[KineJapan] question re. Japan's war in color

[adrian restorationasia.org]

Dear Roger and Yiman Wang,

I write as the Archive Producer of this project and the originator of the 'in Colour' concept. My apologies to those subscribers for the length of this reply.

My colleague David Batty was the producer of this 2-part series that was a TWI co-production with NHK. It was the successor to several series including 'Britain at war in Colour', there were more before and after and are listed accurately on IMDb.

The concept began in 1991 or so but was not picked up by broadcasters until TWI proposed it to Carlton TV in the UK in late 1997.

Exhaustive searches were made in every country, including Russia, to locate colour material. I either did this myself or oversaw specialist research teams for the projects until I left TWI in 2004. The key people who should be acknowledged for this are Viktor Belyakov in Moscow and Polly Pettit in Washington, DC. This is not meant in any way to underplay the countless others who found astonishing material for all the productions.

The specific project you ask about came about only because of my insistence that colour film must have been available in Japan in the 1930s and therefore [some] must survive.

One individual at NHK should be mentioned for his work on archival film over many years and he supported me tirelessly in my endeavours. Masao Ogasawara was my opposite number at NHK and oversaw the work of a team of specialist researchers there.

That work would not have been possible without the support of many from the academic community in Japan and the USA such as Markus Nornes and Aaron Gerow.

Fumiaki Itakura's paper on the use and development of colour film in Japan was crucial in my providing evidence of the existence of material. Supported by the discovery of fragments of home movies in Kyoto, NHK then re-examined the materials [they had] collected over many years. This had been assumed to have been B/W because of its age but on examination was found to be Kodachrome.

On the specific of footage in Manchuria, for those who watch the documentary, the actuality footage of the Japanese Army there comes from the only known surviving fragment of the film 'Senninbari'. [Here the 2009 draft stopped] This is held in the collection of Gosfilmofund in the outskirts of Moscow.

To answer a question posed by Roger, Soviet-filmed footage of occupied Japan (using captured German Agfa stock, if my memory does not fail me) is shared between Gosfilmofund and the Russian State Archive for Film and Photo-Documents or at least it was twenty years or so ago. Part of it was used in this series to complement that shot by the other Allied occupying forces.

I would be happy to answer any questions this reply to the questions below prompts or indeed any others.

In sadness and regret, may Roger rest in peace,

Adrian Wood



From: owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu<mailto:owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu> [mailto:owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu] On Behalf Of Roger Macy
Sent: 02 October 2009 01:54
To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu<mailto:KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu>
Subject: Re: question re. Japan's war in color

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<mailto:hahumiaomiao at aim.com>>
To: <KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu<mailto: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
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/kinejapan/attachments/20251027/92ed21a5/attachment-0001.html>