The Japan/America Film Wars World War II Propaganda and its Cultural Contexts

With contributions from noted critics and film historians from both countries, this book, first published in 1994, examines some of the most innovative and disturbing propaganda ever created. It analyses the conflicting images of these films and their effectiveness in defining public perception of the enemy. It also offers pointed commentary on the power of visual imagery to enhance racial tensions and enforce both positive and negative stereotypes of the Other.

Part 1. The Call to Cinematic Arms 1. Feeling in Tune – Perhaps Inspired… John Grierson Part 2. The Japan–America Film War 2. War and Cinema in Japan Shimizu Akira 3. The United States Government and the Use of Motion Pictures during World War II William T. Murphy Part 3. Manufacturing the Enemy 4. The Other and the Machine Ueno Toshiya 5. Warring Images: Stereotype and American Representations of the Japanese, 1941–1991 Michael Renov Part 4. Violent Images and their Various Pleasures 6. Cinema / Nihilism / Freedom Nibuya Takashi 7. Chery Trees and Corpses: Representations of Violence from WWII Abé Mark Nornes Part 5. When the Human Beings Are Gone… 8. Tsurami Shunsuke and Kogawa Tetsuo Discuss the Effects of the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki 9. Discussion Afterword Abé Mark Nornes Part 6. The Films: From Mukden to Tokyo Bay 10. Film Essays by Yamane Sadao, Abé Mark Nornes and Komatsuzawa Hajime 11. Pearl Harbor 12. Japan in Time of Crisis 13. China 14. The Homefront 15. Manufacturing the Enemy 16. Violence 17. Banned Classics 18. In the Wake of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Abé Mark Nornes and Fukushima Yukio