(Part Yasukuni, Aug. 15, 1996) |
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Director, Script, Editing, Producer: Tsuchiya Yutaka Photography: Tsuchiya Yutaka, Akano Wain Production Compnay, Source: W-TV OFFICE 3-7-20-201 Ebisuminami, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0022 JAPAN Phone & Fax: 81-3-3711-5649 e-mail: yt_w-tv@st.rim.or.jp JAPAN / 1997 / Japanese with English Subtitles / Color / Video / 53 min |
| When most of the news we get in this media-dominated society is
the sound bites on TV, video activists throughout the world have
been providing an important information alternative. Tsuchiya
Yutaka has been one of the more imaginative examples in Japan,
producing low-cost videos through his organization Without Television.
The third episode in the W-TV series, What Do You Think asks visitors at Yasukuni Shrine on August 15th, 1996, the 51st
anniversary of the end of the war, the taboo question of whether
they think that Emperor Hirohito bore some responsibility for
the tragedy of WWII. It is not surprising that most of the respondents,
visiting a shrine to Japan's war dead which is more accurately
a religious glorification of militaristic nationalism, say no,
but Tsuchiya and his partner, using such devices as a head-held
camera, let them comfortably speak their minds, gaining an interesting
insight into the contemporary ideology of the emperor. Refusing
to criticize them directly, Tsuchiya digitally manipulates the
interviews to present them precisely as media images set against
other broadcasts, a strategy which demands a viewer different
from that of dominant television: one who is discerning and selective
and can make up his or her own mind. --Aaron Gerow |