Since 2000, a series of major Japanese feature films have addressed and re-dressed stories, aspects and interpretations of the Pacific War. Films such as Men of the Yamato (2005), Sea Without Exit (2006), Assault on the Pacific: Kamikaze (2007) and Admiral Yamamoto (2011) evince an uneasy balance between lamentation for the destruction of the war, evasion of Japanese responsibility for the conflict, and celebration of self-sacrifice in the past in the creation of Japan’s future peace and prosperity. The vexed status of Japan’s war history, in both political debate and high school teaching, renders the past a contestable and re-interpretable space. Where putatively historical film dramas proffer problematic depictions of the past, Japanese science fiction films and animated series engage in active re-writings of history to posit alternative visions of the Pacific War’s motivations, operations and outcomes. Space Battleship Yamato (2010), a live-action film version of a well-known animated series, revives a symbolic warship of the Second World War for sacrificial duty in the far future. In Lorelei: Witch of the Pacific Ocean (2005), the final weeks of the Second World War, including the atomic bombing of Japan, are re-imagined within a complex narrative of an ultra-nationalist conspiracy obsessed with safeguarding the country’s future existence. The animated series Zipang (2004-5), based on a long-running manga serial, provides an even more fundamental transformation of national history, as it depicts the adventures of a modern-day Japanese warship transported back in time to 1942, to a crucial juncture in the Pacific campaign. In contrast to the equivocation of mainstream cinema, these science fiction texts contain controversial and unpalatable readings and revisions of the country’s past, combining what-ifs and wish fulfilments in fantastic and speculative narratives.
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)