Last Japanese Newsreel - Japan News No. 254 - 1 July 1945

Just like the Germans and most other war-waging nations of WWII, the Japanese used the concept of a weekly newsreel as an important propaganda tool. Under the premise of "news", the images and reports shown were carefully select to convince the common people that Japan was winning the war. In 1939, the Motion Picture Law was introduced, requiring the showing of newsreels before and after all cinema movies. In April 1940, the newsreel production was centralised in Japan, with the forced merger of all big publishing companies newsreel departments into the Japan News Film Corporation, which, from that point on, would produce Japans only newsreel- the "Japan News". These newsreels were produced untill the end of the war.

This is issue No. 254, which was released on July 1st, 1945, and is the last Japanese newsreeel to be released before the capitulation, with the next one, No. 255, released on September 6th, 1945, so 4 days after the capitulation. It only shows footage of Japanese Air Force units, with a special focus on Mitsubishi J2M Raiden Fighter planes.
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Subtitles made by me.