The spread and transformation of Ikeda Saburo's reports: The Relationship Between Cartoon and Wartime Media in the Spread and Transformation of Reports

Abstract

Saburo Ikeda was a cartoonist who played an active role in pre-war Japan. He preferred a manga manbun style, which combines cartoon with prose, and his many works reference both financial circles and the literary world. In 1939, he travelled to China, where he worked as a war correspondent. His reports appeared in many magazines alongside various titles, cartoons, and writings. The purpose of this study is to analyze and review Ikeda’s reports and to clarify their significance in the context of wartime media regulations. Comparing Ikeda’s articles, we found that they each have different features. The flexibility of Ikeda’s reports is such that they can be reconstituted to play different roles according to the context (e.g., popular entertainment magazines, financial magazines, and women’s literary magazines). Ikeda’s reports about the Dading rural area were requested during the Pacific War as a form of wartime propaganda presenting Japan in a positive light in Mainland China. Results indicate that the reports, as a function of their diversity, held a special position in the spectrum of contemporary photographs, cartoons, and reportage regarding China.

Keywords

• Saburo Ikeda
• Cartoon
• Media Studies
• Wartime Regulations
• Propaganda