Olympia Japan edition?

[Hopkins/Kato]

Yes, that's essentially true, but the recorded version was released on the
Asahi label and is a recreation and not the actual broadcast. NHK did not
release records for sale, although there are records with NHK labels that
were distributed to radio stations throughout the empire.
David Hopkins
Tenri University
Nara, Japan

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
[mailto:owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu] On Behalf Of Michael
McCaskey
Sent: Friday, May 30, 2008 12:58 AM
To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
Subject: RE: Olympia Japan edition?

Dr. Janine Hansen's expertise has provided excellent and highly pertinent
information, as always. Dr. Hansen's essay on Japanese-German film
connections,

"Celluloid Competition: German-Japanese Film Relations, 1929-45" in
Cinema and the Swastika
The International Expansion of Third Reich Cinema 
Palgrave Macmillan 2007
ISBN 1-4039-9491-9

is a must-read item. Dr. Hansen has also written an in-depth book study
about the making of the unique 1937 German-Japanese feature film Die Tochter
des Samurai/Atarashiki tsuchi, which should be published in English.
 
In a desultory attempt to find out something about Japanese newsreels
covering the 1936 Olympics, I came across some rather less pertinent
information about live NHK Radio Japan 1936 Olympic coverage, which might
nevertheless be of some interest.

Kasai Sansei(1898-1970) was the famous NHK Radio announcer/sportscaster who
covered the 1936 Olympics on site in Berlin. One of the biggest Berlin
Olympic events in Japanese remembrance was the women's swimming 200 meter
race competition. The Japanese athlete in the event was Maehata
Hideko(1914-1995). Maehata won a Gold Medal in this event.

Kasai got so excited during the race that he lost his NHK broadcaster's
cool, and cheered Maehata on excitedly. In fact, he is supposed to have
yelled "Maehata ganbare!" (Go Maehata!) more than twenty times during the
broadcast. The NHK live radio relay coverage was heard in Japan after
midnight Japan Time. The story is that an employee of the Nagoya Shimbun
became so excited listening to Kasai cheering Maehata on that he collapsed
and died on the spot.

It seems that this broadcast was so popular back in 1936 that it was put out
by NHK as a phonograph record, with only thing cut out - the dramatic
win-or-lose point in the race when Kasai screamed "Maehata Abunai!"
(Maehata, Watch Out!). 

Information on Maehata at:
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%89%8D%E7%95%91%E7%A7%80%E5%AD%90

A Japanese transcript of Kasai's famous 1936 Maehata swimming event
broadcast is available online at:

http://archive.hp.infoseek.co.jp/1936Maehata.html

Best Wishes,

Michael McCaskey

----- Original Message -----
From: Janine Hansen <hansen at hanzie.de>
Date: Thursday, May 29, 2008 5:26 am
Subject: RE: Olympia Japan edition?

> Hi all,
> 
> 
> 
> it seems there were quite many versions of the two Olympia films, 
> prewar and postwar. As far as I know English, French, and Italian 
> export versions were made simultaneously to the German one. After 
> WW2, there was at least one more German version which was even 
> shown on TV under a different title and with all the references to 
> Hitler cut.
> 
> 
> 
> I haven't read it yet but maybe the following article can be helpful:
> 
> 
> 
> Masumoto, Naofumi
> 
> Interpretations of the Filmed Body: An Analysis of the Japanese 
> Version of Leni Riefenstahl's Olympia
> 
> Critical Reflections on Olympic Ideology
> 
> Centre for Olympic Studies
> 
> 1994
> 
> pp. 146-158
> 
> 
> 
> Best wishes
> 
> Janine
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>