Japanese Propaganda Methods in Indonesia during the Military Occupation ：Focusing on Kitahara Takeo’s <i>Indoneshiajin no Seikaku</i>

ANGGRAENI, Dewi

doi:2020.11.1.187

The Journal of Japanese Language Literature Studies > Volume 11(1); 2020 > Article

Article

Border Crossings: The Journal of Japanese-Language Literature Studies 2020;11(1): 187-201.
doi: https://doi.org/10.22628/bcjjl.2020.11.1.187

Japanese Propaganda Methods in Indonesia during the Military Occupation ：Focusing on Kitahara Takeo’s Indoneshiajin no Seikaku

Dewi ANGGRAENI

Lecturer, Universitas Indonesia

インドネシア人像とプロパガンダの手法との関係 ―― 北原武夫インドネシア人の性格を中心に

デウィ·アングラエニ

(インドネシア)インドネシア大学人文科学部日本学科講師/広島大学大学院文学研究科博士課程後期単位取得満期退学。日本近代文学、ポストコロニアル理論。

Correspondence Dewi ANGGRAENI ,Email: d.anggraeni@ui.ac.id

Published online: 30 December 2020.

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

ABSTRACT

Japanese South-commissioned writers who left for Southeast Asia during World War 2 as members of the military's Propaganda Unit usually presented Indonesian people in a positive light. However, this was not the case with Kitahara Takeo, one such writer. This article examines the function of the negative portrayal of Indonesians by Kitahara, as seen in his essay Indoneshia no Seikaku(1943.8), and argues that this form of representation was a propaganda technique employed by the author for the purpose of furthering the project of a “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere”. In advancing this cause, Kitahara emphasized that “tough measures rather than mere slogans” were needed. In his view, the move toward a co-prosperity sphere had to be embodied in concrete policy, and it was necessary to recognize the actual problems in the Indonesian colony in order to devise the appropriate policies. His negative representation of Indonesian people can be read as a way of expressing “the real problem in the colony” that had to be addressed if the right policy was to be arrived at. He believed that this, eventually, would lead back to the idea of establishing a “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere”. The purpose of this paper is not to categorize Kitahara’s work according to a simple “anti-war/pro-war” distinction, but rather to observe the diversity of propaganda techniques employed by South-commissioned writers.

Keywords: Contact-Zone, Greater East Asia, Co-Prosperity Sphere, Indonesia, Kitahara Takeo, South-Commissioned Writers

キ―ワ―ド: 接触領域, 大東亜共栄圏, インドネシア, 北原武夫, 南方徴用作家