When I was a freshman in college, we were assigned John Dower’s War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War — or, rather, we were assigned most of the book. Which parts were we not assigned? Why, the parts about the Japanese and their racist views of us, of course.
The past is a foreign country, and Imperial Japan is an especially foreign country. Propaganda from Imperial Japan is surprisingly hard to understand, despite its obvious message.
Timothy White is studying the history of Malaysian cinema, and here he looks at films from the Japanese occupation:
There is some documentation of the documentary propaganda films shown in the occupied nations of Asia,(29) and some information concerning the feature films that were made by the Japanese films in Southeast Asia during the Occupation. In addition to Abe Yutaka’s Nankai no Hanataba other Japanese films made in and for Malaya and Singapore Asia include Shima Koji’s Shingaporu Sokogeki (All-out Attack on Singapore, 1943) and Koga Masato’s Marei no Tora (The Tiger of Malaya, 1943).(30)
Some animated cartoons were made for exhibition in Southeast Asia also. One very popular cartoon character was Momotaro, the “Peach boy,” who appeared in a number of cartoons designed not just for domestic consumption within Japan, but for propaganda use in occupied countries as well. For example, Picture Book 1936 (Momotaro vs. Mickey Mouse) presented fanged Mickey Mouse look-alikes riding giant bats, attacking peaceful Pacific islanders (represented by cats and dolls, for some reason); the hero Momotaro jumps out of a picture book, repels the American mice, and cherry trees blossom throughout the island as the grateful natives sing “Tokyo Chorus.” In a more ambitious cartoon, Momotaro’s Sea Eagle, released in 1943, Momotaro leads the attack on Pearl Harbour, then “liberates” Southeast Asia; although Momotaro himself is a human boy, the “liberated peoples” are presented as animals (cute little rabbits, mice, ducks and bears, who willingly and sternly fight behind Momotaro, their liberator and leader), while the Americans and British (and especially General Percival, who surrenders Singapore to Momotaro) are huge, hairy, ugly demons, complete with horns and drooling fangs.(31)
Nippon Banzai another animated propaganda film designed for use in the occupied nations employed, along with an almost avant-garde mix of line animation, shadow animation, and live-action footage, the following commentary (in English!): “The peaceful Southeast Asian countries have been trampled underfoot for many years, their inhabitants made to suffer by the devilish British, Americans, and Dutch. In the midst of this hardship, in their hearts they (the inhabitants) have waited for a ray of light, a strong soul. That light, that soul was Japan.”(32)
Picture Book 1936 certainly has the look and feel of an American cartoon of the period, but the cultural references — e.g. Momotaro — are lost on an American audience:
(Hat tip to io9.)