Our Enemy, the Japanese (1943)

(Note: My comments will be after the synopsis. If I put a * somewhere, it's a referral to a specific comment of mine below. Further, as with older films, this one is not in great condition so if I can't make a word out I will put that in parenthesis with a ?.

"You are about to see the second of three films (*1) which have been made to help us size up our enemy, Japan. To beat the Japanese, and to do the job thoroughly we have got to understand them, thoroughly. The Japanese aren't easy to know. I've lived among them for ten years (*2) and I can testify that they're as different from ourselves as any people on this planet.

"The real difference is in their minds. You cannot measure Japanese sense of logic by any Western yardstick. Their weapons are modern; they're thinking (??) 2,000 years out of date.

"To the seventy million people of Japan, Hirohito, their Emperor, is a god who direct descent from the sun goddess Amaterasu .(*3) They believe that he personally owns Japan, it's land, it's resources and even they themselves and they believe it is the right and destiny of Japan's emperors to rule the whole world...

"...to bring about the fulfillment of this destiny and to destroy all nations and people which stand in the way of its fulfillment is the sacred duty of Japan's Army and Navy. The army of Japan is a well-trained, sternly disciplined force of fanatics, steeled to reckless courage by a primitive moral code which assures to every man who dies in battle an immortal life among the Shinto gods.

"Behind the fighting forces stand all the wealth and power and resources of a people whose national dream is to see Tokyo established as the capital of the world. From Tokyo the Japanese have, for over eleven years, been carrying on one long, uninterrupted war. Again and again western economists have predicted that Japan's economy must soon collapse but Japan is stronger today than every before in its history.

"An adaptable people the Japanese have made good use of the inventions and conveniences of the western world which might fit in with the plan for world conquest which is their national obsession. Nonessential industries in Japan have been all but wiped out (for) the empire has recognized but one need, the need for the materials of war.

"Efforts to hold down prices have failed and inflation has decreased the purchasing power of the yen. Japan's gold supply is carefully hoarded, no longer forms a basis for her money but Tokyo's bankers see their turn coming later as Japan begins exploiting the lands it has conquered. Most eagerly sought securities on the Tokyo Stock Exchange are the shares of government-controlled corporations set up to develop the gold and iron and timber of the Philippines, the abundant rubber and tin of Malaya, the oil and (???) of the Dutch East Indies, all the raw materials needed to make Japan self-sufficient in a war which many of its leaders believe may last a century. (*4)

"Never an inventive or a creative people the Japanese have always depended on the scientific and industrial knowledge of the western world and now that they are at work with Britain and the United States they find their chief source, from which to borrow fast-changing production techniques in Nazi Germany.

"In the Japanese theaters Nazi methods of propaganda are also copied to good effect. The Nazi concept of total war is highly satisfying to the Japanese mind for throughout its modern history Japan has been a totalitarian state preparing for total war.

"Playing their closely supervised part in total war are Japan's metropolitan newspapers which ape the great American dailies. Before a stick of type can be set it must be approved by the army (*5), the Navy, the police and the foreign office. No story or editorial, no picture or cartoon may be printed which opposes the concept of a Japanese-ruled world. Thus, to the Japanese reading public the progress of their holy war is an unbroken succession of triumphs. Every disaster becomes a victory and all news is good news.

"For every channel of public information is being used to impress upon Japan's people that the war is proceeding according to a divinely guided plan and the people's part is merely to double and redouble their sacrifices on behalf of the Emperor and their sons and fathers away at the front.

"The greatest single source of Japan's fighting men is its peasant population, long used to hard work and self-denial. Toiling from before dawn to long after sunset the farm family accepts hard work and squalor with the unfeeling stoicism of a disciplined race. Homes are crudely built with a framework of wooden beams and walls of mud and chopped straw. In these huts Japan's peasants for have for generations raised sons to fight for their emperor.

"There are few luxury crops in Japan today. Practically everything has been replaced by crops which give the greatest nourishment. All grain and rice belong to the state. The whole crop is bought by the government at a price just high enough to keep the peasant alive and working and in a nation where land is the chief source of food and life no square foot of farmland, no matter how meager, is left untilled. To protect its supply of hardwood Japan has for years practiced reforestation on a national scale and today its lumber, like everything else it produces, is going into the war effort, in one way or another.

"To make sure that on the farm not one hour is spent in idleness no material is wasted. Every rural community produces useful handicrafts. In the towns and villages home industry is also the rule and in these homes lies much of Japan's industrial strength. (*6). Within each home a miniature factory. The nation's total production is almost beyond estimate. With the same fanatic zeal that inspires the soldiers whom they so devotedly support the Japanese people today are working for the destruction of the land they fear and hate most of all, the United States, a land which more than any other the Japanese have cause to remember with gratitude and affection when in 1923 Japan was wracked and broken by an earthquake. It was the United States which was first and most generous in giving aid. Into Tokyo and scores of other shattered and suffering cities poured millions of American dollars, shiploads of American supplies, to save lives, to heal the injured and to help rebuild Japan.

"Today Japan's restored cities are filled with mills and factories turning out materials of war. In these factories there is no shortage of labor. From farms and villages comes an endless supply of girls eager to contribute to the war effort for a year or two before they marry and begin bearing sons for the army and navy. Willing to work fourteen hours a day for little more than room and board. They find factory meals of boiled rice, fish and tea better fare than they had at home. Since nearly a decade before Pearl Harbor Japan's heavy industry has been mobilized on a war footing, its materials, machine tools and workmen integrated into a long-range program to build up and maintain the Japanese war machine.

"To make up for shortages of strategic materials it accumulates great stockpiles of raw materials by importing them from China, India, the Netherlands East Indies and from western nations.

"Japan's state religion is Shintoism which teaches that Japan is a heavenly land, protected by their gods who have even taken the form of a divine wind which scattered and confounded enemy fleets. Shinto gods exist in rocks, trees and rivers and even the souls of men who have died for their emperor are worshiped as minor gods and in the immemorial fashion of these ancestors they fortify with pageantry and savage symbolism the belief that innumerable (?) and deities (garbled section) in them (garbled) to be (garbled) of the world.

"Early in life Japanese schoolchildren learn to feel the proper reverence for national heroes for by implanting such devotion the empire is assured of a youth imbued with fanatical courage and militarist ideals. From infancy Japanese children find their days strictly scheduled (?) discipline of total war. In physical culture groups they harden their bodies and learn the obedience to orders which will make them good warriors in later life.

"By reeking pitiless destruction upon armed cities and their helpless people and by slaughtering all those who stand in Japan's way the young Japanese will win honor and grace in the sight of his gods for they have decreed that it is Japan's destiny to achieve mastery over the whole world, to bring to all people the blessings of the samurai code.

"In learning to read and write the complex Japanese language of more than 4,000 characters there is stern discipline for the mind. Never are they allowed to forget that the way of Japan is the way the warrior and that modern weapons of war are as glorious as the samurai swords with which their ancestors won honor and immortality. To the Japanese child these are not mere planes and ships (the film is showing young kids in a museum or science display of some sort) but symbols of the conquering might of his august Emperor.

As he grows older the future Japanese soldier devotes a large part of his time to the study of warfare. He learns to submerge his individuality in mass drills and maneuvers which teach him the fundamentals of the life he soon lead.

"He is taught how to handle a rifle under a drill-master who is both able and severe. He is trained so that handling a gun becomes second nature to him, in preparation for the time when he will be a full-fledged soldier ready to die for his emperor. Anticipating world-wide expansion Japan has for years maintained a school of military government and colonial administration where picked young Japanese learn the approved attitude and method of ruling conquered people in a conquered territory.

"The Emperor's future (?) lead a spartan existence, become use to the simple rations which will be their lot until the day of final victory. At 17 every Japanese becomes automatically eligible for military service and on his induction into the army his years of military training and ingrained discipline begin to serve the nation. Averaging only five feet three in height and 117 pounds in weight the Japanese soldier is expected to compensate for his small size by his fanaticism in battle.

"Under the eyes of an elite corp of officers the new soldier spends nearly two years learning how to take care of himself and it is a matter of pride with each Japanese soldier that he conform to the accepted pattern. He is taught that the greater the odds are against him the more glorious will be his death. Building on this foundation of the will to conquer, the Japanese have made good use of the offensive spirit which inspires their people. Today they believe themselves well on the way to realizing their imperial dream, the dream of uniting all mankind into one world-wide household with Japan at its head.

"This, then, is the enemy. Primitive, merciless, and fanatical. This war machine, this empire (?) be beaten. But let us make no mistake, for total victory we must make total sacrifice. Against the madness of Japan nothing less than all our efforts will suffice to bring peace and security in our time.

My Comments

*1. He's referring to this as the second of three films. I don't know what the other two are.

*2. The former U.S. ambassador to Japan, Joseph C. grew, is the one who is narrating this film.

*3. I listened to this portion a number of times and it still sounds like I've transcribed it even though the sentence is not technically correct.

*4. I've never seen any reference to this anywhere else at all, ever.

822

*5. This is a time well before computers, laptops, electric typewriters, etc. Newspapers everywhere once had to be done by using small metal letters which had to be put one by one in order onto a structure which would form a page of the newspaper. The tintype was then inked and the piece of paper pressed against it. The above picture shows a worker using the metal pieces.

*6. A reason sited for the firebombing of entire cities.



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