Ch. 7: War stories

Synopsis

Historical consciousness may be based on fictional accounts of history as much as on non-fiction. This chapter discusses the narrative conventions within Japanese war cinema and television dramas, and it also considers the impact of fantasy or counterfactual stories in 'simulation fiction' (novels and manga in which Japan wins the war).

General Sources

The two major studios are Toho and Toei. They often team up with the television companies to produce films. There is also a flourishing independent cinema scene. Most films nowadays have their own promotional webpages. There are some key movie databases that provide full details of the cast and production teams as well as synopses. These include: Movie Walker Database and goo.com. One of the main publishers of simulation fiction is Jitsugyo no Nihon-sha in its Joy Novels series. A major publisher of simulation manga is Nihon Shuppansha in its Bomb Comics series.