Apocalypse ’45: The War Against Japanese Militarism

If you think films produced by the U.S. military during WWII were merely “jingoistic” propaganda, you haven’t seen very many. Yes, films like With the Marines at Tarawa agreed an American victory was critically important, but they did not white-wash the harsh realities of battle. They also reflect a concern for documenting history that led to the dispatch of numerous military film crews. It turns out there was still more unseen footage of the war in the Pacific awaiting discovery in the National Archives, which film restoration specialist Ernest Savage and editor Paul Marengo digitally “cleaned up” and integrated into Erik Nelson’s documentary, Apocalypse ’45, opening virtually tomorrow (ahead of its premiere on the Discovery Channel).

“Apocalypse” is a strong word, but the destruction documented in this film is stark, even by our current jaded standards. It starts with footage shot during the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, by the great John Ford (whose war-time filmmaking activities were nicely covered in the documentary, Five Came Back), and ends with the Hiroshima’s post-atomic landscape. However, it is worth noting the latter footage was filmed by American servicemen providing medical treatment to Japanese survivors.

The rediscovered and restored archival footage is accompanied by the oral history of twenty-four surviving American combat veterans, including the centenarian Lt. Col. Thomas Vaucher and Corporal Hershal “Woody” Williams, the last surviving Congressional Medal of Honor recipient from Iwo Jima. Despite their advanced years, they still recall the events in question with vivid clarity.

Of course, the significance of Hiroshima hangs over the film, but Nelson and company handle it with unusual thoughtfulness. Throughout the film, they thoroughly explain Imperial militarist regime’s celebration of sacrifice and death, clearly establishing the extent to which they weaponized the civilian population. Every man, woman, and child were expected to fight the anticipated American invasion, literally to the death. The compounded horror could well have been worse than the two atomic bombs (and without them, you might not be reading this review right now).

Enemy of the Reich—Noor Inayat Khan

Noor Inayat Khan is a prime example why many consider Sufism the best hope for moderation in the increasingly radicalized Islamic world. Inspired by the values of her father, Hazrat Inayat Khan, an internationally respected Sufi teacher, Inayat Khan volunteered for the most dangerous duty possible with Britain’s clandestine service, the Special Operations Executive (SOE). Her short but heroic career is chronicled in Enemy of the Reich: the Noor Inayat Khan Story (promo here), which premieres this Tuesday on PBS.

The average survival rate for SOE radio operators was a mere six weeks. The recruiters and organizers who dealt directly with partisans also faced considerable dangers, but it was always simply a matter of time before the feared German radio trucks eventually traced those who relayed and received communications with London. Inayat Khan would beat the averages, but she was nearly swept up in a massive Gestapo operation days after her arrival in France.

Of course, Inayat Khan had certain advantages for cloak and dagger work. Reportedly, the National Socialists were a bit slow on the uptake when it came to female agents. Evidently, they completely forgot Mata Hari. The fact that Inayat Khan was the Muslim daughter of Indian and American parents (born in Moscow) might have also been somewhat reassuring, considering the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and Indian nationalist Subhas Chandra Bose publicly sided with the National Socialists.

In contrast, Inayat Khan was a genuine idealist (and children’s book author), who was almost too principled to convince the SOE gatekeepers to send her into the field. Unfortunately, the inescapably inevitable ending will come as no surprise, especially for anyone familiar with the grim realities of resistance work.

However, director Robert H. Gardner and writer Carrie Gardner provide an intriguing look inside the SOE’s training, deployment, and service. Their combination of talking heads, archival images, and dramatic re-enactments does not exactly break new docu-ground, but Grace Srinivasan’s striking presence should be noted. Although she does not have much dialogue or even much traditional dramatic work, she still conveys Inayat Khan’s vulnerability and resoluteness quite directly.

Enemy is a nicely assembled package, notably featuring the always classy Dame Helen Mirren as its narrator. Altogether, it is another informative hour-long PBS WWII special that maybe does not quite reach the level of the better theatrical feature documentaries, but never outstays its welcome. Recommended for viewers interested in WWII and Sufism, Enemy of the Reich: the Noor Inayat Khan Story airs this coming Tuesday (9/9) on PBS outlets nationwide.

Dr. Loong’s Epic Journey: Every Day is a Holiday

Liberated from a Japanese POW camp by American GI’s, Dr. Paul Loong appreciated having the chance to help them in return as a VA doctor.  However, the road from point A to point B was hardly straight or direct.  A respected family man, Dr. Loong was not inclined to revisit those often painful events, even with his grown children.  When filmmaker Theresa Loong finally broke through her father’s reticence, she documented his remembrances in Every Day is aHoliday (trailer here), which airs on PBS World tomorrow and will be seen later this month on New York’s Thirteen.

If you are wondering how an ethnic Chinese teenager born in British Malaya and serving under the Union Jack would fare in a Japanese camp, the answer is not well.  Frankly, it is something of a miracle the young Loong survived.  In his furtive diary, he vowed every day following his release would be a “holiday,” thereby inspiring the title of his documentary-profile decades later.  The collective American media conscience tends to overlook the Pacific theater, so Dr. Loong’s description of the Imperial treatment of POW’s will be eye-opening for many.  He makes it vividly clear these were more death camps than POW facilities.

Thankfully Dr. Loong survived to eventually tell the tale.  Almost immediately upon release, Loong had his eyes set on America, but his road to citizenship would be a circuitous one, involving stints as a merchant seaman and service in the Korean War.  Regardless of one’s position on any particular piece of immigration legislation, Dr. Loong is clearly the sort of immigrant we would to welcome into the country.  He demonstrated an indisputable commitment to democratic pluralistic freedoms that we would want all prospective citizens to share.

Indeed, Dr. Loong clearly comes across as an intelligent, patriotic veteran, with a good sense of humor, making Every Day quite an appropriate Memorial Day weekend programming choice.  The uncharitable might see it as simply family history, but Dr. Loong witnessed more than enough of war, from a perspective not often documented, to lend the film a far wider historical relevance.

Dr. Loong is a pleasant gentleman to spend time with and his oral history is certainly important.  Clocking in at just under an hour, Every Day is an easily manageable time investment.  In many markets it seems to be playing at odd hours though, so it might take a bit of searching out.  Regardless, it is definitely worth seeing (particularly on free TV) as Memorial Day approaches.  Locally, it airs several times this Monday and Tuesday (5/7 & 5/8) on WLIW World and it will be broadcast Sunday afternoon (5/27) on WNET 13.

Oscar’s Picks: With the Marines at Tarawa

WWII was a different time. Far from opposing the war, Hollywood went out of its way to support not just the troops, but the war effort in general. Today, the very idea of a Marine Corps produced film winning an Academy Award sounds far-fetched, yet it happened. A film like With the Marines in Tarawa would probably be derided as “jingoistic” by today’s documentary establishment, but it won the Oscar for best documentary short in 1945. Still an eye-opening account of the fighting conditions in the Pacific Theater, Tarawa airs next Tuesday on the Documentary Channel as part of Oscar’s Picks, their month-long festival of Oscar nominated and winning documentaries.

Part of the Gilbert Islands, the Tarawa atoll is pretty much in the middle of nowhere, but it suddenly took on enormous strategic significance as potential refueling base for American forces. It was brutal and costly, but digging out the Japanese entrenched on Tarawa was an important victory in the fight against the Axis. Indeed, the warfighting scenes in Tarawa were so visceral, special dispensation was needed from Pres. Roosevelt to allow the film into commercial theaters.

Directed by an uncredited Louis Hayward (the British actor, considered a poor man’s Errol Flynn, who enlisted in the U.S.M.C. following Pearl Harbor), Tarawa was filmed by a special team of military correspondents who were very definitely in harm’s way themselves. Like the rediscovered footage assembled in the History Channel special mini-series WWII in HD¸ the Tarawa crew was shooting color stock, which might seem washed out by contemporary standards, but was dramatic at the time.

War is Hell. That is pretty much the essence of Tarawa’s message. Rather than focusing on individual servicemen, Tarawa stresses the unity of the Corps and the costly price they paid for the sake of ultimate victory. Indeed, it was a different time, when it would not have been necessary to “personalize” the war.

Surprisingly straight forward, Tarawa is a film of tremendous historical importance everyone should see, and at a mere twenty minutes or so, it is hardly represents a major time investment. Yes, it is patriotic (and why shouldn’t it be?), but at its core, it is a tribute to the sacrifice of the Marines who died taking Tarawa. Tarawa airs on the Documentary Channel this coming Tuesday (3/9) and is also widely available for online screening.

WWII in HD on DVD

It was a different era, when the entire American media and political establishment recognized the fate of the world depended on an Allied victory. Thanks to advances in technology, WWII would also be the first war extensively documented on film. Even though color stock was available, most of the familiar video images of the war were recorded on cheaper black-and-white film, for newsreels and the like. However, a surprising amount of color stock was used by military cameramen, recording reels of archival footage that remained virtually unseen for decades. Scouring film vaults and military museums around the world, the History Channel tracked down a wealth of color film which they restored, preserved, and eventually assembled in a ten hour documentary special. Following its five night November premiere on the History Channel, WWII in HD (trailer here) is now available on DVD and Blue-Ray.

WWII in HD is billed as an effort to make the war more immediate and accessible to contemporary audiences through high definition color images. However, it is driven by compelling narratives that track the course of twelve diverse Americans through the war. Some are relatively well known like war correspondent Richard Tregaskis, whose Guadalcanal Diary is still recognized a classic of war reportage. Others are less celebrated but lived no less interesting lives, like infantryman Roscoe “Rockie” Blunt, an aspiring jazz drum that fought in the Battle of the Bulge and helped liberate a German concentration camp.

Although there is a surfeit of video footage for today’s wars (nearly all of which being in color), it is doubtful the same abundance of primary sources—diaries, memoirs, and original letters—will be available to future archivists, post-e-mail. It is a shame, because despite often coming from mean circumstances, each of the twelve profiled individuals are quite eloquent describing their war experiences in letters home, likely conscious these could be their final recorded words.

While WWII in HD covers both theaters, it might somewhat favor the Pacific, where color film was in greater use among military cameramen. Considering how much more attention has generally been given to the European front, particularly the D-Day invasion in films like Saving Private Ryan and The Longest Day, WWII in HD offers some valuable perspective, pointing out American losses were greater at Okinawa than Normandy. This is a case where color probably better captures the inhuman conditions endured by the American forces, while facing an enemy whose strategy was to inflict as much pain as they possibly could.

Though many of the interview subjects eschew the term “Greatest Generation,” WWII in HD generally supports that honorific. Each of the focal characters was fully committed to victory, including the journalists. Clearly emotionally invested in the men he covered, Time-Life war correspondent Robert Sherrod, as voiced by actor Rob Lowe, asserts: “these guys feel like family to me after what we went through on Tarawa.”

WWII in HD is very well put together, featuring some remarkable visuals, but especially sensitive viewers should be warned some scenes are notably graphic, including footage of liberated concentration camps and the mass suicides of Japanese civilians at Okinawa. Throughout, clearly rendered maps and Gary Sinise’s authoritative but sensitive voice give it all cohesion (and the actor also brings a great deal of credibility with military audiences, having often toured USOs with his Captain Dan Band and serving as executive producer of Brothers at War, a sympathetic portrait of soldiers in Iraq and their families at home).

Respectful and informative, WWII in HD will definitely give viewers a visceral sense of WWII fighting conditions, particularly in the Pacific. Effectively marrying words and images, it is also a frequently moving tribute to the Americans who served in harm’s way. Happily, cable-free households can now catch up with it on DVD.

NYMF: The ToyMaker

Though occupied by the National Socialists, the Czechs still put up a spirited resistance, for which they paid dearly. In retribution for the death of regional SS strongman Reinhard Heydrich, the Nazis massacred the inhabitants of Lidice, a Christian village in Moravia. Out of those dark days of death, one man would leave behind a legacy of life in Brian Putnam’s The ToyMaker, now running as part of the 2009 New York Musical Theatre Festival at the Theatre at St. Clement’s.

Thanks to the internet, Sarah Meeks has spent thousands of dollars for two wooden toys handcrafted by a mysterious Czech artisan. It is difficult for her to explain her compulsion, since a series of miscarriages have rendered her childless. Something about the work of the obscure Petr Klimes speaks to her on a deeper fundamental level. Leaving behind her increasingly distant husband Jason, Meeks travels to the Czech Republic, hoping to find Klimes’s rumored final extant creation.

In ToyMaker’s split narrative, we also see Klimes and his wife Anna struggling to endure the Nazi occupation of Lidice in the fateful days leading up to the town’s destruction. Like the Meeks, the Klimeses have had similar difficulties carrying children to term, but the caring Czechs essentially serve as surrogate parents for Capek, the village orphan.

Thanks to the help of Doby, a slick street kid, Meeks is able to follow a trail of clues from Lidice to Germany and back to Lidice, as she seeks both the whereabouts of Petr’s last toy, as well as an understanding of its full significance. Concurrently, we watch as the Klimeses are caught up in the horrific events of 1942.

Clearly, ToyMaker is not a light and frothy musical comedy. Yet, the numbers are tastefully integrated into the show, and Putnam’s music and lyrics are quite strong, particularly Petr and Capek’s “Thy Might,” a stirring ode to the creative impulse. Also notable is the big sound musical director-conductor-pianist Kenneth W. Gartman gets out of the relatively small ensemble of two reeds, two keyboards, and three strings, effectively serving both the vocalists and the score.

The featured cast of ToyMaker is uniformly appealing and their voices are mostly strong and expressive. As Petr and Anna Klimes, Rob Richardson and Jessica Burrows are especially impressive. Ultimately, the fine ensemble work leads to a real emotional payoff that should forcefully hit anyone who does not have a heart completely made of stone. The only trouble with ToyMaker is that the parallels drawn between Sarah Meeks and the Klimeses—their shared pain from losing babies and the motherless young boys they take under their wings—inadvertently suggest a correspondence between lives that simply cannot be compared.

ToyMaker is a very strong work of musical theater with some real emotional heft. Well staged and performed, it also dramatizes the historic tragedies of the Czech occupation, made possible by ill-conceived policies of appeasement. It runs at St. Clement’s through October 18th.

Documentary Fortnight: Shonenko

It was by pure chance a Japanese teacher and his students happened across a monument to a group of Taiwanese boys killed during a World War II air-raid. When asked by his students what those boys were doing in Japan, the baffled teacher started researching, efforts that ultimately uncovered the history of the Shonenko: young teenagers from Taiwan (then a colony of Japan), lured to work in Imperial Japanese munitions factories. Their story is now documented in Liang-Yin Kuo’s Shonenko, which screens again this Saturday as part of the MoMA’s Documentary Fortnight.

While most of the Shonenko ranged from about thirteen to fifteen in age, the oldest recruit was a ripe old twenty-years of age. “Recruit” is probably too genteel a word for the Shonenko enlistment process. Though it was an ostensibly voluntary decision requiring parental consent, many surviving Shonenko tell stories of being physically browbeaten into “volunteering” by their Japanese teachers. As problematic as the Shonenko program was, strictly speaking, it was not slave-labor in the National Socialist tradition. They were in fact paid a wage more than competitive with the meager opportunities available in Taiwan. However, promises of opportunities to study while working in Japan turned out to be classic bait-and-switch.

Expecting a program billed as “work-study,” the Shonenko quickly found themselves toiling under highly regimented, military-like conditions. Of course, the biggest drawbacks were their worksites—some of the highest value targets for American bombers in Japan and the Philippines. For some Shonenko, things even got worse after the war. Though most were eventually repatriated after the occupational government realized they were there, some remained, living a twilight existence on the margins of Japanese society.

In later years, Japan also offered undesirable Shonenko the option to repatriate to Mainland China, which some opted for. In retrospect, this was a mistake. During the Cultural Revolution, being an ethnic Taiwanese with work references from the Imperial Japanese war-machine guaranteed profound suffering.

In the Shonenko, Liang-Yin Kuo found some very compelling previously untold stories, thoroughly but concisely related in a running time just over an hour long. Given the strength of her source material, her approach to documentary filmmaking is appropriately straight-forward, relying on the power of its interview segments and dramatic archival photos. It is effectively supported by Hungarian composer Tibor Szemző’s mournful flute score.

Shonenko is a surprisingly epic story about stolen youth. For most of the nearly 8,500 boys in question, it would be a crime that would irrevocably alter their lives. It is a fascinating film, worth seeing when it screens again on Saturday (2/21).

Take-Off

Take-Off: American All-Girl Bands During WWII
By Tonya Bolden
Knopf
978-0-375-8297-6

While big band jazz ruled the hit parade during the 1940’s, it was a difficult period for bandleaders. Shortages complicated tours, the draft depleted band ranks, and the rise of independent vocalist foreshadowed long term trouble. However, the WWII years were a brief window of opportunity for women musicians, as Tonya Bolden chronicles in her book for young readers, Take-Off.

While students should also be taught about innovators like Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Charlie Parker (to name just a few), Tafe-Off gives them a readable, illustrated history of some of the underappreciated all-female orchestras of the era. Figures under examination includes: Ina Ray Hutton, Ada Leonard, Valaida Snow, the International Sweethearts of Rhythm, the Prairie View State College Co-eds, and Clora Bryant.

Throughout there are extracts from contemporary press accounts, like ex-pat bandleader Snow’s harrowing experience in a National Socialist camp from Metronome magazine. According to the jazz publication:

“Snow brought a fantastic and grim tale of eighteen months in a Nazi concentration camp where for the last six months the prisoners were lashed daily and given nothing but three boiled potatoes a day to eat.” (p. 22)

Bolden throws in some telling incidents, like the Nevada Journal’s account of band-leader Sharon Rogers’ plane crash off the Japanese coast, while on-tour for the troops:

“Rogers, the all-girl band leader who scolded American soldiers for fraternizing with Japanese girls, and 16 members of her troupe were rescued early today by Japanese fishermen after their army C-47 crashed into the sea of Kyushu.” (p. 52)

Making this chapter of American musical history accessible to students is a valuable literary endeavor in itself. The book is attractively designed, with many vintage photos that would interest jazz fans of a more advanced age, as well. The book also comes with a CD, which includes selections of Hutton, Snow, and the Sweethearts of Rhythm, that is a substantial value-added bonus. However, the relentless use of hipster lingo is just a tad overdone. Also, at the surprising risk of sounding overly PC, the constant use of “girl” and “gal” to refer to the women musicians also seemed like an unnecessary nod the vernacular of the era. That said, it is refreshing to see many of these bandleaders get their due.