2019 Volume 101 Pages 95-111
Mrs. A's Letters (1946/1950), which Tanizaki Jun'ichirō intended to publish as his first postwar novel, was suppressed by GHQ censorship on the grounds that its description of wartime flight training made it “militaristic.” In fact, this novel was based on actual letters written to Tanizaki's wife Matsuko by a woman named Morimura Haruko during the war. While editing The Complete Works of Tanizaki Jun'ichiro (26 volumes, 2015-17, Chuo Koron Shinsha), I examined both the source materials and Tanizaki's manuscript. In this paper, by analyzing Tanizaki's process of composing the novel, and the effects of his rewriting Morimura's letters in a fictional form, I show how the situation under wartime censorship, when the letters were actually written, intersects with the postwar Occupation period, when Tanizaki wrote the novel. Finally, I aim to situate Mrs. A's Letters in the whole of Tanizaki's literary activities.
