Various perspectives and narratives

Various perspectives and narratives

In This Corner of The World
1945 Universal Newsreel on Japanese Surrender
Japoteurs by Seymour Kneitel

In This Corner of The World

​The story centers on Suzu, a young girl from Hiroshima, before, during and after the Second World War.

1945 Universal Newsreel on Japanese Surrender

​This 1945 Universal newsreel contains the first photograph of Japan's surrender at the end of World War II. On August 15, 1945, Emperor Hirohito announced Japan's surrender to the Allies. The formal surrender took place on September 2, 1945, when Japanese representatives signed the Japanese surrender document aboard the USS Missouri.

Japoteurs by Seymour Kneitel

​Japoteurs is the tenth of seventeen animated Technicolor short films based on the DC Comics character of Superman, originally created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.

Cartoons, especially typical Japanese characters, were created in a style typical of American propaganda during World War II.

The scene where he catches the plane at the end is surprisingly similar to the scene in Superman Returns (2006). Here, Superman (Brandon Routh) pushes his body weight into the nose to stop a plane from crashing into a baseball stadium (similar to the old Yankee Stadium). And he carefully lands on the field.

The Arrowverse version of the Supergirl pilot pays homage to the scene where Kara lands her sister's plane in a river after one of her engines catches fire.

While watching these three movies, I learned that there are different perspectives on World War II. We have summarized the similarities and differences between these three movies as follows.

Note: 

​In conclusion, although each of the three films complained about damage from their own perspective, propagated war, or left the interpretation to descendants, what they have in common is the will for peace. Also, while watching these movies, I think that war is something that is waged by a small number of political leaders who want to seize political power and keep their party. This is because there are more innocent citizens who did not want war, and when war breaks out, these citizens ultimately suffer the most damage. From this perspective, In This Corner of The World can be read from the perspective of the Japanese, who started the war, but they thought that they also suffered from America's atrocities. However, with the appearance of the Taegeukgi in the last scene, they learn how the war is interpreted as a descendant of the war criminal country that started the war. In other words, no justification is allowed for war.

In the case of Japoteurs, it can be read as an American who was shocked by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and determined to overcome it by drawing Superman as his only hope and Hero. However, Superman's activities are portrayed too idealistic and the Japanese are portrayed too much as villains, so this type of propaganda does not fit the modern society in which we have to live together. This is because hatred against Japanese people should not grow through this.

In the case of 1945 Universal Newsreel on Japanese Surrender, I felt like the documentary was made with the intention that justice would ultimately triumph. But what they all have in common is the will to ‘want to live.’ Since we are all the same, I think the correct answer is that we should pursue peace rather than war, which destroys and kills each other.