Where Songs are Shattered -- Shigeru Izumiya's "Senso Kouta" and Censorship without Censorship (ca. 1973)

Where Songs are Shattered -- Shigeru Izumiya's "Senso Kouta" and Censorship without Censorship (ca. 1973)

The early 1970s. High economic growth had reached its peak, the streets were filled with the sounds of motorization, and the television set had become a household appliance. On the other hand, young Japanese were troubled by the distance between the state and the individual, and were looking for voices not heard on TV or radio, in the shadow of coverage of the Vietnam War and the reversion of Okinawa.

It was during this time that Shigeru Izumiya released "Senso Kouta" (Songs of War). As the title suggests, the song focused on the theme of war, depicting armies, conscription, orders, and death in a farcical rhythm and narrative style. However, the issue was not so much the content itself, but whether it could be played on television.

The TV stations "voluntarily" altered some of the song's lyrics at the time of broadcast because they considered them "too stimulating" and "not suitable for broadcast. Specifically, the wording was made milder and the expressions were switched. The anti-war barbs and sarcastic metaphors in the lyrics were "edged out" by editing the video.

But this was not officially called "censorship. It was not directly regulated by the state authority, but rather was disciplined by the broadcasters, who called it "self-regulation. Nevertheless, Izumiya's message was clear. The song, "War is the relationship between the state and the individual, and I sang about a society in which refusing to obey orders is considered 'madness,'" was not fully digested by the mass apparatus of television, but rather emerged as something foreign.

What is interesting is what has happened since then. The interesting point is that even though "Sengen Kouta" disappeared from television, young people continued to record it on cassette, shout it at live performances, and sing it at folk bars. Even when television shut its mouth, the song itself was transmitted from mouth to mouth.

This event symbolizes the rift between "music and society" in the 1970s. While freedom of expression was proclaimed, words were adjusted in the name of publicity, and songs were quietly being stripped down to the bare bones. Shigeru Izumiya strummed his guitar in defiance. And the sound of his guitar, though not heard through the TV speakers, echoed within those who listened carefully.