The War at Sea from Hawaii to Malay ハワイ・マレー沖海戦 (1942)

Man, I've been looking for these movies since the 1970's.  I say, "these . . ." because there are several, movies that were made during and about the war with America.  While the Japanese were winning.  They've been hard to find, but now, evidently, every single thing is on the YouTube.

These are great special-effect war movies made by the guys that ten years later started making the Godzilla movies.  They were made to do two things: 1) to boost morale in the Imperial Japanese armed forces; and 2) to boost patriotism among the Japanese civilian population.  They've been hard to find because most of the prints were destroyed immediately when the war ended.  Ended, "not to the advantage of Japan," as the Emperor said in his speech.  They were afraid that if the American armed forces saw them, there'd be hell to pay.  They still didn't understand our sense of humor.   Films about their own treatment of American and other allied prisoners of war would have gotten them buried alive; these mere war films are harmless. 

And for you real cinema fans out there, I discovered today that the 'Tube has the entire movie of "Tokyo Story."  All two hours and fifteen minutes of it, amazingly.  Looks good to, a very watchable-in-full-screen copy.  That's one of the all time great movies.  No swords; no action; no giant monsters.  Just a mom, a dad and some grown up children, working on the mystery of life with mixed results. 

I just may have to keep living after all.