Movies depicting WWII Redux

[Aaron Gerow]

> "What I had meant to inquire about was movies that depict major battle 
> actions and that deal with them in a strategic sense.  So even 1959's 
> "Nobi" wouldn't suit, as it (it seems to me typically) deals with the 
> _aftermath_ of the war (as with 1956's Burma Harp).  When does a 
> Japanese studio try to tell the story of a major action from a point 
> of view that is at least partly strategic or and not purely 
> retrospective?  I have the feeling that it takes a while (though I'm 
> guessing sometime in the 60s for "ownership" of the more successful 
> engagements, at least, like Pearl Harbor). "

I'm not sure what is meant by "strategic" here, but Shintoho and Toho 
are making quite gung-ho war movies from soon after the end of the 
Occupation. Shintoho makes the first Senkan Yamato film in 1954 and you 
already have tokkotai films like Ningen gyorai kaiten in 1955. 
Shintoho's submarine film Sensuikan ro-go is from 1954 and their film 
on Yamamoto Isoroku is 1956.

This may seem "late," but remember that until 1952, many war-related 
themes could not pass GHQ censorship. So making the Yamato film in 1953 
was relatively quick by post-Occupation standards.

I don't think it's until the 1960s, however, that you start seeing 
"fun" war movies like Okamoto's Dokuritsu gurentai films. Perhaps 
distance was needed for that.

Aaron Gerow
Assistant Professor
Film Studies Program/East Asian Languages and Literatures
Yale University
53 Wall Street, Room 316
PO Box 208363
New Haven, CT 06520-8363
USA
Phone: 1-203-432-7082
Fax: 1-203-432-6764
e-mail: aaron.gerow at yale.edu