the confiscation and shipment of Japanese war record paintings

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LISTING DISCREPANCIES:
The Confiscation and Shipment of Japanese War Record Paintings 1
Vincent Louie Tan
Kyoto Institute of Technology
vincent.villaescusa@gmail.com
I. Introduction
During the period of the Second Sino-Japanese War up to the end of World War II, a genre of
paintings called war record paintings 2 emerged in Japan. Many war-themed artworks were produced
during this period. However, war record paintings were highly esteemed because these were created by
some of the most prominent Japanese artists of the period, under the commission of the Japanese
military government. These artists included Koiso Ryōhei, Miyamoto Saburō and the world famous
Fujita Tsuguharu,. The majority of war record paintings were executed in the Western-style, that is, oil
on canvas works and employed a realistic approach in depicting their subject matter.
As the name states, the main purpose of the paintings was to record the events of the then ongoing
war. Moreover, the paintings also served a propaganda purpose. Aside from being featured and
1 This paper was presented to the 18 th Biennial Conference of the Asian Studies Association of Australia in Adelaide, 5-8
July 2010. It has been peer reviewed via a double referee process and appears on the Conference Proceedings Website by
the permission of the author who retains copyright. This paper may be downloaded for fair use under the Copyright Act
(1954), its later amendments and other relevant legislation.
2 Throughout the years, different terms have been used to refer to this genre of paintings. These include sensō-ga (war
painting) and sensō sakusen-ga (war operation painting). For the sake of uniformity, the author will use the term
adopted by the Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, the current home of the set of paintings, which is sensō kiroku-ga (war
record painting.)

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discussed extensively in various publications, including newspapers and art magazines, war record
paintings were also shown around Japan in well-publicized exhibitions sponsored by the military and
the Asahi Newspaper.
When World War II ended, many of these war record paintings were confiscated, informally at
first, by personnel of the Office of the Chief Engineers of the Allied Powers. The confiscated paintings
were later exhibited at the Tokyo Municipal Museum (currently, the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum) in
Ueno Park, exclusively to Allied personnel in late 1946. These were later kept in storage at the same
institution. Towards the end of the Occupation, the paintings were shipped to the United States.
During this period of confiscation, storage and shipment of the paintings, a number of lists were created
as part of their documentation. In 1970, the confiscated war record paintings made their way back to
Japan under the terms of an “indefinite loan.” The paintings are now under the care of the National
Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo.
This paper owes its origins to the pioneering works on the subject of the confiscation of
Japanese war record paintings by Hirase Reita and Kawata Akihisa. In separate papers, Hirase and
Kawata were the first to extensively explore the confiscation of the war record paintings by the Allies.
Both scholars discussed different listings of confiscated paintings. However, this paper will focus on
Occupation-era lists created by Allied personnel to document the confiscation and shipment of the
paintings. Using their works as foundations, new attempts will be made to fill-in the critical gaps in
these previous works by introducing newly-uncovered documents.
Different lists created by the confiscation authorities will be analyzed, some already introduced
in previous studies like Hirase's papers entitled “War Art and America.” 3 Most of the lists in this paper,
however, have only recently come to light. The present list of 153 war record paintings under
indefinite loan at the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo will be used as a benchmark for the
comparison of the lists created during the Occupation era. By comparing the different lists created at
various stages of the confiscation process, an attempt will be made to address some questions regarding
the confiscation process. For example, how many paintings were officially confiscated by the Allies?
Were there paintings confiscated but not listed as such? Is there a possibility of more confiscated
Japanese war paintings currently in the custody of the US?
3 Hirase Reita, “Sensōga to Amerika (War Art and America),” Bulletin of Himeji City Museum of Art, no. 3 (1999): pp. 8-
10.

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II. Description of Lists
As mentioned earlier, a number of lists were created by Allied personnel to document the
confiscation and shipment of Japanese war record paintings. These are the following:
A. The MacArthur List
This list was sourced from the MacArthur Memorial Library and Archives in Norfolk, Virginia. 4
The list contains 152 items, the least amount of entries in all the lists that will be presented. It does not
bear any date but the number of paintings in the list suggests that it is the earliest listing of the
confiscated paintings. The information in this list include the following: catalogue number, the name
of the artist, title of the work, when the painting was created and where it was found at the time of
confiscation.
B. The 1947 List
This list bears the date “18 November 1947” and was earlier introduced by Hirase Reita in his
paper on the same subject “War Paintings and America.” 5 The list was constructed from loose files of
photographs and index carded information. These can be found at the Modern Japanese Political
History Materials Room of the National Diet Library in Tokyo. 6 The original documents can be found
at the National Archives and Records Administration of the United States.
The 1947 list basically contains the same information as the MacArthur List. However, the
1947 list contains FEC numbers. “FEC” mostly likely means “Far Eastern Commission” and the
numbers refer to the negatives of the photographs that came with the index-carded information. 7 The
1947 list contains 153 items, one item more than the MacArthur list.
C. The 1951 List
Like the 1947 list, this list was also constructed from a set of loose files found in microfiche
form at the National Diet Library. 8 The files carry the date “24 July 1951,” only 2 days before the
paintings were taken out of storage from the Tokyo Municipal Museum in preparation for their
shipment to the US. 9 The information in this list are essentially the same as the 1947 list and the
4 “Catalog Index of Japanese War Art Paintings,” Record Group 12: Collection of Photographs, PHA 140, MacArthur
Memorial Library and Archives.
5 Hirase, 1999, pp. 8-10.
6 “Tab A – Photographs of Japanese War Art Paintings,” 18 November 1947, microfiche, CIE (C) 06748 – CIE (C) 06752,
Modern Japanese Political History Materials Room, National Diet Library, Tokyo.
7 “Japanese War Painting,” 2 June 1951, microfiche, CIE (B) 00818, ibid.
8 “War Paintings,” 24 July 1951, microfiche, CIE (C) 06746 - CIE (C) 06747, ibid.
9 Shipment of confiscated Japanese war record paintings started on 26 July 1951. “Shipment of Japanese War Paintings,”
13 October 1951, microfiche, CIE (C) 06719, ibid.

MacArthur list. But the column indicating where the paintings were collected from is missing.
In this list, a different set of FEC numbers were assigned to each painting, indicating that this
set of photographs is different from the 1947 set of photographs. In a 27 April 1951 conference among
concerned Occupation government divisions on what to do with the paintings before the end of the
Allied Occupation of Japan, it was stated that hardly any documents could be found regarding the
confiscated paintings. 10 Thus, this set of photographs seems to be a part of an effort to create fresh
documentation for the confiscated paintings.
A close examination of these FEC numbers will reveal that the items from FEC-51-26372 up to
FEC-51-26385, as well as FEC-51-26456 are missing. This amounts to 15 missing items. There is no
indication in the documents, however, what these items may be. Also, there are two different paintings
with the same FEC number. These are Miyamoto Saburō's “Battle of Nicholson, Hong Kong” and Ōta
Kijirō's “On Army Day” and have the number FEC-51-26436.
Moreover, some of the index cards for the painting was marked either “restricted” or “nonrestricted.”
These, oddly enough, also correspond to the FEC numbers mentioned above. FEC-51-
26371 and below were marked as non-restricted. FEC-51-26386 and above, except for FEC-51-26423,
were marked restricted. Again, there is no indication what these marks refer to.
This list contains 154 entries, the most number of items among the lists.
D. 1951 Shipping List
This list, courtesy of the US Army Center of Military History, is part of the documentation for
the confiscated Japanese war record paintings for their shipment from Japan to the US in the latter part
of 1951. 11 The list was prepared by the Office of the Chief of Engineers. Through this shipping list,
one can ascertain how many paintings were officially confiscated and shipped to the US. The
information in this list is similar to the the other list, but does not contain any FEC numbers.
Moreover, the list also mentions the room number in which the painting was stored in at the Tokyo
Municipal Museum. This information cannot be found in any of the other lists mentioned.
A correlating document to this list is a condition report of each painting at the time of their
shipment to the US. This document was prepared by the Shipping and Crating Division of the
Headquarters and Services Command. 12 The document reveals that many of the paintings were in
excellent condition at the time of their shipment to the US. A number are in poor condition, however,
10 “CIE Conference Report,” 27 April 1951, microfiche, CIE (C) 08580, Modern Japanese Political History Materials
Room, National Diet Library.Modern Japanese Political History Materials Room, National Diet Library.
11 “Catalog Index of Japanese War Art Paintings,” 24 July 1951, US Army Center of Military History.
12 “Condition: Japanese War Art Paintings,” 26 July 1951, US Army Center of Military History.
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many suffering from water damage. This can be traced to the leaking ceilings of the Tokyo Municipal
Museum, a matter that was discussed in some of the meetings conducted by Occupation personnel
regarding the disposal of the paintings. 13
Like the 1951 list, it also contains 154 items.
E. The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo list (NMMA list)
The NMMA list is from the official museum catalogue of Japanese war records paintings. 14 It
contains 153 items and represents the total number of works brought back to Japan in 1970 on
indefinite loan. Because of these reasons, this list will be used as the basis for comparison among the
other lists.
III. Additions and Subtractions
The various lists mentioned above share a number of similarities. First of all, they essentially
contain the same set of paintings. Second, the catalogue numbers assigned to the paintings in the
Occupation-era documents remain the same throughout the different lists.
However, as time went by, more paintings were constantly added to the collection. These later
additions were appended at the end of the lists. For example, one painting was added to the 1947 list,
bringing the total at that time to 153 works. This painting was Ōta Kijirō's “On Army Day.” In the list,
the newly-added painting did not have a catalogue number but was assigned an FEC number, FEC-47-
80941. Unlike the other paintings in the list, there was no mention where the painting was found.
In the 1951 list, another painting was added, Tagami Hayao's “Portrait of Admiral Koga.” This
brought the total of the list to 154 paintings confiscated, which corresponds to the number of paintings
in the shipping list.
Because of the 1951 shipping list, it can now be proven that 154 items were officially
confiscated and shipped to the US. This fact could not be ascertained in previous researches on the
subject because of the absence of this critical document. Any other paintings that may surface later on
in the narrative of the confiscation and shipment of Japanese paintings to the US can be placed under
scrutiny and questioned as to whether they were officially confiscated by Occupation personnel or
13 “Inspection of Japanese War Art,” 17 May 1950, microfiche, CIE (A) 08566, Modern Japanese Political History
Materials Room, National Diet Library.
14 Catalogue of Collections, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo: Watercolor and Drawings, Calligraphy,
Sculpture, Supplementary Materials, War Record Paintings. (Tokyo: The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo,
2006), pp. 196-211.

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acquired through other means not necessarily related or sanctioned by Allied forces.
The official number of Japanese war record paintings in the custody of the NMMA stands at
only 153 works. However, the documents presented above clearly show otherwise. Part of the
discrepancy can be attributed to how the paintings were counted. Some of the confiscated paintings are
works executed in multiple panels. For example, in the Occupation-era lists, Hashimoto Kansetsu's
triptych entitled “Scenes Along the Hwangpu River on 8 December 1941” was counted as 3 separate
works. In the NMMA catalogue, however, all three parts were counted as one work. If one is to use
the same counting convention employed by the NMMA, the total number of paintings shipped to the
US would only amount to 152 works.
In a 10 August 1946 memo issued by the Office of the Chief Engineer to the Chief of Staff of
the Occupation Forces, it was stated that 152 confiscated paintings were under the custody of the
Engineers and plans were being prepared for these to be exhibited to Allied personnel. 15 This sum
corresponds to the number of items in the previously mentioned MacArthur list, further giving
credence to the theory that it is the earliest listing of confiscated Japanese war record paintings.
However, if one is to reconcile the counting system of the 1946 list with the NMMA list, in 1946, there
were only 150 confiscated paintings in Allied custody.
Later on, the number 153 confiscated Japanese war record paintings would often be repeated in
various Occupation documents to refer to the amount of paintings confiscated. For example, in a 27
April 1951 conference to discuss the final disposition of the confiscated paintings between the Office
of the Chief Engineer, the Religion and Cultural Resources Section of the Civil Information and
Education Division and the Headquarters and Services Command, 153 was given as the definitive
number of confiscated paintings. 16 The same number of confiscated works would be repeated in other
documents relating to the confiscation and shipment of the confiscated Japanese war record paintings,
from May to July 1951.
It is easy to assume that since 153 paintings are now with the National Museum of Modern Art,
all of the confiscated paintings were returned to Japan. This is, of course, a false assumption.
A close comparison of the lists reveals that there are 3 paintings listed as confiscated and
shipped to the US in the Occupation-era lists are not in the present NMMA collection. These paintings
are Okuse Eizō's “Air Fighting,” Katsuda Tetsu's “Divine Soldiers Descend on Menado” and Ueno
15 “Japanese War Art Paintings,” 10 August 1946, microfiche, CIE (C) 06719, Modern Japanese Political History Materials
Room, National Diet Library.
16 “Conference Report,” 27 April 1951, microfiche, CIE (A) 08580, ibid.

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Kakuzō's “Japanese Attack on Nanking Castle.”
If three paintings are “missing,” 4 paintings not listed in any of the Occupation-era lists made
their way into the group of paintings now in the custody of the National Museum of Modern Art.
These paintings are Kimura Makoto's “Front View of the Stronghold at Mount Xiaozhan” and “Rear
View of the Stronghold at Mount Xiaozhan.” 17 These are paintings number 152 and 153, respectively,
in the MoMAT list. Then, two Kurihara Shin paintings, NMMA catalog number 57 “ Charity” and
catalog number 58 “Escort of Japanese Residents” also cannot be found in any of the Occupation-era
lists. So far, no documents can be found that refer to these four later additions to the list of paintings.
The only time when there were actually only 153 works in the list of confiscated paintings was
in 1947, as demonstrated by the set of photographs from which 1947 list was constructed. Thereafter,
the official number should have been 154. However, despite this, 153 seemed to be like a magic
number that kept being repeated all the time, even after a careful documentation was done in late 1951,
in preparation for the shipment of the paintings to the US. It would be tempting to conclude that since
153 paintings were supposedly confiscated and there are 153 paintings now in the care of the National
Museum of Modern Art then all of the confiscated paintings made their way back to Japan. This is not
the case, however, as the comparison of the lists shows.
V. Conclusions
A fatal flaw in the previous works on the subject of the confiscation and shipment of Japanese
war record paintings by the Occupation forces during the Allied Occupation of Japan is the belief that
only 153 items were confiscated and shipped to the US. New documents clearly show that this was not
the case.
The discrepancies found in the Occupation-era lists and the present set of paintings in the
custody of the National Modern Art Museum raises a number of important questions regarding the
confiscation of Japanese war record paintings during the Allied Occupation of Japan. Foremost of
these is how many paintings were actually confiscated and how many of these were sent to the US?
The absence of the two Kurihara Shin and two Kimura Makoto paintings in any of the listings of
confiscated Japanese war record paintings hints that these works may have been unofficially
17 The two Kimura Makoto paintings were created in 1915, many years before the 15 Years War, and are not official war
record paintings. Catalogue of Collections, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo: Watercolor and Drawings,
Calligraphy, Sculpture, Supplementary Materials, War Record Paintings, p. 211.

confiscated.
On 1 October 1951, the Department of Military History in Washington, DC acknowledged that
they received the shipment of Japanese war record paintings from Japan. However, the documents
accompanying the shipment of paintings were incomplete and do not reflect the exact number of
paintings in the shipment. Thus, the department requested the Occupation officials concerned with the
confiscation to furnish them a complete listing of the paintings shipped. 18 As a response, Office of the
Chief Engineer sent the shipping list previously mentioned in this paper. Moreover, the office also sent
a set of 153 photographs of the confiscated paintings to accompany the shipping lists, plus the
condition list of each painting in custody. These photographs were taken 2 days before the activities
were started to ship the paintings to the US. It was already established that shipment started on 26 July
1951. 19 Thus, the photographs from which the previously introduced 1951 list was constructed from
can be said to be the same set of photographs sent to Military History. However, as was stated earlier,
the number of paintings in that particular set of photographs totaled 154 items. 20
Part of this confusion on the exact number of paintings can be attributed to the fact that details
regarding the confiscation of the works, from 1945 up to the middle of 1946, was not very clear to the
Occupation personnel by 1951. In a meeting between the Office of the Chief Engineer, the Religion
Cultural Resources Division of the Civil Information and Education Section and the Headquarters and
Services Command to discuss the final disposition of the paintings, it was stated that none of the
participants in the meetings were well-informed about the subject at hand. 21 Whatever information they
had was taken from fragmentary documents. Moreover, the impetus for a review of the confiscated
paintings seemed to have stemmed from the clamor that the Allies received requests for the release of
the space in which the confiscated paintings were being stored at the Tokyo Municipal Museum. The
petitions came from various Japanese art groups who desired to use the museum's space for their
groups' exhibitions.
The three now missing paintings and the four paintings that were not in any of the Occupationera
lists but are now part of the NMMA catalogue begs the following questions. First, what was the
actual number of paintings confiscated during the Occupation period? Second, are there still more
18 “Shipment of Japanese War Paintings,” 21 October 1951, microfiche, AG (C) 02214, Modern Japanese Political History
Materials Room, National Diet Library.
19 “Shipment of Japanese War Paintings,” 13 October 1951, microfiche, CIE (C) 06719, ibid.
20 If one was to count the paintings by their FEC numbers, the total would be 153. This is because there were two works
sharing the same FEC number. These works are catalog number 63, “Battle off Nicholson, Hong Kong” by Miyamoto
Saburō and catalog number A-6, “On Army Day” by Ōta Kijirō.
21 “Conference Report,” 27 April 1951, microfiche, CIE (A) 08580, Modern Japanese Political History Materials Room,
National Diet Library.
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Japanese war paintings in US hands that were not placed under indefinite loan at the Museum of
Modern Art, Tokyo? One question can hardly be discussed without touching on the other.
With the shipping documents at hand, it is certain that 154 items were officially sent to the US.
However, the present collection at the National Museum of Modern Art only amounts to 153 works. It
is important to point out again that the way the paintings were counted differs in both the Occupationera
lists and the present catalogue listing of war record paintings of the Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo.
If one was to use the museum's counting convention to add up the number of paintings officially
confiscated, then only 152 paintings were confiscated and shipped to the US during the Occupation
period. 22
Given the documents at hand, it is quite possible that the two Kurihara Shin paintings and the
two Kimura Makoto paintings were obtained through means other than confiscation. There seems to be
no documents to ascertain how these fell into Allied hands. Consequently, they were not part of the
official listing of 154 paintings confiscated.
Branches of the US Military maintain military history branches and some of these deal with art.
One of these Department of the Navy's Naval Historical Center operates out of Washington DC. The
center handles the Navy Art Collection, whose collection can be viewed online. 23 A careful search of
the art database online revealed two entries for Japanese war paintings. One of these is a portrait of the
crew of a Japanese midget submarine who perished during the attack on Pearl Harbor. The item
number for the painting is NH 86388-KN. 24 The other painting is item number NH 79462-KN, which
is a portrait of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto painted by Shugaku Homma. 25 These two paintings are also
not in any of the list of officially confiscated paintings created during the Occupation period. The
website, unfortunately, does not give much information regarding the paintings, other than its Navy Art
Collection catalogue number and title. A letter was sent by the author to Navy History on 16 July 2010
requesting for more information on the paintings found in the Navy History website. However, no
reply was received at the time of the writing of this paper. Thus, the provenance of the paintings in
question cannot be ascertained. This opens the possibility of the actual paintings still being in US
hands. The three missing paintings from the Occupation era lists, however, remain unaccounted for
22 The NMMA catalogue counts Hashimoto Kansetsu's triptych “ Scenes Along the Hwangpu River on 8 December 1941”
as one piece. The Occupation-era lists count this painting as 3 separate pieces.
23 Part of the Navy Art Collection can be accessed via http://www.history.navy.mil/branches/org11-2.htm .
24 “Online Library of Selected Images, Pearl Harbor Attack, 7 December 1941,” Naval History and Heritage Command,
http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/images/h86000/h86388kc.htm , 18 February 2000 (accessed 30 August 2010).
25 “Online Library of Selected Images, Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku, Imperial Japanese Navy (1884-1943),” Naval History
and Heritage Command, http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/images/h86000/h86388kc.htm , 28 April 1999 (accessed 30
August 2010).
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and may also still be in the US.
At this point, it is difficult to establish just how many Japanese war paintings were shipped to
the US. Relying on the shipping documents alone is clearly not enough. Moreover, it seems that the
Occupation personnel were less than forthright in the documentation of their confiscation and shipping
of the Japanese war record paintings. Confusion is clearly evident in the fragmentary nature of the
documents that the activity left behind.
In 1951, it was not very easy to not see the significance of the Japanese war record paintings
and it was convenient to dismiss these works as mere propaganda. In fact, several Occupation
documents expressed this kind of evaluation of the confiscated paintings, from the beginning of their
confiscation up to the point of their shipment. It is only in hindsight that these works, no matter how
controversial their theme and the circumstance of their creation, gain greater significance through the
lenses of history.

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Table 1: Comparison of number of paintings per list
Name of List No. of Works Remarks
MacArthur List 152
1947 List 153
1951 List 154
- same as MacArthur list
- plus Ōta Kijirō's “On Army Day”
Shipping List 154 - same a 1951 list
MoMAT List 153
- plus Ōta Kijirō's “On Army Day”
- plus Tagami Hayao's “Portrait of Admiral Koga”
- 3 missing paintings from the Occupation-era lists
- additional 4 paintings not in any Occupation-era list
• If the counting system of the NMMA is used, only 152 paintings were “officially” confiscated and sent to the
United States.

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