The outcome of WWII affected not only the Japanese political system and social structure but the use of the language， including honorifics． This paper investigates the polite prefix o－／go－used by schoolchildren in their compositions and discusses how the newly emerged language norm influenced the ways in which members of the community used honorific expressions． The survey yielded the following observations： i）In prewar days， the use of honorifics was based stricdy upon fixed hierarchical relationships． The usage became more context／scene－sensitive after the war， e．g．， the pre丘x o－／80－was utilized more often to soften or"beautify"the image of the word modlfied（bika－80）and less freqμently to show respect（sonkei－80）． ii）The frequency of use of bika－go peaked during the Showa 30s（1950s－60s）． In view of another fact thht the employment of sonkei－go and humble words（kenjo－ 80）drastically decreased after Showa 40（1965）（see Suzuki 2000）， it seems reasonable to supPose that significant changes took place in the use ofhonoriflc expressions around Showa 40．