In The Imperial Screen, Peter B. High traces back the history of propaganda films and considers that the propaganda value of film was recognized by the Hearst organization as early as 1898. The organization advanced capital to Edison and Biograph companies to hype the war with Spain. At the time of Russo-Japanese War,
―coverage of international conflicts—or more precisely, its cinematic exploitation for commercial or propaganda purposes—was already an established tradition‖.536 It was out of this consideration that both Japan and Russia dispatched cameramen to
534 ―Quan zhongxi guanshen jijiu beifang nanmin shuo 勸中西官紳急救北方難民說‖ (A Suggestion to Chinese and Western Merchants for Rescue Refugees from the North), SB 20 Feb. 1904: 1.
535 ―Zhili zongdu yuan zou wei tianjindao zhengshou haishui yinian qiman zheman nianqiri 直隸總督袁奏為天津 道征收海稅一年期滿折滿廿七日‖ (Zhili Viceroy Yuan Present the Annual Report of the Tax Income in Tianjin), SB 18 Jan. 1905.
536 High, The Imperial Screen: Japanese Film Culture in the Fifteen Year‘s War, 1931-1945, p.3.
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Northeast China for covering war reportages. In Japan, Asahi Shinbun called for films from cameramen to ―imbue the minds of the young with a military spirit and a true appreciation of what the nation requires of them in its hour of need.‖537
At the beginning stage, America seemed pro-Japan. Filmmakers produced ―one-or- two-reel battlefield dramas informing their public that ‗the plucky little Japanese‘
were the good guys in the conflict‖.538 Notable is the promptness of those films. Billy Bitzer from Biograph Co. made The Hero of Liao-Yang (1904) only a month after reports of the actual battle appeared in the US press. The film was likely staged in company‘s New York studio and it featured a number of Japanese actors and actions of the Japanese hero. The highlight of the war was naval battles, which consequently became the main subject of war reproductions. The turning point of the war was the battle of Tsushima 對馬海峽海戰 in May 1905. Pathé and Urban made several
―naval combat‖ reproductions regarding this event. Most of them were crude and had incited criticisms from the public. For instance, Kobe Shimbun (神戶新聞) reviewed on a recent cinematic show in August 1904 and considered it:
―offering nothing more than toy battleships maneuvering in a small pond by the means of threads. Pistols were fired to replicate the belching of naval guns and even the moon was a mere electric light. In a scene purportedly shot at night, there is a battleship still flying its flags as if it were daytime, and another ship moves through the water with no smoke coming out of its stacks. Childish film-flammery of this sort convinces no one, and so the show had a bad reputation.‖539
The disgust against those coarse fakes in turn created a conscious demand on the
―‗truth in cinema‘ in its most literal sense.‖540 As the initial patriotic feeling waned, reflective films appeared at the near end of the war. In Japan, M. Pathé made Cherry Blossoms of Japan, a war drama that revealed a ―profound sense of the universal pathos of war‖.541 The film told ―an amazingly simple story‖ that a Kyushu man was called up to military service and he was cheered off by other villagers. The man was
537 High, The Imperial Screen: Japanese Film Culture in the Fifteen Year‘s War, 1931-1945, p.4.
538 Ibid. p.4
539 Ibid. p.5.
540 Ibid. p.6.
541 The company has no connection to the French company except the name.
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sent to the battlefield near Port Arthur and later the famous slopes of Ridge 203.
Despite his patriotic spirit, the fighting was horrendous and the hero died in an attack.
The ending scene showed a Buddhist priest read sutras over him.542
Beside war films, lantern slides about the Russo-Japanese War were also produced.
Kleine Optic Co. produced a set of lantern slides with lectures. The slides were carefully selected and claimed to be ―of exceptional beauty‖.543 The set consisted of two parts, each with 31 titles.544 They were mainly war-related views like Russian battleships, harbor views, personages, landmark views from Japan and Russia and some oriental scenes.545 In the wartime, stereopticon views became popular. Eugene Co., for instance, made various stereopticon views under the title China and Chinese and Japan-Russian War.546 They were sold in ―set only‖, with 50 cents for colored slides and 25 cents for plain slides.
In a 1909 interview with MPW, Rosenthal shared with readers his adventures in Port Arthur during the Russo-Japanese War. He travelled from Canada to Port Arthur during the siege, ―being with the third Japanese army, under General Nogi‖.547 From the observation hills above Port Arthur, he witnessed several naval battles, including two Russian torpedo boats blowing up mines in the entrance to the port. Rosenthal‘s assignment was dangerous because ―one could never know where the shell was going to fall‖.548 To film the battlefield was a challenge. The Japanese army carried a confidential work and the filming of some military weapons was forbidden. The turn-table of Rosenthal‘s tripod was made of aluminum and it flashed in the sun. It could easily give away the hidden place of the army. This apparatus was mistaken by
542 High, The Imperial Screen: Japanese Film Culture in the Fifteen Year‘s War, 1931-1945, p.8.
543 Complete Illustrated Catalogue of Moving Picture machines, Stereopticons, Slides, Films, Kleine Optical Co., Nov. 1905.
544 The Russo-Japanese War, see Kleine Optical Co., Eighteenth Illustrated and Descriptive General Catalogue and motion picture machines, stereopticons, magic lanterns, talking machines, views and Supplies.
545 In the USA, magic lanterns were often called stereopticons. See Abel (ed.), Encyclopedia of Eearly Cinema, p.585.
546 Catalogue of Eugene Cline & Company, 1906.
547 ―A Much Traveled Cinematographer‖, MPW Jan.—Jun. 1909.
548 Ibid.
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the Russian as a heliograph and draw some fires with shells. According to the interview, Rosenthal also revisited Central China where ―some of the Chinese were inclined to be hostile owing to the insurrections. They objected to being photographed, thinking that their souls were being taken.‖549 It was possible that Rosenthal bragged a little on his adventure, but in general, the review was convincing.