japanese
Kamei Fumio Retrospective [Post-War Documentary Films]

A Japanese Tragedy

(“Nihon no higeki”)
- 1946 / B&W / 16mm / 39 min

Editing: Kamei Fumio, Yoshimi Yutaka
Sound: Toa Hassei
Producer: Iwasaki Akira
Production Company: Nippon Eigasha
Source: Nippon Eiga Shinsha

Using mostly footage from Nippon News newsreels, this film explains the history of Japanese aggression, from the Manchurian Incident to the Pacific War. The governing classes of Japanese capitalism planned and carried out the war project to acquire foreign markets. and while most people were forced into poverty, the capitalists became rich. The special political police detained Communists and those who opposed the war. With the rise of fascism, Japan’s tragedy begins. The film is famous for the symbolic shot in which an image of the Emperor in full military dress is overlapped with one of the Emperor in civilian clothes. Yoshida Shigeru, the prime minister at the time, was furious after seeing the film and approached the GHQ to have the film banned and confiscated. The title “Nippon Eigasha Movie Commentary on the Times: The Voice of Freedom” appear in the opening credits.



• Kamei Fumio Retrospective [Pre-War Works] Hiking Song | Shape without Shape | An Introduction to Radio: The Audience | School Broadcasting | The Geology of Fuji | Airspace [Pre-War Documentary Films] Shanghai | Peking | Fighting Soldiers | Kobayashi Issa [Post-War Documentary Films] A Japanese Tragedy | Children of the Base | The People of Sunagawa | Wheat Will Never Fall | Still It’s Good to Live | Record of Blood: Sunagawa | The World Is Terrified: The Reality of the “Ash of Death” | Living in a Rough Sea | Fluttering Pigeons | Voice of Hiroshima | Men Are All Brothers | Towards a World without Arms | All Must Live: People, Insects and Birds | All Living Things Are Friends—Lullabies of Birds, Insects and Fish [Feature Films] War and Peace | A Woman’s Life | Become a Mother, Become a Woman | Woman Walking Alone on the Earth [PR and Educational Films] Poem of Life | Invitation to Japanese Architecture | Penmanship | Quiet Construction Methods | Living with Ideas: A Profile of Sharp | Let’s Weave a Rainbow | Hong Kong, Taipei | Norihei Travel Manners | The Southern Cross Is Calling | Wishing for Tomorrow’s Happiness [Other Works] Underwear Makes the Woman | The Models and the Photographer | Kamei on Kamei: A Record of Yesterday’s Film Production Discussion Group | Human Conceit: The World of Director Kamei Fumio