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Playing with New Rules: Radio Quiz Shows and the Reorientation of the Japanese Under the US Occupation, 1945–1952

2013; Routledge; Volume: 34; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/01439685.2013.858939

1465-3451

Ji Hee Jung,

Asian Culture and Media Studies

AbstractThis article traces the introduction of the quiz show into Japanese broadcasting, led by the US occupation forces in the aftermath of World War II. Between late 1946 and the early 1950s, the occupation’s radio personnel guided the Japanese broadcasting monopoly NHK to air several replicas of American quiz programs. These replicas provoked a quiz craze in the war-devastated nation. By positing the quiz show as a cultural form deeply embedded in American-style capitalist democracy, the author argues that early radio quiz shows provided a microcosm in which Japanese listeners symbolically practiced some of the normative participatory principles of the particular form of democracy preferred by the occupation. The popularization of the quiz show, even though a complex and at times uneasy process, channeled and reflected the larger historical transformation in the organizing principles of society and the normative form of subjectivity, which was strongly conditioned by the US hegemony in the rising Cold War. AcknowledgementsI would like to thank Takashi Fujitani, Stefan Tanaka, Lisa Yoneyama, Valerie Hartouni, Frank Biess, Kate McDonald, Woonkyung Yeo and anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on earlier versions of this article. I also thank Yoshimi Shunya, Takeyama Akiko, Yamaguchi Makoto and Marlene J. Mayo for their sage advice and help during my fieldwork. Many thanks to Sanae Isozumi at UCSD, Eiko Sakaguchi and Ken Shimada at the Prange Collection, University of Maryland, Lawrence H. McDonald at the National Archives, College Park, and generous staffs at the NHK Museum of Broadcasting and the National Diet Library of Japan. This research was made possible by funding from the UC Pacific Rim Research Program and the Japan–Korea Cultural Foundation.Notes1 Wynthrop M. Orr, Report of Conference CIE on Radio Broadcasting in Japan, 28 August 1947, Folder 2, Box 5136, Records of the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, Record Group 331, National Archives at College Park, Maryland (hereafter RG 331).2 Radio Unit, Radio in Japan: a report of the condition of broadcasting in Japan as of 1 May 1947, Folder 35, Box 5313, RG 331, 36.3 John Dower, Embracing Defeat: Japan in the wake of World War II (New York, 1999) and Eiji Takemae, The Allied Occupation of Japan (New York, 2002).4 Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers General Headquarters, History of the Nonmilitary Activities of the Occupation of Japan 1945–1951 Vol. 33: Radio Broadcasting (year unknown, microfilmed by World War II Records Division, National Archives, Job No. Mp 65-4/1, hereafter SCAP, Radio Broadcasting), 11. Many studies noted the significance of radio in the occupation’s reorientation program. Marlene J. Mayo, The war of words continues: American radio guidance in occupied Japan, in: Thomas W. Burkman (ed.), The Occupation of Japan: arts and culture (Norfolk, VA, 1988), 45–83; Catherine A. Luther and Douglas A. Boyd, American occupation control over broadcasting in Japan, 1945–1952, Journal of Communication, 47(2) (1997), 39–59; Susan Smulyan, Now it can be told: the influence of the United States occupation on Japanese radio, in: Michele Hilmes and Jason Loviglio (eds), Radio Reader: essays in the cultural history of radio (New York and London, 2002), 301–17; Takeyama Akiko, Rajio no jidai: rajio wa cha no ma no shuyaku datta (Kyoto, Japan, 2002), 268–345; Okahara Miyako, Amerika senryōki no minshuka seisaku: rajio hōsō ni yoru Nihon josei saikyōiku puroguramu (Tokyo, 2007).5 Mayo, The war of words continues, 46–51; NHK, Broadcasting in Japan: the twentieth century journey from radio to multimedia (Tokyo, 2002), 25–100; SCAP, Radio Broadcasting, 1–7. For the quote, 11.6 For an excellent overview of the CIE’s guidance on radio, see Mayo, The war of words continues, 52–83.7 SCAP, Radio Broadcasting, 1, 12.8 Nihon Hōsō Kyōkai, Nihon hōsōshi, Vol. 1 (Tokyo, 1965), 703–704; Niwa Yoshiyuki, Kuizu bangumi no tanjō, in: Ishita Saeko and Ogawa Hiroshi (eds), Kuizu bunka no shakaigaku (Kyoto, Japan, 2003), 75–103; Niwa Yoshiyuki, Kuizu ga Amerika kara yatte kita, in: Itō Mamoru (ed.), Bunka no jissen bunka no kenkyū: zōshoku suru karuchuraru sutadīzu (Tokyo, 2004), 196–207. I understand that the relationship between the quiz show and the occupation’s democratization project is not Niwa’s major concern and it could be the reason that he relies on the most common view on this matter. I appreciate Niwa’s analysis of the establishment of question formats and conventions and the idealized images of American society in them.9 Tonoshita Tatsuya, Ongaku o dōinseyo: tōsei to goraku no 15-nen sensō (Tokyo, 2008), 131–141. On audience participation practices in wartime Japan, see Ji Hee Jung, Radio broadcasting and the politics of mass culture in transwar Japan. Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, San Diego, 2010, 89–100.10 ‘In the case of ad-lib and interviewed programs, where no advance script is prepared, the programs are recorded and listened to and passed by CCD (Civil Censorship Detachment) censors before being broadcast.’ Radio Unit, Radio in Japan, 17. Also see Mayo, The war of words continues, 60.11 Nagayama Hiroshi, Hanashi no izumi no enshutsu, Hōsō bunka, 6(7) (1951), 4–5.12 The American way of life is a historically contingent notion. Here I am referring to the postwar consensus on private enterprise and free market economy as the backbone of the American social system, which outweighed New Deal egalitarianism in public images of the American way of life. Wendy L. Wall, Inventing the ‘American Way’: the politics of consensus from the New Deal to the civil rights movement (New York, 2008); Laura A. Belmonte, Selling the American Way: U.S. propaganda and the Cold War (Philadelphia, PA, 2008); Lisa Yoneyama, Habits of knowing cultural differences: Chrysanthemum and the Sword in the U.S. liberal multiculturalism, Topoi, 18 (1999), 76.13 Jason Mittell, Genre and Television: from cop shows to cartoons in American culture (New York and London, 2004), 29–55; Thomas DeLong, Quiz Craze: America’s infatuation with game shows (New York, 1991); Olaf Hoerschelmann, Rules of the Game: quiz shows and American culture (New York, 2006).14 John Fiske, Television Culture (London and New York, 1987), 265–280.15 On Information Please, see Jim Cox, The Great Radio Audience Participation Shows: seventeen programs from the 1940s and 1950s (Jefferson, NC, 2001), 101–21.16 Hanashi no izumi, NHK, 3 December 1946. The record is accessible at the NHK Museum of Broadcasting and other NHK’s Open Libraries (Kōkai Raiburarī) throughout Japan. For the script, see Niwa, Kuizu bangumi no tanjō, 86–87.17 Tokyo’s average retail price for 10 kilograms of rice in 1947 was 76.342 yen according to the survey by the Bank of Japan. Kōga Chūichi (ed.), Bukka no bunkashi jiten: Meiji, Taishō, Shōwa, Heisei (Tokyo, 2008), 30.18 Nakano replaced Kigi Takatarō, the scientist and writer originally chosen by the occupation on the premiere. Radio Unit, Weekly Report for Week Ending 27 November 1946, Folder 16, Box 5319, RG 331.19 Wada Shinken (ed.), Shumi to jōshiki no hyakka Hanashi no izumi shū (Tokyo, 1950), 4.20 Furu Takeo, Ninki bangumi o kentō suru (ka), Hōsō bunka, 6(10) (1951), 24.21 Nihon Hōsō Kyōkai, Nihon hōsōshi Vol. 1, 776.22 Radio Unit, Weekly Report for Week Ending 4 December 1946 and Weekly Report for Week Ending 11 December 1946, Folder 16, Box 5319, RG 331.23 Radio Unit, Radio in Japan, 36.24 Radio Unit, Weekly Report for Week Ending 11 June 1947, Folder 5, Box 5318, RG 331.25 Radio Unit, Weekly Report for Week Ending 19 February 1947, Folder 5, Box 5318, RG 331.26 Shiga Yoshio, NHK no chihōsei, Minshu hyōron, 5(6) (1949), 1 (The Gordon W. Prange Collection, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, hereafter PCUMD).27 Radio Unit, Weekly Report for Week Ending November 27, 1946, Folder 16, Box 5319, RG 331.28 Tokugawa Musei, Tokugawa Musei: hōsō wajutsu 27-nen (Tokyo, 1998), 208.29 Ibid., 209–210.30 Yamamoto Kajirō, ‘Hanashi no izumi’-byō, Hōsō buka, 2(5) (1947), 28.31 Of the approximately 40 experts he could recall, Tokugawa names eight female panelists, including literary critic Itagaki Naoko, politician Katō Shizue and novelist Hayashi Fumiko. Tokugawa, Tokugawa Musei, 210–212.32 F.B. Huggins, To Messrs Wada, Horiuchi, Watanabe, Haruyama and Sato, Shūkan Hanashi no izumi, 1(3) (1947), 3 (PCUMD); Radio Unit, Weekly Report for Week Ending 19 February 1947, Folder 5, Box 5318, RG 331.33 Fiske, Television Culture, 275–276.34 Furu, Ninki bangumi o kentō suru (ka), 24.35 Yamamoto, ‘Hanashi no izumi’-byō, 28.36 Tokugawa, Tokugawa Musei, 210.37 Wada Shinken et al., Zadankai kuizu bangumi no miryoku o kentō suru, Hōsō buka, 7(5) (1952), 25.38 Maruyama Tetsuo, Nodo jiman kōzairon, Hōsō kyōiku, 4(8) (1949), 10; Iwasaki Osamu, Nodo jiman no kane, Rajio Osaka, 3(1) (1949), 6 (PCUMD).39 Fukuda Sadayoshi, Kuizu no omoshirosa, Hōsō bunka, 8(10) (1953), 4–5.40 Yamada Fumio, Kodomo Hanashi no izumi hakkan ni yosete, Kodomo Hanashi no izumi, 1 (1948), 2 (PCUMD).41 Ibid., 2; Fujimoto Mitsukiyo, Kodomo Hanashi no izumi no hajimari, Kodomo Hanashi no izumi, 3 (1949), 2 (PCUMD).42 Radio Unit, Weekly Report for Week Ending 11 June 1947, Folder 5, Box 5318, RG 331.43 Yamamoto, ‘Hanashi no izumi’-byō, 28.44 Radio Unit, Weekly Report for Week Ending 7 May 1947 and Weekly Report for Week Ending 14 May 1947, Folder 5, Box 5318, RG 331.45 Radio Unit, Weekly Report for Week Ending 8 October 1947, Folder 5, Box 5318, RG 331; author unknown, Hanashi no izumi ni chinkyaku: kōtaishi-sama rokuon o sankan, Shōnen Yomiuri, 2(9) (1947), 1 (PCUMD); author unknown, Kōtaishi-sama Hanashi no izumi e, Kodomo Asahi, 8(8) (1947), 3–5 (PCUMD).46 Author unknown, Chichibunomiya-sama mizukara shutsudai, daga yondo tomo botsu ni, Shūkan Hanashi no izumi, 7 (1948), 1 (PCUMD).47 The occupation personnel conducted rehearsals in a very meticulous manner to make sure that contestants could perform the genre seamlessly. CIE summoned 60 individuals from various fields to choose panelists for Nijū no tobira and took considerable time and a number of auditions to select the right people for the program. Fujiura Kō, Kuizu no kōsatsu, Hōsō Asahi, 34 (1959), 12.48 Yuasa Shūichirō, Nijū no tobira o hiraku, Hōsō bunka, 2(8) (1947), 16–18.49 Nihon Hōsō Kyōkai, Nihon hōsōshi, Vol. 1, 840–841; Radio Culture Research Institute, NHK (hereafter RCRI), Radio Listeners’ Survey: report of the 2nd regular survey conducted in November 21–24, 1948, part III (February 10, 1949), 1–38, Folder 4, Box 5322, RG 331. As Nijū no tobira’s popularity grew listener ratings for Hanashi no izumi went down. Hanashi no izumi was ranked fourth.50 RCRI, Summarized Result of Program Ratings Surveys No. 1–No. 6 (October 1950), 1–4, Folder 2, Box 5322, RG 331. Hanashi no izumi was in 50th place with 21% ratings.51 Yuasa, Nijū no tobira o hiraku, 16.52 Iijima Katsuya, Tōsho no izumi, Shūkan Hanashi no izumi, 8 (1948), 4 (PCUMD).53 Kishi Yoshinori, Tōsho no izumi, Shūkan Hanashi no izumi, 13 (1948), 2 (PCUMD).54 Kuryū Kosaburō, Tōsho no izumi, Shūkan Hanashi no izumi, 14 (1948), 4 (PCUMD).55 Kimura Ryūzō et al., Zadankai ‘Watashi wa dare deshō’ o kentō suru, Hōsō bunka, 5(1) (1950), 26.56 Radio Branch, Weekly Report for the Period 17 through 23 January 1949, Folder 7, Box 5318, RG 331.57 RCRI, Summarized Result of Program Ratings Surveys No. 1–No. 6, 1–4.58 Yamakawa Kin’nosuke, Watashi wa dare deshō no enshutsu, Hōsō bunka, 6(7) (1951), 8. Unfortunately, the exact demographic composition of the applicants and participants of this show is unknown.59 Yamakawa Kin’nosuke, Watashi wa dare deshō gakuyabanashi, Fujin kōron, 389 (1949), 65.60 Kimura et al., Zadankai ‘Watashi wa dare deshō’ o kentō suru, 26–27.61 For example, Uda Michio, the chief of NHK’s Production Department jumped to the conclusion that Watashi wa dare deshō was a giveaway simply because the show offered prizes to the contestants. Ibid., 26.62 Radio Branch, Weekly Report for the Period 6 through 12 January 1949, Folder 7, Box 5318, RG 331.63 Kimura et al., Zadankai ‘Watashi wa dare deshō’ o kentō suru, 27.64 Yamakawa, Watashi wa dare deshō no enshutsu, 9.65 Kimura et al., Zadankai ‘Watashi wa dare deshō’ o kentō suru, 27. BBC’s adoption of American quiz shows provides a comparative perspective on this issue. In the British context, the giveaway was a symbol of highly commercialized American broadcasting culture, which BBC believed unsuitable to Britain. As a public broadcasting system BBC consciously maintained a low cash prize level and disregarded giveaways in order to avert the accusation of using license holders’ money inappropriately. Su Holmes, The Quiz Show (Edinburgh, Britain 2008), 37–38.66 Furu, Ninki bangumi o kentō suru (ka), 23; Herta Herzog, Professor Quiz: a gratification study, in: Paul Lazarsfeld (ed.), Radio and the Printed Page: an introduction to the study of radio and its role in the communication of ideas (New York, 1940), 66–74, 83–87.67 Kimura Ryūzō, Tonchi kyōshitsu are kore, Hōsō bunka, 4(4) (1949), 42–43.68 Nakamichi Sadao et al., Bangumi shōkai ‘Mittsu no uta’ kikaku kara hōsō made, Hōsō bunka, 7(5) (1952), 40–42.69 Nanki Yoshirō, Kuizu bangumi no kōzui ni tsuite, Minkan hōsō, 32 (1955), 8–10; Ishizaka Takashi, Atemono kara no seichō: terebi kuizu no genkei o motomete, Hōsō bunka, 21(3) (1966), 38–39; Nihon Hōsō Kyōkai, Hōsō 50-nenshi (Tokyo 1977), 350–351; Niwa, Kuizu bangumi no tanjō, 95–97.70 Niwa, Kuizu ga Amerika kara yatte kita, 200, 206.71 The reality in these quiz shows appeared more ‘American’ in its normative sense than actual American society. Many American listeners still approved other subgenres like the giveaway, which was often condemned for encouraging the ‘un-American’ or ‘Communist’ value of receiving something for nothing. See Mittell, Genre and Television, 46–51.72 Ben-Ami Shillony, Politics and Culture in Wartime Japan (New York, 1981), 141–151.73 Radio Unit, Weekly Report for Week Ending 19 February 1947, Folder 5, Box 5318, RG 331.74 Fiske, Television Culture, 273–274; Herzog, Professor Quiz, 85.75 The key themes of the modern education in Japan included individualism and utilitarianism or rationalism. See Benjamin Duke, The History of Modern Japanese Education: constructing the national school system, 1872–1890 (New Brunswick, NJ, 2009). While acknowledging that the universal education of pre-occupation Japan was based on advancement by merit, the US occupation viewed the system established in 1872 as essentially the same, despite some modifications, as the system in place at the end of the Asia Pacific War in 1945. See Takemae, The Allied Occupation of Japan, 348; Joseph C. Trainor, Educational Reform in Occupied Japan: Trainor memoir (Tokyo, 1983), 1–8.76 Radio Unit, Radio in Japan: a report on the condition of broadcasting in Japan as of 1 Oct 1947, File 125, Box 5150, RG 331, 15; Mitoji Nishimoto, The Development of Educational Broadcasting in Japan (Tokyo, 1969); Takeyama Akiko, Senjika no rajio kōen, in: Kindai Nihon Kenkyūkai (ed.), Kindai Nihon to jōhō (Tokyo, 1990), 234–258.77 Shimaura Seiichi et al., Zadankai Hanashi no izumi’o ginmi suru, Hōsō buka, 3(3) (1948), 3.Additional informationNotes on contributorsJi Hee JungJi Hee Jung is a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science postdoctoral fellow at the University of Tokyo. She is currently revising of Radio Culture and the Politics of Subjectivity in Imperial and Postwar Japan, 1920s-1950s, a book manuscript based on her Ph.D. dissertation she completed at the Department of History, University of California San Diego.