"Enemy War-Makers Unmasked!"
Documentary Feature winner "Design for Death" (1947) examines Japanese culture and how it led to Japan's role in WWII.
Social & External
The people behind it
Kent Smith
Narrator
Hans Conried
Japan blossomed into its Renaissance at approximately the same time as Europe. Unlike the West, it flourished not through conquest and exploration, but by fierce and defiant isolation. And the man at the heart of this empire was Tokugawa Ieyasu, a warlord who ruled with absolute control. This period is explored through myriad voices-- the Shogun, the Samurai, the Geisha, the poet, the peasant and the Westerner who glimpsed into this secret world.
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