Censorship in Imperial Japan

FAIN: FT-13951-78

Richard H. Mitchell
University of Missouri, St. Louis (St. Louis, MO 63121)

To write a book, the final chapter of which will compare Japan's censorship system with those of other modernizing regimes. An important element in the pervasive system of thought control that supported prewar Japan's authoritarian government was a ubiquitous censorship system. An analysis of the planning, drafting, enactment, application, revision and significance of the censorship laws tells us not only a good deal about the government's attitudes toward foreign and domestic ideologies, but also about conflict between government agencies. This study of Japanese censorship will better the understanding of the limits of "Taisho Democracy."