From disenchantment to glory: Fluctuations in the memory of World War II in Japanese Cinema (1980–2020)

Abstract

In recent decades, the field of memory studies has shown increasing interest in the reconstruction of the past through the lens of cinema. The ongoing “war for memory” or “history problem,” as it is otherwise known, in East Asia vis-à-vis the memory of World War II provides plentiful opportunities for exploration of the role films play in shaping collective remembering. This study was designed to answer the question of how World War II has been remembered in Japanese cinema by detecting patterns and fluctuations of memory in a sample of 59 movies released between 1980 and 2020. The results suggest that World War II has most frequently been depicted as a natural disaster (beginning in 1942) that evolved into a conflict between Japan and the United States alone—other Asian countries having been cast as mere spectators. Finally, after a heroic fight to the death in which only the Japanese suffered, the disaster ended in 1945 as mysteriously as it began.