The magazine Yemoon (1944, printed in Japanese language) at the end of Pacific War was the first published edition to faithfully dedicated to literature and art policy of Manchukuo. At the end of Pacific War, the Manchukuo government wanted to utilize Yemoon (藝文) or, transliterally, “art and literature (works),” as a tool for ideological warfare and insisted that artists and writers become warriors filled with the fighting spirit needed for decisive battles. Thus, Yemoon contains articles emphasizing the artists’ and writers’ roles and missions, which turn out to be numerous in quantity. Quite a few works of “art and literature for the country” (藝文報國) with this aim were published, such as local reports propagandizing the policies of Manchukuo and war poems strengthening the commitment to fight wars.
Meanwhile, Japanese writers in Manchukuo discussed the independent establishment of Manchukuo literature.’ Chinese writers also joined the movement. Although no consensus could be reached among Japanese writers nor between Japanese and Chinese writers, attempts have continued to build independence and identity for Manchu literature. Of course, these were in line with the intentions of the Manchukuo government, which needed an independent culture that fitted the status of an independent nation.
With war defeat imminent, Japanese armed forces were irreversibly annihilated in many corners of the world. Nonetheless, cries for commitment to fight out the war in the rear of Manchukuo were hardly heard. Only the ‘color of fighting the war’ remained in art and literature. As such, the two, art and literature, have long been reduced to tools for waging an ideological and propaganda war under the powerful art and literature policy of the Manchukuo. Yemoon vividly reflects the situation of Manchukuo at the end of Pacific War under which art and literature existed and operated.