Global Japanese Studies Model Unit: International Censorship Workshop Report

 

January 26, 2018 (Fri.)
Part 1: 1:30 pm to 3:00 pm Masaru Ibuka Auditorium, Waseda University
Part 2: 3:30 pm to 5:30 pm Conference Room Three, Waseda University International Conference Center
Sponsored by: Waseda University’s Global Japanese Studies Model Unit, Top Global University Project
Co-sponsored by: Waseda University Research Institute for Letters, Arts and Sciences and the Ryusaku Tsunoda Center of Japanese Culture
Moderator: Hiroki Matsumoto (Guest Associate Professor, Waseda University Research Council)

Part 1
Opening remarks: Yasushi Oyabu (Senior Dean, Waseda University Faculty of Letters, Arts and Sciences)
Keynote: Robert Campbell (Director, National Institute of Japanese Literature)
Keynote: Kazushige Munakata (Professor, Faculty of Letters, Arts and Sciences)

Part 2
Young Researchers’ Roundtable: Censorship and Literary Studies Today
Report: Yoshiyuki Maki (Research Associate, Nagano Prefectural College)
Report: Natsuko Ozaki (Instructor, Hirosaki University)
Report: Ryu Murayama (Adjunct Instructor, Keio University)
Report: Kim Young-Long (Guest Assistant Professor, Waseda University)
Report: Akito Sakasai (Senior Assistant Professor, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies)
Commentators: Robert Campbell (Director, National Institute of Japanese Literature), David Lurie (Associate Professor, Columbia University),
Kazushige Munakata (Professor, Faculty of Letters, Arts and Sciences)

Closing remarks: Lee Sung-si (Professor, Waseda University)

This workshop was sponsored by Waseda University’s Global Japanese Studies Model Unit of the Top Global University Project and co-sponsored by the Waseda University Research Institute for Letters, Arts and Sciences and the Ryusaku Tsunoda Center of Japanese Culture. Over 100 participants attended, including researchers, faculty members, and students from Waseda University and other institutions, reaffirming the interest that studies into censorship attract within academia.

Part 1 of the workshop began with opening remarks by Professor Yasushi Oyabu, senior dean of Waseda University’s Faculty of Letters, Arts and Sciences. After these remarks the first keynote talk, titled “Popcorn on the Ginza—Urban Representation and Literature in Japan during the Occupation Period,” was given by Dr. Robert Campbell (Director, National Institute of Japanese Literature). The talk was novel; it focused on the particular space that was the Ginza area in the context of the active research into the censorship instituted by GHQ/SCAP during the US occupation period in Japan. This jam-packed talk, which interrogated urban expression by both the occupiers and the occupied through newly available sources—including telephone interviews with people who experienced Ginza under occupation and photographs—was met with lengthy applause.

 

The second keynote was given by Professor Kazushige Munakata of Waseda University. In his talk, titled “On the ‘Censorship’ of Early Modern Literature,” the professor summarized the findings that research into systems of censorship have contributed to the study of early modern literature, analyzed the current state of this research, and suggested questions for future study. Professor Munakata stressed the importance of paying attention to how censorship is a system that, like the lines on a sheet of writing paper, restricts the act of writing while, in as natural-seeming a way as possible, attempts to conceal that it is even a system at all. This perspective should leave quite the impression on not only researchers but all those who live in today’s era.

 

 

 

 

After the overview of new perspectives on research into censorship and the details of such research in Part 1, there was a break. Part 2 of the workshop began within the “Young Researchers’ Roundtable: Censorship and Literary Studies Today.” Despite the academic subject matter, this roundtable attracted an audience far exceeding expectations.

As Part 2 commenced, five young researchers reported on their latest research, which was based on newly available materials.

The first person to report, Dr. Yoshiyuki Maki (Research Associate, Nagano Prefectural College) gave a presentation titled “On the Relationship Between Publication Police and Libraries Before and During World War II: Deciphering Official Documents.” This was the first time that the ways in which libraries engaged in the control of books during the war was explicated.

Next, Dr. Natsuko Ozaki (Instructor, Hirosaki University) highlighted the case of the publisher Iwanami Bunko amid the Home Ministry’s censorship regime in her presentation “On the Censorship of Iwanami Bunko.” The long list of research materials that Dr. Ozaki presented portended that research into this series of books and the censorship thereof would be a massive project.

Similarly, the presentation by Dr. Ryu Murayama (Adjunct Instructor, Keio University)—entitled “An Investigation of the Course of Revisions to the ‘Rule Directing an Improvement of Children’s Reading’” and concerning censorship by the Home Ministry during the war—employed careful analysis of, as its title suggests, the process of revising the rule in an attempt to find new research developments in the study of children’s literature authors and censorship.

The presentation by Dr. Kim Young-Long (Guest Assistant Professor, Waseda University) was titled “On the Reading Behavior of Censorship Bodies during the Occupation: With an Emphasis on the Tokyo Military Tribunals and Censorship.” It took up literary works that depicted the Tokyo Tribunals and discussed documents relating to censorship. Dr. Kim thus analyzed the complex reading behaviors in which censors can be surmised to have engaged.

The presentation by Dr. Akito Sakasai (Senior Assistant Professor, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies), “Literature by Koreans in Japan and Self-Censorship: With a Focus on the Works of Kim Tal-su,” also dealt with censorship during the occupation of Japan but brought to the surface new issues of censorship, not understandable under the dichotomy of the occupiers versus the occupied, by considering issues relating to literature by Koreans living in Japan.

In response to these presentations, the three commentators—Dr. Robert Campbell (Director, National Institute of Japanese Literature), Dr. David Lurie (Associate Professor, Columbia University), and Professor Kazushige Munakata (Faculty of Letters, Arts and Sciences)—provided valuable comments that added further breadth to what each presenter had reported. Their wide-ranging comments held the prospect of pointing to future directions for systematic research into the topic of censorship by raising questions, such as how to understand “censorship-like phenomena” (apart from systems of censorship themselves) that arise when restrictions are internalized and what to think about the existence of censors who understood literature well.

Finally, Waseda University’s Professor Lee Sung-si used his closing remarks to note the importance of censorship research, and the International Censorship Workshop concluded a rousing success.