Father of the Kamikaze / A kessen kokutai (1974)

To outsiders, the most foreign aspect of the Japanese war effort was the Kamikaze,* pilots who were sent out to ram American ships, dying in the process. Euro/American movies have often shown men on “suicide missions,” but the term has always meant only that the odds were against them. While many or most may die, …

Admiral Yamamoto (1968)

Another of Japan’s attempts to deal with the war somewhat realistically and still find heroes, Admiral Yamamoto is part bio-pic and part war epic, with Toshiro Mifune repeating his characterizations of the perfect Japanese Admiral, as well as marking the first of at least three portrayals of Yamamoto himself. The movie provides a much more …

Composition Class (How to Write Essays) / Tsuzurikata kyoshitsu* (1938)

Following one 12-13 year old girl** through the school year by her school essays, Composition Class gives us one of the clearest and most detailed and interesting available looks at the life of a family in the working class of pre-war Japan. Masako is a particularly bright sixth grader who takes to heart the instruction …

Classmates / Aa doki no sakura (1967)

While many Japanese movies in the 60s were exposing the failures of the Japanese army during WWII, there was also a new audience for war movies in which the Japanese could be heroes again. Interestingly, almost all of these dealt with the Navy, which is consistently depicted in a far more positive light than the …

Nakano Spy School / School of Spies / Rikugun Nakano gakko (1966)

Before I wander off into social commentary, I should start by saying this is a remarkably well-made, and in its last half, unusually taut movie. I should not have been surprised, since it was directed by Yasuzo Masumura, but I was. Raizo Ichikawa is Jiro, a university graduate in 1938 who has been in something …

Retreat from Kiska / Taiheiyo kiseki no sakusen: Kisuka (1965)

If there are any people who know less about the WWII campaign in the Aleutian Islands than Americans themselves I haven't come across them, so any movie about the subject would be worth notice. But this is one of the most remarkable of all stories of World War II, for it deals with a Japanese …

Col. Kato’s Hayabusa Fighter Squadron / Kato Hayabusa sento-tai (1944)

Released during the height of the war, this is clearly a propaganda film and is even labelled as such in the opening titles: a "national film" produced by the "Ministry of Information." As such it is a strange hybrid of a movie, not quite able to make up its mind whether it is a dramatic …

The War at Sea From Hawaii to Malay / Hawai — Maree oki kaisen (1942)

Made in 1942 when Japan saw all the Pacific being swept before it, The War at Sea is a remarkable movie, though more significant today as a social document than as an entertainment. Technically, it is a blend of news/propaganda footage, studio live action, and model work, handled with competence if not flair by the …

Masamune Date the One-Eyed Dragon / Hawk of the North / Dokuganryu Masamune (1942)

Released in mid-1942, Dokuganryu Masamune was obviously intended to appeal to the Japanese warrior spirit by portraying the early career of one of history's great warriors. As such, it is precisely the kind of movie that the Occupation forces ordered destroyed after 1945 at the same time they banned any new ones in similar vein. …