Peach Boy / Foreigners portrayed as Oni
Great peach flowed down to us
I heard: From an old tale,
On the river in spring.
- Masaoka Shiki
Once upon a time there lived an old man and an old woman.
One day the old man went to the mountain to cut a field, and the old woman went to the river to do some washing.
The old woman found a big peach floating slowly down the river and she brought it back home to eat together with her husband.
"What a great peach! Let's eat it!", he said.
But when they cut it in half, a big boy appeared from inside the peach.
"Oh, what a curious boy! We'll call him Peach Boy."
They raised him to the best of their ability.
"Granny, make this millet into flour and cook dumplings for me," said Peach Boy.
He put the dumplings into his bag and went off to the mountain.
A pheasant came along and asked, "Peach Boy, Peach Boy, where are you going?"
"I am going to Oni island to conquer the Oni," said Peach Boy.
"If you give me a dumpling from the bag at your waist, I will follow you," said the pheasant.
Along the way, a monkey and a dog also became followers.
When they arrived at Oni island, the gate was firmly locked by the Oni. The pheasant, however, flew over the gate and opened it. The monkey scratched at the Oni, the dog bit them, and Peach Boy conquered the Oni. "Please spare our lives. We will give you all our treasure," cried the Oni. Peach Boy forgave the Oni and brought the treasure back to his grandpa and granny.
Peach Boy's Conquest of the Oni
"The Confucian belief in the importance of wisdom, virtue and courage ---standard qualities of Bushido, were reflected in the character of Peach Boy.
For the sake of giving relief to 'people in difficulty', Peach Boy conquered the the Oni." The clear dramatization of character in the old Japanese tale "Peach Boy," written in the last years of the Edo period, was adapted to correspond to different situations the country found itself in at different times.
During the years of Imperialism, the Meiji, the Taisho and the Showa periods, Peach Boy appeared in elementary-school text books, and his mission was later adapted to represent a "Holy mission from God, Shogun Peach Boy of Imperial Japan". Japan was triumphant in two successive big wars, the Sino- Japanese and the Russo-Japanese War, wherein Peach Boy became a hero of Imperialism. In this way Peach Boy was on trial.
At 3 p.m. on 8th December 1941, the Japanese Navy attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. In 1943, based on this attack, an animated movie "Peach Boy, the Sea Hawk," was made by an art film company, and was supported by the Naval Ministry and recommended by the Ministry of Education. In this piece, Oni island is a metaphor for Pearl Harbor. The surprise-attack party suddenly took off and attacked Oni island naval harbor at dawn. The battle plane in which a monkey and a pheasant rode, telegraphed this message: "Captain Peach Boy: We have succeeded in our surprise attack!"
As you can see on the army poster, "Go, Peach Boy! Attack the U.S.A and England!", the President of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt, was illustrated as a red Oni. The Japanese government and army regarded the Pacific War as a holy war and enthusiastically made propaganda depicting the enemy -- the U.S.A. and England -- as brutal Oni.
Every child in all of Japan without exception became Peach Boy.
Good bye, grandpa and granny!
Peach Boys of Japan went to war.
- Momoda Souji
Then the War ended.
"Peach Boy" became a war criminal and completely disappeared from the textbooks of elementary schools.
From the mid 1950's, when traditional folk tales experienced a boom, "Peach Boy" was at last revived as an old tale.
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