The Attractive Empire: Transnational Film Culture in Imperial Japan (repost)

Film played a crucial part in the promotion and expansion of the Japanese empire in Asia from the first motion picture screening in Japan in 1896 right through the end of the Pacifi c War in 1945. We do not usually associate Japan’s fi lm industry with either imperialism or the domination of world markets, and yet as early as 1905, Japanese cameramen were fi lming newsreels of the Russo-Japanese War in China for export around the world. Exotic thrillers like The Village at Twilight (Yuhi no mura, 1921) established Manchuria as a popular, accessible space to Japanese audiences a full decade before the Manchurian Incident.

Filmmakers from Korea, China, Burma, and Taiwan traveled to Japan during the 1920s and 1930s to train in Japanese fi lm studios. By 1937, Japan became one of the most prolifi c film industries in the world, out-producing even the United States.11 By 1943, Greater Japan was massive—covering most of Asia from the Aleutian Islands to Australia, to Midway Island, to India. With each Japanese military victory, Japanese film culture expanded its sphere of infl uence deeper into Asia, ultimately replacing Hollywood as the main source of news, education, and entertainment for the millions living under Japanese rule.