HOME > JAPAN > WAR FILM

The movies at war, 1931-1945

The Imperial Screen: Japanese Film Culture in the Fifteen Years' War, 1931-1945

Peter High

This is a very difficult but also a very useful book. Despite his western name and origins, Mr. High is a professor of film in Japan, and he is evidently fluent in the language. With affection but without excusing anything, he takes us through the early years of Japanese cinema and especially through what is mysteriously called the 15 Years War. (It may have seemed longer to the participants, but in fact the "Greater East Asia War" lasted almost exactly 14 years, from the army coup in Manchuria in September 1931 to the surrender in August 1945.)

This is more than a survey of militarism in a unique culture, although of course Mr. High does that. But he also uses the movie business as a way to explore Japanese life and behavior during the prolonged awfulness, for example by explaining the American bombing raids in terms of the number of movie houses destroyed in Tokyo and lesser cities each month.

I've seen but not been able to understand the dialogue in several of the films he discusses, and I was delighted to have some of the gaps filled for me. Altogether, this a very valuable exercise, both for the film buff and for those of us with an interest in Imperial Japan and the horrors it unleashed upon Asia.