Gendering the war : the colonial gaze in Hino Ashihei's Hana to heitai

Despite its initial success, the 1939 novel Hana to heitai by Hino Ashihei – the most famous war literature writer in wartime Japan – was underestimated in the post-war years and dismissed as trivial and naïve, tinged as it is with Imperial propaganda. In this paper, I question this view by discussing the socio-political significance of the work at the time of its publication and its role in shaping public opinion. I will also carry out a close reading of its content aimed at bringing to the surface Hino’s underlying narratives regarding the war in China. I contend that the significance of the novel is twofold: on the one hand, it offered a narrative of the war with China that was to some extent new, since it focuses on civil contexts and portrays the Japanese invasion as a «peace-keeping» mission. On the other hand, it provided a gendered view of the war that was based on Chinese female characters and that envisaged in the relationship between Japanese soldiers and young Chinese women a future of co-prosperity and friendly cooperation of Japan and China.