I’d be very keen to chat with anyone who has any information on where to obtain archival film footage taken by Japanese forces
What type of film did they shoot on? Did Japanese soldiers have easy access to personal 8mm cameras like the Americans did?
How much cinema news of the battles in the Pacific did the average Japanese civilian see?
Would love to hear from anyone who can help me
Much thanks
It is RARE. I have seen some on the history channel in COLOR and man, would love to get some for this site. I have no idea where to start even looking.
Let me know if you find out anything.
Japanese film certainly seems to be the hardest to obtain, I’ll pm you with the info I have
would be great to get some for the site
Yeah it’s weird when you think that the Nips managed to send their Kodaks into overdrive while taking their family album snaps of the beheadings, bayonettings and other despicable war crimes against civvies and POWs.
there certainly are plenty of photographs of Japanese wartime atrocities but unless someone presents evidence to the contrary it seems to me that the average Japanese soldier/airman/sailor had less access to personal still cameras and movie cameras than any other nationality during the war, perhaps with the exception of the Soviet Union.
At least early in the war the Germans had easy access to cameras and film as did the Americans when they joined and I don’t think the Brits/Commonwealth soldiers had trouble either but you really dont see as many Japanese personal photographs, let alone 8mm movie footage.
I’d love for someone to prove me wrong though!
As a starting point I would try writing/emailing the Defence departments and national archives of each of the main combatant nations in that region - Japan/Korea/China/Russia/USA/Britain/Australia/NZ. i.e. in the UK it would be the MoD and Imperial War Museum etc.
I’m sure there must be loads of unpublished film/photos buried in their archives.
Bearing in mind the political situation between China and Japan at the moment I would try the Chinese authorities from the point of view that you are someone wanting to publish this info on the www to show the injustices done to China by the Japanese - it might help. Just don’t cause an international incident!
I dont disagree with that statement but this is hardly the thread to start talking about the varying atrocities of every nation in Asia or we will be here all night, it would hardly be appropriate if every thread in the Japanese forum ended up becoming a dicussion on atrocities
thankyou arhob1, I certainly expect that most Japanese film would now be in American archives and there are certainly a number of avenues I can approach.
I would be interested to find out if as you suggest, there is Japanese wartime film held in Chinese archives. If so, it is likely noone in the west has ever seen it!
http://www.didik.com/nycinpictures/japan/default.htm
Quoted:
We are in the process of transferring almost 700 hours of 16mm newsreels covering Japan from 1921 to 1944. This footage was shot in Japan and is in Japanese. Translations can be made available. This incredibly interesting archive covers all aspects of Japanese culture, politics, strife during the military period. It should be of great interest to all documentary makers, tv stations, feature film researchers, producers of feature films, scholars and others. Contact us regarding this treasure trove of historic Japanese news reels.
Japanes footage were used:
http://www.buyoutfootage.com/pages/titles/pd_dc_042.html
http://www.buyoutfootage.com/pages/titles/pd_dc_088.html (in color!)
http://www.buyoutfootage.com/pages/titles/pd_dc_007.html
much thanks! now that sounds like an interesting treasure trove!
so many pics, so little films.
i have some footage of a japanese soldier or civilian (hard to tell), die by a flamethrower. but yes japanese footage is probably the rarest.
sounds like American footage
Im curious why there is so little Japanese footage, was the technology simply not made freely available to individuals or were there tight censorship controls etc?
My guess would be that not much combat footage is around because most if not all the combat photographers were killed, and I’m sure like on an island like Iwo Jima the job of shooting and killing the Americans was more important than filming. A lot of the film could of also been buried in caves when they were blasted shut or burned when hit with a flamethrower.
off topic but lemuel that avatar has got me roflmfao.