Into the Dead Zone of No Freedom of Expression: Naoe Kinoshita's Journalistic Strategy in His Anti-War Novel Hi-no-hashira

Abstract

Hi-no-hashira, Naoe Kinoshita's anti-war novel, has been interpreted in terms of Christian socialism or his religious philosophy of love. But we must bear it in mind that he was a journalist as well as a Christian and he wrote it in a journalistic style. Indeed in the form of popular fiction he plainly showed the public how the Russo-Japanese War precipitated monopolistic economy, the oppression of other races, and the expansion policy of imperial Japan. The novel was banned precisely because of such an ingenious journalistic strategy.