Language, Literature, and Culture

The Voice of a Stranger: Rumor, Radio, and the Aurality of Difference in Interwar Japan

Document Type

Article

Abstract

In the late 1930s, a unique strain of media criticism developed in Japan surrounding radio broadcasting, sound, and the limits of public speech. Galvanized by a ban on “groundless rumors” which stifled independent expression in favor of state broadcasting, many intellectuals heralded rumor as a voice of the people—a mode of aural transmission that presented a more vernacular alternative to the foreign intrusions of broadcast sound. In order to better apprehend this critique, however, this article situates it within a darker history of rumor and aurality that traces back to the violent aftermath of the Great Kanto Earthquake, revealing unspoken anxieties over ethnic and racial difference at the heart of Japan’s interwar media discourse. © 2024, Society for Japanese Studies. All rights reserved.

Publication Title

Journal of Japanese Studies

Publication Date

Winter 2024

Volume

50

Issue

1

First Page

65

Last Page

98

ISSN

0095-6848

DOI

10.1353/jjs.2024.a918583

Keywords

rumor, Interwar period (1918-1939), radio broadcasting, press criticism, earthquakes, Japan, radio stations, radio networks

Link to Full Text

Share

COinS