«Keines unserer Leben ist verschwendet, wenn wir auf dem Schlachtfeld sterben.» Militärausstellungen und Erinnerungsfeste im Japan der frühen Shōwa-Zeit

Abstract

«None of Our Lives are wasted, if We Die on the Field of Battle.» Military Exhibitions and Memory Celebrations in Early Shōwa Japan Exhibitions and enshrining ceremonies at the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo were the dominant form of festivals in early Shōwa-Japan (1926–1945). The changeover of the Empire to a dictatorship, which has to be characterized – despite all criticism concerning this term – as fascistic, becomes manifest in the development of the two festivals since the 1920s. They started to be dominated by the military in the 1930s as the appearance of national defence exhibitions and the increasing emotionality of the celebrations at the Yasukuni Shrine demonstrate. In the process of militarization of the 1930s the two festivals played a major role. The exhibitions were used for the educational preparation of the war; and the festivals for the dead soldiers at the Yasukuni gave their sacrifice a deeper sense. In the 1930s and ’40s a radical functional change of both festivals occurred that highlights the ritual hegemony of the military during the two decades.