the confiscation and shipment of Japanese war record paintings

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6 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.
7 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.
Page 1 and 2: 1 LISTING DISCREPANCIES: The Confis
Page 3 and 4: 3 II. Description of Lists As menti
Page 5: 5 many suffering from water damage.
Page 9 and 10: Japanese war paintings in US hands
Page 11 and 12: 11 Table 1: Comparison of number of

the confiscation and shipment of Japanese war record paintings

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