2015年6月16日 星期二


A few weeks ago the NHK News on-line reported the following:
李香蘭の未発表歌 ２曲見つかる
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It was made clear that during wartime she covered up herself being Japanese, and as an actress active in both singing and in movies using the name of Li Xianglan, Ms. Yoshiko Yamaguchi who passed away last year had 2 unreleased songs that were considered to have been recorded during the War. It was thought that the lyrics could draw tears of those soldiers who went to the front; the record maker supposed that "as they were unsuitable during wartime, there was also a possibility that their sale was restricted".

It was the Masao Koga musical cultural promotion foundation in Tokyo Shibuya district that was keeping the original sound trek while a record company which had a contract with Ms. Yoshiko Yamaguchi confirmed this. According to them, the title of the songs found were respectively "Clouds of hometown" and "Droplets of the moon". Recorded in the so called SP disk, in total two songs were recorded. It was said that together Mr. Masao Koga composed the songs while Mr. Atsuo Ohki wrote the lyrics. The material left behind indicated that the two songs were recorded in November 1944, a year before the end of the War. Written on the SP disk and on the wrapping paper were the characters "unreleased" etc. in addition to song names and the name of Li Xianglan.

Among the lyrics of "Clouds of hometown” were: "I don't know the reason for dropping my tears". It was thought that they described the thoughts of soldiers who were going to the front with tears. It was said that in the data records kept by the record maker they were marked as "not to release due to inappropriate verse". Mr. Junichi Mitani of the Nippon Columbia was guessing that "it's unsuitable during wartime because it wasn't the song that could uplift fighting spirit. And there was also a possibility that the sale was checked". It was said that these two songs were recorded in a CD to be sold on the 29th this month (April).

It is an interesting discovery. It reflects the tight censorship in Japan during WWII.