| The Modern Japanese Political
History Materials Room of the National Diet Library (NDL) collects documents
related to modern Japanese political history, which includes a series of
recordings made by well-known statespersons and former military officers.
This series started from a suggestion made by the late novelist, Yuzo Yamamoto,
who also served as a member of House of Councillors, and others. In 1961
the first recording was made by Takema Machino. Since then, a total of
ten persons have been recorded. The original purpose of producing this
series of recordings was to investigate the actual role played by the military
before and during World War II and to reveal the inside stories of Japanese
political history during that period. As the work progressed, however,
the target was widened to include people who had played leading roles in
Japanese politics or who had been involved in significant historic incidents
during the period. The interviews with those people aimed to gather comments
on the behind-the-scenes facts, and stories that had been unrevealed before.
The recordings have been made open to the public 30 years after the
recording, except for some recordings that were released earlier in accordance
with agreements with the interviewees. In the Room, users have access to
cassette tapes and transcription notes made from the recordings. Copying
the recordings from cassette tapes is not available, but copying the notes
is permitted (except that copying the whole note needs permission from
the copyright holder).
The following are the details of recordings made so far:
| Interviewee |
Recording date |
Profile |
Subject |
Time length |
Takema
Machino |
May 1961 |
Army Colonel; Adviser to
Chang Tso-lin |
Assassination of Chang Tso-lin |
6 hours |
| Ren'ya Mutaguchi |
Apr. 1963
|
Army Lieutenant
General;
Commander, 15th Army |
Marco Polo Bridge Incident |
2.5 hours
|
| Feb. 1965 |
Operation Imphal |
2 hours |
| Hitoshi Imamura |
Dec. 1964, Jan. 1965 |
Army General; Army Ministry's
Military Affairs Bureau Chief; Commander, 16th Army |
Military organization of
Japanese Army |
3.5 hours |
| Mosaburo Suzuki |
Dec. 1966 |
Member, House of Representatives;
Secretary General, Japan Proletarian Party; Chairperson, Japan Socialist
Party |
Socialists movement in Japan
before World War II, etc. |
12 hours |
| Koichi Kido |
Feb. to May 1967 |
Home Minister |
Inside stories related to
"Kido Nikki (Kido's diary)" |
17 hours |
| Hisatsune Sakomizu |
Nov. 1969
|
Secretary to
Prime Minister Keisuke Okada; Chief Secretary, Kantaro Suzuki Cabinet |
Inside stories related to
the end of
the World War II
|
3 hours
|
| Oct. 1972 |
February 26
Incident |
1.5 hours |
| Okinori Kaya |
Nov. to Dec. 1975 |
Finance Minister, 1st Konoe
Cabinet and Tojo Cabinet |
Pre-war financial policy,
etc. |
11 hours |
| Fusae Ichikawa |
Mar. and May 1978 |
Member, House of Councillors |
Suffragette movement; women
and politics, etc. |
6 hours |
| Aiichiro Fujiyama* |
Nov. and Dec. 1981 |
Director, Tokyo Chamber
of Commerce & Industry; Foreign Minister, Kishi Cabinet; Chief, Economic
Planning Agency of the 2nd Ikeda Cabinet and the 1st Sato Cabinet |
Overthrow of the Tojo Cabinet;
Japan-China relations, etc. |
6 hours
(will be available in 2011) |
| Seiichi Katsumata |
Nov. 1987 |
Chairperson, Japan Socialist
Party; Vice-Speaker, House of Representatives |
Planning Board Incident;
Partition and reunion of Japan Socialist Party |
9 hours |
*not yet open to the public
Much of the content of these recordings can be found in the interviewees'
published memoirs. However, hearing them actually speak gives us a feeling
of immediacy as if the scenes they are talking about in the recordings
are actually happening before our eyes.
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