Sorry if I seem to be beating a dead horse here, but I’ve learned something new about what I’ve written about here and here, and the plot has thickened.

In the second entry, I briefly introduced a story in the November 1944 issue of Housewife’s Friend about a young woman who survived an attack on a passenger ship by an Allied submarine. Frankly, I suspected that the story was complete fiction. But it seems to have actually been fiction based on a true, and much more horrifying story. Author and translator Jonathan Clements wrote to tell me that the story sounds a lot like the story of the sinking of the Tsushima Maru, which I’m embarrassed to admit I had never heard about. After reading up on the story of the Tsushima Maru, and re-reading the article (which I hadn’t read very carefully the first time), I’m convinced that Jonathon is right. The Tsushima Maru was sunk on August 22, and this issue of Housewife’s Friend was being edited in late September, so the timing fits. The narrator writes that she instinctively looked at her wristwatch when the submarine was spotted and noted the time as 10:15. This fits with the story of the Tsushima Maru, which was attacked at 10:12 p.m.. The story also says there were many children on board, which also true of the Tsushima Maru.

What doesn’t fit is the scale. In this story, the ship is a mere 130 tons, traveling alone, and is carrying roughly 70 civilians. The Tsushima Maru was 6,754 tons, traveling with four other vessels (including a destroyer and a gunship), and is believed to have carried some 1,788 people, including 826 children, when it was sunk. A total of some 1418 people, including a shocking 775 children, were killed in the attack. Apparently the Tsushima Maru, the oldest and slowest of the five vessels, fell behind–which makes one wonder what the point of a military escort is–when the submarine USS Bowfin attacked the convoy. The Tsushima Maru was unmarked and traveling with its lights off. The other ships in the convoy shook off the Bowfin by dropping depth charges while fleeing at top speed. Apparently fearing the total destruction of the convoy, the surviving four vessels decided against going back to look for survivors. The crew of the Bowfin did not learn until 20 later that the ship they sunk carried children.

So why the massive discrepancy between the fact and this bit of fiction-presented-as-nonfiction? Survivors of the sinking, and anyone else who knew of it, were strictly forbidden from telling anyone about the incident. With the military government constantly reassuring the people that Japan was winning the war, it would probably not look good to admit that a large ship accompanied by a destroyer and gunship was sunk by the enemy. And it certainly would not do to have people know that the attack (by a single American submarine) took more than 1400 lives, more than half of which were children being evacuated out of fear of impending attack on Okinawa.

But apparently the propaganda people couldn’t resist trying to use this story in some way. They may also have wanted a cover story to account for the inevitable rumors of the incident. So they eliminated the convoy, shrunk the ship and the number of passengers down to a tiny fraction, and made all the passengers civilians. This changes the story to that of a heartless attack on a single small motorized sailboat by a massive submarine.

Excerpt from "To Become a Demon of Revenge"

Another thing I missed. The story ends with a taste of the vitriol to come in the December issue. Here’s my translation, along with a scan of the original.

When I was on _____ Island, I heard something several times from American prisoners. “When America achieves victory, we will take the males who are able to work, put rings in their noses, attach leashes, and make them work. We’ll kill all the rest [of the males]. We’ll take all the women back to the homeland, and marry them to Negroes. Children are a nuisance, so we’ll rip their heads off.”

But I thought no human could ever do such things. What a fool I was. I had thought Americans were human beings. Americans are demons; they are devils; theirs is a nation of devils. It’s a nation of devils that could do such things without a second thought. Along with the spirits of the seven family members and 62 islanders [who died], I shout out clearly. I too will become a demon, of revenge. If ever the day comes when I am permitted, I will cling to a torpedo and smash it into an enemy ship. To the spirits of my parents and all those who were slaughtered, I so vow.

Now I’m thinking that it was the sinking of the Tsushima Maru, secret though it was, that triggered the shockingly hateful content of the December 1944 issue. But the reading public, which would not learn the truth of the Tsushima Maru tragedy until well after the war’s end, must have found the sudden, unexplained change of tone unsettling.

The November 1944 issue of "Housewife's Friend"

Impetuous fool that I am, I quickly acquired copies of the November 1944 and December 1945 issues of Housewife’s Friend, in order to compare them to the foaming-at-the-mouth crazy December 1944 issue that I discussed a couple of entries back. The difference between the back-to-back issues from the winter of 1944 are striking. Needless to say, the November issue is also chock full of propaganda, but that was true of everything published in Japan, at least after the Battle of Midway. But where the December issue drips with vitriol and hatred, the November issue is solemn and sober.

The frontispiece is an illustration of a woman solemnly handing her son the military-issue sword that belonged to her husband, who has died in battle. (That’s Dad’s photo in the background.) The young man is getting ready to go off to battle himself. Pretty standard stuff as war propaganda goes.

A mother gives her late husband's sword to her son

The issue includes a paean to Admiral Togo, photos of female students contributing to the war effort, detailed instructions on how to make protective clothing in preparation for air raids, tips on getting to your bomb shelter quickly and efficiently, and a serialized war novel.

"Survivor" of alleged attack on passenger boat

The closest thing to the vitriol in the whole issue is the story of a young woman whose passenger boat, filled with Japanese refugees from an unnamed island, was (allegedly) attacked and sunk by an American submarine, killing most of the men, women, and children aboard. The story is ostensibly written by the young woman herself, but judging by the unusually high literary quality, I’m assuming it was actually written by a professional writer, and probably a novelist. The young woman, who miraculously survives the attack, vows to become a “demon of revenge” in response to this cowardly and cruel attack on unarmed civilians fleeing for the lives.

One of the more interesting pieces is a short, unattributed piece arguing that the only way to win the war is to go on the offensive. The first sentence is striking for its grudging nod to the enemy: “The Americans and British, who were weak when they were on the defensive, became an enemy not to be underestimated when they went on the offensive.” The exhortation, though, ultimately relies on divine intervention. “The Russo-Japanese War was won by ‘human bullets.’ The victory against the Americans and British will be one of bodily assault. And in the end it will be a victory of the Japanese spirit. We die to live. There is no god of victory who would not take the side of such an all-out charge.”

Back cover, illustrating well-equipped bomb shelter

The back cover of the magazine is an illustration of a well-equipped bomb shelter, again filled with practical advice. The back cover also helps clear up something that had been puzzling me. I had wondered in my earlier post who could afford these magazines, but the bottom of the back cover exhorts readers to share the magazine with as many people as possible, and even includes a row of boxes for people to put their family stamp in before passing it along to the next reader. This row of boxes is familiar to anyone who has lived in Japan, since it is still used in passing around notices and newsletters of potential interest to neighborhood residents. Note, though, that only the first box contains a stamp (which has faded beyond legibility). Either the second reader was a slacker, or the first reader ended up never passing it along. Either way, it helps explain why this particular copy is in such good shape.

So I’m wondering, what happened between October 6 (when this issue went to the printer) and November 6 (when the “Kill the Americans!” issue presumably went to the printer)? Well, I did a bit of research. That was actually quite an eventful month in the Pacific War. On October 11, the U.S. conducted air raids on Okinawa that took the Japanese completely by surprise. In the Battle of Leyte Gulf (October 23 – 26), the allies won a decisive victory, sinking the Yamato-class Musashi in the process. But perhaps most significantly, the first planned and successful kamikaze attack took place in that same battle, on October 25, sinking the U.S.S. St. Lo. Although the battle effectively wiped out Japan’s fleet (with the notable exception of the Yamato), the Navy loudly hailed the sinking of the St. Lo and the “success” of it’s new (and effectively last) weapon, the suicide air attack.

The question is, would the Battle of Leyte Gulf and the kamikaze attacks have influenced the content of the December issue of Housewife’s Friend? That depends on exactly when that issue went to press, and without access to the original (which, as I explained in the earlier post, is extremely rare), I have no way of knowing for sure. If it followed the schedule of the November issue, it would have been printed November 6, which would not leave much time for the Battle of Leyte to affect the content. But if it was even a few days later, it may have. That may actually account for the sloppy writing and bizarre pieces (such as the alleged American plan for the aftermath of the war) that seemed to have been pulled out of thin air. Although I’ve read only the excerpts Hayakwa quotes, that writing stands in stark contrast to the careful, solid writing in this November issue. It may be that the editors had a December issue ready to go, and literally stopped the presses to hastily put together a new issue reflecting the turn in the tide of the war. Things had been going badly enough since the Battle of Midway, in 1942, but now, Japan was left nothing but fighter planes, and very little fuel–very little of anything, in fact–to fight off the approaching allied fleet. They literally had only their “human bullets” (encased into hastily-built flying coffins) to fight with.

The editor in chief of Housewife’s Friend, Yasuo Hongoh, is something of a legend, and made a comeback as editor-in-chief when the Occupation ended in 1952. It’s hard to believe that an editor of his caliber could be responsible for the notorious December 1944 issue. I wonder if the issue wasn’t hijacked by government bureaucrats, who packed in all the venom and hatred they could in a desperate effort to inspire the public. I wonder if anyone alive knows the answer.

Next time I’ll introduce the December 1945 issue, which is surreal in a completely different way. In the meantime, you can check out the galleries I’ve made of the November 1944 and December 1945 issues.