Survive to be critical: The Wartime Graphic as a ‘masquerading’ media in the Russo-Japanese War,1904-1905

Abstract

By focusing on unconventional war imagery of the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905) in The Wartime Graphic, a widely popular pictorial war magazine in Japan, this article uncovers an art of publishing critical materials under the difficult circumstances of modern total war. The magazine’s contents suggest that it was a ‘masquerading’ media which provided critical cultural space while circumventing censorship. Examining the space and expressions in the middle ground, this article will shed light on considerable yet hitherto overlooked dimensions of wartime Japanese press and Japanese society, challenging dichotomous understandings of ‘pro-’ and ‘anti-’ war.