# Japanese cinema, if any, during WWII **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 9, 2003, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japanese-cinema-if-any-during-wwii/200531 "2003-09-09T14:44:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ElectroSunDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b5e925/32.png) [@ElectroSunDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElectroSunDog)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2003, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japanese-cinema-if-any-during-wwii/200531/1 "2003-09-09T14:44:34Z")
Did the Japanese make films, animated or otherwise, during World War II (for propaganda purposes and the like) or were they too busy fighting? If so, have any been discovered? ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2003, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japanese-cinema-if-any-during-wwii/200531/2 "2003-09-09T15:00:32Z")
url="[[www.imdb.com](http://www.imdb.com)"]IMDB has 11 matches. url="[[http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0034591/](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0034591/)]There Was a Father url="[[http://us.imdb.com/Title?0036484](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0036484)]Song Lantern, The url="[[http://us.imdb.com/Title?0034298](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0034298)]The 47 Ronin Need the rest? ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2003, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japanese-cinema-if-any-during-wwii/200531/3 "2003-09-09T16:20:21Z")
Apparently, the Netherlands Institute for Image and Sound has a filmography of Japanese propaganda films shown in Indonesia during the occupation. Here’s the website (in Dutch) [http://www.beeldengeluid.nl/index.jsp](http://www.beeldengeluid.nl/index.jsp) ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2003, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japanese-cinema-if-any-during-wwii/200531/4 "2003-09-09T17:31:22Z")
I win bad coding of the week award :wally ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2003, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japanese-cinema-if-any-during-wwii/200531/5 "2003-09-09T17:39:13Z")
Ikira Kurosawa’s [The Most Beautiful](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0036947/combined) (1944) and [The 47 Ronin](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0033654/combined) are the two notable Japanese features made during World War II. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2003, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japanese-cinema-if-any-during-wwii/200531/6 "2003-09-09T17:59:30Z")
[The Imperial Screen: Japanese Film Culture in the Fifteen Years’ War, 1931-1915](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0299181308/102-7112841-7868102?v=glance). ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2003, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japanese-cinema-if-any-during-wwii/200531/7 "2003-09-09T18:28:19Z")
Walloon writes: \> 1931-1915 It’s not well known that the Japanese discovered time travel in the 1930’s. How did we ever manage to defeat them? Sure, we had the atomic bomb, but all they had to do was go back in time and change history. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2003, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japanese-cinema-if-any-during-wwii/200531/8 "2003-09-09T19:37:54Z")
Oops, that should be 1931-1945. ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2003, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japanese-cinema-if-any-during-wwii/200531/9 "2003-09-09T20:14:09Z")
During the war, the Japanese government built huge state-of-the-art animation studios that churned out propaganda. I’ve seen some of the films and they’re… eerie. Imagine Leni Riefenstal working for Walt Disney. One scene I remember had little cuddly bears parachuting from airplanes. The odd thing is that the SDF still use cute manga characters for recruitment. Check out [this page](http://www.jda.go.jp/j/library/images/pickles/) from the Self Defence Forces’ own web site! The presence of these studios after the war allowed creators like Tezuka Osamu produce high-quality movies, which kicked off the huge Japanese Anime trend. ---
**Author:** ![ElectroSunDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b5e925/32.png) [@ElectroSunDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElectroSunDog)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2003, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japanese-cinema-if-any-during-wwii/200531/10 "2003-09-09T20:23:34Z")
Well, _that_ little factiod should bust the bubble of a few otaku…anime was once used against us! ---
**Author:** ![DreadCthulhu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/db5fbb/32.png) [@DreadCthulhu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DreadCthulhu)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2003, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japanese-cinema-if-any-during-wwii/200531/11 "2003-09-09T20:32:17Z")
At least they didn’t finish their giant robots before the war ended. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2003, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japanese-cinema-if-any-during-wwii/200531/12 "2003-09-10T07:52:15Z")
In fact, Japan’s first full-length anime movie, _Momotaro’s Divine Sea Warriors_ was released just before the war’s end, in 1945. My copy of “The Anime Encyclopedia” notes that the few lines spoken in English—by British “ogres”—sounded like they were performed by native English speakers…possibly prisoners of war. :eek: :dubious: