca ru-fun," is placed below and to the side of the CP-CCD 610 stamp and an incomplete date, "26/8 [1946]." (Scripts in Stanley Y. Kaizawa Collection, Hamilton Library, University of Hawai'i)

[Return to Text]

Plate 6.

Theatre censors in Tokyo sometimes fixed a vermilion personal seal (hanko) to indicate approval of a script in place of the censor's signature or initials and with or without the mandatory CP-CCD stamp. Top, Earle Ernst's modest round seal of three small characters is fixed below the script receipt number 112 and the date of approval, "18 Dec 1945"; Seymour Palestin has placed his bold three-character vertical seal between the CP-CCD J-2033 stamp and the date, "25 Nov 46"; Alexander Calhoun's assertive seal, "ca ru-fun," is placed below and to the side of the CP-CCD 610 stamp and an incomplete date, "26/8 [1946]." (Scripts in Stanley Y. Kaizawa Collection, Hamilton Library, University of Hawai'i)

[Return to Text]