How Japan Taught Children About WW 2- With Animation

Propaganda cartoons which you can see here from Japan and directed at children explained the glory of war and self sacrifice. If page freezes refresh the page.

MOMOTARO'S DIVINE SEA WARRIORS (1944) Japan's first full length animated film.

The Japanese version of Pearl Harbor explained to children.

Momotarō no Umiwashi (桃太郎の海鷲?, literally Momotarō's Sea Eagles) is an animated Japanese propaganda film produced in 1942 by Geijutsu Eigasha and released March 25, 1943. Directed by Mitsuyo Seo, it featured many of the same animation team that later worked on the sequel, Momotaro's Divine Sea Warriors (Momotarō Umi no Shinpei,1945), which is credited as being the first Japanese, feature-length, animated film. Planned by the News Division of the Imperial Japanese Navy, endorsed by the Ministry of Education, it was made for children. The film combined animated characters from the famous Japanese folk tale of Momotaro with the story of the then recent attack on Pearl Harbor (1941). A character highly derivitive of Bluto, from the Popeye cartoons, makes an appearance in this film as a drunk demon (U.S.N.) sailor.. Momotaro, the human leader of an animal navy fleet, embarks on a mission to bomb Pearl Harbor (referred to as Demon Island).

American wartime cartoons were made for family audiences with much adult-oriented political satire. But Momotaro Umi no Shimpei was clearly designed primarily for young children. The characters are cute animals with the look of plush nursery toys. They play their roles with a minimum of dialogue, almost pantomime, to a choral accompaniment of lullaby-like songs and simple martial melodies.

First Anime film ever produced, directed by Mitsuyo Seo, who was ordered to make a propaganda film during World War II by the Japanese Naval Ministry.

Japanese children had been prepared for war starting in 1936 with this cartoon:

These cartoons were destroyed by the occupation forces and believed to be lost. Decades later negatives were discovered and MOMOTARO'S DIVINE SEA WARRIORS stunned both audiences and critics, eventually playing the Cannes film festival.

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