What Do Beautiful Stories of Wartime Consolation Tell Us? ：A Study on The Imperial Japanese Army Consolation Group of Nihon Shimbun Remmei and Konan Ni Jun No Tabi

Abstract

This paper focuses on the activities of the Imperial Japanese Army consolation group (sent to boost the morale of soldiers) on the Jiangnan front line and its commemorative book, Konan Ni Jun No Tabi. It was published in May 1939 during the Second Sino-Japanese War by the Japanese newspaper league (Nihon Shimbun Remmei) and was not available for sale to the public. The Imperial Japanese Army’s consolation mission to the war zone was highly active. Under the guise of comforting the Imperial Japanese Army and visiting battle sites, this group, while receiving preferential treatment from the military, continued to travel around war-torn Jiangnan. They eulogized the scenery of the battlefield in front of them and worked to connect the front line with the home front. In addition to being a beautiful story of the battlefield, the book Konan Ni Jun No Tabi glorified the work of this group as overwhelmingly successful and unprecedented, in this way making the text more of a beautiful story than a simple summing up of its work.In this paper, based on an analysis of this book, the purpose of these stories, hidden behind the larger narrative of the Jiangnan battlefield, is examined. Another “Jiangnan” as seen by the group is revealed, as is the reality of their work and their success.