At the end of February 2020, we received approximately 230 volumes of materials, primarily literary works published during wartime, from Mr. Yoshihisa Otani, the representative of the gallery “Kanransha.” These literary materials were published between 1938 and 1946 and were digitized as a valuable primary resource in the Otani Library Wartime Materials Lab in 2021.

This collection includes numerous war-supporting poems by renowned poets such as Kotaro Takamura, Hakushu Kitahara, Shusei Tokuda, and Tatsuji Miyoshi. After the war, some of these poets were even called “anti-war poets,” and it appears that their wartime pro-war poems were largely erased. However, these poems were indeed published during the war period. Mr. Otani had been collecting these poetic works over many years by visiting used bookstores.

The Wartime Leterary Materials Lab has focused its research on two key aspects: the moment when poets who master delicate language began to support the war effort in line with the times (“the first shift”) and the moment when they erased their pro-war poetry after Japan’s defeat in 1945 (“the second shift”).

However, through discussions with many experts and related parties, it has been argued that rather than external pressures, the poets’ ability to “read the times” and their romanticism played a significant role in their shift towards supporting the war. This suggests that an artistic aspect inherent to the poets themselves was involved.

Both the literary figures who voluntarily supported the war and those who later erased their pro-war works may be rooted in the same part of Japan’s modern civilization. We aim to explore this structure through an examination of pro-war poetry.

*For access to the database, please contact Funaki.*