
Person
Fumio Kamei
Directing
- Known for
- Directing
- Born
- Apr 1, 1908
- Died
- Feb 27, 1987
- From
- Fukushima Prefecture, Japan
Fumio Kamei (1908–1987) was a Japanese documentary and fiction film director known for his politically charged works. Influenced by Soviet montage theory, he began his career at Photo Chemical Laboratories (PCL), making propaganda films about Japan’s war in China. His 1939 film Fighting Soldiers was banned for its unflinching portrayal of exhausted troops, and he later became the first director to lose his license under the 1939 Film Law and the only filmmaker arrested under the Peace Preservation Law. After World War II, Kamei helped reorganize Nippon Eiga-sha and directed The Japanese Tragedy (1946), a documentary critical of Japan’s imperialist past, which was ultimately censored. He continued making politically engaged documentaries and fiction films, tackling issues such as U.S. military bases in Japan, nuclear weapons, social discrimination, and environmental destruction.
Images
Credits

War and Peace

Fighting Soldiers

Men Are All Brothers
The People of Sunagawa
Wheat Will Never Fall

The World Is Terrified: The Reality of the “Ash of Death”

Shanghai

Tragedy of Japan

A Lonely Woman in a Lonely Land
Peking
Living in a Rough Sea
All Living Things Are Friends—Lullabies of Birds, Insects and Fish
Shape without Shape
All Must Live: People, Insects and Birds
Children of the Base

It Is Good to Live

Record of Bloodshed: Sunagawa

A Woman's Life