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Concerning this tradition in Japan, I would like you
to know certain history. It is the history about the
first artists who performed this symphony--Beethoven's
9th symphony--in Japan.

They were German POWs of the World War I, who were
captured by the Japanese in Tsintao which was the
German territory in Shantao peninsula in Northern
China.

This may need explanation--Japan, who participated in
the World War I as the British ally, declared war
against Germany in W.W.I and occupied the small
German territory in Northern China, Tsintao.
There were Gernmans, and they were made Japanese
POWs of W.W.I. THen, they were taken to Japanese
southwestern island Shikoku and spent their years in
a camp there. And many of those POWs came to the
camp in Japan with instruments.

The relation between the German POWs and the Japanese
was quite good. And the friendship was even widened to
the local Japanese living around their camp.

In such human relationship, when the World War I ended,
those German POWs held a concert for the Japanese who
ran the camp in Bantoh POW camp in Shikoku on June 1st
of 1918. It was in this concert Beethoven's 9th symphony
was first performed in Japan.

There were no female singers, of course. And there were
no female choir group too. So, it was not a perfect
performance of the 9th symphony.
However, they performed Beethoven's 9th symphony in the
remote camp of Japan in 1918.
It is amazing those Germans could organize an orchestra
of whatever level and could manage to perform Beethoven's
9th symphony without female singers there in 1918.

This amazing history had been forgotten for many years.
It was in the mid-1970s that this amazing history of the
first performance of the Beethoven's 9th symphony was
told by a TV documentary in Japan and then many books
appeared about this history.

I was one of those who learnt this amazing history by
the TV documentary in 1970s and was deeply moved by
the figure of a few very old German ex-POWs who were
still alive and played part of the 9th symphony in the
TV documentary in the mid-1970s.--The 9th symphony in
Japan's December had such amazing history.

(To be continued)

Nori

(I am sorry I could not find a good English web-site
about this rather unknown history of the first performance
of the Beethoven's 9th symphony in Japan.
But here is a web-site about this history in German.
If you can read German, please click and read this web-site.)
↓
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kriegsgefangenenlager_Band%C5%8D

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