Book on Okinawa

Ono Seiko and Aaron Gerow onogerow at angel.ne.jp
Sat Sep 8 01:27:14 EDT 2001


A very unique book has just come out on the film industry in immediate 
postwar Okinawa entitled _Anyatasa! Okinawa sengo no eiga 1945-1955_, 
written by Yamazato Masato. The book focuses on the film exhibition 
business at the time when Okinawa was under US control and officially not 
part of Japan. It thus covers many aspects of the industry quite unique 
to Okinawa: the smuggling of films into the islands after the war, the 
revival of benshi screenings of silent films and of rensageki (chain 
drama), the importance of film to the postwar Okinawan economy, etc. 
After the legalization of the import of Japanese films, the Okinawan 
market became very important to the Japanese industry because it was a 
crucial source of dollars (the Okinawan economy operated under the US 
dollar). Okinawan industry leaders were treated grandly in Tokyo, though 
the Japanese companies dealt with Okinawa through their export 
departments. There are also oddities Yamazato takes up like "bond films": 
since there was a quota on American films imported into Japan, films that 
exceeded the quota were sometimes shown as bond films in Okinawa before 
the mainland. While conditions under American occupation were unique, at 
the same time, Okinawa is an interesting microcosm of the Japanese film 
industry: it imported films, had a main office and branch offices on the 
various islands, had a block booking system with chains of theaters, etc.

Yamazato's book also includes a detailed chronology, a list of films 
shown in Okinawa 1948-1952, and another of Okinawan-related or 
Okinawan-made films, and finally a list of those involved in the Okinawan 
industry.

While it is more a fact-filled book than a work of analysis, it should be 
important for anyone interested in the Japanese film industry, the 
Occupation, or the economics of culture in Okinawa.

Yamazato Masato. _Anyatasa! Okinawa sengo no eiga 1945-1955_. Naha: 
Nirai-sha, 2001. ISBN 4931214503. Yen 2000.

山里将人『アンヤタサ! 沖縄・戦後の映画 1945-1955』(発行:ニライ社;発売
:新日本教育図書)



Aaron Gerow
Associate Professor
Yokohama National University



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