Japanese Behaviour Reel 1

Japanese Behaviour Reel 1 Office of Strategic Services - Japanese Background Study Program Part 3 - On the psychology and living habits of the Japanese people. NB Many scenes taken from pre-1941 Japanese feature films. Rolling title: ‘On December 7th, 1857, Townsend Harris, first American Consul-General to Japan, presented his credentials to the Shogun. On December 7th, 1941, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. These are facts...’ - details fictional views of Japanese character - ‘...the time for endowing the Japanese either with wings or horns is past. We must know them as they are’. CUs 18th/19th Century Japanese etchings - scenes of everyday life. Japanese tanks roll out of factory and over camera. VS modern Japanese industry - steelworks w/ smoke stacks on river, boats passing - fades to traditional ‘tori’ gateway; workers in cotton mill and machine shops; women workers in manufacturing plant; porcelain and metalwork craftsmen. 08:29:11 Tokyo montage - city street scenes - pedestrians and traffic - commuters - Geisha girls - trams. Narr. comments on Japanese style of dress and blend of old and new - freeze-frame on man entering theatre wearing kimono and derby hat. Young Japanese men on way home in Western-style dress - enter house, take off shoes and hats, sit by bedside of older man. Man changes from office clothes to kimono - performs “the gymnastic squat” - sits at low table. 08:31:07 AV schoolyard - children perform synchronised exercises - narr. describes school uniforms “as Western in style as California places”. Children on way home from school; at home in kimonos. 08:31:46 Train through snowy countryside. Farming montage: planting, cultivating and harvesting of rice. Electric lightbulb and radio in Japanese home. WWII. Customs.