The Cabinet Intelligence Department, which was established in September 24, 1937 through the reorganization of the Cabinet Information Committee, was responsible for “liaising and coordinating” the information operations of government ministries. In addition to these tasks, it was also supposed to “gather information, report, and conduct awareness-raising campaigns and publicity activities.” However, certain problems emerged as the Cabinet Intelligence Department carried out its duties, such as its weak authority and relationships with other related sections in charge of conducting similar operations, such as the Army Ministry, the Navy Ministry, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

When the second Fumimaro Konoe Cabinet was established in August 1940, the government set about to reorganizing the Cabinet Intelligence Department as part of its administrative organization reforms. The government decided to combine the operations of the Cabinet Intelligence Department with the Intelligence Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Intelligence Department of the Army Ministry, and the Naval Affairs Promotion Department of the Navy Ministry to solve the problems mentioned in the preceding paragraph. Following several sessions of deliberation among the Cabinet and ministerial committee members, the Cabinet Intelligence Bureau was established on December 5, 1940.

The Cabinet Intelligence Bureau planned to manage operations related to Shashin Shuho through the Second Section of the Fourth Division, which was in charge of handling “matters concerning censorship and editing.” Shashin Shuho, which was launched in February 1938, came to take on the characteristics of a “popular version of Shuho” in response to requests from readers, and began to offer story pages from issue No. 100 released on January 24, 1940. At this time, Shashin Shuho saw an increase in circulation, and is said to have hit the 200,000 mark by March 1941.

“Documents Concerning the Establishment of the Cabinet Intelligence Bureau” is a set of documents that contains multiple proposals for the tasks and organization of the bureau that were put forward during the deliberations leading up to its establishment. Documents 1 to 5 listed at the bottom of the page here are part of this set. An examination of these documents in chronological order provides a clear picture of the changes in the duties and responsibilities that the Cabinet Intelligence Bureau was expected to fulfill, as well as the change in how Shashin Shuho was positioned as a result of these changes.

Document 1 is the “Outline for Establishment of Cabinet Intelligence Bureau” dated September 6, 1940. It was created while the Cabinet and ministerial committee members were deliberating the reorganization of the Cabinet Intelligence Department. This document defines the duties and responsibilities of the Cabinet Intelligence Bureau as follows:
(1) Gather information, report, and conduct awareness-raising publicity campaigns related to matters that form the basis for implementing government policies
(2) Administer punishment in accordance with Article 20 of the National Mobilization Law concerning newspapers and other publications
(3) Take charge of the crack down on music records, movies, theatrical plays, and radio broadcasts (“take charge”—was added to the document as a handwritten note)In addition, the document stipulates (first image) that in carrying out the above-mentioned duties, the Cabinet Intelligence Bureau could ask related government agencies for assistance and cooperation in gathering information, reporting, and conducting awareness-raising publicity campaigns as needed. The document also specifies the operations to be transferred from government ministries to the Cabinet Intelligence Bureau (see the third to fifth images).

Document 2 is the “Draft Organization for Cabinet’s Intelligence Bureau” dated September 7, 1940. The document declares that the editing and publication of Shashin Shuho should be under the jurisdiction of the Editing Section of the Second Division, which was in charge of “awareness-raising activities.”

Document 3 is the “Draft Organization of Intelligence Bureau” dated September 25, 1940. Unlike Document 2, Document 3 states that the editing and publication of Shashin Shuho should be under the jurisdiction of the First Section in charge of “editing” in the Fifth Division, which was responsible for “culture.”

Document 4 is the “Outline for Establishment of Intelligence Bureau” dated September 26, 1940. This document defines the duties and responsibilities of the Cabinet Intelligence Bureau as follows (see the first image):
(1) Gather information, report, and conduct awareness-raising publicity campaigns related to matters that form the basis for implementing government policies
(2) Administer punishment in accordance with Article 20 of the National Mobilization Law concerning newspapers and other publications
(3) Take charge of cracking down on radio broadcasts
(4) Take charge of enforcing awareness-raising activities concerning matters that form the basis for implementing government policies on music records, movies, theatrical plays, and live entertainmentHere we see how the third and fourth stipulations have changed from those mentioned previously in Document 1. In addition, the operations transferred from government ministries to the Cabinet Intelligence Bureau are also different (see the fourth to sixth images).

Document 5 is the “Draft Organization of Intelligence Bureau” dated September 28, 1940. Unlike Documents 2 and 4, Document 5 states that the editing and publication of Shashin Shuho should be under the jurisdiction of the Second Section in charge of “editing” in the Fourth Division, which was responsible for “censorship.” For the Cabinet Intelligence Bureau, which was established in December 1940, the Second Section of the Fourth Division was also in charge of operations related to Shashin Shuho, just as was specified here in this proposal.

Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe submitted a draft for the government organization of the Intelligence Bureau and the related draft amendment formulated during the aforementioned deliberations to the Emperor, and the Emperor presented the drafts to the Privy Council for advice. Documents 6 to 8 are those concerning the discussions held by the Privy Council.

Document 6 is the “Government organization of Intelligence Bureau” that Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe submitted to the Emperor on October 16, 1940 in order to seek the advice of the Privy Council. The duties and job classification of the Cabinet Intelligence Bureau specified in this proposal were the same as those specified in the government organization to be officially promulgated in December.

Document 7 is a document that was drawn up by the Examination Committee of the Privy Council in response to the proposed government organization laid out in Document 6. At the first Committee meeting on November 14, a question-and-answer session was conducted to examine the relationship between the Intelligence Bureau and the Press Department of the Army (see the third image to the right side of the fourth image), the relationship between publicity facilities and the Intelligence Bureau (see the left side of the fourth image), and the relationship between the Intelligence Bureau’s operations and the information operations of government ministries that were included within the Intelligence Bureau’s operations (see the right side of the fifth image). In his answer to a question about the policies on the organizational names of the departments and bureaus as legal institutions, the Director-General of the Legislation Bureau stated that although the standards for classification were not necessarily clear, as a general rule smaller extra-ministerial boards should be called “departments,” larger ones should be called “bureaus,” and ones involving officials personally appointed by the Emperor should be called “boards.” The Chief of the Legislation Bureau added that this government organization had taken the name of the Intelligence “Bureau” by following the example of the “Manchurian Affairs Bureau .” At the second Committee meeting on November 18, the Committee members argued that the fact this proposed government organization stipulated for all higher officials other than the Director-General, Deputy Director -General, and Secretary to be selectively appointed information officers was “highly unprecedented.” The Committee meeting determined that negotiations with the government should be held so that some of the higher officials could be replaced with Secretaries (see the twelfth image and the right side of the thirteenth image). Based on the process of negotiations with the government in response to the decision made at the previous meeting, the Committee members discussed this matter at the third Committee meeting on November 20. Taking the wishes of the government into account, they decided to approve the Intelligence Bureau government organization and four other suggestions stated in the original proposals (see the fourteenth and fourteenth images).

Document 8 is an examination report concerning the discussions about the Intelligence Bureau government organization and four other suggestions made by the Examination Committee of the Privy Council described in Document 7. This report stated that the Committee would endorse the establishment of the Intelligence Bureau “in light of immediate developments amidst the current situation” and that the issue of organizational authority was “not totally inarguable.” The report also stated that the idea of making most of higher officials selectively appointed information officers, which was pointed as a potential issue at the second Committee meeting described in Document 7, was “highly unprecedented” (see the ninth image). However, given the special characteristics of the Intelligence Bureau and the fact that most of higher officials would remain as virtually qualified candidates for regular appointment, the report said that the Committee “had no other choice but to accept this suggestion” and actually approved in the form stated in the original proposals (see the ninth and tenth images).

Document 9 is an original manuscript signed by the Emperor on December 5, 1940 when the Intelligence Bureau government organization was instituted following the aforementioned examination process.

The Intelligence Bureau was established to overcome the problems it faced before it was reorganized, such as the weak authority of the Cabinet Intelligence Department before its reorganization into a bureau and the relationships with other related sections in charge of implementing similar operations, including the Army Ministry, the Navy Ministry, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. However, building good relationships with other related sections in charge of conducting information-related operations proved to remain difficult even after the reorganization of the Cabinet Intelligence Department into the Cabinet Intelligence Bureau. Documents 10 and 11 are related to these matters.

Document 10 is a notice about the abolition of the Information Department sent from the Adjutant to the Ministry of War to the Chief of the Army Technical Headquarters of the Army Ministry on December 6, 1940, the day immediately after the promulgation of the Intelligence Bureau government organization. This document includes the following three stipulations about the organizational transformation of the Army Ministry’s information-related sections in relation to the establishment of the Intelligence Bureau: (1) The transfer of the Intelligence Department of the Army Ministry to the Intelligence Bureau; (2) The continued existence of the Press Department of the Imperial General Headquarters; (3) Certain officials of the Army Ministry’s Bureau of Military Affairs were to be placed in charge of conducting operations related to military information, including the “compilation of press documents concerning military affairs.”

Document 11 is a set of expected questions and their corresponding answers prepared for the 76th Imperial Diet session in January 1941. This document contains a set of simulated questions about the “relationship between the expansion of the Cabinet Intelligence Bureau and the Intelligence Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.” It also presents drafts of answers to these questions (fourth and fifth images).

Document 12 is a notice issued by the Secretariat of the Minister of the Army on February 21, 1941. This document says that following discussions among the officials of related government agencies within the Intelligence Bureau, they decided to use Shuho and Shashin Shuho as periodicals released for general guidance released by government organizations.