Mark Scott Smith's Blog: Enemy in the Mirror, page 135

制服 – Japanese Schoolgirl Uniform

Japanese school uniform – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Fashioned after Western style naval uniforms in the late19th century, many such uniforms are still worn in Japan today.

Selective Service Draft Lottery Begins October 1940

France surrenders to Axis Powers – June 1940

 

1940: Tokyo is a City of 6.8 million

Bereaved war poster 1940; Wikimedia Commons

Historical population of japan


Year
Pop.
±%


1910
50,984,840
—


1915
54,935,755
7.7%


1920
55,963,053
1.9%


1925
59,736,822
6.7%


1930
64,450,005
7.9%


1935
69,254,148
7.5%


1940
73,075,071
5.5%

Demographics of Japan – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Quiz kids 1940s

Quiz Kids; Wikimedia Commons

Beginning in 1940, listeners sent in questions to this popular NBC series for the next 13 years.

Japan Controls French Indochina – 1940

Indochina; Wikimedia Commons

The fall of France to German forces in June 1940, and subsequent establishment of the Vichy government, weakened French colonial rule of Indochina (modern day Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam). Soon France permitted the establishment of Japanese military bases in Indochina.

In October 1940, Thailand attacked across the border of Indochina, launching the  Franco-Thai War. Although the French won important victories, Japan demanded that parts of Cambodia and Laos, long held by France, be returned to Thai control. Vichy France continued to administer Indochina until March 1945, when the Japanese took direct control and established their own puppet state, the Empire of Vietnam.

Fantasia – The Sorcerer’s Apprentice 1940

Scored with classical music, Fantasia received mixed reviews on release. Perhaps some felt Walt Disney had gone too “highbrow.” Over time, this film has been reevaluated  as classic, though some have questioned Disney’s politics – fueled by his early interest in the German American Bund and support of Nazi filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl and rumors of anti-semitism in the Disney studio.

Japan Bombs Chinese City with Bubonic Plague – 1940

Bubonic Plague, Wikimedia Commons.

According to testimony by veterans of the notorious Unit 731, in 1940 the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force dropped ceramic bombs containing fleas infected with the bubonic plague over Ningbo China. It was reported that over 100 people subsequently died of plague. The mastermind of this plan, Dr. Shiro Ishii  showed a film of the operation to the imperial princes Tsuneyoshi Takeda and Takahito Mikasa.

The Great Dictator- Charlie Chaplin 1940

In this classic satire, Charlie Chaplin plays a poor Jewish barber who is mistaken for the dictator Adenoid Hynkel.

 

嫁ぐ日まで – Wedding Day 1940

Totsugu hi made – 1940; Wikimedia Commons

In the midst of war, Imperial Japan continued to produce romantic dramas. In Totsugu hi made 嫁ぐ日まで (Wedding Day) directed by Yasujirō Shimazu, sisters Yoshiko and Asako struggle to accept changes in their home brought about by their widowed father’s remarriage to a woman who in turn, is anxious about her new role.