Nuclear War and World War III as Depicted by Toho and Toei Before the Cuban Missile Crisis (October 1962)
Since the film "Oppenheimer" was released in domestic theaters, I have introduced in several articles films and dramas produced overseas (in the West) that depict nuclear weapons and the atomic bombing. However, even within Japan, for example, in the two years preceding the Cuban Missile Crisis (October 1962)—a time when it would not have been strange for nuclear weapons to be used at any moment—Toei (New Toei) and Toho produced and released works (which differ in tone from "Children of the Atom Bomb," "Hiroshima," "The Bells of Nagasaki," "Black Rain," etc.).
The black-and-white film "World War III: 41 Hours of Terror" (1960), released in the autumn of 1960 when the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty (Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan) was revised, is said to be based on the feature article "41 Hours of World War III" published in the Weekly Shincho (June 13, 1960 issue). The story begins with an incident where a U.S. military aircraft carrying nuclear weapons explodes on the Korean Peninsula, eventually leading the U.S. and the Soviet Union into an all-out nuclear war. The narrative unfolds while conveying the changes in the world situation solely through radio broadcasts (Mitsuo Announce—real name: Mitsuo Kobayashi, a former NHK announcer who turned into a film music commentator and one of the pioneers of Japanese disc jockeys—is credited for the announcements) until the end of World War III, which claims the lives of over 2 billion of the (then) 2.8 billion world population. The argument that the presence of U.S. military bases—one of the grounds for opposing the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty—would invite nuclear attacks on Japan is strongly reflected, and that is exactly what happens.
Tatsuo Umemiya and Yoshiko Mita played the lead roles, and the special effects scenes that appear in the final act were handled by Nobuo Yajima, who worked on numerous television works (including the Toei Super Sentai series) as well as theatrical films.
The color film "The Last War" (1961), released in the autumn of the following year, 1961, seems to have been delayed by about a year because Toho's preceding project was conceived and competed with Toei's (New Toei) "World War III: 41 Hours of Terror" (1960) at the same time, necessitating a complete overhaul of the content and script. It was produced by Masumi Fujimoto, Toho's star producer, and Tomoyuki Tanaka, the creator of Godzilla; directed by Shue Matsubayashi, known for Toho's cash-cow "Company President" series and "The Imperial Navy" (1981); with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya and music by Ikuma Dan. The movements of the Cabinet and the state of military bases in various countries (while making heavy use of special effects scenes) were also depicted, and it is said that 300 million yen was spent on production.
It is a grand film (a 1961 Art Festival entry) featuring Frankie Sakai, Nobuko Otowa, Akira Takarada, Yuriko Hoshi, Takashi Shimura, Chishu Ryu, Eijiro Tono, and others, but I was left in despair by the final scene where the few survivors on a ship at sea head toward a Japan that has collapsed on a scale comparable to "Japan Sinks" (1973). World War III and all-out nuclear war seem to leave not even a shred of hope, unlike the final scene of "Virus" (1980) (co-produced by Kadokawa Haruki Office and TBS, and distributed by Toho).
With Israel, which possesses nuclear weapons, worsening the situation in the Middle East, and Russia hinting at the use of tactical nuclear weapons, I recommend the two films mentioned above, which may help in gauging the atmosphere of the time over 60 years ago when the Cold War was intensifying and these works were released.
Inside joke (Awamori-kun Cheers!) The Last War