兵隊を笑う――「兵隊喜劇」の系譜とその位相

抄録

This paper examines a genre of army comedy, called Heitai Kigeki and its transition from the postwar period to 1960’s. Historically based on Heitai Rakugo by Kingoro Yanagiya, Heitai Kigeki emerged out during the war. Ore Wa Suihei (1935) starring Kingoro and supported by the Department of the Navy aimed at whipping up public sentiment and succeeded to get critical reputations also. Soon after the WW II, Japanese films mainly depicted the last war from the victim’s point of view or cried against the military. Nitouhei Monogatari (1951), the first postwar Heitai Kigeki, had, like other films, a antimilitary position and made Japanese audience weep itself.

In Heitai Kigeki like Gunkanki series (1957~1958) which were made under the influence of Nitouhei Monogatari, tears and antiwar feeling faded away. When the war combined with the actions, the comical elements came out at first. Dokuritsu Gurentai (1959), clearly affected with Hollywood Western films, was criticized for its losing a perpetrator feeling. The criticism against the Emperor system started with another Heitai Kigeki, Haikei Tennou Heika Dono (1963).

In most of Heitai Kigeki the main character is not an officer but a soldier, which has a personality of marginality like a clown in a comic film. Heitai Kigeki was a genre derived from the resistance to the way in which other Japanese films represented the memory of the war.