ABSTRACT
This chapter offers an in-depth treatment of war-related haiku in Japan, demonstrating a wide range of haiku written just before, during, and immediately after World War II, including works by women, officers, and overseas Japanese poets in colonial outposts, such as Sait? Sanki (Singapore) and Hayashibara Raisei (Taiwan). It includes a discussion of key structural features of haiku, such as the season word (kigo) and syllabic count, as vectors by which competing haiku circles expressed their political views with nationalistic writers tending to adhere to traditional elements of haiku, and more progressive writers opting to experiment with the form. By way of numerous haiku presented across a range of styles and ideological perspectives, the chapter enlarges our sense of haiku’s wartime role in Japan.
