Conférence - Naoko Shimazu : The Making of a Heroic War Myth in Modern Japan

Anne ChengCollège de FranceHistoire intellectuelle de la ChineAnnée 2024-2025Conférence - Naoko Shimazu : The Making of a Heroic War Myth in Modern JapanWar and Peace: A Global History of Japan, 1904-1943Naoko ShimazuProfessor and Deputy Director, Tokyo CollegeNaoko Shimazu est invitée par l'assemblée du Collège de France sur proposition de la Pr Anne Cheng.RésuméHeroic war myths are an integral aspect of war in any cultural tradition. In modern warfare, the primary objective of heroic war myth is to arouse patriotic sentiment in order to mobilise the nation to fight an efficient and winning war. Modern Japan was no exception. Within Japan, the most powerful official heroic myth created from the Russo-Japanese war was Commander Takeo Hirose who died in the second blockade of Port Arthur on 27 March 1904. Within a few days of his death, Commander Hirose even began to assume the title of the 'God of War Commander Hirose' (Gunshin Hirose chūsa). In this lecture, we trace step by step how the myth of the 'God of War Commander Hirose' was created by the Naval History Section of the Japanese Imperial Navy as it started looking for a suitable individual as soon as the war started in February 1904. 'God of War Commander Hirose' became a household name and his appeal was such that many cultural outputs were created, such as a kabuki play, a Western style theatre play, commercial films, for instance. The Hirose myth reached its apogee in 1935 when the commander was venerated as a god of war in a shrine named after him – Hirose Shrine established in his native hometown in Oita Prefecture.