Glorious Mission 1937

After the "September [-]th Incident" broke out, international public opinion began to be unfavorable to Japan, and the Japanese government also deeply felt the necessity of widely publicizing Japan's mainland policy.In this situation, as a tool of public opinion, the role of the media has been increasingly valued by the government and the military.In order to realize the established national policy, the government and the military have adopted a series of measures to strengthen the control of media speech.

The control or control of public opinion during war is understandable behavior. It is an international practice to implement news censorship during war. The purpose is to prevent false news from shaking people's hearts, and at the same time prevent the leakage of important political and military information to benefit the enemy.This kind of thing is going on in various countries, including China.

In November 1932, the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the Kuomintang promulgated the Standards for the Examination of Propaganda Materials. At the same time, a large number of laws and regulations aimed at censoring news and public opinion were promulgated. The continuous introduction and improvement of these regulations made the Kuomintang regime Press censorship has reached the point where it is as dense as a skynet.

In December 1930, the "Publication Law" enacted by the Kuomintang mainly restricted the application for registration and the content of publications.From a legal point of view, it belongs to the registration system.Subsequently, the Nationalist Government promulgated the "Measures for the Review of Books and Magazines", stipulating that all books and magazines should submit their manuscripts to the Book and Magazine Review Committee of the Central Propaganda Committee for review before they are printed. blank. On July 12, 1935, the Legislative Yuan of the Nationalist Government promulgated the "Amendment to the Publishing Law", stipulating that newspapers and periodicals should "fill out a registration application form before their first publication, and submit it to the local competent government office where the publication is located for approval before publishing." These two regulations actually changed the registration system stipulated in the original "Publication Law" into a review and approval system that interferes with the freedom of public opinion.

However, this does not mean that there is a fundamental restriction on speech, and there is no such severe suppression of public opinion as in Japan.The Japanese government and the military have adopted a series of media fascist measures to ensure the consistency of government propaganda and public opinion. The most important are four steps.The first is a large-scale ideological and personnel purge. Since 4, the Japanese government has implemented unprecedented strict inspections and bans on various publications (including newspapers and periodicals). There were 1932 cases in that year alone.In normal years, there are usually dozens of such incidents.

Very few of them were truly outspoken against the war.The main thing is to prohibit news reports and speeches that may be detrimental to the direct control of the military. From 1932 to 1933, the Japanese government arrested as many as 3.4 intellectuals, and on October 1932, 10 alone, more than 30 people were arrested.The military department is still not at ease with the media that has already supported the war, and requires that the "national policy" and "national theory" of launching an all-out war of aggression must be completely consistent.It is also not allowed to keep a distance between national theory and national policy.Masharu Honma, the press director of the Ministry of Army, made a statement: "The period of national policy and national opinion has been irrelevant for a long time. In recent years, although public opinion has continued to grow valuable power. But it has not yet played out like the Japan-China Incident. Once our reporting organization clarifies the concept of justice, unifies domestic public opinion, points out the way forward, unites the people closely, ignites patriotic enthusiasm like fire, and is not afraid even if the whole world is an enemy. That is a great service for the country , No matter who is in front of it, he must take off his hat and pay tribute.” This basically reflects the position and starting point of the military’s further suppression of the media in the future.

The second step is to start the "National Constitution Mingzheng Movement" and spiritual control. In order to make public opinion further fascist, the Japanese government launched the "National Constitution Mingzheng Movement" in 1935. "Mingzheng" means "clear", and the purpose is to completely eliminate Meiji. The idea of ​​freedom and democracy introduced during the Restoration period completely returned to the absolutist "national power theory" of the theocratic emperor system.

Under this movement, education and national education were "refreshed" again, opposing the emphasis on intellectual education, and prohibiting high-level pleasures. In the movies, there are only scenes of marching, shooting, and shouting long live, and even some books that have always been regarded as touting the emperor's system. Also because the military extremists thought it was not thorough enough, the professors involved were expelled from the university on charges of undermining the concept of national system, advocating diversity, and advocating freedom of thought.

Then, in 1938, the "National General Mobilization Movement" was launched to fully implement economic control, national control and spiritual control.Political parties are completely banned, and members of parliament do not belong to political parties, but are included in the leadership of the "Dazheng Wing Zanhui" conference bureau.All the policy speeches, reports on military battles, resolutions of gratitude to the soldiers who went to the expedition, and answers to frontline telegrams were all passed with warm applause.The various original social groups were disbanded, and they were incorporated into national single associations directly controlled by the government according to occupation, age, and gender, such as the Da Nippon Expressi Dainippon Industrial News Diet and so on.The high-handed policy has also spread to religion. Many religions, including Christianity, have been persecuted and thousands of people have been arrested.Under this kind of spiritual control, there is no way to further control the news dissemination.

The second is the direct control of the broadcasting industry by the state. From March to June 1925, Japan established the Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya broadcasting stations as civil society legal persons.However, in the second year, the government issued a directive to merge the three broadcasting stations into the "Nippon Broadcasting Association", which monopolizes the broadcasting industry under the direct control of the government.The government strictly censors all news and speeches, as well as the speakers.

In the "September 1934th Incident", the role of broadcasting inciting war was far more extensive than that of newspapers, which greatly stimulated the sales of radios. In [-], in order to strengthen the control of broadcasting, a reorganization of the Broadcasting Association was carried out. The radio section of the Ministry of Posts, the Security Bureau of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the Social Education Bureau of the Ministry of Culture and Education all participated. more and more programs.After the outbreak of the Pacific War, more and more agitation speeches by the prime minister, military leaders and other officials, as well as speeches by specially screened personalities from the private sector were broadcast on the radio. The History of American Aggression in East Asia” and so on.

Finally, the Japanese government formulated harsh speech laws and regulations to control public speech.Long before the government expanded and perfected speech control institutions, it had begun to formulate laws and regulations governing speech.As the basic regulations for newspapers, there is the Newsprint Law promulgated on May 1909, 5, which stipulates that the Minister of the Interior has the right to prohibit the sale and distribution of newspapers and periodicals and seal up newspapers and magazines; Publishes manuscripts related to the affairs of the province.Shortly after the "February 6 Incident" in 1936, in order to maintain law and order and maintain military order, the Law on the Temporary Management of Unstable Documents was promulgated and implemented. At the same time, the Ministry of the Interior began to establish a publishing police network. On March 2.26, 1941, the National Defense Security Act aimed at protecting political secrets was enacted.All kinds of information are subject to double and triple restrictions.Immediately after the outbreak of the Pacific War, provisional laws governing speech, publishing, and associations were enacted.The formulation of these speech regulations basically has two goals. One is to punish those who "spread gossip" and "demagogues" about the current situation, and the other is to change the activities of political associations and assemblies from the reporting system to the permission system.

Through the above measures, the Japanese government and the military have fully ruled the newspaper industry, news agencies and intelligence agencies, and realized the so-called "unified guidance of national theory" system.Under such strict control of speech, coupled with the deterrence of militarism, the Japanese media gradually fell into the abyss of fascism.

The irresponsible remarks of the Japanese government and the media have triggered a worldwide discussion about war. Except for some people in Japan and a few extreme countries, the vast majority of people with conscience believe that the Japanese Army Lieutenant General is in China. This kind of behavior on the battlefield violates the basic humanitarianism of soldiers, and even damages the honor of soldiers.Such a person is simply a war criminal, not worthy of being a hero at all.

At the same time, such shameless remarks and faces of the Japanese completely angered Chen Feng. On November 11, Chen Feng held a press conference in Datong. He warned the Japanese government and the military headquarters in front of hundreds of Chinese and foreign journalists that if Kimura Bingtaro has not released the captured Chinese civilians. He will issue the same order to the army. In the future, there will be no distinction between Japanese soldiers and civilians. One day, Japan will be defeated, and the whole people will pay for today's actions The most painful price.

Although Chen Feng's warning caused panic among the Japanese expatriates in China, it had no impact on the people in Japan at all, and it cannot be said that it had no impact.When Chen Feng's speech at the press conference was published in Japan with embellishments, all the Japanese were outraged.

Although now due to the endless wars, the living standards of the people in Japan have plummeted, and poverty has also rapidly surfaced. Even many Japanese can only eat those poor-quality coarse grain rice balls to satisfy their hunger every day. Even families with good living conditions can only Eat a meal of rice.

Despite this, the spirit of the Japanese is extremely high, and they firmly believe that they will win the final victory of the war.Due to the successive victories of the Japanese army on the Chinese battlefield, and the deliberate propaganda of Japan's fascist media, in the minds of the Japanese, the Great Japanese Empire is an extremely powerful empire, and the Imperial Japanese Army is invincible. The thought of invincibility has been deeply rooted in the minds of the Japanese people.

Therefore, they could not tolerate the provocation of a small Chinese military officer. In the eyes of the Japanese people, what Chen Feng said at the press conference was not only a warning, but more like an ultimatum.Therefore, the Japanese were angry.Soon, large-scale demonstrations broke out in Tokyo, Osaka, Kumamoto, Yokohama, Nagasaki, Hiroshima and other places under the deliberate instigation of people with good intentions. The Japanese Empire bows to that hateful Chinese officer! (To be continued..)