OK – here is about 100 songs where ODB had one verse, edited down to JUST his verses. The kids probably have a name for this sort of thing.

 

This includes all the Wu albums, but it's mostly one-off random collabos. Part two also has the whole Osirus mixtape edited down. Honestly man that Osirus was kind of a rip-off. If you only have 8 bars of ODB, don't copy and paste it until the song is 3 minutes.

 

 part one

part two

2 comments

AMAZON LINK *** BUY IT IF YOU LIKE IT ***

Yet another book about "erotic grotesque" where the author arbitrarily invents his own meanings for those two words. Ero refers to evil capitalists manipulating peoples’ natural urges for a better life, using biological drives to make fat profits. Guro refers to the cruelty of colonial slave labor and drug addiction.

Main points of the book:

1) Techniques that were invented in the far-flung colonies by Japanese yakuza and criminals then got copied and institutionalized by the “legitimate” Japanese colonial governments, and then finally got implemented in mainland Japan during the war years. From criminal to “legitimate businessman” to official government policy.

2) Most of the "sophisticated, modern" cultural trends of Tokyo in the `20s and `30s actually started in the very rural colonies. And from the periphery of the empire they spread to the center.

 

FOR EXAMPLE:

• Gangster capitalism
• "Sexology"
• Industrialized prostitution (karayuki to ianfu to  jappayuki)
• Japanese-style Feminism
• Fascism and centrally planned war economy
  
• Grotesque as entertainment (particularly war porn and drugs)
  

3) The whole Japanese empire would not have been possible without organized crime laying the foundation and, in some cases, providing the capital for running entire nations' puppet governments.

 

4) Having an empire isn't as simple as just saying, "OK, I killed your army, now all your stuff belongs to me!".  In Taiwan, Japan took over without a shot, but they had to find a way to turn an expensive military occupation and giant administrative staff into a profitable colony. And in Korea and Manchuria, Japan spent DECADES in a state of SEMI colonization. . . they could trade, they had some cops there to "protect the traders",  but they didn't own the country outright. So how to turn semi-colonization into REAL colonization?  BUSINESS AS WARFARE.  That's the middle step I never knew about.

5)  If you read the book and live in America, it's hard not to see parallels between BUSINESS AS WARFARE and what is going on right now.

 

Anyway, instead of a review of the book, I decided to do something different this time:

a TIMELINE, to help you when you read the book. A supplement or something.

---

1868 –

Meiji Restoration overthrows the Shogun government. Also a major goal of the restorers: open Japan to trade with the world. Not just to compete with Whitey, but also they aim to win a trade war with China, which at that time was THE king of all Asian commerce. But how? The Chinese have literally thousands of years of experience in international trade, and Japan has like 2 weeks of experience.

1876 –

 Korea signs the Treaty of Ganghwa, allowing Japan to trade at four port cities. Basically Japan pulled a Perry and Black Shipped the formerly closed country of Korea.

1880s –

Chinese pimps operating out of Japanese port cities kidnap poor Japanese women and ship them to brothels in China. These women are known as karayukisan (kara being an old word for China, yuki meaning, to go to)

1885 –

Japanese are allowed to settle and do trade in all of Korea. Although in practice only the tekiya (fore-runners of the Yakuza, tekiya were organized clans of traveling merchants pushing carts full of iffy merch. You can still see them at festivals) really bothered to make the trip. The tekiya would use violence and intimidation to coerce Koreans into buying shoddy goods and fake medicines. They were “soon joined by drug traffickers and sex workers.” All backed up by the official Japanese consulates, who would “protect” them from retaliation by the Korean citizens. Even though Korea was still run by the Korean government. The more money the thugs made, the more they could spend on lobbying the Japanese government for more “protection”, which would allow them to rip off even more Koreans. Another fore-runner of the yakuza, the bakuto, also showed up in Korea. Originally traveling gamblers, in Korea the bakuto did predatory lending scams, loan-sharking, and so on, which always ended in them foreclosing on Korean farmers’ land, helping Japan colonize one rice paddy at a time.

1887 - 

Muraoka Iheiji was hired by the Japanese consulate in Shanghai to travel around China and make a secret report about money-making opportunities : businesses and industries that Japanese businessmen could try to muscle in on. At this time, most trade was flowing from China to Japan and the Japanese government wanted to reverse this trend. Muraoka quickly realized that the biggest moneymaking opportunity was in prostitution and human trafficking. After he finished the report, he resigned from government service, to become a pimp and kidnapper.

1890s –

Japanese pimps and human traffickers fight it out with the Chinese, for domination of the karayuki business.  Pimps like Muraoka are outraged that Chinese are kidnapping “their women” and vow to “save them” from these gaijin – by re-kidnapping them and selling them at a profit to other Japanese pimps. Muraoka relates several stories in his autobiography about going to Hong Kong and snitching on a Chinese brothel to British police. The Brits shut down the brothel and hand over all the workers . . . to Muraoka.

On more than one occasion, a whole group of kidnapped women was found dead in the locked boiler room of a ship – a scene straight out of The Wire.

One estimate is that between between 1870 and 1930, around 100,000 Japanese women are kidnapped and sold into sexual slavery.

One Japanese ship captain is quoted as saying, “Japan’s most well-known exports are coal, raw silk, and women.”

As the Japanese pimps spread their business and brothels throughout east Asia, other Japanese merchants follow – setting up small stores to sell overpriced Japanese goods to the karayuki and their customers. The pimps regard themselves as patriotic, and are proud that they are enabling Japanese to expand their trade overseas.

“The prostitutes needed JPanese food, beverages, clothes and many other Japanese products. Their demand was met by the J-variety-goods store,which peddled a wide range of products. As the store also sold to non-Japanese, Japanese commodities became wildly popular. The strength of Japan’s southeast Asian trade today is not thanks to the large merchant houses like Mitsui; the trade was first developed by the variety-goods dealers and behind these merchants is the shadow cast by the Japanese prostitutes.

1895 –

Japan wins a fight with China and is given Taiwan as part of the booty. However, the question remains: how do we turn this expensive military occupation into a profit?

(also, as part of the booty: all Chinese merchants have to leave Korea, putting it more under the thumb of Japan and ruthless, yakuza-connected Japanese traders).

1898 –

The civilian doctor Goto Shinpei is appointed governor of Taiwan. He likes to use the native Chinese principles to govern the natives. He uses spin rather than  brute force: he re-interprets Chinese sayings and customs to justify Japanese rule in terms the Taiwanese can accept. Also he legalizes opium, and immediately grants the Japanese government a monopoly on it. Thereby solving the “profitability” problem. Opium is pretty much the one single commodity that turned Taiwan from a huge money loser to a money earner in seven years. The USA couldn’t do that with all the oil in Iraq in 10 fucking years.

1905 –

Japan wins a fight with Russia, and by way of apology, Russia gives Japan part of China. How the fuck does that even work??? Anyway Japan now has a bit of Manchuria under its direct control. But they also got the Russian-made Manchurian RAILWAY as part of the deal. So now they’re in this weird position of being SEMI colonial overlords. They only own a tiny slice of China outright, but millions of miles of railway, and the right to set up trade and businesses in all the cities the railway goes to. But in those cities, although “Chinese” in theory, are run by puppet regimes, who allow the Japanese secret police to run rampant. Thus, Japanese citizens and “businessmen” can break any laws and get away with things native Chinese can’t do. This climate attracts every Yakuza, tekiya, mercenary, pimp, and nutcase who has not been nailed down. The issue is: how to parlay this trade agreement with China into outright colonialism?

Another funny thing about Manchuria: there weren’t even many Chinese there. Most of the Chinese who WERE there were immigrants from the center of China. The fact that they were immigrants made them more easy to exploit, and added to the general feeling of Manchuria as being a free-for-all anarchy zone, not a “real” state.

1906 –

First answer is: legalize prostitution and put a Japanese monopoly on it. By this time, Japanese pimps and human traffickers have pretty much beat the Chinese. The pimps had gotten their start providing prostitutes to the Japanese army during its 1905 war with Russia. The 1906 “legalization” law re-tooled the industry for civilian life, and mandated monthly health inspections.

Second thing : Japanese government creates the South Manchurian Railway corporation. This was supposed to function like the Dutch East India Company, as the main tool of colonizing. It’s technically a business but operates like an independent fiefdom or small government.

Also, Goto moves from Taiwan to Manchuria to run the SMR, bringing with him his “scientific” principles for making Chinese colonies profitable. Principle number one : bunsouteki bubi (literally, “military arms in civilian disguises”). In other words, business as warfare.

1907 –

ex-prime minister and ex-governor of Taiwan Katsura Tarou, starts the Oriental Society (Touyou Kyoukai), a sort of policy group dedicated to coordinating different aspects of Japan’s imperialism (military, diplomatic, business, crime, etc.) Well he didn’t start it, but he changed the name from Taiwan Society to Oriental Society.  Katsura’s #1 priority: taking Mr. Goto’s profitable hookers-opium-Japanese-medicine-and-Chinese-philosophy program and implementing it in other colonies. He also wants to get Japanese farmers to come and settle in the territories, much as Israel is doing in Palestine, so that the Japanese can say, “We legitimately belong here, this is our ancestral land.” This program doesn’t work out because who wants to farm when you can just steal? 

1907-1909,

Korean “armies of righteousness” attempt to fight back, but lose.

1910s:

The independent, self-employed frontier women in Taiwan, and Manchuria basically invent Japanese feminism, which later spreads to the mainland. Japanese men run things behind the scenes, but the women are the “public face” of Japanese trade, since they are the ones that actually learned how to speak Chinese and they work in occupations where Chinese are the customers.  Nurses, hairdressers, schoolteachers, small businesswomen and shop owners, social workers, and police.

In other words, the colonies were not only for Yakuza and men to go to seek their fortune, and rise above their lowly social class: plenty of Japanese women made the trip too, for those same reasons.

This presents a dilemma for the Japanese men: they like that Japanese women are putting a nice, kind face on the colonialism, and they like all the money the women are making for the motherland. But they don’t like how “their” women are too friendly with the natives, and learning too many Chinese customs. Thus there are a lot of predictable scandalous articles about “hysterical” women. This buzzword ALSO eventually catches on in Tokyo womens' magazines, AFTER it is popular in the colonies.

 

1910

Japan conquers Korea. I’m not sure how this went down. I think they didn't invade but just intimidated the Korean emperor into signing a treaty?

1911 :

after six years, the main infrastructure in Manchura is completed. Millions of miles of train tracks have been added, and gigantic, super-advanced ports have been constructed. Now all they need is some Japanese investors and big businesses to come in and take advantage of the infrastructure (and the almost free coolie labor) and Japan can basically double its economy. If they can find investors and companies. Help!

1912 –

The Japanese government hires Mr. Aioi to do a report on Manchuia, to persuade Japanese businesses to come there and start milking this here cow. Aioi reports that there’s now over a million immigrant coolies in Manchuria, they work dirt cheap, and what little wages you pay them, you can get back by selling them Japanese stuff. In fact most coolies are so poor, they cannot afford even dormitory housing and they sleep outside in the bitter cold. Migrants from central china traveling to Manchuria by boat not only sleep in the hold, but are classified on shipping documents as a type of cargo.

1913-15;

Journalist Ishimori Seiichi writes a bunch of really unique articles for the KOREA REVIEW tabloid. He goes undercover as : a North Chinese coolie, an elderly Korean male drifter in Seoul, a Japanese hooker in Seoul, a French detective tracking Russian criminals in Manchuria and Russia, an elderly Russian man in Dailan, and a poor Japanese migrant worker in Seoul. Aside from being brave, crazy, and super “Black Like Me” style, the popularity of Ishimori’s articles reveal a sort of paradox of his readers’ state of mind: colonial Japanese want to dominate the natives, but they also kind of dream of wanting to be the natives, to be “down,” to see what only the natives want to see. They want Japan to take over Asia and “civilize” it, but also delight in the down-and-out perversion, violence, and ghetto craziness of the frontier.

1913 -

The magazine KOREA REVIEW has a monthly column called KIKI KAIKAI HENGEN SHUTSU BOTSUSEN (STRANGE UNCANNY ILLUSIONS THAT APPEAR AND DISAPPEAR) by Ishimoi Seiichi. This column – far from saying colonies are great – does exposes on the most gritty, ghetto, wild-west parts of colonial life. But this makes it much more popular than simple propaganda would have been.  Hysterical women, female gangsters, black markets, corrupt colonial authorities, Chinese warlords,  Russian gangsters, and all.

 

1917 –

Nakamura Kyoko starts a sexology journal called ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY, which runs until 1926, kicking off the “sexology boom.” He says lot of things, but the main one to remember here is: modern living makes everyone hentai, and that’s ok.

1918 –

Japanese human traffickers now kidnapping Chinese women. The number of pimps / traffickers in North China is estimated to be around 400. One pimp is later quoted after the war as saying that “2/3 of the big Japanese businesses in Manchuria were started by former pimps who made enough money to go legit.”

The “Oriental Development Company” (run by Katsura Taro’s Oriental Society), which is supposed to be encouraging Japanese farmers to move to Korea, is actually replacing yakuza groups as the main Japanese landlord, in taking over family-owned Korean farms. Less than 50% of Koreans own their own land at this point. This is an example of “business practices” moving from the yakuza/underworld to becoming official Japanese colonial policy.

1919 –

World War One is over. Japanese Big Pharma companies,who have made a mint off of selling morphine to European armies, now dump their excess supplies in the Japanese colonies, serving the dual purpose of “pacifying and incapacitating the colonized while making huge profits for the colonizers.” In Korea, Japanese government outlaws opium, and legalizes morphine. “In a few short years, 100,000Koreans were addicted.” Flooding Manchuria with cheap dope also pays dividends when Japan finally decides to conquer Manchuria in 1931.

Koreans again attempt to overthrow the Japanese colonial government. The army suppresses them, killing around 7,000.

Kitano Hiromi starts another sexology monthly journal: SEX RESEARCH (SEI NO KENKYUU)

1920s :  

modernism hits Japan! Movies! Magazines! Western fashions! Cafes! flappers! Jazz! Many new leisure time pursuits. But all this stuff is made possible by three things: opium, karayuki, and coolie labor. In other words, semi-illegal totally exploitative industries IN THE COLONIES. The profits from which finance the modernization of Japan. So even though modernism is often seen as something that filtered out from Tokyo, actually it filtered INTO Tokyo from the colonies. After all, leisure time is something you do if you have money left over to spend on fun. And that money has to come from somewhere.

Another effect of modernism: people instantly become jaded as fuck. Urban dwellers have such hectic, fast-paced lives compared to the country villages. And they’re exposed to such nonstop stimuli all day: traffic sounds, neon lights, beeps, honks, the clank of machinery, and so on. So, the thinking goes, urbanites get super desensitized by all this and crave ever more extreme thrills in their new leisure time. Plus they are super stressed out by living cheek-to-jowl with a million strangers, in defiance of millions of years of human nature. And so they seek out sexual perversions to release some of the crazy urban tension building up inside them. Thus is born the ERO BOOM. And a whole cottage industry of “sexology” magazines – some more scientific, some more tabloid – to explain about all the new urban perversions, and how they are necessary to make urban life, with all its stress and neuroses, bearable.

Also, Japanese sexology was very pro-prostitution and pro-hentai. The “sexologists” generally thought Western morality re:maritial fidelity was naive and that seeing as how guys were going to cheat anyway, the superior Japanese way to deal with the issue was to industrialize and governmentally control prostitution the same way that Japan was industrializing all its other industries at the time.

Also, Japanese scientists in Harbin, China, start mass-producing heroin and morphine, which are cheaper than traditional opium. Addicts now have three opiates to choose from.

1920 –

Akiyama Yoshio and Sawada Junjirou launch yet another sexology monthly, just called SEX. Unlike the previous sexology journals, SEX is Eurocentric. That is to say, more sex-phobic : moralizing, preaching, and openly “hey, look at all the freeeeaks!!!”

1921 –

Tanaka Kougai, one of the main “sexologists” starts his climb to fame by publishing the journal MODERN SEXUALITY (HENTAI SEIYOKU). His articles are often about “frontier women” as hysterics, Chinaman-lovers and “female supremacists.” As well as s/m, vampires, and cannibalism. Also: Tanaka was a doctor who used to work with Goto (the doctor who ran Taiwan and later the South Manchuria Railway company).

Habuto Eiji starts (sigh) yet another sex journal called SEXUALITY AND HUMAN NATURE (SEIYOKU TO JINSEI). This one is also more Eurocentric. That is to say, more moralizing, preaching, and sensationalistic.

1922 –

Tanaka publishes a book, THE SHADOWY ASPECTS OF HUMAN SEXUALITY (NINGEN NO SEITEKI ANKOKUMEN), and a scholarly sexology magazine MODERN SEXUALITY, in which he argues that, given the stress of modern industrial livin’ , it’s not only natural to legalize prostitution, but also sadism, masochism, fetishism, and necrophila. Necrophilia and fetishism are like other new modern inventions that entertain urban dwellers: movies, radio, and French cafes. And if we get all prudish and shut off the sexual “safety valve” of necrophilia, then we’re REALLY going to see some weird sex-crimes happening. Or something.

In MODERN SEXUALITY, the “modern” refers to this new, decadent, industrial-capitalism urban lifestyle. Tanaka says basically, modern city living makes everyone a perv, and that’s just fine, since sex can also be industrialized. New perversions are being rolled off the assembly line of our culture daily, let’s embrace them! (provided that cash changes hands. Doing it outside the marketplace would be simply barbaric and abnormal – now THAT’S hentai!)

1924 –

Edogawa Ranpo publishes a novel called HUMAN CHAIR (NINGEN ISU), a surreal critique of capitalism in which a chair-maker at a furniture factory becomes so obsessed with the commodities he makes that he eventually turns into a chair himself.

Not to be outdone, Umehara Hokumei publishes the most fucked up, most ero-guro novel of the whole era (immediately censored by The Man, only 100 copies printed, and even those have most of the cannibalism cut out): SATSUJIN KAISHA (THE KILLING KAPITALIST KONGLOMERATE). This is about a guy who works for a company (which operates mostly in the colonies, naturally) that sells only one product: death. They kill the clients, take their stuff, and then return to Tokyo to have wild sex-and-death-and-opium orgies. There are secret initiations, rapes, murders, necrophilia, mah jongg games where the loser gets disemboweled and then people have an orgy on the corpse’s intestines, etc. In one way this seems to be kind of just shock-for-the-sake-of-shock, but in 1924, this must have been some crazy shit indeed. Like if GWAR happened at the same time as Elvis or something. Also interesting: even though Umehara was trying to write satire, actually the stuff that REAL Japanese corporations were soon to do in Manchuria would make the novel look like some Garrison Kellor shit.

1925 –

Tanaka publishes a book called SEX MANIACS (AIYOKU NI KURUU CHIJIN), advocating for industrialized prostitution: how can the nation harness men’s desire for sex to grow our economy?

Kon Wajiro, a sociologist, starts a new movement: “modernology”: he and his team of assistants do “field work” in Tokyo department stores (department stores were a new thing back then) and write down every little detail of shoppers’ behavior: posture, what they buy, what they wear, the routes they take, etc. Honestly this guy is boring.

Umehara Hokumei takes over the art journal ARTS MARKET and openly says “Fuck you artists who cry ‘sellout’ – you’re just jealous because no one wants to pay cash for your stuff. In these sophisticated times, people will pay good money for subversive or even left-wing art, if you have any talent. Let the market decide what is good art! We can change the system from within and make some loot while we’re at it!”

Umehara publishes a super controversial translation of Italian author Boccaccio’s THE DECAMERON, which basically had a huge influence on all subsequent ero-guro authors, artists, critics, etc.

A drug dealer (pen-name GIONBOU) writes an autobiography, where he talks about how the Japanese consul and Japanese police keep him from getting hassled by the Chinese police when he comes into Chinese turf to buy and sell heroin. Why are there two sets of police in the same cities? Driscoll doesn’t say. Further, the drug dealer says that the Japanese-run South Manchurian Railway actually helps him smuggle his product. He goes on to say that over half, and in some places almost all, of Japanese merchants in Chinese cities are in the drug game to some extent.

1927  -

Umehara and his friend Sakai Kiyoshi spend a year in Shanghai, getting into opium and Chinese hookers, and generally trying to out-do each other in feats of degeneracy. They launch KAMASHASTRA, an ero-guro magazine specifically for Japanese living in the colonies. It’s about what you think it’s about.

KAMASHASTRA starts a new trend which catches on in all the ero-guro magazines: drug reports! “I traveled to an actual, no-foolin’ opium den with crazy Chinese junkies!!!” type of gonzo journalism. These gritty, dirty, grimey accounts of Chinese junkies were a new way to shock and titillate Japanese ero-guro audiences. And again, this new layer of grotesque came FROM the colonies INTO Tokyo “modern” society.

Edogawa Ranpo publishes THE STRANGE TALE OF PANORAMA ISLAND (PANORAMA TOUKIDAN), a horror novel about a guy who fakes his own death in order impersonate a rich kid who inherits his own island. And then he populates the island with the taxidermied bodies of his murder victims, turning it into a “sculpture garden”.

1928 –

Umehara starts an ero-guro journal called PERVERSE MODERN DOCUMENTS (HENTAI SHIRYOU). To get around the censors, he makes it a special-order, subscriber-only affair. A zine, if you will.  In a harbinger of things to come, one feature of issue #1 was a reprint of some German anti-war photos (dead bodies, missing limbs, the suffering of war!) . . .but with the German captions taken out and new Japanese captions mocking the victims and making fun of everything. Decadent nihilism! Aren’t we terrible?!? This shift from grotesque to outright war porn, marks a gradual political shift from “shocking revolutionaries” to “right-wing war cheerleaders.”

Also, Umehara and Sakai collaborate on  the grand-daddy of all ero-guro magazines: GUROTESUKU (GROTESQUE). Fetishism! Sex crimes! This magazine leads the new trend: away from erotic (played out, plus highly censored), into grotesque (new, more extreme, and a much more broad category). People begin using “ero-guro” as a single phrase. Also GUROTESUKU highlighted “the way that eroticism was present in otherwise nonsexual acts, such as war and crime.” This was a good 2 years before J.G. Ballard was even fucking born.

Umehara publishes another book (do they have a fucking typewriter installed in the VIP room of the whore-house, next to the opium pipe? WTF), this time a translation of a German novel called BALKAN KRIEG (in Japanese: BARUKAN KURIIGU) . BALKAN KRIEG is straight-up war pornography. For dudes who get a boner thinking of killing. The trend is clear: as Japan marches ever closer to world conquest, ero turns into ero-guro, and then into straight-up guro, and finally to war and death.

A telegram from Japanese government puts the number of “ronin” (Japanese criminals : pimps, dealers, extortionists, swindlers, and mercenaries) in Manchuria at 10,000.

1929 –

Nakayama Yuigorou publishes USER’S GUIDE TO MODERN HENTAI (HENTAI SHOSEIGEI). This is a 1,300 page encyclopedia of scams that city-folk use to rip off country people and noobs. Every possible hustle is contained.  Human traffickers, loan sharks, extortionists, scam artists, fake advertising . . .Also urban legends, and the usual perversions.

Also: huge depression and economic meltdown in Japan. Millions unemployed. Elite people start asking themselves, “How can we continue to buy coal, oil, and steel that we need to grow our economy, and get our unemployment numbers back down?” Answer : conquer people. In this scenario, militarism is just the means . . the end is a strong economy. So if you believe this particular theory of Japan’s imperialism, you’d have to conclude that Japan WON THE WAR.

1930 - 

The “Oriental Development Company” (run by Katsura Taro’s Oriental Society) now owns over half of ALL land in Korea.

 

Noma Jirou published RESEARCHING PERVERSE ERO (HENTAITEKI ERO NO KENKYUU), a sort of encyclopedia of ero-guro cultural trends, both real and “urban legends”, of the time. Such as human slaves being forced to be window mannequins to pay off debts (urban legend!). This is one of “the main texts of the genre.”: rape, beastiality, necrophilia, promiscuity, “Noma insists that the final outcome will be ‘a major contribution to human culture.’”

Edogawa Ranpo AND Jou Masayuki both bust out with novels called VAMPIRE, starting the “vampire eroticism” boom. Driscoll notes that Japanese vampires, (unlike Euro ones) are the same ethnic group as their victims. Everyone’s an “insider,” no one’s an “other.” Perhaps because of this, Japanese vampire stories tend to feature “victims” that cooperate with the vampires in their own demise. And how the victims, once bitten, tend to help the vampire.

For instance, in the Ranpo novel, some of the victims are nobodies who attain tabloid newspaper fame after death. Could this, asks Driscoll, be Ranpo’s critique of mass media and how capitalism gives people an incentive to die?

Buzz-killing leftist critics waste no time in drawing parallels to you-know-what-ism.

Ranpo also publishes THE CULMINATION OF EROTIC GROTESQUE (RYOUKI NO HATE), which “both critiques consumers’ demand for more sensational images and contributes to it.” It’s about a young rich kid with nothing to do so he decides to become a “student of perversion”, but nothing is ever enough for him, so he winds up joining a snuff-sex satanic ritual club. Not only that, but in order to catch the murderers, the detective himself has to join the club. The detective barely manages to regain his good judgment at the end and arrests the club members, but not until after he’s participated in a few murder orgies himself.

This theme of “complicity” is, along with “jadedness and over-stimulation”, a big part of all the critiques of modernism and capitalist entertainments.

1931 –  

The Manchurian Incident. A rogue and clandestine group of Japanese army officers (led by Ishihara Kanji and  Itagaki Seishirou) stage a fake “terrorist incident” (tnt on Japan’s railroad tracks), blame it on “Chinese terrorists” and use it to force the Emperor to declare total control of all Manchuria (rather than just control of a small fraction of it, and trading / train-operating rights in the rest), as well as a general land war with Regular China.

Fun fact: in order to get money for the explosives, they asked the mob! They got 50,000,000 yen from Fujita Osamu, a heroin ealer.

author Edogawa Ranpo publishes his masterpiece BLIND BEAST (MOUJUU), about a blind Tokyo masseuse, who lures his female clients into his apartment, murders them, taxidermies their bodies into statues, and then has a “special room” that he chases his victims through: it’s pitch black and full of giant, cabinet-sized sculptures of disembodied female body parts that he makes his victims run through, so they can feel what he, as a blind pervert, feels, before they die.

Sociologist Akagami Yoshitsuge publishes THE FACE OF EROTIC GROTESQUE SOCIETY (RYOUKI NO SHAKAISOU). He is a left-winger, who argues that this new form of industrial, urban capitalism is turning all our natural wants and needs into disposable artificial commodities. Our real desires, in contrast (for, say, love, trust, community, spirituality, meaning in life) can NOT be reduced to stuff on a shelf, so the modern “new breed” of human is cut off from them altogether. He says the unnaturalness of it all, plus the tendency to view other people as mere commodities, makes modern urban people more perverted, and thus erotic-grotesque. Capitalism is not content with owning us during our time at work – now it wants to control our leisure time, control our tastes in music, art, and fun, control our nervous systems, even! Freak shows, titty-bar peep shows, escapist Hollywood fantasies, and perms for all! The new urban dweller is jaded, over-stimulated, always searching for a more extreme thrill. Thus the slide from erotic into grotesque.

Most commies are buzz-kills who enjoy carping on anyone having fun anywhere, but Akagami manages to out-do even his fellow reds. Way to go.

THE ILLUSTRATED GUIDE TO THE HYPER-BIZZARE (GENDAI RYOUKI SENTAN ZUKAN). Not sure what is in this.

Gonda Yasunosuke, the premier sociologist of Asakusa (Tokyo’s #1 most “modern” hood), publishes A THEORY OF PEOPLE’S PLEASURE (MINSHUU GORAKURON), arguing that, far from being a place where working folks can have a bit of fun and experience the latest in new forms of entertainment, Asakusa is a trap of evil capitalists to ensnare Joe Sixpack, offering a factory of fun where mass-produced shiny shit and fast food rolls off a conveyor-belt and into your lap. WWhat are we to make of human life, buried as it is underneath all these commodities?” Real thinking, feeling humans have been replaced by soul-less materialistic consumers. You are what you own! Settle down, Ian Mackaye. Gonda was like the most famous guy to be straight up, “fuck moga and mobo (modern girls and modern boys).” For a different view of Asakusa and of moga, please check my review of EROTIC GROTESQUE NONSENSE.

November – the magazines CRIMINAL SCIENCE and CRIME DIGEST feature – between grisly true-crime stories and tabloid sex headlines – accounts written by Japanese Imperial Army officers in the colonies, detailing how crazy things are out there. It’s odd because these are not political magazines. They’re pulp, trashy, true-crime, low-brow things with tits everywhere. So the articles by army officers are another example of what   Driscoll calls “war pornography.”

Sakai Kiyoshi (Umehara’s pal and co-editor of GROTESQUE) writes DEMON MAGIC (KOUREI MAJUTSU). What is that about?

Who is Amakasu Masahiko? He’s a famous secret-policeman, assassin, ex-con, and now leader of Manchukuo’s kenpentai (secret police). He hires 100 “military contractors” (i.e. crooks) and forms a mob called Uchifuji in Fentian city, a second syndicate in Harbin, and an “incipient drug and intelligence operation in Shanghai.” Through his Chinese underworld contacts, he obtains military secrets which help the Japanese army win battles. To give his gang total control of Harbin’s underworld, he has to get the Japanese army to invade Harbin (thereby driving out the Chinese cops, and rival gangs too). So, dressed as a Chinese terrorist, he drives around BY HIMSELF IN A FUCKING CAR FULL OF HAND GRENADES, going on a 3-day-long drive-by. While his friends call the Japanese army and beg for help.

1932 –

 In March 1,  as a result of the Manchurian Incident, Japan formally takes over all of Manchuria. This sets in motion a whole chain of dominoes: instead of trying to battle China economically, trade wars, using businesses as soldiers, Japan is now actually fighting China with real soldiers. Chinese laborers in Manchuria are now routinely enslaved, and forced to work until death, in a totally unsustainable manner. Why? Because Japan has embarked on a course of world conquest, and needs Manchuria to make enough army equipment to do that. This is called “mobilization for total war.”

To accompany the army across the globe, they would need many prostitutes. They set up the first “comfort women” station in Shanghai. This is just another instance – one of many in the book – of the government copying what the Yakuza/underworld had been doing in the colonies all along, and turning it into official policy.

“Japan’s Guandong army desperately needed revenue to establish the new state, in addition to requiring useful intelligence from on-the-ground Japanese sources with experience in dealing with Manchuria. The only Japanese in control of these previous commodities of intelligence and drugs were the hustlers and traffickers, who were now joined by yakuza groups.”

The gangsters got cushy, legit jobs as “military advisers”, or pencil-pushers in the official government Opium Monopoly Corporation (!!!) Everyone called them “sensei.” Bureaucrats helped them set up “legitimate” businesses, and launder their drug money. Also – as “government advisers,” these hustlers were immune to customs searches.

Military leaders such as Amakasu Masahiko and Itagaki Seishirou teamed up with yakuza syndicates operating in Manchukuo such as the Kokusuikai and Seigidan.

The number of “ronin” in Manchuria is now over 30,000 (including yakuza).

The Kenpeitai were in charge of coordinating the local yakuza, making Amakasu (leader of the kenpeitai) a big guy in the opium game.

The Kempeitai were like the craziest guys in the whole thing – the main link between official government and yakuza. A sort of “official” gang: they could kill anyone, steal anything. They were in charge of disarming Chinese police, confiscating property, and taking over Chinese banks. Here, the “inside information” that the yakuza possessed came in handy. The yaks – who knew because local Chinese gangsters told them- told the kenpeitai “This family looks poor but they’re rich, and their gold is hidden here.” Or “That family is ripe for extortion,” and the kenpeitai would move in and get the loot, afterwards sharing some with the gangsters. Also, the yaks showed the more independent kenpeitai how to make “extra money” setting up their own prostitution and drug rings.

Driscoll says that without the revenue from heroin, opium, and morphine, Japan could not have waged WWII: he estimates that between 50 and 55% of all Manchuria’s GDP came from drugs.

Applying the same rules laid down by Goto in Taiwan, financial minister Hoshino Naoki starts the Opium Monopoly. Legalizing dope, but only the government is legally allowed to sell it. This is done in the guise of “regulating drugs” and “reducing crime.”  In practice, this meant that gangsters – excuse me, “advisors” would rob Chiense dope dealers at gunpoint, then turn around and sell the dope themselves. Chinese dope dealing was illegal. Meanwhile, entire neighborhoods of Japanese-owned supermarkets turn into out-and-out opium houses almost overnight.

The Manchukuo government uses this dope money (and the promise of more profits to come) as collateral for billions in loans from Japanese banks. Yes, they straight up told the banks, “This is dope money.”

Here’s how the industry works: Japanese army robs Chinese opium farmers at gunpoint, giving them pennies on the dollar, if even that. Then Japanese factories process the dope, and sell half of it to lisenced, Japanese-run opium dens. But, oops! They “lose” the other 50%! This is where the profit comes in: the “lost” 50% is sold to Yakuza at an insane markup: between 10 and 30 times the “official” price, and the yaks sell it to illegal Chinese opium dens at an even huger markup. 

Financial minister Hoshino Naoki then gets together with the kenpeitai and designates the one hundred biggest Japanese dope-dealers as “government liscenced wholesalers.”

254??? So complicated.

Bureaucrats like Furumi Tadayuki and Hoshino set up the Manchukuo Central Bank (opened with assets looted from the four main Chines banks in Manchuria), and was totally self-contained. No other banks (not even Japanese banks) could check its books. They also set up a Bureau for Special Financial Assets (dope money). This bureau was a “tunneling facility that shuttled money earned on the black market into the Central Bank.” And they use this laundered cash to form a “second budget” for the army. Not unlike the LDP’s “zaito.” They kept some for themselves, their bars, hookers, hot cars, etc. But most was needed to simply keep the government running, since all the drugs and corruption was (not surprisingly) slowing down the economy. Money was also set aside for more wars: China, Russia, America, whoever.

The bidan (glorious soldier) genre of samurai fiction, long out of fashion, is re-vamped and unleashed on the public as part of a wartime propaganda campaign. Suddenly there are “based on a true story” novels everywhere, detailing the “heroic deaths of our soldiers in Manchuria”. No one cares if the deaths mattered or if the soldiers had any tactical common sense, all that matters is they died well. For example, TRUE STORIES OF HUMAN BULLETS FROM JAPAN’S MANCHURIAN ARMY (MANSHUUGUN NIKUDAN JIKKI) was published in King magazine.

Noted asshole Shinobu Junbei writes a propaganda book, WAGA MANMON NO TOKUSHU KENEKI (OUR SPECIAL RIGHTS AND PRVILEGES AS JAPANESE IN MANCHURIA), which encourages Japanese to cheer on the colonialization, and maybe invest in it, or come to Manchukuo themselves and try their hand. The gist: the Chinese are so barbaric and anarchistic they can’t run their own country, so why not us?

1933 –

American diplomat Nicholson reports that in Andong, there are 145 legal (i.e. Japanese run) opium dens. 700 more (Chinese-run, illegal) in surrounding towns. Just two years before: there were no more than 10!

Japan invades Rehe province of China (bordering on Manchukuo) : Rehe has some of the most abundant opium fields in all north China – as well as a opium factory owned by a local warlord.. Also, Japan builds new heroin factories in Harbin and Xinjing.

1934 –

Umehara Hokumei, having spent seven years fighting the censors, then two years incognito, re-emerges on the Tokyo scene, having become a right-winger and war supporter. He gets a job as a historian at Yasukuni shrine.

1935 –

“ash heaps” become commonplace in Manchurian cities: giant mass graves just outside of town, where dead junkies’ bodies are dumped by the thousands. “many Chinese addicts were required to have a rope tied to their wrists before gaining entry to the more than two hundred Japanese shooting galleries near South Gate; if they weren’t able to physically walk out, they would be dragged out by the rope and depositied on the ash heap to die.”

The Umezu-He and Doihara-Qin Accords in June 1935 facilitated a rapid expansion of the Japanese drug trade north and south of the Great Wall, and at this point Mitsui and Mitsubishi publicly diversified their product lines into opium, which they purchased from Iranian and Turkish sellers.

1936 –

dope is so common, the price of a hit is now a THIRD of what it was before the Manchurian Incident.

Nicholson, the American observer, estimates that the rate of addiction had risen to 18 percent of everyone in the whole city of Chunghe to 35 percent of everyone in Fengcheng.

Kishi Nobusuke gets the top bureaucrat job in Manchukuo. Who is Kishi Nobusuke ? Besides a money launderer and “future founder (!!!) of the LDP? Since Manchukuo doesn’t have a president or legislature, that means Kishi runs the show. He got the gig because he went go Germany, where he learned a combination of racism and “industrial rationalization” which appealed to Japanese Army guys. He immediately sets about drafting a five year plan. He’s good friends with Amakasu,  every hooker in Manchuria, an accomplished money launderer , and a big Kita Ikki fan.

1937 –

Along with Ishihara Kanji (the “total war” guy) and MIyaaki Masayoshi (“Who?”), Kishi drafts the FIVE YEAR PLAN for developing Manchukuo, and turning it into one giant factory for producing arms for the upcoming world war. Here’s where Kishi is different from a capitalist or gangster: he’s not about making maximum profit. He wants businesses to be controlled by the government and profits to have low limits. All the extra “profits” should be plowed right back into more development : more factories, more tanks, more bombs, more drugs. All for the war and the country! Capitalists were too greedy and self-centered. Regular people were too dumb and naive to be trusted with democracy. The only good, fair rulers were bureaucrats – since they sit in the center and can see how all the pieces fit together. Central planning for all!

Here is where Driscoll drops the bomb:  The economic preparation for a system of total war (economic central planning, profit ceilings, etc) . was put in place FIRST by the civilian elite in Manchukuo BEORE this colonial template was subsequently used in Tokyo.

But all this industrial rationalization depended on Japanese companies actually coming there in the first place. And, with strict profit limits, how was Kishi to induce the corporations to come? Answer: reduce the price of coolie labor from “cents a day” to “free.” With free labor, the corporations could make an easy profit.

As a result, pretty much all criminals were sent to do forced labor. Regular Manchurian men were obliged to do forced labor for six months every three years for free. And their women and children were forced to work the family farms by themselves.

Also : full-scale war with regular China. Chinese POWs forced into labor camps along with criminals and immigrants.

But also a lot of Chinese immigrants tricked into coming to the “paradise” of Manchukuo and its “abundant, well-paying jobs”. Japanese recruiting companies are all over the place in North China. Among other recruiting tools, they use movies: info-mercials produced by guess who? Amakasu Masahiko . He’s been promoted to Minister of Public Relations.

Around a million a year. A total of some 4,000,000 by the end of the war. A little less than half are supposed to have survived.

According to the confessions of Chinese collaborators later arrested by the Communist Chinese, “Forced laborers weren’t allowed to keep anything they had brought with them, including the clothes on their backs. All personal possessions were stolen from them and sold. With nothing left but explsed flesh, the y resorted to cutting holes in the bottom of paper and hemp bags used for mortar and this would be their only protection in the harsh winters. They often worked completely naked in summer, without shoes. Workers were fed sorghum and grass for food, and thirteen- and fourteen-hour workdays were standard.

17 December 1937 p. 281 Ayukawa Yoshisuke NISSAN becomes MANGYOU

???

1938 –

a new decree says that anyone found loitering can be classified as a “delinquent” and hauled off to a labor camp.

Mangyou Industries takes over Manchurian Iron and Steel industry. The number of forced laborers in the Iron factories goes from 144 to 690 in one year. Only half survived that year.

Even “non-forced” labor (i.e. “jobs”) were not what you’d imagine: at the same iron factory, from 1938-1944, at the Fushun site, 25,000 of the 40,000 “nonforced” Chiense workers needed to be replaced annually, mainly as a result of death on the job and execution for insubordination, in addition to a smaller percentage managing to escape alive.

1940s –

labor camps and “coolie work ethic” which had been perfected in Manchuria was now brought back to an increasingly desperate Japan, with some native Japanese now doing forced labor “for the war effort.”

Back in Manchuria, forced laborers (of which there were some 7 million at this point) had a yearly mortality rate of 50 percent.

1942 –

the Manchurian men now required to serve 12 months of forced labor every three years.

1944 –

Manchukuo institutes an “anti-drug” campaign: anyone found to be a junkie is required to report to the nearest “treatment station” – these are nothing more than bus-stops leading the junkies to slave-labor camps, where they are worked and starved to death. Also given drugs. Amphetamines.

Chinese laborers who were making military bases were routinely massacred after their work was done, to “keep military secrets.” “The Japanese military or military police would reoutinely have a celebration ceremony for the finished structure, and hand out food and alcohol. After the Chiense got drunk, the soldiers would murder them.” One such incident : 6,000 Chinese workers , forced to build fortifications in Xinganling, went ‘missing.’

“I estimate that in addition to the millions drugged and starved to death in the colony, no fewer than 2.5 million Chinese forced laborers were eorked to death in Manchukuo.”

Including heroin, opium, and morphine, roughly 20 percent of the colonized Chinese population is now addicted.

1 comment Tags: empire, ero guro, yakuza —

Back in August 19th, the Israeli army killed 3 Egyptian police. Apparently the Egyptian cops were killed in the crossfire of some kind of gun-battle between an Israeli helicopter and  Gaza militants on the run. Egyptians are mad because Israel killed their border cops and then – according to the story – "apologized" but did not take any substantial action. This according to the Jewish Daily Forward's website.

 

It's September 9th, and I just googled "2011 israel kills egyptian police"  In the first 5 Google results pages, there was ONLY ONE news report from a mainstream American news agency  (ABC) about how the Israeli army killed 3 Egyptian police on August 19th. 

 

Wait, I take that back -  it wasn't even "real" ABC. . . a local ABC affiliate in Philadelphia was the ONLY American news agency to report this.  So – as far as Google is concerned – not even ONE major national USA news agency bothered to report the story.

 

Now, I just googled "2011 egypt israel embassy", and in the first 5 Google results pages I found like basically EVERY American news agency – CNN,NYT, MSNBC, FOX, ABC, HUFFPO, etc. covering the subsequent invasion of Israel's Egyptian embassy by outraged Egyptians.   I then pulled a Noam Chomsky and read the FOX, CNN, MSNBC and NYT reports, but there was no mention in ANY of them about the – oh you know- the REASON Egyptians were upset.

 

The whole "Sorry we blew up your policemen by accident,  right when relations between our two countries are at a total crossroads, but shit happens Egypt, get over it." thing. 

 

Both "left-wing" MSNBC and "right wing" FOX basically cut and pasted the same exact article onto their websites, and both ignored  what was probably the main reason for the attack on the Israeli embassy. Because, you know, Muslims just like to go crazy and attack shit for no reason.

 

Also interesting: on the very first page of Google results for the August 19th incident was an article by the Jewish Daily Forward (which they copied from the Israeli Haaretz news service) – so ironically, the Israeli media itself was more fair to the Egyptians than the American media.

 

I'm just saying.

1 comment

Here's the long-in-the-making Conquest For Death video, filmed in Japan, Indonesia, Africa, Singapore, and the USA!

 

4 comments

満州国皇帝陛下奉迎歌 (the "Manchuria Welcomes His Highness The Emperor" song)

 

 

(thanks to Ted Natsume for help with the difficult parts!)

作詞　町田敬二
作曲　石塚寛

一、

国を挙ぞり迎へ奉れ　燦たり聖駕に

くにをこぞり　むかえまつれ　さんたりせいが（天子の乗り物）に

桜花渡れし　麗らよ今日の日　ひつべしぜんり

おうかわたれし　うららよ（晴れ晴れとした）きょうのひ
日満親和いよよ厚し　慶び溢るる日本のこの歌

にちまんしんわ　いよよあつし　

供へ奉れ　高らかにいざ
そなえまつれ　たからかにいざ
We made our national commitment to welcome his majesty.
In clear nice weather the cherry blossoms bless the shining vehicle of his majesty.
With the strong relationship between Japan and Manchuria deepened
we proudly dedicate our joyful song to his majesty.

二、
襟を正し迎へ奉れ　凛たり英姿に
蘭花は薫れり清らよ今日の日
ひつべし友邦清明今日を皇謨堅し慶び溢るる日本のこの声
聞こえ奉れ厳かにいざ

Straighten those clothes and present a respectful welcome to the dignified and noble figure!
Let the fragrance of orchid blossoms declare the dazzling beauty of this day!
The friendly nations clear and pure,
We celebrate the success of governing policy by the majesty.
In the solemn atmosphere, let the majesty hear the voice of Japan filled with joy.

三、
旗を翳し迎へ奉れ　煌たり玉歩に歴史は光れり
朗らよ今日の日　ひつべし聖邦東洋平和　
永遠に楽し慶び溢るる日本のこの胸捧げ奉れ
輝かにいざ

Hold high the flag in welcome! Reverently present it to He whose radiance glistens throughout history!
Today is a wonderful day, for the peace of the Holy Country has been brought to Asia
We, as a citizen of Japan, offer ourselves humbly to Japan that is filled with eternal enjoyment and rapture.
 

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遂げたり神風 (Carry Out the Kamikaze!)

 

This song is NOT about kamikaze, the suicide bombers. This is about a top-of-the-line new Japanese warplane which the PLANE was named Kamikaze. Back in 1937, when Japan was still optimistic about the future.

The chorus of this song refers to the famous pilots Iinuma and Tsukgoshi, who flew Japanese-made planes all the way to London to show Whitey that Japanese aviation engineering was capable of such a feat.

 

作詞　北原白秋
作曲　村山美知子

一、
遂げたり鵬程東の神風　西へと勢へば遮ぎる空なし
輝く銀翼轟く爆音　今こそ享げや航空日本
享け享けこの声　飯塚越沼　涙ぞどよめく
同砲一億

Carry out the mission! The divine wind of the East blows a very long way. Blowing westwards with great force, no clouds to obstruct it.

The glittering silver-winged roar of the explosions, Now is the time to strike! Japan, with your mighty airforce.

Strike, strike! Make them hear the voice of  Iinuma and Tsukagoshi. Japan echos with tears of joy!

A hundred million people, standing as one.

二、
駆けたり敢然我等が神風　肝あり細心向かへば敵なし
衝きゆく荒天貫く酷熱　閃け日の丸新鋭日本
享け享けこの声　飯沼塚越　涙ぞどよめく
同胞一億

Moving so fast! We fearless kamikaze. No one can match our guts and accuracy.

Carry forth the Rising Sun flag, let no storms or heat stay your course! Japan, with your new and powerful planes!

Strike, strike! Make them hear the voice of  Iinuma and Tsukagoshi. Japan echos with tears of joy!

A hundred million people, standing as one.

三、
超たりたちまち国産神風　欧亜の一線征して雲なし
輝く秒刻記録の更新　見よ見よこの国躍進日本
享け享けこの声　飯沼塚越　涙ぞどよめく
同胞一億

The superior made-in Japan Kamikaze, striking all at once.  In one great battle formation, to erase the obstructing clouds of Europe and America.

We broke the world record for speed. Behold! Japan,with your rapid advance!

Strike, strike! Make them hear the voice of  Iinuma and Tsukagoshi. Japan echos with tears of joy!

A hundred million people, standing as one.

 

 

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進め一億火の玉だ (Advance of the Hundred Million Shooting Stars)

instrumental. So THIS is where Lucas got the Imperial March from.

---

進め一億火の玉だ

(Again with lyrics)

 

OK, so THIS song is about kamikaze, the suicide bombers.  Happy now, you morbid weirdos?

１．
行くぞ行かうぞ　ぐゎんとやるぞ
大和魂だてぢゃない
見たか知ったか底力
こらへこらへた一億の
かんにん袋の緒が切れた

Let's go! Let's do this! Charge!

That's the real Japanese spirits

Let them see, let them feel your true power!

We've been so patient

But now we can't take any more

 

２．
靖国神社の御前に
拍手打って　ぬかづけば
親子兄弟夫らが
今だ　たのむと声がする
おいらの胸にゃ　ぐっときた

Can you hear the clapping?

Your parents, children, siblings and wife stand in front of Yasukuni Shrine

applauding you, asking you to do it now.

Can you feel it in your heart?

 

３．
さうだ一億火の玉だ
一人一人が決死隊
がっちり組んだこの腕で
守る銃後は鉄壁だ
何がなんでもやり抜くぞ

That's right! One hundred million shooting stars

One man after another, strike our Suicide Corps.

Our fighting strength unites us strongly

No matter what, we will accomplish our mission

進め一億火の玉だ
行くぞ一億どんと行くぞ

Go on, you hundred million jewels!

Go on, you hundred million, BOOM, go on!

---

 

You know what? Fuck this.

It's time to get the stink out of my eyes and mouth.

Let's balance the scales with some anti-emperor rock and roll – but not just any rock and roll.

3 rock songs that were banned by the government.

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東京イズバーニング Tokyo is Burning by ANARCHY

(Japan's first punk band)

 

東京イズバーニング
東京イズバーニング

Tokyo is Burning!

頭来るぜまったくよ
ただメシ食ってのうのうと
良い家住んでのんびりと
何にもしねえですくすく育って

Jesus Christ, I'm so fucking angry.

All he does is eat, it's a carefree life for him

Just because he comes from a good family, he can goof off

He was raised well but doesn't know a damn thing

何が日本の<<BLEEP>>だ
　何にもしねえでふざけんな
　何が日本の<<BLEEP>>だ
　何にもしねえでふざけんな

 

Why is he the symbol of Japan?

He doesn't know anything, it's rediculous

苦労もしねえでウメボシ<<BLEEP>>
坊ちゃま育ちのもやし野郎
良い服まとってへらへらと
ただその家に生まれただけで

He 's never known hardship, that dried plum Highness

Little brat,  raised up like a bean sprout, dick

In his fancy clothes, so frivolous

Just because he was born in that family.

頭来るぜまったくよ
坊ちゃま育ちのもやし野郎
良い服まとってへらへらと
ただその家に生まれただけで

Jesus Christ, I'm so fucking angry.

Little brat,  raised up like a bean sprout, dick

In his fancy clothes, so frivolous

Just because he was born in that family.

 

The bleeped words were censored by the record company, but even the bleeped version got banned by right-wing militia groups, presumably with the backing of police.

Just in case you're curious what the original words were:

First bleep was  象徴 (symbol)

Second bleep was  殿下 (Your Highness)

WTF man, WTF.

---

赤軍兵士の詩 (Poem for the Red Army Soldier)

by ZUNOU KEISATSU

 

俺達の地獄も踏み荒されて
浮かれた太陽が昇るから
俺達はまた穴から出ていった
てめえらの天国とやらを覗く為に

Trampled and devastated, this is our hell

While the rising sun celebrates

We sneak out of our dark hole

To sneak a peek of what you assholes call Heaven

凍った砂で傷口を洗っていた
水も無けりゃ 血も出てこない
胃袋なんて誰かにくれてやれ
腹が減る暇なんてないからさ。
Our wounds washed with freezing sand

If we have no water, we can never bleed.

Someone, give us something for our hungry stomachs

We don't have time to spare for hunger

北風に約束を投げてやった
そうさ、俺達は真っ赤な夏の子だ
歴史から飛び出した俺達は
どうしようもなく地下へ潜って行った。

We ran away from the north wind,

??? we are the bright-red sons of summer

Appearing suddenly without any historical precedent

It can't be helped; we were hiding underground for long enough!

朝も昼もありゃしない
あるのはギラついた眼と沈黙だけ
誰も未来なんて話しゃしない
口をひらくよりも舌を噛んでたさ

For us, there is no morning, no noon

There is only glittering eyes and silence

We don't speak of the future

It's better to chew your own tongue than open your mouth.

焼け崩れた街を通り過ぎれば
地平線の炎も夕焼けになる
クソまみれの虹がかかっていた
俺達の隊列の目の前に・・・・

Passing through the streets crumbling with despair

Seeing the fire of the sunset on the horizon

Straddled by a shit-stained rainbow

Right before the eyes of our troops

しけた夢を渇かしてた俺達は
口をあけて涎たらしながら寝てたっけ
鉄色にされた空で星が叫ぶ
あのペンキ屋野郎に跪けとでも言うのか

We are thirsty, our dreams are turbulent

Drool comes from our mouths as we sleep

The stars call from a iron blue sky

???? asshole painter???

血に染まった旗を燃やしてたっけ
なだれ込む朝から身を隠す為に
堕落に取り憑かれた肉体には
１発の弾丸でも贅沢というものさ

We'll burn your blood-soaked flag

When morning comes, we'll hide ourselves

Our flesh is obsessed, possessed by corruption

Even firing one bullet is a luxury for us

題を忘れた歌など口ずさんで
唯ひたすら歩き続けてた
こんがらがった地図を見てるよりは
足を引き摺るほうが楽だった

Singing to ourselves a tune whose theme we've forgotten

But we single-mindedly keep walking

Better than looking at that tangled map, is to

Keep dragging our tired feet along

俺達の地獄が踏み荒されて
浮かれた太陽が笑うから
俺達は敵意と不安を抱いて
また次の地獄を捜していた

Trampled and devastated, this is our hell

While the rising sun celebrates

We embrace animosity and anxiety

Just searching for the next hell.

瞬きもできないギラついた眼と
張り裂けたままの心臓を抱いて
暗いトンネルみたいな雨の中から
また俺達、てめえらの天国覗いてやらあ

Our eyes which no longer glitter

We embrace our burst-open hearts

In the rain, which seems like a dark tunnel

We are still trying to get a peek of what you assholes call heaven.

 

---

「世界革命戦争宣言」 (Declaration of World Revolutionary War)

AKA 銃を取ろう　(Get Your Guns!)

Also by Zuno Keisatsu.

 

プルジョワジー諸君！

我々は世界中で君達を革命戦争の場に叩き込んで一掃するために、ここに公然と宣戦を布告するものである。

君達の歴史的は、もはやわかりすぎている。

君達の歴史は血塗られた歴史じゃないか！

君達の間での世界強奪戦争の為に我々をだまし

互いに殺あわせてきた。

嘘だとは言わせない！

我々はもうそそのかされだまされはしない！

君達にベトナムの民を好き勝手に殺す権利があるなら

我々にも君達を好き勝手に殺す権利がある！

君達にブラックパンサーを殺し

ゲットーを戦車で押しつぶす権利があるなら

我々にも　ニクソン（当時の米大統領）、佐藤（首相）、キージンガー（たぶんキッシンジャー）、ドゴールを殺し

ペンタゴン、防衛庁、警視庁、君達の家々を爆弾で爆破する権利がある！

君達に沖縄の民を銃剣でさし殺す権利があるなら

我々にも君達をナイフで突き殺す権利がある。

いつまでも君達の思い通りになると思ったら大間違いだ！

君達の時代はすでに終わった！

我々は最後の戦争の為に　世界革命戦争の勝利の為に

君達をこの世から抹殺する為に　最後まで戦い抜く！

我々は自衛隊、機動隊、米軍諸君に公然と銃を向ける。

殺されるのがいやならその銃を後に向けろ！

君達をそそのかし　うしろであやつる豚どもに向けて

我々を邪魔する奴は　容赦なく抹殺する！

世界革命戦争宣言をここに発する！

Ladies and gentlemen of the Bourgouise!

In order to make a clean sweep of you all,
we're attacking you all over the world at once.
This is an official declaration of war.
We already know too much of your history
Your history is soaked in blood, isn't it?
In your time, you started war after war for plunder, and then deceive us about it
Killing and killing each other
Don't lie to me and deny it!
We won't be deceived or tempted by you any longer!
You think you have the right to kill Vietnamese just because you want to?
Well, then we have the right to kill you too, just because!
You kill the Black Panthers too.
You think you can simply roll your tanks into the ghetto to crush people?
Well, we'll kill Nixon, Sato, Kissinger, and De Gaulle too!
We have the right to blow the Pentagon, the Japanese Defense Agency, the Police Headquarters, and all your individual houses to bits!
You think you can kill the people of Okinawa with your bayonets?
We have the right to stab you to death with our knives!
It was your great mistake to think you could continue to do everything you wanted forever.
Your era is already over!
In order to end all wars, In order to win the World Revolutionary War,
In order to erase you people off the face of the earth,
we will carry on to the bitter end!
To the ladies and gentlemen of the Japanese army, the riot police, and the Western armies, we openly wave our guns in your face
If you don't want to be killed, you ought to get your guns too!

God damn, hippies don't play. If you want to know more about the whole Zuno Keisatsu scandal, there's an extensive interview here.

3 comments Tags: banned, gunka, second world war —

Last post was the regular gunka  (WWII fight music) that you can still get at any record store in Japan.

 

This time is the stuff that YOU CAN'T FIND nowadays, since it's a LITTLE un-PC.

However, thanks to youtube, there is an entire subculture of  maniacs who find the original 78s, digitize them, and post them for the whole internet to see.

Translations are mine, as are the mistakes.

Strap in, people, it's going to be a rough ride.

---

米英撃滅の歌 (the 'Destroy America And Britain' Song)

and then

アメリカ爆撃 (Bomb the hell out of America)

(youtube clip has 2 songs)

 

米英撃滅の歌

the 'Destroy America And Britain' Song

作詞：野口米次郎
作曲：山田耕筰

１．
濤は哮る　撃滅の時は今だ
空母戦艦　断じて屠れ
海が彼奴らの　墓場だ　塚だ
海が彼奴らの　墓場だ　塚だ

Hear the roar of the waves! The time of destruction is now!

Absolutely destroy their aircraft carriers and battleships!

The ocean shall be their cemetery, their burial ground

The ocean shall be their cemetery, their burial ground

２．
風は咆える 覆滅の時は今だ
魔翼　妖鳥　断じて堕とせ
雲が彼奴らの　経帷子だ
雲が彼奴らの　経帷子だ

Hear the wind roar! The time of ruination is now!

The wings of the demon and the impundulu (*) absolutely　knock them out of the sky!

The clouds shall be their Kyokatabira (**)

The clouds shall be their Kyokatabira

３．
草は燃える 殲滅の時は今だ
鬼畜米英　断じて斃せ
山が彼奴らの 墓標だ墓石だ
山が彼奴らの 墓標だ墓石だ

The Grass is burning, the time of annhilation is now!

The American and English beasts, absolutely crush them!

The mountains shall be their gravestones, their headstones!

The mountains shall be their gravestones, their headstones!

４．
時は今だ　決勝の時は今だ
興亜聖戦　断じて遂げよ
み民われらの　命が的だ
み民われらの　命が的だ

The time is now! The final conflict is now!

The Holy War for the Development of Asia, absolutely carry it out!

We Japanese, we will give our lives for this!

We Japanese, we will give our lives for this!

 

* = the impundulu is a South african magical bird that witches can summon through nutty rituals.

** = Kyokatabira= white kimono that dead bodies are dressed in

---

アメリカ爆撃

Bomb the hell out of America!

作詞：野村俊夫
作曲：古関裕而

１．
アメリカ本土爆撃　
この日を待ちたる我等
祈りをあげながら聴け　
鳴り出すサイレンを
あれはアメリカ弔らう歌だ　
わめき立つなもはや遲い
我等は荒鷲

Bomb the American mainland!

This is the day we've been waiting for.

As we pray we listen

The siren begins to wail

It's the American funeral song

There is no time for them to scream

We Japanese are the eagles of war!

２．
アジヤの敵のアメリカ　
悲鳴を吐くまでやるぞ
この日の来る時を待ち　
鍛えたこの腕だ
笑って行こうぞ翼の戦友　
叩きのめせ叩きつけろ
我等は荒鷲

America is the enemy of all Asians

Keep it up until they scream and wail

This is the day we've been waiting for

Training and improving our fighting skills

Comrades in arms laugh and tell each other, "Let's go already!"

Beat them all up!  Really give them hell!

We Japanese are the eagles of war!

ちなみに、アメリカには「東京を爆撃せよ」という軍歌があります。

(the Youtube poster adds: "Just so you know, America had a song called "Bomb the hell out of Tokyo" too!)

Anyone know that ditty?

---

比島決戦の歌 (The 'Decisive Battle of the Phillippines' song)

 

作詞　西条八十
作曲　古関裕而

一、
決戦かがやく亜細亜の曙　
命惜しまぬ若櫻
いま咲き競ふフィリッピン
いざ来いニミッツ　マッカーサー
出てくりゃ地獄へ　　逆落とし

Daybreak in Asia is glittering! The decisive battle is here

The young sakura have no fear for their lives.

Now, they are ready to bloom and battle in the Phillippines

Hey now, Where are you, Macarthur?

Come on and meet us, you'll take a trip to hell!

二、
陸には猛虎の山下将軍　
海に鉄血大川内
見よ頼もしの必殺陣
いざ来いニミッツ　マッカーサー
出てくりゃ地獄へ　　逆落とし

On the continent, General Yamashita is as fierce as a tiger

On the seas, Admiral  "Iron Blood" Oogawauchi rules!

Behold, our bases will bring certain death!

Hey now, Where are you, Macarthur?

Come on and meet us, you'll take a trip to hell!

三、
正義の雷　世界を撼わせ
特攻隊の往くところ
我等一億　共に往く
いざ来いニミッツ　マッカーサー
出てくりゃ地獄へ　　逆落とし

The thunder of our righteousness moves the world

Now is the time for the kamikaze to go forth!

A hundred million of us together proceeding as one

Hey now, Where are you, Macarthur?

Come on and meet us, you'll take a trip to hell!

四、
御稜威に栄ゆる同胞十億
興亡岐つこの一戦
ああ血煙のフィリッピン
いざ来いニミッツ　マッカーサー
出てくりゃ地獄へ　　逆落とし

Radiant with glory and divine authority, our bretheren number ten billion!

Through the ups and downs of battle

Aah, the spurt of blood in the Phillippines

Hey now, Where are you, Macarthur?

Come on and meet us, you'll take a trip to hell!

---

万歳ヒットラー・ユーゲント (Banzai Hitler Jugend!)

 

作詞：北原白秋
作曲：高階哲夫

１．
燦たり、輝く
ハーケン　クロイツ
ようこそ遥々、西なる盟友、
いざ今見えん、朝日に迎へて
我等ぞ東亜の青年日本。
　　万歳、ヒットラー・ユーゲント
　　万歳、ナチス。

Shining with glittering radiance

The swastika

Our sworn friends to the West, we bid you welcome from afar

Well now, look now! We greet you in the morning sun

We East Asian young men

Banzai (long life) to the Hitler Jugend!

Banzai to the Nazis!

２．
聴けわが歓呼を
ハーケン　クロイツ
響けよその旗　この風　この夏、
防共ひとたび　君我誓はば、
正大為すあり世紀の進展。
　　万歳、ヒットラー・ユーゲント
　　万歳、ナチス。

Listen to our jubilation!

The swastika!

The echo of your flag, this wind, this hot summer

All you who have taken the vow of anti-communism

To establish a new century of fairness and justice

Banzai (long life) to the Hitler Jugend!

Banzai to the Nazis!

４．
燦たり、輝く
ハーケン　クロイツ
勤労報国、亦わが精神、
いざ今究めよ、大和の山河を、
卿等ぞ栄あるゲルマン民族。
　　万歳、ヒットラー・ユーゲント
　　万歳ナチス。

 

Shining with glittering radiance

The swastika

A country laboring with unwavering spirits

Well now, let's do this completeley! The Yamato mountains and rivers

Together with the honorable German volk!!!

Banzai (long life) to the Hitler Jugend!

Banzai to the Nazis!

※この音源には３番は収録されていません。

３．
感謝す　朗らに、
ハーケン　クロイツ
交驩かくあり、固有の伝統、
相呼び応へて文化に尽くさん。
我らが選士も幸あれその旅。
　　万歳、ヒットラー・ユーゲント
　　万歳、ナチス。

With gratitude and good cheer

the swastika

An exchange of courtesies and traditions

We samurai wish you good luck on your journies

 

Banzai (long life) to the Hitler Jugend!

Banzai to the Nazis!

 

 

 

 

---

 

英国東洋艦隊潰滅 (Annhilate Great Britain's Oriental Fleet)

 

 

作詞　高橋掬太郎
作曲　古関裕而

一番
滅びたり滅びたり敵東洋艦隊は　
マレー半島クワンタン沖に　
今ぞ沈みゆきぬ　
勲し赫たり海の荒鷲よ　
沈むレパルス　沈むプリンス・オブ・ウェールズ

Ruination, ruination to the opponent's Asian fleet!

The Murray Peninsula, the Kuantan Sea

Now　is the time! They are sinking to the bottom

Our wild eagles roam valorously over the ocean

Sink the Rapels (?), sink the Prince of Wales

二番
戦えり戦えりわが強者らは　
皇国の興廃を今ぞ身に負いぬ　
傲れるイギリス東洋艦隊を　
荒ぶ波に　沈め去りぬ

Fighting and fighting, our warriors

You bear the weight of imperial destiny!

The arrogant British fleet

Sink them beneath the raging waves

三番
記憶せよ記憶せよいざ永久にこの日を　
打ち向う敵艦を一挙屠り去りぬ　
開戦三日目に早やこの戦果ぞ　
沈むレパルス　沈むプリンス・オブ・ウェールズ

This everlasting day shall never be forgotten

Go forth and massacare the enemy ships in one swift attack!

Achieve our aims within three days of war

Sink the Rapels (?), sink the Prince of Wales

 

※この音源には四番は収録されていません。

四番
万歳ぞ万歳ぞ聞けあがる勝鬨　
マレー半島シンガポール　
はやも破れ去るを　
無敵の海軍見よこの荒鷲　
勲仰げ　仰げ勲

---

---

興亜行進曲　(The Develop Asia March)

 

 

 

今ぞ世紀の朝ぼらけ
豊栄のぼる旭日の
四海に燦と輝けば
興亜の使命　双肩に
担ひてたてり　民五億

Now is the dawning of a new century

the rising sun brings prosperity!

glittering over the four seas

the mission of developing Asia rests on our shoulders

We will carry these five hundred million people

 

 

２．
聴け天地にこだまして
あぐる興亜の雄叫びを
理想は熱き血と燃えて
アジアの民の行くところ
希望はあふる海陸に

Hear it! Heaven and Earth echo

with our "Develop East Asia" battle cry!

Our blood burns with the fire of our ideals

Now is the time to go to the natives of Asia

Send the navy forth with great ambitions!

３．
ひびけ歓喜のこの調べ
輝く首途ことほぎて
協和の徴いや高く
桜よ蘭よ花牡丹
嵐に堪へて咲き香れ

The melody of joy echoes

Celebrate the glorious departure (of the troops)

Holding up the flag of unity

Our cherry, orchid, and peony blossoms

You can bloom even in the strongest storm

４．
いざ諸共に打ち建てん
永久の栄えの大アジア
かはらぬ盟ひ　かんばしく
興亜の実り豊けくも
世界に示せこの偉業

Well now, united we will build it

An everlasting and glorious Greater East Asia.

We have taken our ete vow, the omens are good!

Developing Asia to ripen its bountiful harvest

And show to the world our greatness.

 

 

---

ハワイ大海戦 (The Great Hawaiian Naval Battle)

 

作詩　北原白秋　　
作曲　海軍軍楽隊

一、　
天に二つの日は照らず　しのぐは何ぞ星條旗
大詔降る時まさに　この一戰と衝き進む
疾風萬里太平洋　　　目指すはハワイ眞珠灣

Two suns shine in the sky, surpassing the so-called "star-spangled banner."

Now is the time for the Imperial Decree to descend upon them, attacking with one decisive strike

A mighty  hurricane that blows thousands of miles across the Pacific

二、　
たれか思はん暁の　夢おどろかす爆撃を
つんざく雲の切れ間より　見よ轟々と攻め襲う
必殺の雷　海の鷲　しんしん迫る潜航艇

At daybreak, a bombing raid awakens the unsuspecting from their dreams

Bursting forth from between the clouds, behold the thunder of our attack!

The thunder of certain death! The eagles of the sea, the approach of our mini-submarines!

三、　
神か人かも身を棄てて　千古に徹るその命
何をか哭かん盡忠の　ああ荒み魂火の柱
地軸も裂けよ艦ともに　たちまち碎く敵主力

Gods or men have their bodies pierced, shattering into a thousand pieces

Our souls aflame with unwavering devotion, fighting until we die without crying

The instant destruction of the enemy's main fleet tears the earth from its axis!

四、　
天も碎ける轟爆音　今こそ知れや米艦隊　
正義の決意すでにして　凱歌は揚がるこの八日
一望萬里太平洋　　　われあり望む大東亞

The roar of the explosions rips Heaven apart, now the Americans must realize it!

The eighth day! Let them hear our victory song, of justice and determination

For ten thousand miles of the Pacific, a view uncluttered by Americans, this is our wish for a Greater East Asia.

---

 

打倒米英 (Overthrow America and Great Britain)

 

 

 

 

 

作詞　西条八十
作曲　古賀政雄

一、
待ちに待ったる時は来た　腕が鳴る鳴る血が躍る
さあ来いアメリカ　さあ来い英国
正義の旗の輝くところ
ハワイの堅塁なにものぞ　なにものぞ

The time we have waited for is finally here –  time to  put our skills to use, to hear the ringing of blood in our ears

Come on then, America, come on, England!

See the glittering of the flag of righteousness!

Didn't you see what we did to your stronghold in Hawaii? What's it worth now?

二、
降るよ火の雨鐵の雨　とうに覚悟は出来ている
さあ来い空襲　さあ来い敵艦
一億生命を捧げるところ　
烏合の敵勢　なにものぞ　なにものぞ

Feel our flames rain down, our iron rain down on you!  We have been preparing for this day!

Bring on your air-raids, bring on your enemy ships!

We are ready to give our hundred million lives

The fighting power of your rabble, what is it? What is it worth now?

三、
神の亜細亜を白人の　手から亜細亜に取戻す
尊い使命だ光栄ある戦だ　八紘一宇　理想の前に
汚れし米英　なにものぞ　なにものぞ

The Gods of Asia proclaim: take Asia back from the white man!

It's an honor for us to fight in such a precious mission. In the name of  uniting all Asia!

You filthy Americans and Brits! What are you worth now?

 

---

大東亜決戦の歌 (the 'Decisive Battle For Greater East Asia' song)

 

 

 

 

 

 

作詞　伊藤豊太
作曲　海軍軍楽隊

一番
起つや忽ち撃滅の　勝どき挙る太平洋　
東亜侵略百年の　野望をここに覆えす　
いま決戦の時きたる

Rising up all at once, we bring destruction and victory over the Pacific!

You can't disguise your hundred years of aggression in East Asia. (???)

Now is the time for a decisive battle!

二番
征くや激しき皇軍の　砲火は叫ぶ大東亜　
一発必中肉弾と　散って悔いなき大和魂　
いま尽忠の時きたる

Hear the gunfire of the Imperial Army, passionately conquering Greater East Asia

Our human bullets will succeed on their first attempt,  winning without fear, in the true Japanese Spirit

Now is the time for ultimate loyalty!

三番
見よや燦たる皇国の 歴史をまもる大決意
前線銃後一丸に 燃えて轟くこの歩調
いま興国の時来る

Behold! The brilliant Japanese Empire, as foretold by history!

The home front and the front-lines, together we march as one, roaring

Now is the time for our civilization to prosper!

四番
いざや果たさん十億の 亜細亜を興す大使命
断乎膺懲堂々と 正義貫く鉄石心
いま決戦の時来る

Well now! It is our great mission to raise up these one billion Asians

Our majesty and righteousness, our iron will shall punish the enemy

The time for the decisive battle has come!

---

 

 

---

 

大東亜聖戦の歌 (the 'Holy War For Greater East Asia' song)

 

 

作詞 中村 粲
作曲 高澤 智昌

1999年に発表された軍歌です。
作詞された中村 粲氏曰く「二十世紀最後の軍歌」だそうです。

This song was released in 1999 (?!?!?)

According to the lyric-writer, Mr. Nakamura, it's "Late-20th century gunka."

1. 黒竜江の流血に　二十世紀の東洋は
妖雲の下明けゆけど　支那は眠れり朝鮮も
白禍の脅威夢の中

2. 四百余州と大八洲　共に睦みて栄えんと
声励ませど耳貸さず　泰西人に阿りて
支那は亜細亜を忘れたり

3. 満漢侵す露を討てと　皇師は進む鶏林を
はた黄海の波分けて　旅順奉天対馬沖
屠れる敵は幾万ぞ

4. 萎えゆく東亜救はんと　差し伸ぶ手をば逆恨み
洋夷赤露の威を恃み　我を蔑する支那なれば
満蒙の地嵐呼ぶ

5. 広袤千里満洲は　扶餘高句麗の昔より
兵争絶ゆる暇なきが　大同協和の国建ちて
興安嶺に光さす

6. 銃声響く盧溝橋　隠忍の我侮りて
抗日叫ぶ蒋と毛　わが喉元に刃擬す
ＡＢＣＤ包囲陣

7. 遂に来れり決戦の　火蓋切つたる真珠湾
シンガポールもフィリピンも　ジャワも一撃なびき伏す
米英蘭は跡もなく

8. わが皇軍の進撃に　凱歌は上る大東亜
白き鉄鎖を断ち切りて　十億の民起つところ
山河新たに生命あり

9. 満蒙支那に南溟に　はた朔北に山ゆかば
草むすかばね海ゆかば　水づくかばねと若きらが
いゆき捧げしその命

10. 四歳に亘る勇戦も　衆寡敵せず皇軍は
矢弾盡き果て花と散る　されど揺がず大亜細亜
独立の意気天を衝く

11. 武運拙く敗れしが　見ずや亜細亜のこの歩武を
一髪土に残らずも　嗚呼大東亜聖戦の
誇は高しわが心

この音源では歌っている方が「わが心」の部分を間違って「わが誇り」と歌っています。

The singer goofed, saying "our pride" instead of "our hearts," as written.

※　歌ってらっしゃるのは三鷹淳さんだと思われます。

 

今 年の「昭和の日」にたまたまテレビで「異国の丘」を聞いて、≪昭和の日―「異国の丘」が懐かしい≫（4/29）を書き、それがきっかけで幼少年期に耳に した軍歌や満州国時代の歌をYou Tubeで集め、≪「昭和の日」に軍歌を歌う≫（5/01）、≪満州想えば　曇りがち≫（5/03）を書いて、あれからときどき集めた歌を聴いてなつかし んでいるのです。

ところで、戦前の軍歌だと思って集めていた曲の中に、平成１１年（1999年）に中村 粲という方が作詞し、高澤 智昌という方が作曲した「大東亜聖戦の歌」という戦後に作られた軍歌が入っていました。Wikipediaによると「自称、二十世紀最後の軍歌」だそうです。

その歌を何度も聞いてると、右翼の方々のおっしゃるお考えがとてもよくまとめられ、凝縮されているなあ、と思いました。そこで中村 粲という方を調べてみましたところ、この方の代表作は『大東亜戦争への道』だそうで、「（この書）は、600ページを超える大著で、平成８年（ 1990年）の刊行から十五年以上経た現在もなお版を重ねており（2006年10月、14刷となる）、大東亜戦争肯定論支持者の間では特に重要な書籍と位 置づけられている」とのことです。私はまったく存じていませんでしたが、とても有名な方なのですね。本職は大学の英語の先生で、和英辞典の編集・執筆とか 日本史資料の英訳など、英文学者としての業績も多数あるそうです。

 

http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%85%AB%E7%B4%98%E4%B8%80%E5%AE%87

http://lailai-hanyu.at.webry.info/200805/article_8.html

3 comments Tags: gunka, second world war —