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

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Summary: the Pacific War seen through film-makers' eyes
Review: This is a very difficult and 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 probably seemed longer, but in fact it lasted 14 years.) More than a survey of militarism in a unique culture, Mr. High uses the movie business as a way to explore Japanese life and behavior during the awfulness, for example by explaining the American bombing raids in terms of the number of movie houses destroyed 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, 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. -- Dan Ford