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Susan RoweJPN 103Final PaperProletarian Literature in JapanThe Meiji political novels and Proletarian literature in the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Japan were a response to Japans shift towards capitalism and industrial economy. Whereas the authors of Meiji political novels envisioned dreams of futuristic political utopias, writers of Proletarian literature were more concerned with highlighting the social and political difficulties faced by working-class Japanese. The earlier Meiji political novels that were associated with the Movement for Freedom and Peoples Rights paved the way for the later Proletarian literature, which was heavily censored for having political and social ideals that contrasted that of the traditional government. Some works of the time, in particular Hans Crime by Shiga Naoya and Hell Screen by Akutagawa Rynosuke, highlight the difficulties of writing Proletarian literature when facing censorship of works that spoke out against the government.Hans Crime is a story about Han, a knife-throwing circus performer, who has been accused of intentionally murdering his wife during his knife throwing act. During an interview with the judge, Han says that he had wanted and willed his wife to die, but did not intentionally murder her. After considering Hans testimony, the judge passes his verdict of not guilty, although it is unclear if he is not guilty of first degree murder or cleared of all charges. This verdict reflects Proletarian literature censorship, with the Japanese government as the judge and the author of a work of Proletarian literature as Han. The verdict the government is passing is whether the authors work should be censored. Ironically, although Han is not guilty of his crime (the authors work gets the governments approval), he did murder his wife (the work should be censored). This can be interpreted in two ways. Firstly, the author managed to publish uncensored Proletarian material right underneath the governments noses because they missed the intended message of the work. Secondly, perhaps whoever was reviewing the work of Proletarian material for censorship purposes sympathized with the authors views and allowed the work to be published. While Hans Crime shows the censorship process after a work of Proletarian literature is written, Hell Screen shows whether an author chooses to be a part of the Proletarian literature movement.Hell Screen is a story about a master artist, Yoshihide, who is commissioned by the Lord of Horikawa to paint a hell screen, a painting that depicts the circles of hell. The story is told from the perspective of a servant who describes the characters of the Lord of Horikawa and Yoshihide through rumors he has heard. The Lord of Horikawa is portrayed as a respected and generous man whereas Yoshihide is described dark and crazy. At a first glance, the story may be read as a fantastical one of an artists descent into madness, but it hard to agree that the character of the Lord is as good and benevolent as the servant claims. For example, he has a boy serve as a human pillar of Nagara Bridge and burns Yzuki, Yoshihides daughter, when she refuses his sexual advances. The narrators characterization of the Lord of Horikawa serves as another display of censorship, and a rightful one, because if he had spoken out against the Lord, he probably would have died as well. In Hell Screen, the servant and Yoshihide both represent Proletarian literature authors, but Yoshihide is an author who expresses his opinion and the servant is one that accepts censorship from the Japanese government, or the Lord of Horikawa. The purpose of these representations is to demonstrate the effects of censorship on Proletarian authors. For portraying the world as how he really sees it, Yoshihide is punished by the Lord to watch his daughter burned alive and then is silenced by being driven to commit suicide, although this may have been another murder by the hands of the Lord of Horikawa. On the other hand, the servant never speaks out against the atrocities the Lord commits. The few times he is physically present in Hell Screen, he is usually a passive observer, never interacting with any other characters in the story. When he conveys information to the reader, it is usually about rumors that he has heard from Yoshihides apprentices or other servants. The only time the servant interacts with a character is when he runs into Yzuki, which is when he censors himself the most. Despite observing a situation where Yzuki is obviously escaping from a rape attempt by the Lord of Horikawa, the servant chooses to inform the reader about his own stupidity and how silent he was during this event. It is unlikely that the servant is as stupid as he claims he was, he knew better than to question what had happened, because he knew what would happen to those who resisted or affronted the Lord of Horikawa. The servants fear of being caught for expressing his own opinion may be related to the Grand Treason Incident that happened in 1910, which was when a plot to assassinate Emperor Meiji was foiled. Although he was not actively involved in plotting, writer Ktoku Shsui was accused of grant treason. Several other authors of the time were shocked by this event, but ultimately no one voiced opposition, likely due to fear of what the government would do to them if they spoke out. This situation directly parallels the scene where the servant encountered Yzuki. A bad event happened, an innocent was in trouble, and no one stepped up and spoke for the wronged party. It is almost as if Akutagawa is criticizing authors for not contributing to the Proletarian literature movement. One could argue that authors who did not contribute to the Proletarian literature movement feared the consequences they may have faced, whether it was censorship or being tortured to death like Kobayashi Takiji. Although Hans Crime and Hell Screen have addressed the issues that government censorship brought, they did not offer any solutions to how to override the censorship, although such writings definitely could not have been published during the early twentieth-century.