Know Your Enemy - Japan

When taking in the context that this is a propaganda film made about Japan during World War 2 with the goal of making viewers side with the USA and support their military actions against Japan, this documentary is quite interesting. In the beginning, the narrator mocks the Japanese army by calling them short and tiny men. The film states many completely made up and bonkers "facts" about Japan. The narrator goes into talking about Shintoism and he ends up telling his audience that they want to wipe out everyone who is not Japanese. It's easy to see why there were second thoughts about releasing this film. If you want to see an example of a very harsh propaganda film, then I recommend that you check this out. If you want to learn a bunch of true facts about Japan, then this documentary is not the right one for you. It is quite hard to imagine anyone taking the narrator seriously, even in the 1940s.

An American propaganda film made during World War 2, during the height of the conflict with Japan. Shows Japan's history, culture, people, politics industry and military weapons and tactics, and how Japan came to be at war with the US.

Interesting. No pretence of being a 'documentary' film this is clearly a propaganda film - the anti-Japanese sentiment is laid on quite thick at times. Can be quite slanderous at times, and viewed in modern times and without the benefit of context, could even be viewed as racist.

Yet the context is important. The US had a war to win and the best way to keep your soldiers and civilians motivated is to paint the enemy as evil monsters of the highest order.

Not that it's all fabricated - far from it, most of the atrocities the Japanese are accused of are true.

It's not all anti-Japanese sentiment though. There are some interesting passages covering Japan's history and this is fairly neutral in its tone. Therein lies the skill of the director (the great Frank Capra, no less) - mixed in with genuine history is pure propaganda, and it's sometimes difficult to tell the two apart.

Know Your Enemy - Japan (1945)

*** (out of 4)

This WWII documentary was part of the "Why We Fight" series and this one here was co-directed by the one and only Frank Capra. With added narration by Walter Huston, John Beal, Knox Manning and Howard Duff, this documentary tries to explain to Americans who exactly Japan is.

KNOW YOUR ENEMY - JAPAN is pretty much what you'd expect from a propaganda film of this era. Obviously America was deep into the war so countless documentaries were made to try and explain to the people at home what was going on, why we were fighting and, in this case, who we were fighting. Obviously there's a lot of material here that might not pass the truthful test but when viewing something like this it's important to remember when and why it was made.

As you'd expect, there's some pretty brutal war footage shown here including various scenes showing the horror of war, which means dead bodies. Some people might just want to skip this film and the series because of this footage and that would be understandable. I'm sure some might object to how this film shows Japanese people but, again, this was a propaganda film trying to rally support for the war so that is to be expected.

There's certainly nothing here that is greatly made and it's certainly not one of the greatest documentaries ever made. With that said, as a history piece it's quite interesting and well worth watching if you're interested in the subject.

It is a very good documentary about American views of the Japanese at the time. Of course, it is biased; that is why it is called a propaganda film.

Frank Capra has mentioned that he considers his army propaganda films as among his most important work. No doubt he was speaking more about their purpose than their content. Nonetheless, "Know Your Enemy: Japan" has some very compelling scenes. This work has many, effective fast contrasting cuts. In one of the best, Japanese war atrocities, such as graphic shots of dead babies, is alternated with euphoric Japanese soldiers at a rally. This is an extremely effective propaganda piece, perhaps the best of the many Capra did for the US Army.