[2] The Pen Butai was formed in 1938 after a meeting between the Cabinet Intelligence Department and writers Kan Kikuchi, Masao Kume, Eiji Yoshikawa, Riichi Yokomitsu, Haruo Satō, Nobuko Yoshiya and Fumio Niwa.
[2] The aim was to have popular authors travel the Sino-Japanese front and write favourably of their experiences in form of stories, novels, plays, poems and personal journals for propagandistic purposes.
[3] Those who participated were offered free travel, accommodation and food, access to off-limits war areas and the possibility to interview important military figures.
[4] These included Kikuchi, Kume, Yoshikawa, Yoshiya, Fumiko Hayashi, Matsutarō Kawaguchi, Kunio Kishida, Masajirō Kojima and Tadao Kumei.
[2][9] In 1942, the Pen Butai was assimilated by the Nihon bungaku hōkokukai ("Patriotic Association for Japanese Literature"), led by Sohō Tokutomi and Kume, and a subordinate of the Cabinet Intelligence Bureau.