Asahi: Comedians offered moments of laughter in bleak times
As war raged between Japan and China in the late 1930s, troupes of top Japanese comedians risked their lives touring battlefronts on the Chinese mainland to entertain Japanese soldiers. Their work provided the troops with a rare opportunity to experience laughter in the midst of battle. In January and February 1938, The Asahi Shimbun dispatched two troupes of entertainers to the Chinese front lines in cooperation with entertainment company Yoshimoto Kogyo Co. The troupes were named Warawashi-tai (Making People-Laugh Corps) as a play on Arawashi-tai (Wild Eagle Corps), the name of a Japanese air force corps... At the time, The Asahi Shimbun ran provocative headlines such as "Crossfire of roaring laughter hits" and "A troop of comedians causes explosive laughter" to accompany articles on the entertainers. One article describing Kingoro's performance stated: "With comic stories, rakugo and naniwabushi, the comedians dropped bombs of laughter and scattered giant shells that made the audience members forget the pain of their wounds"..."By sending stars to the front, Yoshimoto Kogyo--which used to be no more than a local entertainment company centered in Kansai--established itself in the Kanto region and built the foundations for its current prosperity," said Ayako Furukawa, a curator at the Osaka Prefectural Museum of Kamigata Comedy and Performing Arts...more...
