SENSORON AND JAPANESE VIEWS ON WAR AND MASCULINITY

Japanese masculinity is polarised in popular culture in a variety of ways. In particular, there are the archetypal old school yakuza hardmen played by actors like Sugawara Bunta and Takakura Ken and then there is the wistful vagabond Tora san played by Atsumi Kiyoshi in the movie series Otoko wa Tsurai Yo which obsessed a nation from 1969 - 1995. (For those looking for alternatives to these traditional forms of masculinity there is a rich tradition to be found in the androgynous male characters in 'Boys Love' manga as well as the novels of contemporary writers like Yoshimoto Banana. The looks of British musicians like David Bowie and David Sylvian and movies like Another Country all resonated strongly with younger Japanese women in the 1980s. Then there are the evergreen worlds of female cross dressing featured in the Kansai-based Takarazuka revue and camp celebrities such as the enka star, Mikawa Kenichi).

The first kind of traditional masculinity peaked during World War Two but was buried again in the aftermath of defeat. In its place, an army of salary-men emerged to continue the drive to modernise and win glory for Japan. In this way, whilst the cult of masculinity celebrated by the military was ditched, traditional Japanese masculinity itself was rebooted. Reference to the war was limited to prayers for the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and, to the frustration of neighbouring countries like China and Korea, Japanese right wing nationalists managed to circumvent any mention of Japanese war crimes in favour of discussion about Japan being the first victim of the Atomic Age.

In more recent times, however, it appears that young Japanese men are being encouraged to throw off the yoke of victim-hood and instead flex their muscles dressed in battle fatigues. In the manga series Senso ron they are encouraged to see their grandfather's generation as having been betrayed by the politicians. Their grandfathers, they are being told, were noble soldiers just doing their duty. And young men today are being told that they have the right to honour the memories of their grandfathers. It is a development that will fuel anti-Japanese sentiment. The re-emergence of the Japanese military as a guide to masculinity will bring back bitter memories of the war and Japanese atrocities. Denial in Japanese school textbooks is one thing, a change to the constitution and a manga series that glorifies the war is another.

Interestingly, the idea that the soldiers of World War Two were betrayed by the politicians maybe is just another version of the Japan-as-Victim story. Except foot soldiers are now the main focus rather then the nation. It is interesting that in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, movies like Apocalypse Now, Full Metal Jacket and The Deer Hunter depicted the plight of the grunts. Sensoron serves a similar function. Kobayashi Yoshinori, the creator of Sensoron, has a much bigger agenda. he denounces the brainwashing of Japanese children at Peace Museums and clearly wants young Japanese to feel proud about wearing the uniform.

When it was first published Senso Ron posed the question, "Will you go to war, or will you stop being Japanese?" on the front cover. Whilst a manga, it features a lot of text addressing issues such as the 'comfort women', the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, A-bombs and the Nanjing massacre. Kobayashi is a patriot. And the lens through which he views the war is one in which Japan fought a war of justice, aiming to liberate Asia from Western imperialism. He argues that the Japanese people who challenge this viewpoint today have been brainwashed by the Americans. Senso Ron is such a success that Rumi Sakamoto argues that it challenges the mainstream interpretation of history, It is, however, Sakamoto argues, focussed solely on a Japanese perspective and therefore is "closed off" and "simply unacceptable".