question regarding early archives and Japanese film

Roger Macy macyroger at yahoo.co.uk
Mon Feb 8 11:33:48 EST 2010


Thanks, Jessica,
I'm trying to recall where I read an account of the return of material to Japan.  It was surely something I read at the Library of Congress, but I can't remember whether it was an internal document or a published one.  But I thought they got everything significant.
Interesting that the curator at the Tokyo NFC had reached the conclusion that the source of the feature films was material removed from the posession of Japanese-Americans (especially as it would dilute their title to them, if the prints had originally been bought outright).  I wasn't told this by curators at the National Archives or the Library of Congress in Washington  - and, like Markus, have not seen this asserted before.

And, Jessica - what was the film ?, Did it represent the only archive copy on its return ? Did it seem to have been returned in a complete form, please ?  Perhaps I can read this up ?
Roger
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: jessicalanger at googlemail.com 
  To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu 
  Sent: Monday, February 08, 2010 2:36 PM
  Subject: Re: question regarding early archives and Japanese film


  Hi all,

  Had to jump in here (sorry that it's from my BlackBerry; I hope my formatting holds up) as I spent the summer a few years ago working on a film print from 1939 that had been 'captured' in the States and held in the Library of Congress, then 'returned' to the NFC in Japan - though I don't remember if the archivist at the NFC used those terms, per se. It was my impression from our conversation that the print had indeed been imported for viewing in a Japanese film theatre in California and then, most likely, confiscated from an interned American of Japanese descent.

  I wonder how many films had a similar journey - shipped to the States or elsewhere pre-war, survived the war in an archive, then returned to Japan. And I wonder why certain films are sent to the NFC or another archive in Japan upon discovery and other films aren't. Food for thought, maybe.

  Jessica Langer 
  Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network


------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  From: Mark Nornes <amnornes at umich.edu> 
  Date: Mon, 8 Feb 2010 09:20:41 -0500
  To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu<KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu>
  Cc: Mark Nornes<amnornes at umich.edu>
  Subject: Re: question regarding early archives and Japanese film


  Roger, I never thought about the issue of the provenance of the prints in the "captured films" collection of the National Archives—or of the substantially larger collection in the Library of Congress. But if, indeed, the catalog records indicate that they were brought in before the tide of the war turned 1942, then this strongly suggests that they were swiped from the Japanese American theaters when everyone was rounded up and put into the camps. Everyone has always pondered, "What ever happened to all those prints?" Perhaps now we know. How depressing a thought. 


  An aside: the only captured print whose provenance I do know is Dawn of Freedom, or Ano Hata o Ute. "Captured" is the wrong term in the case. The film is about the battles of Bataan and Corregidor, and quite incredibly uses POWs to recreate their own surrender. MacArthur, then in Australia, had heard about the film and demanded to see it. So—the story goes—the resistance "kidnapped' a print, smuggled it out of the country by donkey cart and boat, and MacArthur got his screening. The film was thought lost for decades, because the cinematographer burned all the prints as the Americans landed in Japan (humliating POWs being a war crime and all). But I stumbled on the Philippines version (English subs for the Japanese, no subs for Tagalog) in the National Archives back in 1990. This is presumably MacArthur's print. (A Japanese print surfaced a few years later and is now on video; if you want to learn more about this insane story check out the article I wrote for a Japan Foundation symposium): http://www-personal.umich.edu/~amnornes/Dawn.pdf). 


  Markus














  _________________________________
  A. M. Nornes
  Chair
  Department of Screen Arts and Cultures
  University of Michigan
  202 South Thayer St., Suite 6111
  Ann Arbor, MI 48104-1608
  Phone: 734-647-2094
  FAX: 734-647-0157







  On Feb 8, 2010, at 8:49 AM, Roger Macy wrote:


    The main account on West Coast Japanese cinema circuits of the period still seems to be The Exhibition of Films for Japanese Americans in Los Angeles During the Silent Era by Junko Ogihara, 1990 in Film History 4: pp81-87.  I seem to recall that Junko herself was able to answer a similar query on this list a few years back.  I would love to hear that more work had been done.  We are talking of California !

    The literature persistently refers to 'captured Japanese films'.  But, as Markus has raised, captured from whom, when and where ?   The numerous accounts I have read on Capra's outfit just refer to the films' arriving.  Rotha, in his appendix to the 1952 (3rd edtn.) The Documentary Film, gives an account of Iris Barry (she, again) as the central figure, providing much information to him, and it is possible that a trawl of the Rotha papers might pull something in.  But given the total lack of Asian focus of either writer, and that I haven't had a sniff of Japanese films coming through New York, it hasn't seemed worth a transatlantic trip to prove another negative.  In the brief time I had at the National Archives in Washington, it didn't seem difficult to find inventories and correspondence on captured German and Italian films, but I drew a blank on the provenance of Japanese films.  They appeared very soon after Pearl Harbor, when the allies were far from capturing or liberating any Japanese-held territories.  Some may have acquired from hastily-abandoned Japanese institutions in the west, but I have seen no evidence that such organisations were propagating or widely exhibiting information films, let alone feature films. 

    So does 'captured' mean 'not paid for' ?   Were some, or most of these confiscated from Americans who entered camps ?  I suppose it would matter whether the films were rented, or owned outright by their contemporary holders, as to a fair categorisation.  Impounded or looted ?

    And the other U.S place to do research is Hawaii ...

    Quentin, I am inferring from your posting that there was no pre-war Japanese-Australian community.  But has anyone looked at the possibility of Japanese film exhibition in South America ?

    Roger


    ----- Original Message -----
      From: Quentin Turnour
      To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
      Sent: Monday, February 08, 2010 7:56 AM
      Subject: Re: question regarding early archives and Japanese film



      How established was the US West Coast Japanese cinema circuit before the War? Were prints come in via that and staying in the US - and who outside of the Japanese-American community was seeing them pre-1941 - or afterwards? 

      I remember asking a few US film archivists and historians about this some years ago, when I doing some research on extensive Greek, Italian  (and to a lesser extent Chinese ) immigrant cinema circuits that existed down here and was curious about equivalent US migrant cinema circuits. I was a bit surprised that (at least then) there didn't seem to be much of a literature on this history. I could have not been looking in the right places (this was in the early days of the Web) and wouldn't surprise me if much more work had been done since. Be curious to know. 

      Quentin Turnour, Programmer, 
      Access, Research and Development
      National Film and Sound Archive, Australia






            Mark Nornes <amnornes at umich.edu> 
            Sent by: owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu 
            08/02/2010 02:37 PM Please respond to
                  KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu 


           To "KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu" <KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu> 
                  cc Mark Nornes <amnornes at umich.edu> 
                  Subject Re: question regarding early archives and Japanese film 

                  

           



      Frank Capra and Ruth Benedict were watching Japanese feature films shortly after Pearl Harbor. Where did the prints come from? It's an interesting question. And as Roger indicates, the alternative universe where a powerful programmer got behind Asian film could have altered the bedrock of "international cinema" long before Rashomon. 

      Markus 

      On Feb 7, 2010, at 7:26 PM, Roger Macy wrote: 

      Dear William, 
      This is a crucial point that you have hit. 
      Iris Barry is one of a very small number of people who, if they had any Asian focus, would have radically changed the preserved landscape of film history. 
      Presumably like you, I found very little to go on at MoMA.  So, I followed the money to the Rockefeller Foundation.  The short answer is yes, its collection activities were limited to the United States and Europe, including the Soviet Union, and there was no failed rescue attempt for Japan.  But there is a slightly longer story which is likely to be told soon. 
      Is there any chance we could meet at KinemaClub X ? 
      Roger 
      ----- Original Message ----- 
      From: ReelDrew at aol.com 
      To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu 
      Sent: Sunday, February 07, 2010 10:52 PM 
      Subject: question regarding early archives and Japanese film 

      I am right now working on the final draft of my forthcoming book, "The Last Silent Picture Show: Silent Films on American Screens in the 1930s."  Presently, I'm doing the revisions for a chapter on the archival movement and the Museum of Modern Art in the '30s. 
      Relating this to Japanese film, I point out that MOMA in the Iris Barry years (1935-1951) limited its collection of early cinema--and the programs of early films it featured--to the historical development of filmmaking in the United States, Western Europe and the Soviet Union.  What I'd like to find out from knowledgeable people here is does anyone know if my information is accurate?  Has anyone here, for example, seen any correspondence or other documents indicating that Iris Barry was planning a program on the history of Japanese cinema (and those of India and China as well) in say, 1939 but that the outbreak of WWII halted this project?  Or am I correct in my assumption that the standard view of the historical development of cinema in those days, as set forth at MOMA, completely omitted the early contributions of Latin America, the Middle East and Asia, including Japan? 
      I should point out that in the 1930s and 1940s, the Museum of Modern Art Film Library, contrary to Peter Decherney's tendentious assertions in "Hollywood and the Culture Elite," was not a national film archive and, in fact, many important areas in early American film history were neglected due to Iris Barry's international focus.  Many at the time, in fact, felt it was her preoccupation with the European art film that caused her to overlook so much of the American cinema.  Or perhaps in fairness to her, she was trying to balance America and Europe in the collection she built up.  However, what I think was clearly left out of the film history programs established by Barry at MOMA was the entire historical production of cinema in Asia, the Middle East and Latin America during the first half of the 20th century.  I am not aware that Barry made any effort in the 1930s and 1940s to obtain examples of filmmaking from those countries beyond Hollywood and Europe.  If anyone here, however, has information to the contrary, specifically, of course, with respect to Japanese cinema, I would very much like to know.  I wish my analysis to be as accurate as possible. 
        
      William M. Drew 



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