Author: Civil defence posters.
Title: [Kokumin Boku Zufu].
Description: Tokyo, Japan Air Defence Association 1941 (Showa 16) Title or cover leaf, colophon leaf and 35 numbered colour lithograph posters 75x51cm. First two leaves ragged but essentially complete, posters 14 to 25 have a top corner chewed only affecting the numbers and the very corner of the image on four or five. Definitely a used set, with some browning and torn or chipped edges; still a remarkable survival. Each sheet has two punched holes at the top which shows they were cord tied or pinned together and doubtless used for lectures. ¶ Apparently a complete set of air defence posters, there is nothing to suggest there were any more. Not being able to find another set anywhere doesn't help. The National Diet Library has a set of 1944 posters which they illustrate on line. There are 38 posters in that set and a contents leaf. A few are much the same as ours but most have been redrawn and reorganised. By 1944 things weren't going so well and the last few posters in that series detail bandages. I found a passing mention of a 1943 set with 37 posters but no details. I can't find any mention of the existence of this set. These were published on the 16th of October, nearly two months before Pearl Harbour when Japan was at war with no-one but China and maybe France - but France didn't really exist anymore. As far as I'm aware civil defence literature up until this consisted of a small set of quite pretty posters produced in Kyoto, brochures and pamphlets. Civil defence was a matter for local authorities. Didn't the appearance of a big set of air defence posters trigger alarm anywhere? But the US expected Japan to attack closer targets, mainly the Philippines, and maybe poster 2 helped convince them they were right. With what I have managed to glean of the history of air defence in Japan these brave and bright graphics look much darker. I can't decide how much of the misleading futility of these is naive optimism and how much is cynical disregard for the people. When the air defence act was passed in 1937 no-one expected any attack from China. The act was more a matter of population control and preparation. Perhaps most brutal was that useful residents were forbidden to evacuate the cities in case of air raids; they were needed for production. They were to stay and fight, with brooms, blankets and buckets if they had to. At HQ the whole population was considered cannon fodder. These regulations were strengthened in late 1941 - just about the time these posters appeared - and again in 1943. This was enforced right until the end.

Keywords: graphic art c20th Japan posters civil air defence aviation military education medicine technology