February 1943, Seoul high school girls perform group calisthenics to prepare to become mothers of strong Imperial Japanese soldiers
Gyeongseong Ilbo (Keijo Nippo) February 6, 1943
Behold our training!
Gallantly doing group calisthenics
Seoul No. 1 High School girls aiming to be mothers of healthy soldiers
As the clock struck eleven in the morning, the loudspeaker above the entrance to the school building played a heroic marching song that echoed loudly throughout the school grounds. All the girls, dressed in their dignified Monpe work pants, gathered in the schoolyard at once.
It only took three minutes, but the strict training of Seoul No. 1 Girls’ High School began with the electrifying assembly. The girls’ calisthenics exercises were carried out with the blood of the maidens boiling and overflowing in the line of fire.
The girls’ calisthenics exercises, which create a strong power and a robust spirit for striving to become mothers of healthy soldiers, become a ball of fire and cultivate a solid unity that overcomes any difficulties and pushes forward.
Stretch your arms out as far as you can. Stomp your feet. Once you say it’s boring, you’re out. But with a single command, they can move their own bodies freely. The limbs of one thousand one hundred maidens move in unison. The unrestrained extension of their bodies is controlled by a single will. It may be painful. But when you think that the people in front of you and behind you are doing the same thing, you feel a different kind of power surging through you.
The self that blends into the group. The group! The group! The self moves the group by fully fulfilling its own responsibilities. When you feel this, the joy that rises up in you arouses a new power. This power will not die even when you are alone. It is quick, unyielding, and bold. This is how the bodies and minds of the girls are forged through strong exercises worthy of “mothers of healthy soldiers”.
A mere twenty minutes of group calisthenics have such power. If these were just exercises to merely shake their arms and legs, they would not be training or health exercises. In this school, girls’ school calisthenics have been carried out for eight years without a day off, even on days of severe cold and heat, and have borne fruit in terms of training. (Photo: Group calisthenics)
Remarks by the leader, School Principal Kajiwara
“Training should not be conducted like fireworks. The effects of the training can only be achieved through constant and unbending practice. In addition to calisthenics, I am going to have the students do dry towel rubdown therapy or cold water friction therapy at home every morning when they wake up. This is also a form of training.”
Source: https://archive.org/details/kjnp-1943-02-06
(Transcription)
京城日報 昭和十八年二月六日
拝見”我らの錬成”
颯爽と集団体操
”健兵の母”目指す第一高女生
時計の針が午前十一時を指すと、校舎の玄関の上にある拡声器から勇壮な行進曲が流れ、校庭の隅々にまで高らかに響き渡ると凛々しくモンペ姿に身を固めた全女生徒は一斉に校庭に集結する。
それ迄が僅か三分間、電撃的集合から京城第一高等女学校の厳しい修養錬成は始まる。”女学校体操”が潤み溢れる銃後乙女の血潮を沸らせて繰りあげられる。
健兵の母を目指して強靭な威力と剛健な精神を生み出す”女学校体操”は一塊の火の玉となってどんな難関をも克服、突き進む固い団結心を培う。
両手を思いきり伸ばす。足を踏んまえる。つまらないといえばそれまでだ。然し号令一つで自己の肉体を自由に動かす。千百名の乙女の四肢が一律に動く。奔放な伸び盛りの肉体を一つの意志で統御してゆく。苦しいかもしれない。だが前の人も後の人も同じ動作を行っていると思えば、また自ら異なった沸き上がる力を感ずるのだ。
集団、集団、集団の中に融けこんでゆく自己。その自己は自分の責務を完全に果たすことによって集団を動かしてゆく。そう感じた時に突き上がって来る歓喜が新しい力をよび起すのだ。その力は一人になっても死なない。敏速、不屈、果敢。”健兵の母”たるべき剛操の心身はかくて鍛えられてゆく。
僅か二十分間の集団体操は、こんな力を秘めているのだ。単に手足を振り動かすだけの体操ならば、それは健康法であっても錬成ではない。この学校では”女学校体操”を既に八年前から厳寒、酷暑の日でも一日も休まず実施して錬成の実を結んでいる。【写真＝集団体操】
指導者の弁 梶原校長談
錬成は線香花火式ではならぬ。不断の撓まざる実践からはじめて錬成の効果が挙げられる。体操のほかに、これから生徒達にそれぞれ家庭で毎朝起きたとき、乾擦布摩か冷水摩擦をやらせようと思っている。これも錬成だ。
