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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