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 directly reached the pleasure of going to your oshi’s stage or listening to a favorite song.

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

Wartime

Until 1945

• Dance halls closed in October 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

At the end of October 1940, dance halls across the country were closed, and jazz became a target for exclusion as “enemy music” (tekisei ongaku), the wartime term for music from the Allied nations Japan was fighting. Instruments such as steel guitars, banjos and saxophones also came under restrictions. (Introduction to Kansai University’s jazz research, in Japanese)

In January 1943, during the Pacific War, the Information Bureau and the Home Ministry designated roughly 1,000 titles (1,126 discs) of American and British jazz and popular music, issuing a notice banning their performance, sale and store display. (Showakan: Wartime and Postwar Music, in Japanese)

Films faced strict censorship too. The 1939 Film Law stipulated that a work could not be screened unless it passed Home Ministry censorship, and as the war worsened, film-stock rationing sharply reduced the number of feature films produced. State policy shaped whether you could see a favorite actor’s films as well as hear a song. (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology: the Film Law, in Japanese)

1940

Dance halls across the country 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, people’s desire to catch a glimpse of a star did not vanish. On February 11, 1941, when the live show Utau Ri Koran (Ri Koran Sings) opened at the Nichigeki Theater in Yurakucho, Tokyo, crowds seeking tickets ringed the theater several deep from early morning all the way to Hibiya Crossing, and police officers including mounted police were dispatched to control the crowd. (Article tracing contemporary newspapers, in Japanese)

Singers and troupes also went on “comfort tours” (imon), visiting military hospitals, munitions factories, coal mines and front-line units. Shizuko Kasagi formed “Shizuko Kasagi and Her Orchestra” and toured the country during the war, facing wartime restrictions on both her songs and her stage movements at a time when swing jazz could hardly be played. (Nippon Columbia: Shizuko Kasagi, in Japanese)

Popular song records were sometimes packed into comfort bags sent to the front. Noboru Kirishima’s “Dare ka Furusato o Omowazaru” (lyrics by Yaso Saijo, music by Masao Koga), released in January 1940, was widely heard as a song longing for home. (Nippon Columbia Corporate History, in Japanese)

That said, wartime comfort tours and comfort bags were tied to state mobilization and war-morale campaigns, a very different setting from today’s fans freely choosing shows and traveling to see their oshi.

Takarazuka Resumes Performances, and Borrows Another Theater in Tokyo

Following a February 1944 cabinet decision on emergency wartime measures, closure orders were issued to major theaters nationwide in March. Running performances and rehearsals at Takarazuka were halted immediately and the Takarazuka Grand Theater was requisitioned by the Navy, while the Shochiku Girls’ Opera saw its home base, the Asakusa Kokusai Theater, converted into a munitions factory making balloon bombs. (History of the Takarazuka Revue, in Japanese; Shochiku Corporate History, in Japanese)

After defeat, theater performances gradually moved toward reopening, 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, December 31, 1945, NHK Radio broadcast a non-public special, Kohaku Ongaku Shiai (Red-and-White Music Match). Originally planned as “Kohaku Ongaku Gassen” (battle), it was renamed “Shiai” (match) after Occupation authorities objected to a defeated nation staging a “battle.” Featuring Michiko Namiki, Dick Mine and others, it became the prototype for NHK Kohaku Uta Gassen, which began in 1951. (NHK Archives: History of Kohaku Uta Gassen, in Japanese)

On January 19 of the following year, 1946, “Nodojiman Shirouto Ongakukai” (an amateur singing show) began. Unlike traditional programs where listeners heard professional singers, it was an open-participation broadcast where ordinary applicants sang with accompaniment. (“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 July 1947, Kazuo Kikuta’s serialized radio drama Kane no Naru Oka (The Hill Where the Bell Rings) began, telling a story of war orphans bandings together that was heard across the country. (Broadcast Library, in Japanese)

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

Two months after defeat, in October 1945, Shochiku’s film Soyokaze (Breeze) opened featuring the song “Ringo no Uta” (Apple Song; lyrics by Hachiro Sato, music by Tadashi Manjome), sung by Michiko Namiki. Released on SP record by Nippon Columbia in January 1946 as a duet with Noboru Kirishima, it sold 125,000 copies by the end of 1947 as postwar Japan’s first major hit song. (Shochiku: film introduction, in Japanese; Nippon Columbia Corporate History, in Japanese)

Shizuko Kasagi’s “Tokyo Boogie-Woogie,” written with Ryoichi Hattori, was recorded in September 1947, performed in October at the Nichigeki Theater’s Jazz Carmen, and released on record in January 1948. Kasagi’s dynamic stage performance earned her the title “Queen of Boogie.” (Nippon Columbia, in Japanese)

In 1949, 12-year-old singer Hibari Misora’s “Kanashiki Kuchibue” (Sad Whistle) was released on record in September, followed in October by a Shochiku film of the same name in which she sang in a top hat and tails. Selling 450,000 records, her vocal power made her a nationwide star. (Hibari Misora official chronology, in Japanese; Shochiku: Kanashiki Kuchibue database, in Japanese)

Reading Star Photos and Reader Contributions in the Magazine Heibon

In November 1945, Bonjinsha (later Heibon Shuppan, now Magazine House) launched the magazine Heibon. From 1948 it revamped its pages into a popular entertainment magazine combining photo spreads of singers and movie stars, song lyrics, serialized fiction and reader-contribution columns, rapidly expanding its circulation. (Yuki Tajima, Shuppan Kenkyu no. 46, in Japanese)

SP record production for home listening also overcame material shortages and recovered. In Recording Industry Association of Japan statistics, annual output 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 colored bat used by Giants slugger Tetsuharu Kawakami, and the “blue bat” (ao batto) from the bat used by Tokyu Flyers hitter Hiroshi Oshita. In postwar pro baseball too, star players remembered by the color of their gear captivated fans. (Weekly Baseball, in Japanese)

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