Spaces of State: Schools, Education and Society in Interwar and Wartime Japan

Abstract

My research to date has focused on how and why the 117 primary schools reconstructed in Tokyo following the Great Kanto Earthquake were designed and built the way they were. Shaped by experiences of the 1923 disaster as well as international trends in school design, the modern reinforced concrete buildings completed in 1930 were not only earthquake resistant and fire proof, they were equipped with features and facilities that aimed to better cultivate the moral and physical qualities of school children as well as manage and maintain their health and fitness. Moreover, the facilities such as large gymnasiums-cum-auditoriums were built with a view to opening them after-hours for use by local residents. The question I now seek to answer is this: how were schools used to fulfil these goals and visions in interwar and wartime Japan? By tracing the period from 1931 to 1945, I will examine how the state sought to mobilize not only children, but also families and local communities through activities centred around primary schools and adjoining small parks in Tokyo. From activities ranging from sports days and rajio taisō, to public lectures and film, I will suggest that by the late-1930s schools as well as the ceremonies and events they hosted, were firmly established in the daily lives of children and local residents, thus enabling the state to successfully use these institutions and networks as centres for successive mobilization campaigns. My paper seeks to explore why the state believed it was important to maintain a sense of community, especially in wartime, that focused on schools. It will also examine how children and residents were affected by the ever-changing role of schools as they were transformed from sites of learning, into sites of emergency, shelter and defence.