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Japan's New Empire and the Dōmei News Agency in Occupied Southeast Asia, 1942-45

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2025

Tomoko Akami
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JAPAN'S WARTIME PROPAGANDA IN A GLOBAL CONTEXT

Just before the outbreak of the Second World War, E.H. Carr finished his draft of Twenty Years' Crisis. In it he observed:

[W]ithin twenty years of the armistice [of the First World War]… many governments were conducting propaganda with an intensity unsurpassed in the war period; and new official and non-official agencies for the influence of opinion at home and abroad were springing up in every country.

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Research Article
Information
Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 13 , Issue 1 , January 2015 , e1
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References

Notes

1 Carr, The Twenty Years' Crisis, 1919–1939, p. 139

2 Akami, ‘The emergence of international public opinion’, p. 12.

3 Carr, Propaganda in International Politics, p. 5.

4 Ibid., p. 13.

5 See a full discussion in Akami, Soft Power of Japan's Total War State, pp. 12-21.

6 See a new project on domestic thought control of the MOI by Simon Eliot, http://www.ies.sas.ac.uk/about-us/news/institute-english-studies-awarded-ahrc-grant-ministry-information-project

7 On the British Library of Information, see David A. Lincove, ‘The British Library of Information in New York: A Tool of British Foreign Policy, 1919-1942‘, Libraries & the Cultural Record, 46 (2), 2011, pp. 156-184.

8 Akami, Soft Power, pp. 167–70.

9 Matthew D. Johnson, ‘Propaganda and sovereignty in wartime China: Moral operations and psychological warfare under the Office of War Information’, Modern Asian Studies, 45 (2), 2011, pp. 303-44.

10 Akami, Soft Power, p. 70.

11 Johnson, ‘Propaganda’, pp. 312, 325.

12 Gaimushō jōhōbu, 'Shina jihen ni okeru jōhō senden kōsaku gaiyō’, September 1938, in the file of 'Shina jihen kankei ikken’ (SJKI), Gaikō Shiryōkan (GS) [The Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs], Tokyo.

13 Ibid.

14 See Amō's instruction in October 1936, Akami, Soft Power, p. 79.

15 Kurata Yasuho, Nyūsu no shōnin: Roita (Tokyo: Asahi shimbunsha, 1996, c. 1979), p. 259.

16 Read, The Power of News, p. 158.

17 Ibid., pp. 193, 194.

18 Ibid., p. 193.

19 Ibid., pp. 196-7, 206.

20 See Chapter Seven, Akami, Soft Power.

21 Read, The Power of News, pp. 192-212.

22 In June-September 1943, Reuters finally repudiated this ‘informal agreement’ of September 1939. Ibid., p. 298.

23 Ibid., pp. 296-7.

24 Ibid., p. 288.

25 Ibid., pp. 297-8.

26 Ibid., p. 299.

27 Cited in Paul H. Kratoska, ‘Introduction’ to Ken'ichi Gotō, Tensions of Empire: Japan and Southeast Asia in the Colonial and Postcolonial World (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2003), p. xviii. This operation is not covered in Read's work, which is the most comprehensive history of Reuters.

28 Kawahara Naokazu [Aid at the Ministry of the Army] to Jōhōkyoku jichō, 16 September 1942; ‘Nanpō senryō chiiki ni okeru tsūshinsha oyobi shimbunsha kōsaku shori yōkō‘, reprinted in Ariyama and Nishiyama eds, Jōhōkyoku kankei shiryō (Jōhōkyoku), vol. 5, pp. 58-61.

29 See Chapter Seven, Akami, Soft Power.

30 ‘Nanpō senryō chiiki ni okeru tsūshinsha oyobi shimbunsha kōsaku shori yōkō‘, reprinted in Ariyama and Nishiyama eds, Jōhōkyoku, vol. 5, p. 59.

31 Mainichi meant both Osaka Mainichi and Tokyo Nichinichi.

32 Kitayama, Rajio Tokyo, vol. 2, pp. 221-5.

33 Furuno Inosuke denki henshū iinkai ed., Furuno Inosuke, p. 260.

34 Furuno Inosuke, ‘Nanpō ryokō yori kaette’, Dōmei tsūshin hō, no. 63, 10 December 1942, reprinted in Ariyama and Nishiyama eds, Dōmei tsūshinsha kaikei shiryō (Dōmei), vol. 6, p. 333.

35 Dōmei tsūshinsha ed., Dōmei no shimei to katsudō: Taigai shisōsen ha ikani tatakawareteiruka (Tokyo: Dōmei tsūshinsha, 1944), reprinted in Ariyama and Nishiyama eds, Dōmei, vol. 5, p. 326.

36 Jōhōkyoku, ‘Nanpō hōdō tsūshin kikō kakuritsu ni kansuru ken’ [1942], (reprinted), pp. 456-7.

37 ‘Seifu joseikin nendobetsu hyō‘, [No date], in Ariyama and Nishiyama eds, Dōmei, vol. 5, p. 190.

38 On the Ministry of the Army's use of this bank, see ‘Nanpō senryō chiiki ni okeru tsūshinsha oyobi shimbunsha kōsaku shori yōkō‘, 16 September 1942, reprinted in Ariyama and Nishiyama eds, Jōhōkyoku, vol. 5, p. 60.

39 Nishiyama, ‘Tsūshinsha ni taisuru seifu no joseikin’, p. 83. These figures roughly correspond to, but do not match, the precise figures that are listed in government documents. One possible reason for this is that not all documents are currently available to account for all official assistance.

40 Ibid.

41 Tsūshinshashi kankōkai ed., Tsūshinshashi, p. 625; ‘Yakuin oyobi shain meibo’, December 1942, reprinted in Ariyama and Nishiyama eds, Dōmei, vol. 10, p. 512.

42 Fujiwara Iwaichi, Fujiwara kikan (Tokyo: Hara shobō, 1971, c. 1966), pp. 316, 320. Matsumoto left Singapore in the same flight with Fujiwara on 29 April 1942.

43 'Nanpō rikugun gunsei chiiki shimbun seisaku yōryō’, 10 October 1942, reprinted in Ariyama Teruo, Nihon no senryō to shimbun no ‘Nanpō daishingun’ (Tokyo: Nihon tosho centa, 1991), pp. 9-18.

44 ‘Nanpō senryō chiiki ni okeru tsūshinsha oyobi shimbunsha kōsaku shori yōkō‘, 16 September 1942, reprinted in Ariyama and Nishiyama eds, Jōhōkyoku, vol. 5, p. 60.

45 Ibid.

46 Kawashima, ‘“Teikoku” to rajio’, in Yamamoto ed., ‘Teikoku’ Nihon no gakuchi, vol. 4, p. 237.

47 See Chapter Five, Akami, Soft Power.

48 On Japan's cultural policy in occupied Southeast Asia, see, for example, Akashi, ‘Nihon gunseika no Malaya Shingapōru ni okeru bunkyō shisaku, 1941-1945 nen’, in Kurasawa ed., Tōnan Ajia shi no nakano Nihon senryō; Goodman ed., Japanese Cultural Policies in Southeast Asia during World War II; Gōtō Kenichi, Nihon senryōki Indoneshia kenkyū (Tokyo: Ryūkei shosha, 1989), pp. 181-271.

49 Watanabe Yōsuke, ‘Singapōru ni okeru kōminka kyōiku no jissō‘, in Ikeda Hiroshi ed., Daitōa kyōeiken no bunka kensetsu (Kyoto: Jinbun shoin, 2007), pp. 81-2, 106, 122-3.

50 Ariyama, Nihon no senryō, pp. 15, 16, 17.

51 This Dōmei news was intercepted by the Department of External Affairs of the Australian Government on 3 March 1945. In the file of A130322: 7C/1945, Australian Archives (AA), Canberra.

52 Kitayama, Rajio Tokyo, vol. 2, pp. 47-9.

53 [Jōhōkyoku], ‘Gaikō tsūshin tokubetsu hi tsuika yōkyū riyū setsumeisho’, 21 December 1941, (reprinted), pp. 169-71.

54 ‘Nanpō rikugun gunsei chiiki shimbun seisaku yōryō‘, 10 October 1942, (reprinted), p. 10.

55 For the details of these activities, see Akami, Soft Power, fn. 41, pp. 286-7.

56 Ariyama, Nihon no senryō', p. 14.

57 Tsūshinshashi kankōkai ed., Tsūshinshashi, pp. 624, 625.

58 Ibid., pp. 627-8.

59 The official history of Japanese news agencies called this paper Parenban shimbun (Palembang Newspaper) in the Japanese translation, noting that it was published in Indonesian. Tsūshinshashi kankōkai ed., Tsūshinshashi, pp. 632-3, 639-40. This paper could have been called ‘Pewarta Palembang’.

60 Nakano Satoshi emphasizes the role of local populations in shaping Japan's rule and its disintegration. Nakano, ‘Shokuminchi gyōsei’, pp. 4, 25.

61 Tsūshinshashi kankōkai ed., Tsūshinshashi, pp. 624, 625, 628, 632.

62 Some independence activists cooperated with the occupation in order to advance their own causes. Asahi shimbun ‘shimbun to sensō‘ shuzaihan, Shimbun to sensō, p. 275.

63 Johnson, ‘Propaganda’, pp. 310-11, 313.

64 Ibid, p. 313.

65 Ibid, pp. 312-13.

66 Ibid, pp. 328-31.

67 Ibid, pp. 319-21.

68 Akami, Soft Power, pp. 159, 171, 172, 190

69 Ibid, pp. 157-61.

70 Johnson, ‘Propaganda’, p. 322-3, 338.

71 Ibid., p. 336-9.

72 Akami, ‘The making of an empire of information’, pp. 122-7.

73 Dōmei published many journals during the war. For the details, see Akami, Soft Power, f.n.50, p. 289.

74 The following analysis is based on the available issues of Dōmei gurafu of November 1940-December 1941, August 1942-February 1943, and January-December 1944.

75 ‘Biruma no hikyō Shan kōgen o iku’, Dōmei gurafu (August, 1942); ‘Nanpō no haikyo’, Dōmei gurafu (October, 1942).

76 Akami, ‘The making of an empire of information’, p. 125. Another message was that ‘White’ prisoners of war and their families in the region were treated ‘humanely and in a civilized manner’. ‘Futsuin hōkoku’, Dōmei gurafu (May, 1941); ‘Kainantō tōsaki’, Dōmei gurafu (September, 1941); ‘Futsuin fudoki’, Dōmei gurafu (November, 1941); ‘Serebesu [Celebes] ni katsuyaku suru kaigun rikusentai’ Dōmei gurafu (October 1942); ‘Shinsei Nanpō fūkei’, Dōmei gurafu (January, 1943); ‘Meirō Nanpōken’ Dōmei gurafu (November, 1944).

77 Hara, Gendai Ajia kenkyū, pp. 23-6.

78 Ibid., pp. 34-42.

79 See Chapter Seven, Akami, Soft Power.

80 See also Chapter Nine, Akami, Soft Power.

81 Yokota Minoru took charge of the headquarters.

82 Tsūshinshashi kankōkai ed., Tsūshinshashi, pp. 613-14.

83 Tsūshinshashi kankōkai ed., Tsūshinshashi, pp. 608-9, 614-15.

84 See Chapter Nine, Akami, Soft Power.

85 Akami, ‘Projecting a fiction of the nation-state to the world’.

86 'AFA Interrogation Report, No. 4’, 18 June 1945, in the file of AWM 54 779/3/85, the Australian War Memorial (AWM), p. 1. Dōmei's staff directory of April 1944 listed his name at the Macassar [Makassar] branch office with a note, ‘not yet arrived’. Ariyama and Nishiyama eds, Dōmei, vol. 10, p. 616.

87 Nakai Daisuke, ‘Nihon shihaika no Makassaru’, in Gotō ed., Nihongun senryōka no Indoneshia, pp. 525-39.

88 ‘AFA Interrogation Report, No. 4‘, p. 2.

89 Ibid.

90 See Chapter Nine, Akami, Soft Power.

91 In the new structure of April 1943, the BOI consolidated all overseas-related activities at the Third Department. ‘Jōhōkyoku shin kikō‘ [April 1943], in the file of Shuyō Bunsho Tsuzuri (SBT) 1, KB (Kōbunshokan), Tokyo.

92 See Chapter Nine, Akami, Soft Power.

93 ‘AFA Interrogation Report, No. 4‘, p. 2.

94 Read, The Power of News, p. 134.

95 ‘AFA Interrogation Report, No. 4‘, p. 3.

96 The two Indonesians were: Soetadie and Sarman. ‘AFA Interrogation Report, No. 4‘, p. 4.

97 Johnson, ‘Propaganda’, pp. 328-31

98 Tsūshinshashi kankōkai ed., Tsūshinshashi, pp. 628, 630.

99 Ibid., p. 635.

100 Read, The Power of News, p. 273.

101 Tsūshinshashi kankōkai ed., Tsūshinshashi, pp. 609, 612, 614.

102 The figures were from the Dōmei's company directory of April 1944. Yakuin oyobi shain meibo, April 1944, reprinted in Ariyama and Nishiyama eds, Dōmei, vol. 10, pp. 610–17.

103 Dōmei tsūshin ed., Dōmei no shimei, 1944, (reprinted), pp. 323–4.

104 For this analysis, I examined The New York Times and British Commonwealth Papers, which included The Manchester Guardian, The Observer, The Irish Times, The Scotsman, and The Times of India. I thank Obiya Shunsuke for his assistance.

105 Kitayama, Pisu tōku, pp. 33–7, 40, 151.

106 See, for example, The New York Times, 19 February 1944.

107 The New York Times, 23 May 1944.

108 AWM80: 8/146/Part 1/Dec 1943–Feb 1944, AWM.

109 A130322: 7C/1945, AA.

110 The reports of 9 July and 10 July 1945, in the file of A130322: 7C/1945, AA.

111 See for example, the reports of 22 March; 14 June; 19 June; 20 June; 8 July; 12 July 1945, in the file of A130322: 7C/1945, AA.

112 The New York Times, 24 June 1945.

113 Ibid.

114 Marr, Vietnam 1945, p. 194.

115 Ibid., pp. 137, 194, 359.

116 Awaya, ‘Taiheiyō sensōki’, pp. 18–21.

117 See Chapter Nine, Akami, Soft Power.