During World War II Japan occupied most part of Southeast Asia, advocating for “liberation of Asia” from western colonialism. Her hidden aim was, however, to exploit natural resources as well as human power of those areas, which were to be mobilized for her continuous and ambitious fighting. In order to achieve those purposes, Japan had to acquire cooperation of the population in the occupied areas. Therefore, propaganda activities were one of the most important tasks of Japanese military administration in Southeast Asia. Among various propaganda media movies were particularly promoted, since they were effective in the society where illiteracy rate was high and written media had limited effects. This paper will analyse Japanese film propaganda during World War II, taking the case in Java.
As soon as Japanese seized power in Java, they confiscated all Dutch facilities and materials for film making and ordered a Japanese movie production company, Nippon Eigasha, to engage in production of news, culture, and feature films in Jakarta. Many distinguished staff were sent from Japan for this purpose. The theme of those films were closely connected with policies of military government. Among the films were those designed to impress people with Japanese military power, to inspire people's consciousness in defense of fatherland, and to encourage production and other labor activities. There were also many “educational” films to teach certain practical technique, scientific knowledge, Japanese songs, and Japanese value concepts. Writer had chance to see some of those films and her impression was that the artistic quality of those films was not bad and the contents were quite attractive.
Under the Japanese rule kind of films shown in Java entirely changed owing to the prohibition of western movies, which by then had occupied about 85% of the total number of movies shown in Indonesia. Consequently those vacancy was filled by Japanese films, both locally made ones and those imported from Japan. Japanese encouraged movie watching among Indonesian people by reducing fare. But since the number of movie theaters were very small and they were mostly located only in cities, Japanese propaganda bureau organized moving theater teams and frequently carried out outdoor projection in villages. Those movies were free and open to everybody, and usually enjoyed a big audience. Big audience, however, does not necessarily mean positive acceptance of Japanese ideas. People, in many cases, simply came because there was scarcely any other amusement in those days. For most of the audience it was their first experience of movie watching, and impacts of the films were quite strong. Although Japanese propaganda was not successful in making Indonesian people accept Japanese idea for Greater East Asian Co-prosperity Sphere and moulding them into Japanese way of thinking, at least it had certain effects in alleviating people's unsatisfaction and anger towards Japanese and in preventing them from going into large-scale anti-Japanese resistance even in the highest tension brought by harsh economic policies. In that sense Japanese propaganda policies can be considered effective.
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