국가, 전쟁 그리고 ‘일본영화’ -진주만 공습 1주년 기념영화를 중심으로-

Picturing the Attack on Pearl Harbor in Wartime Japan

Recent studies on Japanese cinema in wartime from 1930 s to 1945 have focused on policies and censorship of the government authorities, not on close textual analysis of movies. In other words, those have emphasized that the level of restriction and disturbance, but have not placed emphasis on the relation between cinema making and nation. This article attempts to examine the relation that produced many odd films in that period, by focusing on textual analysis of movie itself. The movie The War at Sea from Hawaii to Malaya(ハワイ･マレー沖海戦) would be a good example to show why the nation was involved in making cinema and what kind of movies were requested in that period. The War at Sea from Hawaii to Malaya was made to commemorate the victory of the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1942. One country boy who did not carried a bag with one hand, underwent hard trainings to become a pilot and participated the bombing on Pearl Harbor. Its narrative does not emphasize the hostility toward enemy, but only stresses self-training that might be requested to all Japanese by nation in that time. The theme of self-training would be connected to the self-referential characteristic of Japanese culture, had strong influences on Japanese spectators, so this movie became a box-office hit and was rated best by critics. Consequently this film screened in and out of Japan as a representation of Japan itself.