KISHIDA Kunio's Wartime Play: On the Two Versions of Kaeraji-to

Abstract

KISHIDA Kunio (1890-1954), “Japan's finest prewar playwright” (J. T. Rimer), published a great deal of critical writings on shingeki (the modern Japanese theatre) in order to improve it. In 1936 he began to write as “a fundamental manoeuvre” on Japanese society or culture in which the theatre itself is born and fostered. It was a time when Japan was getting deeply involved in the war with China, which was leading to the Pacific War. Kishida, well versed in European culture, proposed that, in order to defend his country and win the war, traditional Japanese virtues must be revived as “her own humanism” and “culture as strength” be built. His only wartime play Kaeraji-to (I Shall Not Return, 1943) was written for Nihon idô engeki renmei (Japan Mobile Theatre League) based on this conviction.

In the play Kishida tried to create “humanism” through the protagonist's way of living/dying so that it would have a universal truth. Despite his “patriotism,” however, the army authorities claimed that the play ridiculed the Imperial Army and they rebuked the magazine for carrying it. Consequently, it was revised as an “authorized script” by an unknown person for the Theatre League's first performance in Tokyo. This paper compares the two versions and makes it clear how Kishida's “play as strength” was diluted.