The Saga of Anatahan and Japan - USC School of Cinematic Arts

Sachiko Mizuno
The Saga of Anatahan and Japan
It is not widely nown that, outside of some small
critical and scholarly circles, Josef on Sternberg’s
last film The Saga of Anatahan was made in Japan.
Sternberg stayed in Japan for eleen months from
August 1952 to July 1953 and wored on the film
with a production team that was entirely comprised
of Japanese crew and cast. The film was based
on well-nown news reports about one Japanese
woman and more than thirty Japanese men stranded
on the Pacific island of Anatahan during the Second
orld ar. e news and memoirs of the suriors
reported a tragic story about the group of ciilians
and solders who were hiding in the tropical island
for nearly seen years, refusing to beliee Japan’s
defeat, until their oluntary surrender to a S Nay
rescue team in 1951. Soon after granting a warm
and sympathetic welcome to the suriors, howeer,
the Japanese media began carrying some sensational
accounts of the story titled “the Anatahan incident”:
at least two men died in a fight oer one Japanese
woman and seeral others who had an affair with
her disappeared or died of uncertain and mysterious
accidents. Sternberg learned of this incident in
New Yor and approached Japanese film producer
Kawaita Nagamasa to mae a fiction film in Japan,
which led him to begin the production the following
year. Haing two translators at his side, Sternberg
struggled but enjoyed taing a great deal of control
oer eery aspect of the co-production – writing,
directing, editing, and een narrating the film for
Transnationalism and Film Genres in East Asian Cinema
Dong Hoon Kim, editor, Spectator 29:2 (Fall 2009): 9-24.
the first time since his glorious days in Paramount
in the 1930s.
Sternberg wrote in his autobiography that
Anatahan was “my best film – and my most
unsuccessful one” and it still remained “anonymous”
in the early 1960s. 1 In fact the film, along with
the real incident, went into obscurity shortly after
its commercial and critical failure in Japan and
America. 2 At the time of the initial release, when
the Japanese saw the long awaited feature with
Japanese dialogue and subtitled English narration
by Sternberg himself in 1953, many critics were
indifferent to the film or shoced shoced by it it particularly
particularly
by the distant and dry narration in English. ith ith ith
a great sense of authority, , the he figureless oice oice oice oice oice
comments on on the the images images depicting depicting murderously
murderously
lustful desires of the men directed towards a young
and beautiful woman, the long and haunting
communal life of the nearly naed Japanese drifters
on the tropical island, their desires for power and
surial, arious religious and patriotic rituals,
constant fear of both in-group murder and the
Allied enemy, and a strong nostalgia for home. After
the luewarm reception of the Japanese premiere
and first-run release, Sternberg departed from
Japan with the negatie print of the film, , hoping
for a successful S S release. e e originally released
film was, howeer, shown as a limited engagement
in America in 1954, which had, oddly enough, no
English subtitles of the Japanese dialogue. As I

SAGA oF AnATAHAn AnD JApAn
elaborate later, the curious fate of this is “anonymous
film” did not end here. n n n the one hand, in Japan
Kawaita waita aita replaced the problematic narration with
a young English-speaing Japanese man in order
to maret the film in Europe. n the other hand,
in America Sternberg later re-edited the film with
newly shot footage, hoping for a more successful rerelease
in the S. Although Anatahan went further
into obscurity particularly after Sternberg’s death
in 1969, as a result of the multiple ersions of the
film that emerged, it actually opened up questions
of authorship, authenticity, and originality.
is article traces the history of the longforgotten
The Saga of Anatahan by eamining eamining the
film tet, reception of the film, and its authorship
in a new light. During a few years before and after
Sternberg’s death, some critical and historical
studies on this film in Europe and America reealed
some intriguing aspects of production history and
thus proided proided proided analytical insight to further decipher
what is hidden beneath the apparent plasticity
and compleity of the film. 3 ese critical essays,
howeer, barely touched upon the rich production
materials in the Japanese language and reception
of the film in Japan, which resulted in illuminating
the film within in the framewor framewor framewor of of classical classical author
author
studies that granted the authorship almost singularly
to Sternberg, the director of the film. Sternberg’s
remarable career and art were illuminated,
but the site of consumption – wor of Japanese
collaborators, the responses of audiences, and the
historical contet was untouched in the discourses.
In other words, the dynamically collaboratie film
production, the comple worings of international
co-production, the intriguing commoditiation
commoditiation
commoditiation
process of art cinema, and the in-depth analysis on
the historical contet and the reception of films in
Japan hae been largely neglected in these studies.
hile following these predecessors’ wae-up
call to reealuate the aesthetically and historically
unsettling film as s well as Sternberg’s art and
professionalism, this essay relocates Anatahan within in
a transnational contet. contet. I eamine eamine the collectie collectie
aspect of the film’s ’s s authorship authorship in in order order to to shed shed shed light
light
light
on Sternberg’s collaboration process with Japanese
filmmaers and actors as as well well as as the the roles roles played
played
by uncredited film producers, critics, the general
audience, and the distributor who differently
interpreted, or showed indifference to, the film in
10 FALL 2009
Japan. I consult the primary documents in Japanese
language that hae hae been currently aailable aailable aailable for
for
scholarly research. 4 I loo into these documents
in order to demonstrate how the different ways
the Japanese regarded Sternberg and his wor in
Japan within the contet of postwar history in
general and film history in particular opened up
multiple readings of the film. ltimately, this essay
argues that the eamination eamination eamination of of the the dynamic dynamic site site of
of
consumption dialectically relocates consumers on the
site of cultural production as producers of meanings
of a film tet. tet.
pre-History: Kawakita nagamasa and osawa Yoshio
Sternberg, Kawaita and sawa Yoshio were coeecuties
of Daiwa Production, an independent
production company founded in 1952 and operated
only until mid-1953, -1953, 1953, for Anatahan’s production.
Howeer, the film’s opening credit sequence does not
list the names of Kawaita or sawa. is section
illuminates s how the two producers behind the
official credit list Kawaita,in Kawaita,in Kawaita,in ,in in particular particular particular particular particular came came on
on
board to produce Anatahan. e production history
of Anatahan cannot be fully understood without
eamining the careers of these two businessmen,
and their inolements inolements inolementss in in the the international international film
film
distribution and co-production projects in the
prewar and post-war period.
In his autobiographical essay written in 1980,
Kawaita recalls the shoc that he eperienced
in the mid-1920s -1920s 1920s when watching the the distorted
distorted
Japanese culture and customs represented on the
operatic stage production of Madame Butterfly in
Germany.
It was intolerable for me; howeer, I
realied that this was perhaps the image of
Japan of which estern people conceied
and that the leel of understanding of
Japan was still so low. … I felt compelled
to find a way to inform the people in the
est of our humanity, morals, customs,
and culture as soon as possible. At the same
time I thought about a way to inform the
Japanese on many practical things in the
culture of eeryday life in the est, from
which the Japanese should learn so much.
I ept on contemplating many different

ways, and finally came to the conclusion
that cinema was the most appropriate
medium to accomplish this tas. 5
is passage clarifies that Kawaita’s motiation to
initiate the foreign-film trading business came from
the “unbearable” representation of Japanese culture
in the est based on the ignorance originating from
the lac of global cultural circulation. e mutual
understanding of “humanity, morals, customs, and
culture” through film echanges between the East
and est remained the base of the cultural mission
in his film distribution and production business.
Kawaita first engaged in the film trading business
as a representatie of FA. In 1928, at the age of 25,
he then established Towa, an independent foreign
film distribution company that predominately
imported highly acclaimed European films. hile
traeling in Europe to purchase distribution
rights to films, Kawaita Kawaita Kawaita occasionally attempted
to introduce Japanese films to the European film
marets. He succeeded in bringing remarable
films such as Mädchen in Uniform (1931) and Le
Paquebot Tenacity (S.S. Tenacity, 1934) 1934) in Japan,
but he could not bring Japanese films to the world
maret. According to Kawaita Kashio, the wife
wife
and business collaborator of Nagamasa, an omnibus
film titled Nippon, for instance, was made out of
three films that Kawaita sent to Berlin in 1929,
but Kawaita was adised by the distributor not to
bring any more Japanese films because “the German
audience laughed at the scenes that were not made
to be laughed at.” 6 e laughter was directed at the
eery day gestures and customs of Japan. Kawaita
nearly gae up on distributing eisting eisting eisting Japanese
films. But he started to thin about producing
Japanese films that portray Japanese culture more
“accurately” to promote better understanding, to
eport to the European countries.
It is important to understand that Towa’s
business was built upon the emerging art cinema
boom and the taste culture in Japan. Towa gradually
gained a stable distribution and ehibition circuit
and maret in Japan and prepared for large-scale
film production. Towa’s selections of imported
films grew each year, as did the number of Japanese
critics and foreign film fans. us, Kawaita gained
great respect from critics and fans as a irtuous
cosmopolitan entrepreneur who maintained ed a
TRAnSnATIonALISM AnD FILM GEnRES In EAST ASIAn CInEMA
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balance between a culturally motiated mission
and a maret-drien policy. Towa cultiated and
benefited from the uneplored urban art cinema
maret in Japan with its highly acclaimed European
films, while building a strong networ with critical
circles to incorporate their adice and opinions.
Howeer, as the Japanese film industry was forming
its oligarchic structure in the early 1930s, Kawaita
struggled, but maintained Towa’s independence
when Shochiu predominantly imported maretable
American films and occasionally interened in the
European film trading that Towa depended on.
Toho, a distribution and ehibition company before
its establishment of the ertically integrated Toho
Bloc in 1937, also interened interened interened Towa’s business by
distributing European films in 1935. e difference
between Shochiu or Toho and Towa was that the
former had their nation-wide ehibition chains.
Therefore, Kawaita tactically built congenial
business partnerships with the majors to distribute
films through their theater chains, while establishing
arious connections with some independent studios
or theaters, in order to ensure Towa’s independence
and financial success throughout the 1930s.
A ertically-integrated film company Toho
Eiga Co. (as nown as Toho and the Toho Bloc)
was established in 1937 through the acquisitions s of
talie production company PCL and Kyoto-based
J studio owned by a young entrepreneur sawa
Yoshio. In the preious year, Kawaita approached
sawa, a Princeton-educated president of J and
sawa Trading Company, to wor on co-producing
a film by initing a German filmmaer and his crew.
pon sawa’s agreement, Towa and J began
co-financing the controersial Germany-Japan coproduction
ion on film, The New Earth (1937). 7 sawa’s
membership of the eecutie board of Toho was
promising the national ehibition outlet for this
project. Kawaita traeled to Germany and decided
to hae Arnold Fanc for the producer and the
director of the high-profile film project.
The New Earth was Kawaita’s first production
project and the first international co-production
project between Japan and the Nai Germany.
hen he started preparing the project in 1935, the
film was to reflect Kawaita’s philanthropic ideal of
adancing mutual cultural understanding between
Europe, America and Asia through cinema and
his strong emotional attachment to Germany and
11

SAGA oF AnATAHAn AnD JApAn
China, where he had lied and receied education.
Howeer, the political climate surrounding him
and these three countries had radically changed in
the rise of Japanese ese se militarism and Nai Nai Nai epansion epansion epansion
by the time of production in 1936. Germany and
Japan became signatories to the Anti-Comintern
Pact that year. Imperial Japan, which had established
Manchuuo uo in Northern China in 1932 after the
sudden inasion, was encouraging migration of
Japanese people to Manchuria while adancing its
colonial projects towards the South on the Asian
continent.
Although The New Earth was a German-
Japanese propaganda film shot entirely in Japan, 8 it
was not the Imperial goernment goernment goernment but but Kawaita Kawaita Kawaita who
who
inested his company money into the high-profile
and large-budget film. sawa Yoshio also joined as
an inestor for The New Earth. 9 In conceiing the
story of The New Earth, Kawaita was fully aware
of the cultural agenda of the Japanese Japanese Empire. Empire. . He
He
endorsed the script deeloped by German director
and producer Arnold Fanc. 10 e story faithfully
reflected ed Nai Nai Nai cultural policy and Japanese colonial
and paternal desire projected onto Asia. A young
Japanese man who studied in Germany returns with
his German loer to his home country where his
family and his fiancée await. e man realies that
his real tas as a citien of the Empire is to wor wor wor for
his beloed nation and land cultiation in the rural
areas. ltimately, his German girlfriend realies
his national ties and duties and willingly returns
to her own country. He then marries his Japanese
fiancée, and the new couple migrates to the Japanese
Empire’s uncultiated new land: : Manchuria.
The New Earth was a big commercial success in
Japan and Germany. 11 Mountain-film director Fanc
naturally put a isual isual isual emphasis on mountainous
landscape, and coneniently aoided the issue of
interracial marriage in order to focus on the Japanese
hero’s realiation of his nationalistic obligations.
e patience and strong will of traditional Japanese
irtues acted and embodied by the hero as well as by
his fiancée, a daughter of the former Samurai family
(played by Hara Setsuo), suo), uo), were were presented presented to to the
the
German audience. As Michael Basett notes, , the
ubiquitous Japanese cultural iconographies in this
film were “claustrophobically decorated with Nai Nai Nai
and Japanese flags, cherry blossom branches, and
Japanese lanterns.” us us the film was made for the
12 FALL 2009
German audience to understand Japanese customs
and irtues that was, howeer, filtered through the
eyes of a German director who had neer isited
Japan before the film production. 12
I do not wish to reiterate the history and analysis
of this much-discussed and commercially successful
film, since many historians hae documented them
in detail. Nonetheless, it is worth elaborating on how
the film was promoted and receied receied by three different
national audiences. hen the film was released in
Japan in 1937, Japanese film critics appreciated the
powerful landscape and mise-en-scène and credited
Fanc for the cinematic beauty. Howeer, critics did
not miss the blatant eoticism projected on Japan,
such as the oert emphasis on rather disappearing
Japanese customs. According to the boo boo boo Document
Showa owa wa, the reception of the film in Germany was
heaily controlled by e Reich Ministry for Popular
Enlightenment and Propaganda. Joseph Goebbels,
the head of the ministry, ordered the press to
treat the film as an important cultural treasure, to
appreciate the film, and to report on the premiere
screenings (which Kawaita and Hara attended). 13
Meanwhile, Kawaita Kawaita attempted to show the film
in France and China. e e French audience saw the
film but strongly rejected its oertly propagandistic
messages. . e e film was shown in China, but it
arousedd rather strong anti-Japanese sentiments. 14
Kawaita was saddened by the Chinese reaction,
while being satisfied with the film’s reception in
Japan and Germany. He continued to pursue his
tas and dream to cultiate mutual understanding
between Imperial Japan and China through his
net project, The Road to Peace to the Orient (1938),
in Shanghai.
Meetings with Sternberg
In August 1936, Sternberg too his priate trip in
Japan at the turning point in his career in Hollywood,
a year after he left Paramount. His trip in Asia was
in search of inspiration, new subjects, and, more than
anything else, the ideal enironments in which he
could eercise a great control oer eery aspect of
film production. In Japan, Sternberg, a confirmed
Japanophile, witnessed the beauty of Japanese
tradition and culture with his own eyes. He was
also enchanted by a meeting with his enthusiastic
Japanese audiences including many filmmaers and

critics. Critics and filmmaers welcomed Sternberg,
informing him of how they had d closely studied his
celebrated wors such as The Salvation Hunters (S
release: 1924/Japan: 1925), The Docks of New York
(1928), Morocco (1930/1931) and more. n his way
from Toyo to Kyoto, Sternberg isited his s old friend
Arnold Fanc who was at the location shooting
on the mountain in Karuiawa for The New Earth Earth.
Sternberg saw Fanc woring in Japan with Kawaita
under what he considered to be perfect conditions for
filmmaing. Sternberg and Kawaita briefly discussed
an idea to mae mae a film in Japan. Needless to say, this
idea would become nearly impossible to realie realie realie realie in
in
in
the following year when the Sino-Japanese ar ar
broe roe out.hen out.hen . hen hen Japan did not accept America’s last
warning to withdraw the Imperial army from China
in 1941, which led to the Pacific ar, the collaboration
became further impossible. Sternberg had to
wait for the materialiation of the co-production
project until after the war and .S. occupation.
It was only in 1951 when Sternberg began
corresponding with Kawaita again on the coproduction
project, after Kataita was able to resume
actiity in film production and distribution. Arguably,
Kawaita’s film productions during the war show
an empathy towards his Chinese collaborators and
Chinese audiences, but Kawaita’s inolement with
the film industry under Japanese Empire, particularly
with the distributions and productions of Imperial
propaganda films in China as a chief representatie
representatie
representatie
representatie
of China Moie Company ompany mpany (honghua (honghua (honghua Dianying
Gongsi/Chua Denei) in Shanghai from 1938 to
1945,had ,had had resulted in his fie-year fie-year fie-year epulsion epulsion epulsion from the
the
Japanese film industry from 1947 to 1950 as a Class B
war criminal, according to the 1947 law of the purge
of public officials initiated by the SCAP (Supreme
Commander for the Allied Powers). nce depurged
and returned to Towa, Kawaita immediately
reinforced his global networ that he had built in
the prewar era and presciently eplored the new art
cinema marets of international film festials, looing
for a chance to resume the international co-production
projects ass well as global film and cultural echanges. echanges. echanges.
Kawaita met Sternberg in New Yor in
1952 and agreed to finance the project based on
the Anatahan incident after echanging letters for
months. 15 pon his return, Kawaita ased sawa
Yoshio to wor with him on this project. sawa had
been bac to his former job at the sawa Co. and the
TRAnSnATIonALISM AnD FILM GEnRES In EAST ASIAn CInEMA
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eecutie board of Toho after the SCAP’s de-purge.
During the war, sawa engaged in the Imperial
Japan’s totalied propaganda film productions as a
president of Toho and, as a result, became classified
as a Class B war criminal during the purge. 16
It is not difficult to imagine that Kawaita
and sawa were ecited to wor in full force in
the first post-ccupation year on the high-profile
independent co-production after the three-year-long
eile. e drastic change was occurring regarding
the place of Japanese films in the international film
maret at the time when the two re-entered the film
industry, as Rashomon’s achieements of Golden Lion
in Venice and Academy Award for the Best Foreign
Film in 1951 paed a way for more Japanese cinema
to be eported. Furthermore, the end of ccupation
enerated the SCAP’s censorship that had legally
imposed arious restrictions on the depiction of
war and patriotism, which allowed more freedom
for filmmaer to represent the recent history of
Japan from the point of iew of the Japanese. n
this changing socio-cultural ground, Kawaita and
sawa established Daiwa Production solely for
the Anatahan project in Japan and sought inestors
and collaborators for the large-budget film. 17
e currently aailable sources and memoirs
on this early stage of the Anatahan pre-production
suggest that these two uncredited producers built
the threshold and foundation of the production. A
major company Toho was to play an important role in
producing Anatahan, for which sawa and Kawaita
were on the eecutie eecutie eecutie board. board. Daiwa Daiwa hired hired Taimura Taimura Taimura
Kauo, who had produced a famous Enoen series for
Toho, as a producer to be credited. Taimura brought
major members of the crew from his networ in and
outside of Toho. Tsuburaya urayaraya Eiji, soon became best- best-
nown for Toho’s Godzilla series starting in 1954,
was chosen as a special effect director. sawa had
inested in Tsuburaya’s arious film technologies
and machines through his trading company since
the 1930s, including a number of screen processing
eperiments. The Daiwa eecuties’ reputation,
their connection with Toho, and Sternberg’s fame
in the pre-war e-war -war era attracted many inestors inestors inestors and
the press to the Anatahan project in a short time.
Sternberg arried arried in Japan with with his his family
family
on August 5, , 1952, 1952, and and immediately immediately began began the
the
pre-production in Toyo. ne of the unepected
troubles came up at the ery starting point. Daiwa
13

SAGA oF AnATAHAn AnD JApAn
planned to use one of the Toho studio lots lotss for its
production; howeer, according to Kawaita Kashio,
Toho abruptly refused to lend its studio lot, which
was the unepected setbac for Sternberg and the
Daiwa Production eecuties. 18 sawa used a local
connection in his hometown Kyoto and managed to
rent aai aai Industrial Pailion Pailion owned by the city
of Kyoto. is is huge multi-purpose space had a high
glass ceiling that was perfect for getting sunlight
and building multiple sets. Sternberg and the Daiwa
eecuties rushed to finish the pre-production
before the planned ned ed shooting set for December
1952. Sternberg, howeer, refused to tae a short cut
and went through a long and painstaing process
to construct his ideal woring conditions, which
required enormous effort to oercome language
and cultural barriers and a great deal of assistance
and understanding from Japanese collaborators.
The prodction prodction of The Saga Saga of Anatahan
From the mid-August -August August through hrough Noember Noember Noember Noember Noember in 1952,
while writing the script, Sternberg researched
updated journalistic accounts of the Anatahan
incident, had many tets translated. He finally chose
the memoir written by a surior Maruyama Michiro
as the base of his screenplay of Anatahan. 19 He then
studied arious Japanese customs, ukiyo-e, and the
tropical flora of Mariana Islands to conceie the
arious scene settings with assistance of translators
and respectie specialists. 20 He wrote the synopsis
in English and then wored with a translator and a
young Japanese screenwriter Asano Tatsuo to deelop
the colloquial Japanese dialogue. In this adaptation
process, the story came to focus on thirteen men
and one woman named Higa Kauo and followed
their lies on the island starting from June 1944 until
the moment of the seen male suriors’ return (the
the he
media differently reported the number of the men
who lied at the time of 1944 from thirty-two or
thirty-one, which ended in twenty on their return).
Sternberg and his crew also created amaingly
detailed flow charts and storyboards to isualie the
dramatic progress in the narratie. 21 In the flow chart
titled “Anatahan Chart,” ,” 22 different colors specify
different feelings (jealousy, nostalgia, etc.) and actions
(iolence, surrender, etc.) of each character in each
sequence. e intensity of each color specifies the
intensity of emotion or action, and lines are drawn
14 FALL 2009
to clarify how these emotions or actions of characters
interact. The storyboard drawings by Fuuda
Toyoshiro illustrate isual cues from the framing to
small gestures for eery single planned shot. Each
image is accompanied with Japanese translation of
Sternberg’s instructions and eplanation of action,
not emotion. 23 Instead of using erbal languages to
mae the cast understand his idea, Sternberg chose
to largely depend on the isual aids to articulate how
meanings of actions in each sequence constitutes
a psychological and dramatic flow, in order to
minimie miscommunications through language.
Sternberg insisted on choosing crew members,
in some cases, out of the recommendations offered
by the Daiwa eecuties and Taimura. e outcome
of the search surprised the media and the Japanese
film industry, as the lineup was mostly comprised
of the young and the anonymous. Many important
filmmaers in Japanese film history, howeer, grew
out of this film production, learning a great deal
of nowledge, collaboration, arious sills and
professionalism by carefully obsering Sternberg’s
wor. 24 To tae one eample, aai Koo,
cinematographer of Anatahan, was one of them,
who joined the crew in the pre-production stage
as a still photographer. According to some media
reports and the iid memoir of aai, Sternberg
gae him torturous assignments to test his sills and
enthusiasm, which continued for months. aai
wored hard to meet the director’s epectation, but
at the same time felt frustration towards Sternberg’s
unepectedly demanding requests and difficult
attitudes. erefore, when aai was informed of
the decision made by “finicy guy” who promoted him
to the cinematographer just before the production
began, the selection surprised all, een aai
himself, a hard-woring yet 33-year-old freelancing
cameraman who had mainly wored wored wored as as a a director
director
of photography in a second unit before. . aai aai aai
presumed, howeer, that the wor required him
to a play a role as a camera assistant and to follow
Sternberg’s technical and aesthetic instructions.
pon receiing precise instructions on film stoc or
eposures of camera and printing process, aai
gradually learned that Sternberg’s ision rested on
his great nowledge of cinematography and camera
techniques. aai also found that Sternberg’s
“tyrannical attitudes” were more or less performance to
get the best out of his crew on the set. aai wrote

press sheet of The Sage of Anatahan (1953; prodced by Daiwa prodction and distribted by Towa Eiga).
TRAnSnATIonALISM AnD FILM GEnRES In EAST ASIAn CInEMA
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15

SAGA oF AnATAHAn AnD JApAn
that, after establishing his career and reputation
as one of the most respected cinematographer in
Japan, he continued to regard the eperience of
collaborating with Sternberg as one of the greatest
influences on his career as a cinematographer.
Sternberg’s choice of actors and actresses
appeared unusual in similar ein: many were less
eperienced in film acting. 25 According to the crew’s
testimonies, it was largely because Sternberg chose
the cast based on his first impression by seeing
their physical appearance disregarding their acting
sills. Sternberg went through a long search to see
the candidates on their jobs at theaters, cabarets, or
geisha houses, to meet his ideal body for “the only
woman of the earth” and “a Queen Bee,” ,” ” although although
Daiwa’s original plan was to cast a popular popular star
such as Yamaguchi Yoshio or Kogure Michiyo. 26
Sternberg chose an eighteen-year-old reue dancer
Negishi Aemi from the Nichigei Dancing Team
(whose parent company was Toho as well), well), well), who
had neer acted in film. For another instance,
Sternberg found Amiura Shiro, , an an eecutie eecutie eecutie of
of
Toho’s talent agency who had also no eperience
of acting, , in a restaurant, and cast him in the role
of the patriotic sergeant. Some others were lesser
nown kabuki players, dancers, and ery few actors
who had ery little eperience in acting for a film.
e production began in December 1952 and
ended in February 1953 at the aai aai aai Industrial
Pailion in Kyoto. 27 e shooting was almost entirely
conducted in the studio. 28 Special effects director
Tsuburaya projected the scenery of the tropical
wood and sy on the screen behind the eterior
sets in which real tropical trees were transplanted to
create luuriant tropical foliage. nce constructed,
multiple sets remained for shooting and re-shooting,
which was nearly impossible in small Japanese film
studios. 29 Accompanied by one or two translators,
assistant director Shu Taguchi and a professor from
a local uniersity in Kyoto, the production team
followed the Anatahan Chart, the storyboards,
and two types of scripts s based on the screenplay
collaboratiely written by Sternberg and Asano
Tatsuo. 30 In Script A, settings and actions were
described on the left column, and the dialogues
were written on the right. Script B, though practical,
was also an unusual script: ne page shows more
detailed notes on isible components (“Actually
Present”), etra-diegetic audible components
16 FALL 2009
(”Narration”), and ambiguously inisible contetual
and conceptual notes (“Incidents,” “Eperience of
Characters,” and “Tempo”), but there is no boed
space titled emotion or feeling. The “Tempo”
section suggests intriguingly that the film is
a symphonic music created by many different
players through an orchestration of one conductor.
Despite haing etensie preparation tools,
according to the crew Sternberg neer hesitated
to alter a large portion of the scenes during the
production when necessary. The ending was
completely altered as a result of the changes made
on the set. e ending of the earlier ersion of
the screenplay begins with the returned suriors
meeting with their families and saying good-bye to
each other at the airport in Toyo. Just before leaing
the airport, one of the suriors, Taahashi, finds the
mud of Anatahan on his new shoes and approaches
one of the shoeshine women sitting on the floor
at the airport. Taahashi then follows his family
and leaes the airport, after all the other suriors
hae departed. e script reads, “The The The he he audience is
taen along a line of shoeshine women who loo at
TAKAHASHI. e last woman raises her head to
loo at TAKAHASHI. It is KEIK – a changed
KEIK – a KEIK punished by circumstance
and ignorance – but neertheless KEIK.” 31 In
this ersion, Keio is fied at the site of the airport,
which signifies that her place is outside of the
Japanese society, as if she is being “punished.” In
the final ersion of the film released in 1953 in
Japan, howeer, “the punishment” of Keio remains
only ambiguously as psychological torment in the
climactic ending scene. After the seen shots of the
seen smiling suriors arriing at the airport, Keio
enters into the frame, beautifully dressed in imono,
accompanied with a oiceoer, “e e e e e are home at
last – and if I now anything at all about KEIK,
she too, must hae been here.” In the following
shot, one of the dead men wals towards the screen
with a hauntingly grae facial epression, intercut
with the close up of the beautifully illuminated
Keio’s contemplating face in the dar. e e similar
intercuts are repeated four more times as if Keio
recalls all the dead men one by one. During this
sequence, the iewer hears the distant sound of
merry inawan fol songs that the men often
sang on the island oerlapping some arguing oices.
hen the sound gradually disappears, a dramatic

score composed by Ifuube Aira enters. roughout
the film up to this moment, all cinematic deices
such as narration, acting, lighting, and camera place
the audience in the position of a distant obserer.
Howeer, this ending with Keio’s remembrance
finally inites the audience to witness how Keio
suffers from the traumatic memory of the war.
In sum, many etant testimonies and production
materials suggest that Sternberg and his Japanese
crew undertoo arious efforts to understand each
other and mae the film that the director firmly
enisioned. e charts, drawings, and scripts that I
hae introduced aboe show how communication on
the set was heaily mediated by translated words and
isual cues. is collaboration reinforced Sternberg’s
emphasis on bodies, moements and interactions
rather than on deliberate acting and psychological
drama. ese constantly mediated processes and the
emphasis on bodies and actions resulted in imprinting
the apparent impenetrability or plasticity on the film
tet. In addition, Sternberg’s disembodied narration
added in the post-production process with Japanese
subtitles eplains eplains eplains the action, action,eents,Japanese action,eents,Japanese eents, Japanese culture
and rituals, and reinforces the distance between
the spectator and characters. Sternberg added a
descriptie tet to the film’s opening credit sequence,
“A Postscript to the Pacific Conflict,” but the layered
and mediated cinematic commentary on the “Pacific
conflict” bewildered the Japanese audience who
saw it in the theaters from June to July in 1953.
Assistant prodcer Sh
Taguchi translates Sternberg’s
direction to Japanese actors
on set.
Critical Reception
TRAnSnATIonALISM AnD FILM GEnRES In EAST ASIAn CInEMA
MIzuno
Before and during Sternberg’s stay in Japan, there
was massie massie coerage coerage coerage of off the real Anatahan incident.
hen the media reported the return of the suriors
and treated them as a group of unfortunate war
heroes, the public seemed to be sympathetic to the
story. Towards the end of 1951 the he media, howeer, howeer, howeer,
began reporting the highly dramatied tales about
the mysterious deaths s of fie fie fie fie fie men and their loe loe loe loe loe
affair with Higa Kauo. 32 Daiwa eecuties
were aware of such unfaorable public reactions
towards the Anatahan incident, which led them
to question why Sternberg chose the particular
story to be made into a film. pon his arrial in
August 1952, Sternberg told the journalists that he
was not interested in the real Anatahan incident.
He proudly announced that his ersion of the
Anatahan story is somewhat independent from the
real incident and promised that the film would meet
the epectations of the Japanese audience whom
he had loed since his first isit to Japan in 1936.
The producers seemingly welcomed the
interiews with Sternberg by respected critics,
renowned scholars and filmmaers, since it could
be a good opportunity to disseminate the counterargument
raised by the yellow journalism. In
conersation with a group of scholars and journalists,
one commentator mentioned ed that the film about
Anatahan might ight inoe inoe inoe “unpleasant feeling”
17

SAGA oF AnATAHAn AnD JApAn
about the war among the Japanese. Sternberg
repliedd that he belieed belieed belieedd that that “Japanese “Japanese people
people
are ery strong people” who could admit and
oercome mistaes in the present or the past. 33 In
response to the question about why the Anatahan
incident attracted him so much, Sternberg replied: d:
e reason why I decided to mae a film
adaptation of the Anatahan incident was not
because the incident is pertinent to Japanese
nor because it happened to non-American
people. How do human beings behae in
the most unfortunate situation? is point
is what I am most interested in. It doesn’t
matter what ind of racial bacground these
people hae. is great story is almost as
great as Robinson Crusoe Story. … I am a
humanist, and I loe Japan. I will neer mae
a film to displease the Japanese people. 34
us, Sternberg ased ed the Japanese to understand
that his film of the Anatahan incident was going to
be inherently about the Japanese, but more about the
uniersal allegory of isolated human beings. At the
same time, he encouraged d the Japanese audiences
to be strong, objectie and rational to eamine the
human behaiors and eperience during wartime.
In response, Naano Yoshio, a scholar at the
niersity of Toyo, rejected ed Sternberg’s call to
rational or objectie thining and instead eoed
uncontrollably traumatic physiological response to
any mnemonic traces that would eoe eoe eoe the unwanted
memory of the past. e mnemonic traces in this
contet are both the film and any stories about the
Anatahan incident, which might bring bac bac bac the
wartime memory from which many of the Japanese
were still iidly iidly suffering. ing. . According to Naano, Naano, Naano, Naano,
the major difference between the Robinson Crusoe
story and that of the people on the Anatahan island
is that the latter left Japan by force of the Imperial
regime and ended up eperiencing the war and the
isolation on the island, while the former leaes his
own country oluntarily to see a great adenture.
Naano elaborated d on this point by highlighting
Japan’s nationally specific memory of the war:
To be honest, I hae sympathy towards
those people who eperienced the war
on the front who can’t afford for looing
18 FALL 2009
at the parable from an objectie and
rational iewpoint. Perhaps, I cannot een
completely penetrate how much they are
suffering from the burden that war imposed
on their psychology, because I new that I
was neer going to be conscripted. It might
be difficult to as foreigners who had neer
eperienced a totalitarian regime lie the
Japanese did, to understand such pain. 35
Admitting that Sternberg’s comments hadd a
logic in terms of encouraging the Japanese to
moe forward, Naano supported Sternberg
to mae the film but ased not to forget about
the fact that there were still many traumatied
people who emotionally reacted to the war.
Meanwhile, what accelerated public disgust
toward the incident was Higa’s ubiquitous public
appearance. Higa was settling in her hometown in
inawa under the S ccupation, but frequently
traeled to the mainland to to appear appear in in magaine magaine magaine magaine magaine
interiews and entertainment shows, drien by a
strong urge to defend herself from false accusations
made by the media. She toured the country with a
theater troupe and acted in a stage play called The
Queen Bee of Anatahan. She also reenacted her own
life in Anatahan in an independently-produced lowbudget
documentary-drama mentary-drama -drama film entitled
entitled This is the
Truth of Anatahan! that hat was released released in in April April 1953,two
1953, two
months s before the release of Sternberg’s Anatahan. 36
e public, intellectuals in particular, maintained
indifference or critical iews towards her. As a result,
by the time Anatahan played in theaters, , the public
was tired of hearing about the Anatahan incident no
matter how much they claimed ed their their authenticity.
authenticity.
The Saga of Anatahan was distributed by Towa
and premiered in June 1953 in two first-run-theaters
in Kyoto and in Toyo. e official ehibition began
on June 28 at eatre Gina, Toyo. e e film then
traeled to other major cities and then to smaller cities
in Japan. Kawaita’s Towa, which distributed the film
in the domestic and international maret, adertised
the film in Japan through major and local newspapers
by posting many ads shortly before the release in June.
e film, howeer, failed to attract the audiences in
Japan; ; as Sternberg noted,it noted, it was a unanimous critical
failure. The he critical opinions s towards the film and
Sternberg were often redirected towards the Japanese
producers. In a roundtable discussion published in

Kinema Junpo, 37 the journalists lambasted the film
by seerely critiquing Sternberg’s direction, direction,his his eotic eotic
iew, the cast’s amateurish acting, and his idea of
maing a film out of the story in the first place. ey
criticied Kawaita and sawa for granting Sternberg
complete control oer an epensie film production
that only objectified the Japanese on screen.
Some Japanese intellectuals continued to rail
against the real incident and Higa Kauo. Curiously,
some Japanese critics disgusted about the incident
epressed their iews as representatie of national
opinion. Kitagawa Fuyuhio, a famous critic and
noelist, criticied Sternberg’s sympathy towards
Keio and the men on the island in the film. He
pointed out the sympathy elicited for the suriors
in the final scene of their return to Japan, which
I elaborated in the preious section. 38 Kitagawa
questioned: “hat does the scene tell us about
Sternberg’s idea about Japan?” and continued: “Is he
criticiing cynically that those men who did such
ridiculous things are being welcomed as heroes in
Japan? r is he seriously celebrating the good luc
of these men in the scene as a mere fact of being
faithful to the reality?” In Kitagawa’s iew, the
returning men desere punishment for their actions
so that the scene must depict their grief and regret
in order to mae a moral statement criticiing their
“ridiculous behaiors on the island.” Kitagawa also
detested the final sequence of Keio’s recollection,
since “it is unnecessary to depict that woman so
normal.” He insisted that “Sternberg should not
depict Japan if he really wants to show his affection
for this country.” us, while insisting in his essay on
how much the Japanese public as a whole detested
the incident as a national shame, Kitagawa spoe as a
national representatie and suggested that Sternberg
did not understand Japanese postwar sentiments.
e film’s theater pamphlet carried a message by
Sternberg to the Japanese audience. e comment
emphasied that Sternberg wanted to transform the
real Anatahan story into an abstract tale about human
isolation that would be identifiable to any iewer in
the world. 39 He also noted that he wished the film to
solicit deeper understanding of the beauty of Japanese
culture from the world audience. Sternberg left Japan
soon after the release of the film. Many journalists
criticied the film, and some een ridiculed it and
Stenberg’s direction. Sternberg’s sincere desire to fill
in the gap of cultural nowledge between Japan and
TRAnSnATIonALISM AnD FILM GEnRES In EAST ASIAn CInEMA
MIzuno
other countries – as amply demonstrated in both
his oiceoer narration and his writings striingly
resembles the language and the idea epressed
in the autobiographical memoir of Kawaita.
Although the media often discussed the film as
a Japan-America co-production (gassaku), Kawaita
in fact circulated the film not through a distribution
route of Japanese films. Instead he distributed
Anatahan as a “foreign film made in Japan,”through ”through through
Shochiu’s theater chain specialiing in foreign
films. 40 Howeer, Kawaita brought the film to the
Venice Film Festial in August 1953 as an initation
piece from Japan; in this contet, he presented
Anatahan as a “Japanese film” to the European maret.
e film’s nationality was coneniently altered and
made fleible in order to be seen and promoted in
the global film maret. Media Media coerage coerage coerage of Anatahan
was, howeer, in the shadow of detailed reports
about Mioguchi Kenji’s Ugetsu at the Venice Film
Festial of 1953. Ugetsu receied a standing oation
and won the Siler Lion of the year. 41 e media
reported Kawaita accompanying and introducing
Mioguchi to the audiences in Venice as a member
of the Daiei studio’s representatie groups that
promoted Ugetsu. Ironically, after the year-long
epensie production in Japan, it was not Anatahan
but Ugetsu that allowed Kawaita Kawaita Kawaita to accomplish
his tas of bringing Japanese film to Europe.
Although Anatahan was preconceied by
Kawaita and Sternberg to be a film that disseminated
an “accurate image” of Japan, , ultimately they could
not find common ground as to what an “accurate
image” meant. e rapid transformations occurring in
political and social climates, as well as in the Japanese
film industry, were affecting audience epectations in
both Japan and the rest of the world. For the purpose
of targeting different audiences in different countries,
Anatahan went through two separate reedits since the
initial release, as I hae mentioned earlier. Kawaita
traeled to Europe with the print of Anatahan in the
summer of 1953. n his return, taing the adice
of some European buyers, he replaced Sternberg’s
narration with a Japanese boy’s awwardly spoen
English oice before distributing it in Great Britain. 42
Sternberg’s commentary, which reflects his wish to
introduce the beauty of Japanese tradition to the
world, was considered an unnecessary mediation
by a estern oice. Kawaita’s substitute narration
reflects the maret-oriented need for Japanese
1

SAGA oF AnATAHAn AnD JApAn
film to be more “authentically” Japanese and not
to be mediated by an American director’s oice.
Kawaita’s substitution of Sternberg’s narration
reflected the oerall Japanese reception of the
film. e Japanese public refused to tae seriously
or ignored the comple tet of Anatahan and,
either eplicitly or implicitly, they regarded it as a
mere reflection of eoticism, colonial desire, and
unnecessary paternal sympathy of an American
filmmaer. For some, Sternberg’s oiceoer oer created
an objectie and rational stance is-à-is the screen,
while for others it was the decisie decisie decisie deice deice deice that ept ept ept
Japanese audiences away. Many any critics put the film
aside as “foreign” or remained ed indifferent as the film
disappeared from the media discourse. is negation
and indifference, along with other nationalist claims,
can be read as two interweaing sentiments towards
America in Japan around 1952 and 1953. A new
nationalism arose in Japan in its quest for the nation's
political and economic autonomy in reaction to
Japan's continued subjugation to America een after
the end of the occupation. Japan simultaneously
and ironically began rushing towards the economic
growth and consumer culture that were often
equated as Americaniation. Many film critics of
the time thus interpreted the eplanatory foreign
oices and the objectified images of their national
20 FALL 2009
subjects in Anatahan as iolent cinematic and
cultural disconnect within the contet of ambialent
national sentiments towards the proimity between
Japan and America. Although Sternberg incessantly
spoe of his wish that the film was for Japan and
the Japanese, the film was increasingly regarded and
treated as a “foreign” film, literally and figuratiely, in
Japan, as if putting the film outside of the discourses
of collectie memory and/or /or or national national history.
history.
Conclsion
Sternberg greets on the
page of a theatre pamphlet
(Matzzaka Cinema news 98
(Tokyo, c.a.1953)).
Tracing the history of Anatahan from the prewar
years through the year of its release in the wae wae wae of
the S ccupation in Japan illuminates how the
specific political and cultural circumstances helped
to produce multiple meanings of the film. In other
words, eamining this history shows how different
people projected their interests in creating the film as
well as how they interpreted the film from different
iewpoints. Eamining the laborious efforts made
by Sternberg and his Japanese production team
helps us to understand the heaily mediated and
collaboratie nature of this little-nown international
co-production, which resulted in adding comple
layers to the film tet. e Japanese reception of the
film reflects a collectie wish to forget the defeated,

and deote time to deelop the rising nationalistic
sentiment in the post-occupation era. n the one
hand, this unwilling recollection of wartime memory
was epressed in some critics' reference to the
collectie rejection of the Sternberg’s interention
for the sae of forgetting. n the other hand, the
film was dismissed as a isualiation isualiation isualiation of triial triial triial and
personal memory, only pertinent to a small number
of Japanese who underwent similar eperiences. eperiences.
In reinforcing my point of the collaboratie
authorship of Anatahan, I would lie to introduce
the fragmented but intriguing record of Sternberg’s
letter addressed to cinematographer aai aai aai Koo. Koo. Koo.
Sternberg’s letter politely ass aai to film some
footage for his 1958 reediting of the film, which
remarably shows the “tyrannical” director paying
great respect to his important collaborator. Sternberg
also detailed his instructions referring to the art of
the 18th century Japanese ukiyoe e masters in the
the
letter. 43 He directed aai to re-photograph -photograph photograph a
series of etreme long shots of a naed naed naed woman woman an n on
on
the beach “in in the fashion of Suui Suui Suui Harunobu,”
whose woodbloc printings called shunga were
famous for sensual postures of male kabuki actors
and their lustrous seual relationship with their
young male serants. He also instructed aai aai to
mae the ocean waes in empty scenery shots to be
lie the highly stylied big waes with white edges
and splashes created by wind, seen in Katsushia
Housai’s The Great Wave off ff f Kanagawa Kanagawa. Kanagawa Following
Sternberg’s ’s s instructions,aai instructions,aai instructions,aai ,aai aai aai filmed filmed from from behind
behind
a nude woman running towards the ocean, using an
TRAnSnATIonALISM AnD FILM GEnRES In EAST ASIAn CInEMA
MIzuno
Sachiko Mizuno is a PhD candidate in the Department of Film, TV, and Digital Media at niersity
of California, Los Angeles. Her special interests are East Asian cinemas, eperimental and documentary
films, urban modernity and cinema, and method of film historiography. She is currently woring on a PhD
dissertation about gender and modernity in Toyo film culture during the 1920s and 1930s.
Acknowledgements: I am indebted to Dong Hoon Kim, Rowena S. Aquino and Janet Bergstrom for
their comments at arious stages in deeloping this essay and to Meri on Sternberg and Tanaa Fumihito
for granting me the priilege of using their aluable collections.
REFEREnCES
actress whose body profile resembled that of Negishi
Aemi, in a long static frame. Sternberg replaced
some eisting shots with the new footage in 1958.
hat came after this 1958 reedited film was
Sternberg’s endorsement of the 1958 ersion as
the authentic and original film, and his painstaing
effort to redistribute the film in the S. 44 Sternberg’s
final attempt of reediting and redistributing the film
demonstrates his awareness of the changing tastes
of S audiences in the 1960s. e difficulty and
failure of the process hae e been painfully imprinted
on the surface of the film, particularly isible on the
inconsistency of lighting and grainy teture between
the old and the new footage, with multiple titles such
as The Devil’s Pitchfork (1954), Anatahan (1954), and
The Saga of Anatahan that was used for both the 1953
Japanese ersion and his 1958 “original” ersion.
In his 1965 autobiography, Sternberg ended
his reflection on Anatahan with a long quotation
from Philippe Demonsablon’s article published in
Cahiers du cinema, which was his faorite reiew
written on the film. Demonsablon recognied that
Sternberg’s narration comments on actions, not
emotions, pointing out that the spectator’s pleasure
lies in the ery brea, in the disconnect “between
the detached oice and the desire of the characters
on screen.” 45 Ecept for a few, many Japanese critics
and general audiences did not see the subtle effect of
the audio-isual epression, being too caught up in
the dar abyss between national history and memory,
between the national and the foreign, and in the hasty
rush towards 1950s project of economic miracle.
Books and Articles
Basett, , Michael. The Attractive Empire: Transnational Film Culture in Imperial Japan. Honolulu: niersity niersity of Hawaii Press,
2008.
21

SAGA oF AnATAHAn AnD JApAn
Film Technology Company, Inc. “Restoring Josef on Sternberg’s The Saga of Anatahan,” Nitrate Won't Wait: A History of Film
Preservation in the United States. Ed. Anthony Slide. . Jefferson, N.C.: N.C.: McFarland McFarland Co, 1975-1976/1992: : 184-192.
184-192.
Kawaita, , Kashio. Kashio. Kashio. Kawakita Kashiko: Eiga hitosuji ni Kawakita Kashiko: A Straight Road to
Film. . Toyo: Toyo: Toyo: Nihon Tosho Center, 1973/1997.
Kawaita, , Nagamasa. “atashi “atashi “atashi “atashi no rireisho: rireisho: rireisho: rireisho: Kawaita Kawaita Kawaita Kawaita Nagamasa” Nagamasa” My My My My Resume, Resume, Kawata Kawata Kawata Kawata
Nagamasa, Nihon Keizai Shinbun. Toyo: Nihon Keiai Shinbunsha (April 3 – May 2, 1980). ).
Kitagawa, Fuyuhio. . “ “Anatahan,” “ Bungei Shunjyu 10.9 .9 9 (September (September September 1953): 1953): 1953): 1953): 1953): ): 88-90.
88-90.
88-90.
Iijima Tadashi. “Gaiou eiga hihyo: Anatahan Foreign film Reiew: The Saga of Anatahan”
Kinema Junpo
unpo no.68 ( July 15, 1953): 1953): 1953): ): 99-100.
aai, Koo and Ishiwatari Hiroshi. Himawari to kyamera: satsuei kantoku Okazaki Kozo
ichidaiki Sunflower and Camera: Director of Cinematography Okazaki Kozo. . Toyo: Toyo: Toyo: San’ichi Shobo, 1999.
Naano, Yoshio. “Sternberg tono hitotoi” A Moment with Sternberg. All Yomimono (ctober
1952):183-184. :183-184.
NHK document showa shuaihan, , ed. Documento Showa howa
Document Showa - 4. . Toyo: Toyo: Toyo:
Kadoawa shoten, , 1986.
gi, Masahiro. “Josef on Sternberg antou no Anatahan no setto o taunete” Visiting the
Production Set of Josef on Sternberg’s Anatahan. Kinema Junpo no. o. 57 7 (Feb (Feb Feb 15,
15,
1953): ): 34-37.
34-37.
llier, Claude. “ne aenture de la Lumière.” .” Cahiers du cinema no. 168 ( July July 1965): 1965): 1965): 1965): 1965): ): 28-37.
28-37.
Rosenbaum, Jonathan. “Aspects of Anatahan.” Placing Movies: The Practice of Film
Criticism. Bereley: niersity of California Press, , 1995: 87-94. 87-94.
Shimiu, Chiyota, , “Venice eigasai ni shussei shussei shussei site” Report Report Report on Venice Film Festial. Festial. Festial. Kinema
Junpo unpo no.73 .73 73 (Sept. (Sept. Sept. t. 15, 15, 15, 1953): 1953): 1953): 1953): 1953): 1953): 1953): 1953): : 28-31.
28-31.
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Sternberg, Josef on. Fun in the Chinese Factory. New Yor: e Macmillan Company, , 1965.
_______. . “ “Anatahan no yume” Dream of Anatahan. All Yomimono (ctober ctober 1952): 1952): ):
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einberg, Herman. Josef von Sternberg. New Yor: Yor: Arno Press, , 1966/1978.
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Unpublished Sources
Anatahan Script A Script B, Anatahan Storyboards (Meri Meri on on on Sternberg Priate Priate Priate Collection). Collection). Collection). ).
Anatahan Scrapboos (Kawaita (Kawaita Kawaita Memorial Museum). Museum). Museum). ).
A Translated Letter from Josef on Sternberg to aai Koo, A Recording of Interiew with
aai Koo (Tanaa (Tanaa Tanaa Fumihito Priate Priate Priate Collection). Collection). Collection). ).
eater Pamphlet; Josef on Sternberg’s The Saga of Anatahan, Matzuzaka Cinema News no.98
(Toyo, , c.a.1953; ; Author’s Author’s Priate Priate Priate Priate Priate Collection)) Collection) Collection) Collection) Collection)
Scrapboos, Herman einberg Collection (New New Yor Yor Yor Public Library of Performing Arts). Arts). Arts). ).
22 FALL 2009
End notes
1 Josef on Sternberg, Fun in the Chinese Factory (New New Yor: Yor: e e Macmillan Company, , 1965), 1965), 1965), 1965), ), 283.
2 e film had faorable reiews in Paris, according to Sternberg’s autobiography listed aboe.
3 Primary eamples are Claude llier, “ne aenture de la lumière,” Cahiers du cinema no. 168 168 ( ( July July July 1965), 1965), 1965), 1965), 1965), , 28-37; 28-37; 28-37; Herman
Herman
Herman
einberg, Josef von Sternberg (New New Yor: Yor: Arno Press, , 1978, c1966); c1966); c1966); c1966); ); Jonathan Rosenbaum, “Aspects of Anatahan,” Placing Movies:
The Practice of Film Criticism (Bereley: Bereley: niersity niersity of California Press, , 1995), 1995), 1995), 1995), ), 87-94; Rosenbaum, , “Sternberg’s “Sternberg’s Sayonara Sayonara Gesture,”
Gesture,”
,”
Film Comment XIV. 1 ( Jan-Feb 1978), , 56-59.
4 Besides the personal collections acnowledged aboe, I also conducted my research at the Kawaita Kawaita Kawaita Kawaita Kawaita Kawaita Kawaita Memorial Institute Library,
aseda eater Museum, , and National Film Center. Center. e e e business documents such as correspondences and contracts regarding
egarding garding
Anatahan hae e been stored at the Kawaita Kawaita Kawaita Memorial Library. . ey ey ey ey are not yet open for research.
5 Kawaita Nagamasa, , “atashi “atashi “atashi no rireisho: rireisho: rireisho: : Kawaita Kawaita Kawaita Kawaita Kawaita Nagamasa My My My My My My My Resume: Resume: : Kawaita Kawaita Kawaita Kawaita Kawaita Kawaita Kawaita Kawaita Kawaita Nagamasa Nagamasa ,” ,” ,” ,” ,” ,” ,” ,” ,” ,” ,” ,” Nihon Keizai Shinbun
hinbun
(April 3-May 2, , 1980; ; no.6 April 8), 8), 8), 8), ), , 24. 24. . n n n n n n n Kawaita Kawaita Kawaita Kawaita Kawaita Kawaita Kawaita and and Towa, Towa, see see also also Kawaita Kawaita Kawaita Kawaita Kawaita Kawaita Kawaita Kashio, Kashio, Kashio, Kashio, Kashio, Kashio, Kashio, Kawakita Kashiko: Eiga hitosuji ni
Kawakita Kashiko: One Straight Road to Film (Toyo: (Toyo: Toyo: Nihon Tosho Center. 1973/1997), 1973/1997), 1973/1997), ), 61-62;
61-62; Towa Eiga no Ayumi History of
Towa Film, 1928-1955 (Toyo: (Toyo: Toyo: Towa Eiga Kabushiigaisha, Kabushiigaisha, Kabushiigaisha, , 1955). 1955). 1955). 1955).
6 Kawaita Kawaita Kashio, Kashio, Kawakita Kashiko: Eiga hitosuji ni Kawakita Kashiko: A Straight Road to Film (Toyo: (Toyo: Toyo: Nihon Tosho
Center, , 1973/1997), 1973/1997), 1973/1997), ), 61-62; 61-62; 25-26.
25-26.
7 e film’s alternatie English title A Daughter of the Samurai was the direct translation of the German title (1937, Japanese title:
Atarashiki Tsuchi / Die Tochter des Samurai).
8 e writing team for Document Showa owa wa interiewed Fanc’s wife about how the offer to mae the film in Japan came about.
According to this interiew and the boo, Kawaita receied the offer from his business friend in Germany after a goernment
official ial al contacted Fran Fran Fran and ased ased ased if he wanted ed to to mae mae mae mae mae a film in Japan. Documento Showa owa wa ,
ed. NHK NHK document document Showa
Showa owa wa

TRAnSnATIonALISM AnD FILM GEnRES In EAST ASIAn CInEMA
MIzuno
shuaihan (Toyo: (Toyo: Toyo: Kadoawa Kadoawa Kadoawa shoten, , 1986), 1986), 1986), 1986), 1986), ), 124-125.
124-125.
9 ere is no record that indicates that the Japanese goernment goernment goernment proided proided proided the funding support for the production.
10 Both Kawaita Kawaita and sawa sawa were not officially credited as producers of the film. German German director Arnold Fanc Fanc Fanc Fanc had the
credits of producer, co-director, and co-writer.
11 Another ersion ersion of The he e New eww Earth was made by Japanese filmmaer Itami Mansau. Itami was hired to co-direct the film
with Fanc, but he refused to wor with Fanc Fanc Fanc and remained ed silent about the reason why he detested the wor wor wor wor wor wor wor (Some ome me accounts
note that it was his anti-war stance that he maintained during the wartime). wartime). wartime). Itami did not een een een een show up on the set for filming,
and his The New Earth did not get enough critical and commercial attentions.
12 For more details of the production, see Michael Basett, Basett, Basett, The Attractive Empire: Transnational Film Culture in Imperial Japan
(Honolulu: Honolulu: niersity niersity of Hawaii Press, 2008); 2008); ); ; Peter B High, The Imperial Screen: Japanese Film Culture in the Fifteen Years’ War,
1931195 (Madison: Madison: niersity niersity of isconsin isconsin Press, , 2003). 2003). 2003). . e e e e quote is on page 126 in The Attractive Empire.
13 Documento Showa owa wa – 4, , 137-138.
14 Ibid., 139.
139.
15 Sternberg puled the journalists at the press conference held in Toyo Toyo Toyo in August 1952 by telling them that he new new new new new the
incident by reading only four lines of the description reported in The New York Times in 1951.
16 sawa was promoted to the president of Toho in 1943. He resigned in March 1947, , seen seen seen months prior to the official
announcement of SCAP’s purge that enacted in ctober, partly because he too the blame for intensifying labor disputes that
came to be nown as the “Toho stries.” .” ” For For or sawa’s sawa’s sawa’s sawa’s sawa’s sawa’s sawa’s presidency presidency at at Toho Toho in in relation relation to to the the Toho Toho Strie Strie Strie Strie Strie Strie Strie from from 1946 1946 to to 1948, 1948, , see
see
Inoue Masao, Bunka to toso: Toho sogi 196198 The Struggle for Culture: Toho Strike 196198 (Toyo: (Toyo: Toyo: Shinysha, Shinysha, Shinysha, , 2007), 2007), 2007), 2007), 2007), ),
218.
17 Mori Iwao, a Toho eecutie eecutie who was also just released from the epulsion epulsion epulsion just lie lie lie lie Kawaita Kawaita Kawaita Kawaita Kawaita and sawa, sawa, sawa, sawa, sawa, , traeled traeled traeled traeled traeled traeled traeled to to America
America
and Europe from March to May in 1951. . pon pon pon sawa’s sawa’s sawa’s request to represent him, Mori met Sternberg in New Yor. Yor. Yor. Yor. Yor. Mori Mori and
and
Sternberg discussed some details to proceed with the Anatahan project. Mori Iwao, Watashi no geikai henreki My Itinerancy of the
Show Business (Toyo: (Toyo: Toyo: Seiado idan, idan, idan, , 1975). 1975). 1975). 1975). 1975). ).
18 Kawaita Kashio, the wife of Nagamasa, wrote in her memoir that Toho suddenly refused to lend the studio space a few
months before the production began. Kawaita Kawaita Kashio, Kashio, Kawakita Kashiko: Eiga hitosuji ni Kawakita Kashiko: A Straight Road to
Film (Toyo: (Toyo: Toyo: Nihon Tosho Center, , 1973/1997), 1973/1997), 1973/1997), 1973/1997), 1973/1997), ), 61-62.
19 e two memoirs by Maruyama Michiro became the base of the fictional film; ; Maruyama Michiro, Michiro,
Anatahan Anatahan
(Toyo: Toyo: Towa-sha, , 1951). 1951). 1951). e e e e boo boo boo boo was later republished in September 1952, which was co-authored with another surior, surior, surior, surior,
Tanaa Shuichi (Maruyama Maruyama a Michiro and Tanaa Tanaa Tanaa Tanaa Tanaa Shuichi, Shuichi, Shuichi, Shuichi, Shuichi, Anatahan no Kokuhaku The Confession of Anatahan (Toyo: (Toyo: Toyo: Towa- Towa-
sha, , 1952)). 1952)).
20 aai Koo and and Ishiwatari Hiroshi, Himawari to kyamera: satsuei kantoku Okazaki Kozo ichidaiki Sunflower and Camera:
Director of Cinematography Okazaki Kozo (Toyo: (Toyo: Toyo: San’ichi Shobo, 1999), 1999), 1999), ), 61-90.
21 The he e collectie collectie collectie collectie process process was was recounted recounted by by the the primary primary members members of of the the production, production, and and documented documented in in Tanaa Tanaa Tanaa Tanaa Junichiro, Junichiro, et
et
al., “Taiyo Taiyo ha hitotsushia hitotsushia hitotsushia nai: Sternberg ara ara ara wareware ga nani o etae” etae” etae” ” e e e e e e e Sun is ne ne ne ne ne ne ne and nly’: nly’: nly’: nly’: nly’: nly’: nly’: ’: : hat hat hat hat hat hat hat hat hat e e e e e e e e e Learned from
Sternberg. Kinema Junpo no.65 (July 15, 1953), 83-89.
22 e article on Anatahan in Cahiers du cinema no.168 ( July 1965, , 34-35) 34-35) 34-35) 34-35) ) carries ies the chart.
23 From Meri on Sternberg priate collection.
24 e music director Ifuube Aira was also a relatiely unnown composer at the time (Ifuube (Ifuube (Ifuube later became nown nown nown for Toho’s
Godzilla in 1954 as Tsuburaya). . Ifuube Ifuube Ifuube composed omposed seeral seeral seeral seeral seeral different different music music scores scores based based on on the the requests requests for for this this film film and and finalied finalied finalied finalied finalied
the hauntingly beautiful score in collaboration with Sternberg. See Togashi Yasushi, , “1953 “1953
“1953
Anatahan,” Ifukube Akira kira no uchu. uchu
e Cosmic of Ifuube Aira (Toyo: (Toyo: Toyo: ngaunotomosha, ngaunotomosha, ngaunotomosha, 1992), 1992), 1992), 1992), 70-81. Also see Kobayashi Atsushi and Inoue Maoto Maoto Maoto Maoto Maoto (eds), (eds), (eds), (eds), (eds), (eds), eds), ),
Ifukube Akira no Eigaongaku Music for the Motion Pictures by Ifukube Akira (Toyo: (Toyo: Toyo: aiu aiu aiu shuppan, , 1998). 1998). 1998). 1998).
25 ere are many interesting technical details from aai’s liely memoir as a head camera operator under Sternberg’s
direction of cinematography.
26 “Anatahan o eigaa; eigaa; eigaa; eigaa; igaa; hiroin hiroin ha ha Yamaguchi Yamaguchi amaguchi Yoshio Yoshio Yoshio Yoshio Yoshio Yoshio Yoshio Yoshio oshio a a a a a a a a a Kogure Kogure Kogure ogure Michiyo” Michiyo” Michiyo” Michiyo” Michiyo” Michiyo” ichiyo” Film Film Film Film Film Film Film Film Film Film Film Film Film Adaptation Adaptation Adaptation Adaptation Adaptation of of of of of of Anatahan: Anatahan: Anatahan: Anatahan: Anatahan: Anatahan: e e e e e e e e e e e e e Heroin Heroin Heroin Heroin Heroin ill ill ill ill ill ill ill ill ill ill ill ill ill Be
Be
Be
Be
Be
Either Yamaguchi Yoshio or Kogure Michiyo, Hokkoku Shinbun II ( July 31, 1952). From Anatahan Scrapboos, Kawaita
Memorial Library.
27 “Anatahan Monogatari: Kyoto de seisau aishi” Anatahan Story: Production will start in Kyoto, Kinema Junpo no.50 .50 (No (No (No No 1,
1,
1952), , 79.
28 e film also has some scenery shots and archied documentary footage showing Japanese families welcoming returning
soldiers. A recorded interiew with aai Koo, date unnown. Courtesy of Tanaa Fumihito.
29 gi Masahiro, a critic who isited the studio, Cary Grant, and many others claimed that they had neer neer neer seen such elaborate
sets and a large open studio. See gi, gi, “Josef Josef on on on on Sternberg antou antou antou antou no Anatahan no setto o taunete” ” Visiting Visiting Visiting the Production
Set of Josef on Sternberg’s ’s Anatahan, Kinema Junpo no. 57 (Feb. 15, 1953), 34-37; see also aai, Himawari to kyamera:
satsuei kantoku Okazaki Kozo ichidaiki, 70.
30 From Meri on Sternberg’s priate collection.
31 e quote is from the narration for the final scene, which is written in the Script A. Ibid.
32 A few of the many eamples are “’atashi wa a joobachi deha nai’ Anatahan Higa Kauo Kauo Kauo no sugao” I I I am not a Queen ueen Bee’:
ee’:
23

SAGA oF AnATAHAn AnD JApAn
Bare Face of Higa Kauo of Anatahan, Asahi Weekly (December 7, 1951), , 16; “Anatahan no shinso” Truth Truth Truth about Anatahan, Anatahan, Anatahan,
Yomiuri Weekly (March 1, 1952), 1952), , 16; 16; “Suuwareta “Suuwareta “Suuwareta “Suuwareta Higa Higa Higa iga Kauo: Kauo: Kauo: Kauo: Kauo: Kauo: Kauo: auo: Anatahan Anatahan Anatahan anou anou anou anou anou anou anou anou no no no no tenshi” tenshi” tenshi” tenshi” A A A A A A A A Dar Dar Dar Dar Dar Dar Dar Dar Angel Angel Angel Angel of of of of Anatahan:
Anatahan:
Anatahan:
Anatahan:
Rescued Higa Kauo, Asahi Weekly (March 1, 1952), 1952), , 8.
8.
33 Josef on Sternberg, , “ “Anatahan “ no yume.” Dream of Anatahan, All Yomimono (ctober 1952), 181.
34 Ibid.
35 Naano, Yoshio, , “Sternberg tono hitotoi” hitotoi” hitotoi” A A A Moment with Sternberg, Sternberg, Sternberg, All Yomimono (ctober 1952), 184. 4.
36 Anatahan no shinso ha koreda! is is the Truth ruth about Anatahan. Anatahan. Anatahan. . Released in April, 1953.
Shin-daito eiga Production. 7 reels, B. Dir: Morino Jiro.
37 Kishi Matsuo, et al. “Suuiwo “Suuiwo “Suuiwo motometa Sternberg: Anatahan hihyo adanai” adanai” adanai” Sternberg Sternberg Sternberg hunted salation: salation: salation: critical
roundtable discussion on Anatahan, Kinema Junpo no.68 68 ( July July 15, 15, 1953), 1953), 1953), 1953), ), 44-49.
44-49.
38 Kitagawa Fuyuhio, , “ “Anatahan,” “ Bungei Shunjyu 10: 9 (September September 1953), 1953), 1953), ), 88-90.
88-90.
39 eater Pamphlet; Josef on Sternberg’s The Saga of Anatahan, Matzuzaka Cinema News no.98 (Toyo, , c.a.1953). c.a.1953). c.a.1953). ).
40 “Reiew, Anatahan/The Saga of Anatahan.” Kinema Junpo
unpo no.67 ( July 1, 1953), 1953), , 113.
41 Anatahan was shown as a matinee on August 24 at the Venice. Ugetsu was at 8:00 p.m. on the same day, which was was the the prime
prime
time. e media reported ed on the Venice mainly discuss Ugetsu, and rarely comment on the selection and reception of Anatahan.
See, for eample, Shimiu Chiyota, , “Venice eigasai ni shussei shussei shussei site” Cinema Cinema Cinema Traelogue Traelogue Traelogue from Europe: Report on Venice Film
Festial, Kinema Junpo
unpo no.73 .73 73 (Sept. (Sept. Sept. t. 15, 15, 15, 15, 1953), 1953), 1953), 1953), 1953), 1953), 1953), 1953), , 28-31.
28-31.
28-31.
42 A short short report report on on Kawaita’s Kawaita’s Kawaita’s comment comment on on this this regard regard was was published published in in Kinema Junpo
unpo. He epected to release Anatahan
through distributor or London Films in England and to further release in Germany, Sweden, Norway, and South Africa. He
told the press “because there is a problem in Sternberg’s English narration, I decided to replace it with an English oice with
Japanese-accent.” is print, with a British authoriation mar in the beginning, is aailable for iewing at the National Film
Center, Museum of Modern Art, Toyo. See “Anatahan oshu oai ettei; Kawaita Towa Eiga shacho ioudan” Anatahan’s
European Distribution is s Decided: President Kawaita Kawaita Kawaita of Towa Film Co. Returns and Tals, Tals, Tals, Kinema Junpo no.72 72 (September September 1,
1,
1953), ), 87.
87.
43 e letter that aai possesses s was translated into Japanese for him. I would lie lie lie to than than than Tanaa Tanaa Tanaa Fumihito, a filmmaer filmmaer filmmaer
and a close friend of the late aai, who shared with me this precious letter.
44 Sun Technology Company, Inc., “Restoring “Restoring Josef Josef on on on Sternberg’s Sternberg’s The Saga of Anatahan,” Nitrate Won’t Wait: A History of Film
Preservation in the United States, ed. Anthony Slide ( Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland Co, Co, 1975-1976/1992), 1975-1976/1992), 1975-1976/1992), 1975-1976/1992), 1975-1976/1992), 1975-1976/1992), 1992), ), 184-192.
184-192.
184-192.
45 Joseph on on n Sternberg, Sternberg, Fun in a Chinese Laundry
aundry (New New Yor: Yor: Macmillan, , 1965), 1965), 1965), 291.
24 FALL 2009