"Fuku-chan" Goes to Java: Images of Indonesia in a Japanese Wartime Newspaper Comic Strip

Abstract

AbstractThis article will discuss how a wartime Japanese comic strip portrayed Japan's war against the Allied troops, the natural settings, customs and cultural forms of Java, and the relationship of the Japanese and the Javanese. The discussion is based on a textual analysis of a popular newspaper comic strip, "Fuku-chan" (Little Fuku), during the three-month period in 1942 when Java was the focus of the strip. A close analysis of this widely read newspaper strip reveals how images of Indonesia - a newly occupied, unknown place - were introduced to the Japanese audience at the early stages of World War II (1941-1945).