The Cabinet Intelligence Bureau, the publisher of Shashin Shuho, defined the nature of the magazine in the following manner: “Shashin Shuho focuses on providing a clear-cut explanation of national policy and ingraining a strong awareness of the state of affairs through the extensive use of photographs, a familiar publication medium that can appeal to emotions more easily, in combination with written text.” (For more details about the background of Shashin Shuho, see “1. About Shashin Shuho” in the section “About Shashin Shuho”)
The nature of Shashin Shuho was not only evident in the photos, but also in a number of manga. This section introduces a selection of manga articles that especially capture the essence of Shashin Shuho.

The image above is of a manga article presented in issue No. 94 of Shashin Shuho, which was published on December 6, 1939. Starting with this issue, manga articles became a regular feature in Shashin Shuho.

This manga article above, which covers a current topic of that time, appeared in issue No. 97 of Shashin Shuho from January 3, 1940. The box to the left of the article title “This is the year” reads “Accepting new manga,” and lists the requirements for submitting manga articles: “- Manga must have a cheerful tone and feature a theme that deals largely with governmental policy - Drafts must be drawn in ink - A token of gratitude will be given to individuals whose manga is printed.”

This is a manga that appeared in issue No. 99 of Shashin Shuho, which was published on January 17, 1940. The page on the right features a manga, while on the left there is an entertainment article with processed photos titled “When large things get smaller and small things get larger.” A similar entertainment article also appeared in issue No. 97 of Shashin Shuho, which was published on January 3, 1940.

The issues of Shashin Shuho at this time also contained articles, such as three articles below, which were created by combining manga elements with processed photos.

The image at the very top is of an article in issue No. 96 of Shashin Shuho, which was published on December 20, 1939. The image in the middle is of an article in issue No. 111 from April 10, 1940, while the image at the bottom is of an article in issue No. 148 from December 18, 1940.

Shashin Shuho continued to feature a number of manga articles in later issues. The image below shows a manga that was run in issue No. 170 of Shashin Shuho, which was published on May 28, 1941. As stated earlier, Shashin Shuho invited readers to submit their own manga, and beginning with this issue it began to feature manga articles in a special corner called “Manga from readers.”

The image below is of a manga that ran in issue No. 198 of Shashin Shuho from December 10, 1941. This issue is believed to have been edited just before the start of the Pacific War, and still contains the “Manga from readers” corner that had appeared in previous issues.

The manga in the image below is from issue No. 201 of Shashin Shuho, which was published on December 31, 1941, shortly after the start of the Pacific War. This New Year’s issue featured manga dealing with themes related to the Pacific War bearing the title “Spring of the final battle.”

The top image of the two images below is of a manga that appeared in issue No. 209 of Shashin Shuho, which was published on February 15, 1942. It portrays the final stage of the battle to capture Singapore that was believed to be in progress while this particular issue was being edited.
The bottom image is of a manga that was run in issue No. 226 of Shashin Shuho put out on June 24, 1942. It depicts the state of Japanese troops operating at various places in the Pacific theater.

Later as the tide of war turned against Japan, Shashin Shuho began to run manga that asked people to do more to help the nation. The image below is of a manga from issue No. 300 of Shashin Shuho, which was published on December 8, 1943. Titled “Changing our lifestyle to produce greater fighting strength,” it asks people to do things in various aspects of their daily lives to help with the war effort.
The “Brothers in the final battle” series created by Ryuichi Yokoyama, a manga artist known for creating “Fuku chan,” made its first appearance in Shashin Shuho in issue No. 303 published on January 5, 1944. It would appear regularly in later issues, although it did not feature in every issue. The image below is of first installment of the “Brothers of the final battle” series from issue No. 303.