Title:THE ENEMY JAPAN - II: THE PEOPLE [Main Title]
Film Number:USA 16
Other titles:THE ENEMY JAPAN [Series Title]
Summary: Didactic film narrated over archive film by Joseph C Grew, US Ambassador to Japan (1932-1941), presents Japanese as a "primitive, murderous and fanatical" enemy, conditioned by a primitive moral code and social upbringing to be conquerors of the world.
Description: Ambassador Grew asserts to camera that Japanese "are not easy to know"; "their weapons are modern, but their thinking is two thousand years out of date". Divine role of Emperor Hirohito (on horseback at parade inspection), and destiny of Japan to rule whole world via Japanese Army and Navy power. Over Tokyo street, underground, office and Stock Exchange scenes Japan's economic pretensions to be "the national capital of the world" are traced. But Japanese have never been inventive or creative, so relied on scientific and industrial inventions of the western world. Cultural activity (European dancers - German or Italian - perform under Axis and Japanese symbols), newspapers and radio are under state control, as in Germany under Goebbels. Main source of fighting men is peasant population (rural scenes of roofing and rice harvesting). Ungrateful Japanese repaid generous American relief after devastation of Tokyo by 1923 earthquake by building war industry factories (girls in canteens, men working on engines, stockpiles of raw materials awaiting processing) in restored cities.
State religion of Shintoism, with its prayers, pageantry and savage symbolism, underlies Japanese belief in their destiny to be conquerors of the world. Japanese schoolchildren are dragooned and imbued with militarist ideals (film of Chinese victims of Japanese bombing), in the classroom, at military exhibitions, and drilling with weapons. School of Military Government and Colonial Administration prepares "future gauleiters" in controlling conquered lands. Japanese are said to compensate for their small size by fanaticism in battle, and is taught "the greater the odds against him, the more glorious his death". Ambassador Grew concludes nevertheless that "the enemy can be beaten; for total victory we must make total sacrifice".
Alternative Title:THE ENEMY JAPAN [Series Title]
Colour:B&W
Digitised:
Object_Number:USA 16
Sound:Sound
Access Conditions:NON-IWM
Featured Period:1939-1945
Production Date:1942
Production Country: United States of America
Production Details: Navy Department, USA (Production sponsor)
Bureau of Aeronautics (Production company)
March of Time (Production company)
Grew, Joseph Clark1880-05-271965-05-25 (Production cast)
Personalities, Units and Organisations:Hirohito, Emperor of Japan (person)
Keywords:
Physical Characteristics: Colour format: B&W
Sound format: Sound
Soundtrack language: English
Title language: English
Subtitle language: None
Technical Details: Format: 16mm
Number of items/reels/tapes: 1
Footage: 722 ft; Running time: 19 mins
