question re. Japan's war in color

[Roger Macy]

Dear Yiman Wang,
I was hoping that someone could you refer you to a proper critique of this film, but here's a few points.
It was produced by a British TV company, Carlton, and was a follow-on from successful series called 'Britain at War in Colour
http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/series/34028 and
http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/series/32015

There's a commercially available DVD of the film that mentions colour restoration.

On the film and on the DVD I could se no credits for director, script-writer, script-editor or translator, but in the world of British TV documentaries, the 'producer' is the author, David Batty.

Considering the constraints, which include assuming the audience have no prior knowledge of any Japanese history and only using available colour footage, the film turns out to be a moving testimony to the tragedy of the war and the tragedy of military adventurism.  I can't imagine it was ever intended to be shown in Japan.  I mean: would it be the same film if all the Japanese witnesses suddenly spoke fluently and the westerners all had twee exotic accents ?
The most glaring gaps to my mind were the total absence of Korea, and of Russia, apart from a shot of Stalin at Potsdam.  The emperor's speech claiming thousands of years without defeat is left unchallenged, despite Japan having received major pastings from the Soviet Union in the thirties, that were partly responsible for turning Japan south.  The catastrophic losses in Manchuria in the week preceding the bombings of Horoshima and Nagasaki are also an unevent.  Is there no Soviet colour footage of the period, or didn't they look for it?  I see that Batty did a book of the film, whose index is on Amazon, and there are a number of references there to Russia, so it could be looked into.
Because 'Japan' became the home islands as a result of Potsdam, it gives a posteriori historians the means to ignore the effect of war, colonialism and repatriation on the greater Japan, whereas liberated prisoners-of-war were filmed in colour.

But you may be able to correct me, Yiman, at least on reception.  Where are you and where did you see the film ?
Roger

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "YW" <hahumiaomiao at aim.com>
To: <KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu>
Sent: Saturday, September 26, 2009 4:04 AM
Subject: question re. Japan's war in color


> Dear all,
> 
> I wonder if people here can help me with the documentary, Japan's War in 
> Color.  It's built on WWII footages shot in color.  Does anybody know 
> the kind of color technique(s) being used, who shot the footages, why 
> they were shot in color, and finally, why they have remained unseen for 
> so long, and how they were discovered.  And have the Japanese filmmakers 
> done anything with these footages?
> 
> Any comments and leads will be deeply appreciated.
> 
> Thank you!
> 
> Yiman Wang
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