AKIRAIFUKUBE.ORG - Arctic Forest

ARCTIC FOREST
(1944)

The Manchurian countryside as depicted on a Manchurian stamp from 1944

In the 1930s, the Japanese Empire was determined to expand itself. In September 1931, the Japanese invaded Manchuria, a mountainous region in northeast China. Manchuria became a base for Japanese operations in northern China and a buffer region for Japanese-controlled Korea. By February 1932, the Japanese had conquered the whole of Manchuria, and set up a Japanese-controlled state called Manchukuo, run by Puyi, the former Emperor of China. Japan controlled Manchuria until the Soviets invaded in August, 1945 and "liberated" the region.

Puyi during his time as the Emperor of Manchukuo

In 1944, Akira Ifukube was commissioned by the Japanese-controlled Manchurian government to write a piece of music for the Manchurian people. Ifukube was personally invited to come to Manchuria by Captain Masahiko Amakasu, who was, at the time, a chairman of the Orchestra of Shinkyo (the Manchurian capital.) (Captain Amakasu was a very powerful Manchurian political figure and the director of the Manchurian Film Cooperative.)

Masahiko Amakasu

Ifukube stayed in Manchuria for about 20 days with free rein to travel wherever he wanted. However, toward the end of his visit, he contracted an amoeba-borne sickness and had to return to Japan. In Hokkaido, Ifukube composed Arctic Forest, so named because it was based on the composer's impressions of the Manchurian landscape. Upon its completion, the score was sent to Manchuria and Ifukube never saw it again. In the early 1990's, the full score for Arctic Forest was discovered at a conservatory in Beijing.

In 1997, the King Records Company wanted to include a recording of Arctic Forest on its successful Artistry of Akira Ifukube series. The series' director, Hisaaki Matsushita, traveled to China to retrieve the score but arrived only two years after the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II. The person who had the score refused to hand it over to Matsushita out of fear that a new recording of the piece could damage relations between Japan and China.

To date, Arctic Forest has never been recorded.

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Acknowledgments: Ifukube on Ifukube: Interview with Akira Ifukube by Ed Godziszewski, translated by Michiko Imamura, G-Fan Magazine, November/December 1995 and Akira Ifukube Interview III by David Milner, translated by Yoshihiko Shibata, December 1993