"A Turbulent History of Showa Through Dinosaur Books"
...I seem to have given it an overly grand title, but following on from last time, here's an introduction to ancient dinosaur books.

In 1924, with the Taisho era nearing its end, what was likely the first Japanese translation of Conan Doyle's "The Lost World" was published by a company called Shineikaku. It was titled "Kikai na Ashiato" (Strange Footprints). Unfortunately, all I know is that it was translated by Motomu Ugetsu and was part of the "Detective Adventure Series." The following year, 1925, another translation of "The Lost World" titled "Rakuhi no Sekai" (World of Decline) was published.

Photo 1: Cover
Regrettably, I haven't acquired this one yet. The cover image was borrowed from science writer Ryuichi Kaneko. I quite liked that "Pterosaur" was translated as "Haryu" (Feathered Dragon). This book is available in a digital library.
http://kindai.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/919093

There was one more pre-war translation of "The Lost World," published in 1929: "Zen Sekai Monogatari" (Tales of the Ancient World), translated by Kiichiro Ohdo and published by Kinransha. However, a search on a used bookstore website revealed an exorbitant price of 89,250 yen, so I had no choice but to pretend I hadn't seen it.

Entering the Showa era, the number of books featuring dinosaurs rapidly increased. Let me introduce a few interesting ones.

First, there's the "Shukan Asahi" (Weekly Asahi) issue from April 24, 1927. Unlike today, it was a massive B4 size and cost 12 sen. Within it, there's an article titled "Kagaku Monogatari: Kyoryu Tatakau" (Science Story: Dinosaurs Battle). The content describes, in great detail, the sudden appearance of a Brontosaurus and two Tyrannosaurus in the city, their fierce battle, and their eventual defeat by army machine guns in the first half. The second half is a lecture by scientists who analyze the event the next day, explaining dinosaurs. Although it spans two pages, its large size and small print make it a rather engrossing read.

Photo 2: Cover and part of the article

The children's book "Jinrui to Seibutsu no Rekishi" (History of Humanity and Life) from the same year can be viewed in color in the digital library, so please enjoy the dinosaur illustrations in the frontispiece, etc. http://kindai.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/1741575
The explanation of dinosaurs begins around page 63/122. "Bakemono Sekai" (Monster World) is quite a description...

The children's book "Chikyu to Seibutsu no Rekishi" (History of Earth and Life) from 1930 http://kindai.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/1717249
I really like the woodblock print-style frontispiece of this book. The content, for some reason, is a story about Michiko and her older brother. Dinosaurs appear on page 32/136.

From 1931 to 1934, the specialized "Iwanami Koza" series, which apparently continues to this day, published "Geology and Paleontology, Mineralogy and Petrology, Geography." It was organized into sections such as "Triassic," "Jurassic," "Cretaceous," "Cambrian," and "Ordovician," broadly covering everything from geology to paleontology, so dinosaurs only appeared briefly.

Photo 3: The overly plain cover of "Jurassic" and pages with dinosaur-related illustrations

"Zoku: Dobutsu no Kyoi" (Continued: Wonders of Animals), published in May 1932, which I introduced in "New Secret Treasure House Vol. 1" with its T-Rex vs. Triceratops illustration, is a book about animals in general, but it also dedicates about 16 pages to fossil animals. The description of dinosaurs is quite striking, so I'll quote it directly:
"Since the ancestors of mammals considered reptiles as enemies, these inferior animals appear nothing but extremely hideous to human eyes, who are also members of mammals. All twenty kinds are grotesque, but among them, the dinosaurs are the grotesquest of the grotesque."
Incidentally, this book also contains many photos of deformities and is quite grotesque. It seems grotesqueness might have been popular in that era.

Photo 4: Cover and illustration

In the same May, an excellent book of the opposite extreme, "Hachurui no Seitai to Shinka" (Ecology and Evolution of Reptiles) by Yaiichiro Okada and Yoshioki Takakuwa (Yokendo), was also published. It elaborately covers extinct reptiles in about 30 pages.

Photo 5: Cover

The June 1934 issue of "Kagaku Gaho" (Science Pictorial) had a cover with an overwhelming impact and an article titled "Scrutiny of the True Nature of the Loch Ness Monster!" It refreshingly and decisively concluded that it was "fabricated by newspaper reporters," "large reptiles from the Middle Ages could not possibly survive," and "mass hallucination." Regardless of that article, it also included a three-fold offset printed illustration page titled "Creatures Adorning the Previous Century," which was a bonus.

Photo 6: Cover

Photo 7: Illustration page

"Norakuro Shikangakko no Maki" (Norakuro Officer Academy Volume) published in the January 1936 issue of "Shonen Kurabu" (Boys' Club).
Norakuro and his comrades are dispatched to subdue a Spiked Dinosaur resembling a Scelidosaurus, which was brought from deep within Africa to be a sideshow attraction but escaped. Even with tanks, flamethrowers, airplanes, and poison gas, they couldn't defeat it. In the end, Norakuro kills it by jamming a stick in its mouth and stuffing it with stones... Such a terrible story. Unfortunately, I don't have the original copy of "Shonen Kurabu," so the image is from the 1975 paperback edition of "Norakuro Mangashu 2."

Photo 8: Part of the manga

Incidentally, the Sino-Japanese War began the following year.
Here are two dinosaur books from wartime. Both were published in 1943, when the Japanese army had begun to suffer defeats in the South.

"Kaseki no Kenkyu" (Study of Fossils) by Kenji Yasuda (Kenkkyusha)
This is a children's book, and only the preface, "Study hard and become a splendid imperial subject," reflects the times; there's no particular war-boosting tone. The frontispiece features a Brontosaurus that heavily rips off Charles R. Knight (and yet the description says Cretaceous!), but it's rather quaint and likable. The content hardly touches on dinosaurs, but the name Nipponosausus is mentioned as a dinosaur fossil discovered in Japan.

Photo 9: Cover and frontispiece

Unfortunately, I don't have them on hand to introduce, but it seems that "Karafuto no Koseibutsu-kai" (Ancient Organisms of Sakhalin) published in 1942 by Karafuto Bunka Shinko-kai, and "Karafuto Hakubutsu-shi" (Natural History of Sakhalin) published in 1944 by Kobundo Shobo, also contain descriptions of Nipponosausus as a domestically produced dinosaur fossil.

"Seibutsu Hattatsu-shi" (History of Biological Development) by Akira Yamaguchi (Koubunsha)
This one is quite spirited. The preface states, "Our biological thought was at least Westernized. (Omission) We biologists must strive to construct a biological philosophy that perfectly matches the Japanese character," which is exactly what you'd expect, but the content is actually quite sound. It explains dinosaurs rather carefully. However, all dinosaur names are written in kanji, such as "Kinryu" (Bird-Dragon), "Rairyu" (Thunder-Dragon), and "Sankiryū" (Three-Horned Dragon). Even in the chapter on human evolution, it doesn't particularly touch on the superiority of the Japanese race, but right at the very end, it abruptly declares, "We Japanese were destined to lead all Asian peoples as the light of East Asia and to rule the entire world." "Sieg Zion!" one can't help but shout.

Photo 10: Cover

Naturally, there are no dinosaur books from 1945, the year the war ended, but already in 1946, such a magazine appeared:

"Sekai no Kagaku" (Science of the World) Inaugural Issue
Special Feature: "100 Million Years Ago, the Earth Was the Age of Great Reptiles"
How encouraging! Although the content confusingly identifies Brontosaurus, Diplodocus, and Stegosaurus (for some reason, only this one is "saurus") as Cretaceous dinosaurs.

Photo 11: Cover

And the following year, 1947, "The Lost World" reappeared again.
"Kyoryu no Ashioto: Amazon Kaiki-kyo Tanken" (Footsteps of Dinosaurs: Exploration of the Mysterious Amazon) by Hitomi Takagaki (adaptation) (Kaiseisha)

How did you find this two-part history of dinosaur books from the Meiji era to the Pacific War? Finally, let me show you a rare photograph. This dinosaur painting was found in a photo collection titled "Uchu no Kikan: Kokusai Shashin Joho San Shunen Kinen Rinji Zokan" (Wonders of the Universe: International Photo Information 3rd Anniversary Special Issue), published in July 1925. It's one of the images titled "Culture or Barbarism? This is the latest fashion in the civilized women's world."