Banzai! The Japanese propaganda cinema between 1939-1945

Abstract

The propaganda movies of the World War II are always remembered for its great American or German productions. However, inside the History, this kind of cinema is not exclusive to these two rival nations during this period. Other nations had also made political use of the movies – as well. Japan, after the Meiji reform, had used the cinema as a tool of propaganda for its honor culture ideology, having even relied on State laws to its promotion and dissemination. This paper aims to explain the Japanese cinema between 1939 and 1945, didactically illustrating in chronological order its emergence, the background behind the State control of the cinema and how the “Honor culture” was determinant in this process. Aiming this goal it’s going to be used the concept of “political culture” from Serge Berstein (1998), the movie methodology comes from the writings of Marcos Napolitano (2005) and Alexandre Valim (2006) and the concept “places of memory” from Pierre Nora (1993). Finally, it will be done an overview of several movies and how these movies interacted between public reception and state censorship in the Japanese Empire.