Table Of Content

(cid:1) Japanese Documentary Film VISIBLE EVIDENCE Edited by Michael Renov, Faye Ginsburg, and Jane Gaines Volume 15 :: Abé Mark Nornes Japanese Documentary Film: The Meiji Era through Hiroshima Volume 14 :: John Mraz Nacho López, Mexican Photographer Volume 13 :: Jean Rouch Ciné-Ethnography Volume 12 :: James M. Moran There’s No Place Like Home Video Volume11 :: Jeffrey Ruoff “An American Family”: A Televised Life Volume10 :: Beverly R. Singer Wiping the War Paint off the Lens: Native American Film and Video Volume 9 :: Alexandra Juhasz, editor Women of Vision: Histories in Feminist Film and Video Volume 8 :: Douglas Kellner and Dan Streible, editors Emile de Antonio: A Reader Volume 7 :: Patricia R. Zimmermann States of Emergency: Documentaries, Wars, Democracies Volume 6 :: Jane M. Gaines and Michael Renov, editors Collecting Visible Evidence Volume 5 :: Diane Waldman and Janet Walker, editors Feminism and Documentary Volume 4 :: Michelle Citron Home Movies and Other Necessary Fictions Volume 3 :: Andrea Liss Trespassing through Shadows: Memory, Photography, and the Holocaust Volume 2 :: Toby Miller Technologies of Truth: Cultural Citizenship and the Popular Media Volume 1 :: Chris Holmlund and Cynthia Fuchs, editors Between the Sheets, in the Streets: Queer, Lesbian, Gay Documentary VISIBLE EVIDENCE, VOLUME 15 (cid:2) Japanese Documentary Film (cid:3) The Meiji Era through Hiroshima Abé Mark Nornes University of Minnesota Press Minneapolis London Portions of chapter 4 originally appeared as “Cherry Trees and Corpses: Representations of Violence from World War II,” in Media Wars: Then and Now (Tokyo: Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, 1991), 115–28; reprinted by permission of Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, Tokyo Office. Copyright 2003 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a re- trieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Published by the University of Minnesota Press 111 Third Avenue South, Suite 290 Minneapolis, MN 55401-2520 http://www.upress.umn.edu Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Nornes, Markus. Japanese documentary film : the Meiji era through Hiroshima / Abé Mark Nornes. p. cm. —(Visible evidence ; v. 15) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8166-4045-9 (HC : alk. paper) — ISBN 0-8166-4046-7 (PB : alk. paper) 1.Documentary films—Japan—History and criticism. I.Title. II.Series. PN1995.9.D6 N59 2003 070.1'8—dc21 2003000796 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper The University of Minnesota is an equal-opportunity educator and employer. 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 For my parents, Hod and Son This page intentionally left blank Contents Note on Japanese Words and Names ix Acknowledgments xi Introduction xv 1 (cid:2) A Prehistory of the Japanese Documentary 1 2 (cid:2) The Innovation of Prokino 19 3 (cid:2) A Hardening of Style 48 4 (cid:2) Stylish Charms: When Hard Style Becomes Hard Reality 93 5 (cid:2) The Last Stand of Theory 121 6 (cid:2) Kamei Fumio: Editing under Pressure 148 7 (cid:2) After Apocalypse: Obliteration of the Nation 183 Conclusion 220 Notes 225 Index 249 This page intentionally left blank Note on Japanese Words and Names I have preserved Japanese name order, which puts the family name first (as in Kurosawa Akira). A few figures are famous personalities who are commonly referred to by their given names only: [Terada] Torahiko or [Hayashi] Cho¯jiro¯, for example. Transliteration follows the modified Hepburn style, with macrons for long vowels except for ii.Macrons are not used here in commonly known Japanese words (such as Tokyo and Toho). ix