Menshi to shôgun [The mask maker and the Shogun].

Accession Number RC04876
Collection number Leaflets Collection (Far Eastern Liaison Office Leaflets) J111
Collection type Published Collection
Record type Item
Item count 1
Measurement Overall: 16 x 15 cm
Object type Leaflet
Maker Far Eastern Liaison Office
Date made 11 September 1943
Conflict Second World War, 1939-1945
Copying Provisions Copyright expired. Copying permitted subject to physical condition. Permission for reproduction not required.
Description

A propaganda leaflet produced by the Far Eastern Liaison Office (FELO) during the Second World War. This leaflet is written in Japanese and was distributed to Melanesia and Netherlands East Indies. An English translation of the text is attached. The leaflet introduces a historical episode about the Genji clan and compare parties involved in the war to the main characters of the story, the military clique to the selfish Shôgun, Japanese citizens to a devoted mask maker and young patriotic solders to the ambitious daughter of the mask maker. The message stresses that ordinary Japanese people will come through sufferings to understand the truth of the war, as the mask maker did through his painful experiences. In the meantime, the evil military clique and their patriotic followers will perish like the Shogun and his mistress.