Oshi-Katsu Chronicle: The 1940s — From Wartime Bans to "Ringo no Uta," the Decade Postwar Stages Restarted

In March 1944, in the middle of World War II, closure orders were issued to the Takarazuka Grand Theater and the Tokyo Takarazuka Theater. The war had reached even the pleasure of going to your oshi’s stage or listening to a favorite song.

After defeat in 1945, theater performances resumed, and radio began “Nodojiman,” a program in which ordinary people sang. The decade held both a period of severely restricted entertainment and a movement to enjoy songs and stages again.

Wartime

Until 1945

• Dance halls almost all closed in 1940
• 1,126 records banned in January 1943
• Theaters closed by order in March 1944
• Comfort tours tied to wartime mobilization

After defeat

From 1945

• Takarazuka performances resume in April 1946
• Kohaku Ongaku Shiai and Nodojiman on radio
• Ringo no Uta, Tokyo Boogie-Woogie, Kanashiki Kuchibue
• Record production rises from 1946 to 1949

The same fans, in a very different set of circumstances.

In Wartime, the Music You Could Hear and the Films You Could Show Were Restricted

In 1940, dance halls across the country were almost all closed, and jazz became a target for exclusion as “enemy music” (tekisei ongaku), the wartime term for the music of the countries Japan was fighting. (Introduction to Kansai University’s jazz research, in Japanese)

In January 1943, the Home Ministry and the Information Bureau issued a notice banning the performance and sale of 1,126 records of American and British music. The Showakan museum displays newspapers of the time that reported the designation. (Showakan, in Japanese)

Films were censored too. The 1939 Film Law stipulated that a work could not be screened unless it passed government censorship. It wasn’t only songs: state policy also shaped whether you could see an actor’s films. (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology: the Film Law, in Japanese)

1940

Dance halls across the country almost all closed

1,126

Records banned from performance and sale, January 1943

1939

Film Law: only censored works could be screened

Sources: Kansai University jazz research introduction (dance halls, in Japanese); Showakan (banned records, in Japanese); Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (Film Law, in Japanese)

Crowds Gather for Ri Koran’s Shows, and Singers Go on Comfort Tours

Even as limits on entertainment tightened, the interest in seeing stars remained. When Utau Ri Koran (Ri Koran Sings), a show starring Ri Koran (also known as Li Xianglan), opened at the Nichigeki Theater in Yurakucho, Tokyo, in February 1941, so many people rushed in that police were called out to manage the crowd. (Article tracing contemporary newspapers, in Japanese)

Singers also went on “comfort tours” (ian), visiting hospitals, factories, the front lines and elsewhere. Shizuko Kasagi formed her own band, “Shizuko Kasagi and Her Orchestra,” and toured the country on comfort visits during the war. With jazz hard to perform, even the songs she sang came under wartime restrictions. (Nippon Columbia: Shizuko Kasagi, in Japanese)

Records were sometimes packed into the comfort bags sent to the front. Noboru Kirishima’s “Dare ka Furusato o Omowazaru” (Who Doesn’t Long for Home) reached soldiers that way. (Records on Noboru Kirishima, in Japanese)

Comfort performances and gifts were also tied to wartime mobilization and control. People’s reasons for taking part were far from those of today’s fans, who choose performances freely and go to meet their oshi.

Takarazuka Resumes Performances, and Borrows Another Theater in Tokyo

With the March 1944 closure order, the Takarazuka Revue’s running performances and rehearsals were halted. The Shochiku Revue could no longer carry on either, since its home base, the Asakusa Kokusai Theater, was converted into a munitions factory. (History of the Takarazuka Revue, in Japanese; History of the Shochiku Revue, in Japanese)

After defeat, performances gradually resumed, though the original theaters were not available right away.

1. 1944March

   Closure orders for two theaters

   Performances at the Takarazuka Grand Theater and the Tokyo Takarazuka Theater stop.

2. 1946April

   Performances resume at the Takarazuka Grand Theater

   The Snow Troupe stages Carmen and Haru no Odori: Ai no Yume (Spring Dance: Dream of Love). The official history records it as the first performance in two years and two months.

3. 1947April

   Tokyo performances resume at the Nichigeki Theater

   Because the Tokyo Takarazuka Theater was under requisition, they rented another theater to perform.

(100 Years of the Takarazuka Revue, in Japanese)

On Radio, “Kohaku Ongaku Shiai” and “Nodojiman” Begin

On New Year’s Eve 1945, NHK Radio broadcast Kohaku Ongaku Shiai (Red-and-White Music Match). Splitting the singers into a red team and a white team, it was the forerunner of Kohaku Uta Gassen (the Red-and-White Song Battle), NHK’s New Year’s Eve song contest, which began in 1951. (Records on Kohaku Ongaku Shiai, in Japanese)

On January 19 of the following year, 1946, “Nodojiman Shirouto Ongakukai” (an amateur singing show) began. Unlike programs where you listen to professional singers, it was a live show in which ordinary people applied and sang in front of an audience. (“80 Years of Nodojiman”, in Japanese)

1. 01Hear the callParticipants sought on radio news
2. 02900+ applyMore than 900 volunteers came forward
3. 03Audition300 people tested each day
4. 04PerformSing before an audience, on the air

The first broadcast was January 19, 1946.

In 1947, Kazuo Kikuta’s radio drama Kane no Naru Oka (The Hill Where the Bell Rings) also began. (Broadcast Library, in Japanese)

“Ringo no Uta,” “Tokyo Boogie-Woogie,” and Hibari Misora

The theme song of Shochiku’s film Soyokaze (Breeze), released in October 1945, was “Ringo no Uta” (Apple Song), sung by Michiko Namiki. The record, a duet with Noboru Kirishima, went on sale the following January and is said to have sold 125,000 copies by the end of 1947. (Shochiku: film introduction, in Japanese; Records on “Ringo no Uta”, in Japanese)

Shizuko Kasagi’s “Tokyo Boogie-Woogie” was performed at the Nichigeki Theater in 1947, and the record went on sale in January 1948. (Nippon Columbia, in Japanese)

In 1949, Hibari Misora’s “Kanashiki Kuchibue” (Sad Whistle) appeared on record in September and in a film of the same name in October. The record is said to have sold 450,000 copies at the time. (Hibari Misora official chronology, in Japanese; Records on “Kanashiki Kuchibue”, in Japanese)

Reading Star Photos and Reader Contributions in the Magazine Heibon

In November 1945, the literary-and-entertainment magazine Heibon was launched. From 1948 it became a magazine centered on songs and films, carrying photo pages, serialized fiction and reader contributions. (History of Heibon, in Japanese)

Record production, for listening to music at home, was recovering too. In Recording Industry Association of Japan statistics, it rose from 6.42 million discs in 1946 to 16.86 million in 1949. (Recording Industry Association of Japan, in Japanese)

6.42 million

Discs produced in 1946

16.86 million

Discs produced in 1949

Production rose from 6.42 million to 16.86 million discs in three years.

Source: Recording Industry Association of Japan (in Japanese)

Key Events of the Decade

1. 1940Dance halls across the country are almost all closed within the yearMusic
2. Feb. 1941Crowds surge to the Nichigeki for "Utau Ri Koran"Stage
3. Jan. 1943Performing and selling 1,126 American and British songs is bannedMusic
4. May 1943Shizuko Kasagi forms a band and tours the country to entertain troops and workersMusic
5. Mar. 1944Closure orders are issued to the Takarazuka Grand Theater and the Tokyo Takarazuka TheaterStage
6. Sept. 1945GHQ issues the Press Code, and censorship beginsMedia
7. Oct. 1945Shochiku's "Soyokaze" is released, and "Ringo no Uta" spreadsMusic
8. Nov. 1945The Nippon Theater in Yurakucho reopens, and Shizuko Kasagi resumes her activitiesStage
9. Dec. 1945NHK Radio broadcasts "Kohaku Ongaku Shiai"Media
10. Jan. 1946NHK begins broadcasting "Nodojiman Shirouto Ongakukai"Media
11. Apr. 1946The Takarazuka Grand Theater resumes performances after two years and two monthsStage
12. Aug. 1946Tetsuharu Kawakami begins using the "red bat"Sports
13. July 1947The radio drama "Kane no Naru Oka" begins broadcastingMedia
14. Sept. 1947Shizuko Kasagi records "Tokyo Boogie-Woogie"Music
15. Jan. 1948Nippon Doga Co., Ltd. (later Toei Animation) is foundedBusiness
16. Sept. 1949Hibari Misora's "Kanashiki Kuchibue" is released, along with a film of the same nameIdols

Words of the Era

Tekisei ongaku ("enemy music")

A term the Home Ministry and Information Bureau used to exclude jazz and other music of Western origin. It is spoken of together with the closing of dance halls

Ianmon (morale-boosting tours)

Performances in which entertainers went to troops, factories, hospitals and other sites. They took place under wartime mobilization and control

Boogie no joo (Queen of Boogie)

Nickname of Shizuko Kasagi. It took hold as she kept scoring hits with Ryoichi Hattori after "Tokyo Boogie-Woogie"

Aka batto/Ao batto (red bat/blue bat)

The colors of the bats that became trademarks of Tetsuharu Kawakami and Hiroshi Oshita. A way of remembering individuals by color

In the chart, the “red bat” (aka batto) comes from the bat used by Tetsuharu Kawakami, and the “blue bat” (ao batto) from the bat used by Hiroshi Oshita. In pro baseball too, popular players who were remembered along with the color of their equipment appeared. (Weekly Baseball, in Japanese)

In the next installment, the 1950s, television broadcasting begins, and singers, actors and athletes can be seen at home.