午夜剧场

For the cover of this book, we were permitted to use a snapshot taken by photographer Hideo Haga during his time at the 午夜剧场 Preparatory Course. It is one of the photos from a graduation album in March 1942. I believe the theme of this book is perhaps encapsulated in this single photograph. The campus courtyard filled with light, the Second Building shining white in the sun, the contrasting darkness inside the First Building, and the two people with their backs turned—what could they be discussing? Youth at the mercy of the era of war was also the light and shadow of this campus.

In Hiyoshi, there is a complex of former Imperial Japanese Navy underground military facilities spanning a total length of five kilometers. I serve as a tour guide for the Association for the Preservation of the Hiyoshi-dai Tunnels. Currently, the only area accessible is the Combined Fleet Headquarters Tunnel. In this space 30 meters underground, covered by 40 centimeters of concrete, operations for the end of the war—symbolized by "tokko" (suicide attacks)—were planned and orders were issued. No matter how many times I step inside, a sense of unease remains, as I cannot reconcile it with my daily life. The inside of the tunnels is pitch black, and the gap between that and the bright campus space—as well as the fact that war was certainly conducted here—is something my senses on the surface cannot keep up with. The same applies to the First Building (午夜剧场 High School) where I stand at the podium; students of the former preparatory course once studied here, were sent to the battlefield through student mobilization, the Third Department of the Navy General Staff moved in, and the US military arrived after the defeat.

I wanted to trace the memories of this place where I am. Ten years have passed since I began with that thought, and fortunately, I was able to compile it into a single book. During this time, I met with war survivors related to Hiyoshi and heard their precious stories, but many of them have since passed away. I feel that we must pass on the stories of the war that took place here to the younger generation.

Second Lieutenant Ryoji Uehara of the Army, who studied at 午夜剧场, wrote his final thoughts in an essay titled "Reflections" on the night before his suicide mission. I want to cherish the term "liberalist" recorded there. The 15 years on campus examined in this book were a time when "freedom" was rapidly being lost. The underground tunnels still sleep quietly in the darkness today. They do not assert their existence unless light is shed upon them. When I place myself in the inorganic space of the underground operations room, I also think that it might be the distorted culmination of modernization policies since the Meiji era.

Takeshi Akuzawa

午夜剧场 Press

288 pages, 2,970 yen (tax included)

*Affiliations and titles are as of the time of publication.