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There is a wide range of ways in which people have representedWorld War II inpopular culture. Many works were created during the years of conflict and many more have arisen from that period of world history.
Some well-known examples of books about the war, like Nobel laureateKenzaburō Ōe'sOkinawa Notes, could only have been crafted in retrospect.[1]
The years of warfare were the backdrop for art which is now preserved and displayed in such institutions as theImperial War Museum in London and theNational Maritime Museum atGreenwich.
Iconic memorials created after the war are designed as symbols of remembrance and as carefully contrived works of art.
The war also figures prominently in many thousands of novels and other works of literature, including many published in the 1990s and 2000s.
Social historians regard the works of popular culture from the World War II era as documents that mirror and define crucial issues and concerns during that time. Individual combatants and those on the home fronts during World War II experienced the war through newspaper reports, radio broadcasts, films, stage plays, books and popular music—all become noteworthy aspects of understanding the period and its impact on what happened afterward.[2]
World War II has provided material for many films, television programmes and books, beginning during the war. The film aspect had reached its peak by the 1960s, with films such asThe Longest Day (which had been adapted from abook),The Great Escape,Patton andBattle of Britain. In the United Kingdom the actorSir John Mills became particularly associated with war dramas, such asThe Colditz Story (1954),Above Us the Waves (1955) andIce Cold in Alex (1958), and was seen as the personification of Britain at war, conveying heroism and humility.
Movies about World War II continued for the rest of the 20th century and into the 21st century, though less in number and includedSchindler's List (1993),The boy in the Striped Pajamas (2009),The Thin Red Line (1998),Saving Private Ryan (1998),Flags of Our Fathers (2006) andRed Tails (2012) about the African-American Air Fighter pilots of theTuskegee Airmen. Movies and television programs about the war continued to be made into the 21st century, including the television mini-seriesBand of Brothers,The Pacific andDunkirk. The majority of World War II films are portrayed from the Allied perspective. Some exceptions includeDas Boot (1981),Downfall (2004),Letters from Iwo Jima (2006),Stalingrad (1993),Joy Division (2006), andCross of Iron (1977). World War II used to provide most of the material for theHistory Channel (United States).Mel Brooks used the theme in the fictitious musical "Springtime for Hitler" which appears in his filmThe Producers (1968), later the basis for the 2001 musical.
Many television comedy sitcoms have used the war as a setting, e.g.Hogan's Heroes from America, which follows the actions of a group of Allied POWs involved in covert activities. Three British sitcoms fromDavid Croft areDad's Army which satirizes the British Home Guard, an anti-invasion force of men who are mostly too old to join the forces;It Ain't Half Hot Mum about a Forces Concert Party entertaining troops in India and Burma, and'Allo 'Allo! which finds humour in the French Resistance. In "The Germans" episode ofFawlty Towers,Basil Fawlty (John Cleese) repeatedly insists his staff be polite to their German guests ("don't mention the War!") which he signally fails to demonstrate himself. In 2009, an anime adaptation of the webcomicHetalia: Axis Powers was released and parodies the characters as countries and their transactions in the war through social adult issues.
Many non-war-related TV shows in the United States, such asThe Simpsons,South Park,The Looney Tunes Show andSeinfeld frequently make references to World War II-related persons and subjects, such asAdolf Hitler,Franklin Roosevelt, battles during the war,The Holocaust and the bombings ofHiroshima andNagasaki. During the war severalDonald Duck shorts were also propaganda films.
Also, some films and TV series attempt to show and educate thefuture generation about the horror of racism and discrimination when taken into a national frenzy by making films based on the Holocaust and otherGerman war crimes. Movies likeSchindler's List,Anne Frank: The Whole Story,Life Is Beautiful,The Devil's Arithmetic,The Pianist,The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and many other films depict the hardship the Jews endured in Auschwitz and other concentration camps.
Due to the still sensitive subject between China, Japan andKorea, theWar in the Pacific and theSecond Sino-Japanese War is hardly made into any historicalwar films intended for entertainment use in these countries. However, reference about the ongoing war as a background setting is heavily used as a setpiece to drive the storyline on. For example, Hong Kongmartial arts films have used the "cartoon villain" portrayal of Japanese soldiers or generals being defeated by the Chinese lead character in an attempt to stop the Japanese from using biological weapons or stealing Chinese treasures (films likeFist of Fury,Millionaire's Express andFist of Legend). Some films that depictJapanese war crimes were also made, such as the controversial exploitation filmMen Behind the Sun.
More serious documentary style films have also been made such as the German made documentaryNanking. However the depiction of theDefense of Sihang Warehouse was made in 1938, one year after the actualBattle of Shanghai, probably one of the earliest Sino-Japanese war film intended for entertainment and moral boosting propaganda. Also recently, to celebrate theChinese Red Army first victory (out of two major battles the Communists actually fought) over the Japanese, a heavy-handed propaganda film that depict theBattle of Pingxingguan was made in 2005 to commemorate the 60th anniversary. However it was heavily criticised by the government ofTaiwan, accusing thePRC government for hiding the truth by discrediting theNationalist Revolutionary Army who took the brunt of the battles as it was they who did most of the fighting against the invaders in more than twenty battles. Actually, the PRC has made several films focusing on battles fought by Nationalist soldiers, such as theBattle of Taierzhuang andBattle of Kunlun Pass.
South Korea, which still has stronganti-Japanese sentiments, recently made aTV series about the Japanese assassination ofEmpress Myeongseong and the unfair treatment of the Korean people; several films based onKim Du-han as a freedom fighter were made.
Traditional boardwargaming has replicated World War II from the tactical to the grand strategic levels.Axis & Allies and other such games continue to be popular.Avalon Hill and other wargame companies produced such complex games asSquad Leader andPanzerBlitz in the 1970s. Other popular World War II games still in production include Australian Design Group'sWorld in Flames and Decision Games reproductions of SPI World War II games.
World War II has also been replicated through miniatures tabletop wargaming. Games likeFlames of War,Command Decision,Spearhead,BlitzkriegCommander and others have become popular among historical miniature wargamers. A novelty is the upcoming of free internet based wargames in high quality such asFinal Round.
World War II has long been a popular setting forvideo games. In fact, the first historically-based war video game wasComputer Bismarck (1980),[3] aturn-based game which focused on thelast battle of the battleshipBismarck. The war has been one of the most popular settings for video games and the setting of some of the most popular games,[4][5][6][7][8] though the proportion of war video games in a modern setting increased following the2003 invasion of Iraq.[9]
Some of the most prominent World War II game series includeMedal of Honor,Battlefield andCall of Duty, though these series eventually branched out beyond that setting.[9] Certain games are set entirely in one battle or operation (such asAttack on Pearl Harbor), certain games are set in onetheater (such asMedal of Honor: Rising Sun) and certain games take place in multiple theaters (such asBattlefield 1942). The setting has appeared in diversegenres of video games but is used most often forfirst-person shooters,real-time tactics games andflight simulators.
The Soviet Union incurred the heaviest casualties in World War II, and its history gave rise to an impressive number of films, poetry and prose, both in Russian and in many other languages of the country. The cultural homage to the Soviet soldiers and victims of World War II has been brought for decades; films about the war are shot in modern-day Russia up to present day. A few pinnacles of the Soviet cinema dedicated to World War Two include:The Cranes Are Flying byMikhail Kalatozov,Ivan's Childhood byAndrei Tarkovsky andThe Alive and the Dead byAleksandr Stolper.Elem Klimov'sCome and See is widely considered to be one of the greatest war movies ever made.
Poetry:"the Cranes" by the renowned Dagestani poetRasul Gamzatov, "Wait for me"[10] byKonstantin Simonov, "I am Goya"[11] byAndrei Voznesensky, "It has snowed for three days" by Mustai Karim[12] (a Bashkir poet).
In 1970, Ōe wrote inOkinawa Notes that members of the Japanese military had coerced masses of Okinawan civilians into committing suicide during theAllied invasion of the island in 1945. In 2005, two retired Japanese military officers sued Ōe for libel; and in 2008, theOsaka District Court dismissed the case because, as the judge explained, "The military was deeply involved in themass suicides". Ōe commented succinctly by saying, "The judge accurately read my writing."[1]
