April 2015

Authorized Independence

Changes in Messages Delivered in Information Programs during the Allied Occupation

Akira Miyata

Information programs actively broadcast on NHK radio during the allied occupation from 1945 to 1952 initially served as a medium for delivering significantly instructive and indoctrinating messages from the allied power or Japanese government offices under control of GHQ. Put simply, the content of these radio programs was to “encourage the public to achieve a democratic and wealthy Japan under the guidance of the United States.” However, after the enactment of Broadcast Law in May 1950, which relatively enhanced NHK’s independency, such instructive and indoctrinating messages decreased, and non-instructive, “thought-provoking” messages to encourage the Japanese listeners to “think for yourself” increased instead. This article reviews the specific content of a radio information program series Toki no ugoki [current of the times] to elucidate the change in the radio messages before and after May 1950.

Meanwhile, the dominating characteristics of information programs before May 1950—instructing the listeners, or the public, how to understand and think about the immediate reality—were later inherited by TV documentaries such as Nihon no sugao (Japan Unmasked) series and formed an unignorable trend in the development of broadcast documentaries in the post-war Japan.

The NHK Monthly Report on Broadcast Research