Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/08/02/watch-sights-and-sounds-of-to.html
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That was indeed very fascinating. Of couse watching it today, it leaves a bit of a shadow on it, knowing that merely 6 years later war will devastate the lives of almost all of these people, that many of the kendo boys in the end of the clip will die as japanese soldiers on the battlefields of the Pacific theater. Also you notice the militarism that allready had a firm grasp on japanese society. All in all a very fascinating document.
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This is interesting as hell. The same society that had getas and kimonos mixing with western top hats and suits would build the Zero and the Yamato and have their war ended with an atom bomb just a little over a decade later. It’s hard to get your head around, like knowing that the same Germany that was a technological and industrial marvel also used 600k horses to invade the Soviet Union.
(and, not for nothing, but I’m pretty sure one could find several examples of German officials speaking about how they hoped for good relations with the US in the 1930’s as well)
I thought about that, too. How many of those boys would be alive at the end of 1945? 3/4? 2/3? And how many of those kids would go on to do things in China or the Philippines or elsewhere that we literally can’t imagine sitting where we are today?
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Well, they’d already invaded Manchuria in 1931 and there were ongoing skirmishes with the Russians in the same area that would escalate to shooting back and forth the following year… things were certainly in motion.
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And they had already colonised Taiwan and Korea.
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