is a 1940 black-and-white

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

war film War film is a film genre concerned with warfare, typically about navy, naval, air force, air, or army, land battles, with combat scenes central to the drama. It has been strongly associated with the 20th century. The fateful nature of battle s ...

produced and directed by

Yutaka Abe was a Japanese film director and actor. He went to America along with a younger brother to visit an uncle living in Los Angeles. There he enrolled in an acting school, and upon hearing that Thomas H. Ince was looking for Japanese extras to work ...

, with special effects by

Eiji Tsuburaya was a Japanese special effects director, filmmaker, and cinematographer. A co-creator of the ''Godzilla (franchise), Godzilla'' and ''Ultraman'' franchises, he is considered one of the most important and influential figures in the history o ...

. The film depicts the growth and fighting style of

Imperial Japanese Army Air Service The Imperial Japanese Army Air Service (IJAAS) or Imperial Japanese Army Air Force (IJAAF; ) was the Military aviation, aviation force of the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA). Its primary mission was to provide tactical close air support for ground ...

officers An officer is a person who has a position of authority in a hierarchical organization. The term derives from Old French ''oficier'' "officer, official" (early 14c., Modern French ''officier''), from Medieval Latin ''officiarius'' "an officer," fro ...

as they undergo training, and later their interactions with their former instructor as they fight together in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

during the

Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War was fought between the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic of China and the Empire of Japan between 1937 and 1945, following a period of war localized to Manchuria that started in 1931. It is considered part ...

after he takes command of their squadron. Considered a work of high quality, ''The Burning Sky'' is ranked eighth in the ''

Kinema Junpo , commonly called , is Japan's oldest film magazine and began publication in July 1919. It was first published three times a month, using the Japanese ''Jun'' (旬) system of dividing months into three parts, but the postwar ''Kinema Junpō'' ha ...

'' list of Ten Best Japanese Films. ''Suburaya Special Effects World 2001'', pp. 16–17, "Introduction to early works 1937–42" (in Japanese). Special

cinematographer The cinematographer or director of photography (sometimes shortened to DP or DOP) is the person responsible for the recording of a film, television production, music video or other live-action piece. The cinematographer is the chief of the camera ...

Eiichi (or Eiji) Tsuburaya won the Japan Photographers Association Award for his work on the film. The theme song, also called "The Burning Sky," was composed by Kosaku Yamada and sung by

Ichiro Fujiyama , also known mononymously as , is a Japanese former professional baseball outfielder who played for 28 seasons. He played the first nine years of his career with the Orix BlueWave of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB), and the next 12 years w ...

Moyuru Ozora
The Center for East Asian Studies. Retrieved 2019-06-24. and was a hit song in Japan.

Synopsis

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

Yamamoto, an instructor at the

Imperial Japanese Army The Imperial Japanese Army (IJA; , ''Dai-Nippon Teikoku Rikugun'', "Army of the Greater Japanese Empire") was the principal ground force of the Empire of Japan from 1871 to 1945. It played a central role in Japan’s rapid modernization during th ...

's Kumagaya Army Flight School at

Kumagaya is a city located in Saitama Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 195,277 in 87,827 households and a population density of 1200 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Geography Kumagaya is one of the largest cit ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, gives his energetic students rigorous training every day, and one after another, they go on to become full-fledged pilots in the

. Two years later, in February 1938, Yamamoto himself goes to the front in

during the

as the

commanding officer The commanding officer (CO) or commander, or sometimes, if the incumbent is a general officer, commanding general (CG), is the officer in command of a military unit. The commanding officer has ultimate authority over the unit, and is usually give ...

of a fighter squadron in

North China North China () is a list of regions of China, geographical region of the People's Republic of China, consisting of five province-level divisions of China, provincial-level administrative divisions, namely the direct-administered municipalities ...

and is reunited joyfully with his former students, who have become successful military aviators. Although one of Yamamoto's former students, Tanaka, already has been

killed in action Killed in action (KIA) is a casualty classification generally used by militaries to describe the deaths of their personnel at the hands of enemy or hostile forces at the moment of action. The United States Department of Defense, for example, ...

, the others remain active, Yukimoto and Yamamura flying in Yamamoto's fighter squadron and Sato in a

bomber A bomber is a military combat aircraft that utilizes air-to-ground weaponry to drop bombs, launch aerial torpedo, torpedoes, or deploy air-launched cruise missiles. There are two major classifications of bomber: strategic and tactical. Strateg ...

squadron commanded by Captain Nara. Almost as soon as Yamamoto takes command, Yamamura crash-lands in enemy-held territory, and Yukimoto makes a forced landing and rescues him. As the war intensifies, the aviators fight hard and continue to achieve great success, but the number of those who do not return home increases.

Cast

*Captain Yamamoto... *Yukimoto... *Yamamura... Heihachiro "Henry" Okawa as Yamamura *Sato...

Katsuhiko Haida Katsuhiko Haida (1911–1982) was a Japanese film actor and music composer. He played an important role in the 1951 film '' Tokyo File 212''. He also appeared in ''The Burning Sky'', and ''Escapade From Japan''. His brother is Yukihiko Haida, ...

*Weekly shift officer...Soji Kiyokawa *''Jinrei'' unit commander... *

Surgeon general Surgeon general (: surgeons general) is a title used in several Commonwealth countries and most NATO nations to refer either to a senior military medical officer or to a senior uniformed physician commissioned by the government and entrusted with p ...

...

Kazuo Hasegawa , formerly known by his stage names and , was a Japanese film and stage actor. He appeared in over 300 films from 1927 to 1963. Career Born to a sake brewing family in Kyoto, he first appeared on stage at age five in a theater run by his famil ...

*Captain Noto... *

Lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a Junior officer, junior commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations, as well as fire services, emergency medical services, Security agency, security services ...

Yokota... *

Ensign Ensign most often refers to: * Ensign (flag), a flag flown on a vessel to indicate nationality * Ensign (rank), a navy (and former army) officer rank Ensign or The Ensign may also refer to: Places * Ensign, Alberta, Alberta, Canada * Ensign, Ka ...

Inaba...Jun Maki *Instructor... *

Adjutant Adjutant is a military appointment given to an Officer (armed forces), officer who assists the commanding officer with unit administration, mostly the management of “human resources” in an army unit. The term is used in French-speaking armed ...

...Seishiro Hara *Combat Team..., Eiichi Sha, Masanosuke Sawamura, Haruo Numata, Souji Shima, Sanpei Tani *Captain Nara...

Susumu Fujita was a Japanese film and television actor. He played the lead role in Akira Kurosawa's first feature, '' Sanshiro Sugata'', and appeared in other Kurosawa films including '' The Men Who Tread On the Tiger's Tail'' (as Togashi, commander of the ...

*Bomber squadron..., Ryutaro Nagai, Tokiichiro Osaki, Tetsuichiro, Susumu Osugi, Akira Kinoshita *Mechanized soldiers..., Ryutaro Nagai, Tokiichiro Osaki, Tetsuichiro, Susumu Osugi, Akira Kinoshita, Satoshi Komori, Tomishiro Takeshita, Katsutaro Kimura *Guard... *Students...Hideo Saito, Takenobu Kusumoto *Also appearing: Yoji Misaki, Haruo Fujisawa, Hiroshi Yamakawa, Heikuro Imanari, Sen Yamabe, Isao Onizawa, Kinshiro Okubo, Hiroshi Tsukiji, Junichi Sugimoto, Ichiya Akai, Osamu Shindo

Crew

Special effects Special effects (often abbreviated as F/X or simply FX) are illusions or visual tricks used in the theatre, film, television, video game, amusement park and simulator industries to simulate the fictional events in a story or virtual world. ...

: Eiichi (or Eiji) Tsuburaya *Art Director: Takeo Kita *Lighting: Tsuruzo Nishikawa *Sound:

Isamu Suzuki is a masculine Japanese given name. Written forms Isamu can be written using different kanji characters and can mean: *勇, "courage" or "bravery" *勲, "merit" *敢, "gallantry" *武, "war" The name can also be written in hiragana or katakan ...

Equipment appearing in the film

Mitsubishi Ki-1 The Mitsubishi Ki-1, also known as Mitsubishi Army Type 93 Heavy Bomber, was a bomber built by Mitsubishi for the Imperial Japanese Army in the 1930s. The Ki-1 design was heavily based on the Junkers K 37, and the prototype flew in the early 193 ...

Army Type 93 heavy bomber * Tachikawa Ki-9 Army Type 95-1 medium grade trainer ( Allied name "Spruce") *

Kawasaki Ki-10 The was the last biplane Fighter aircraft, fighter used by the Imperial Japanese Army, entering service in 1935 in aviation, 1935. Built by Kawasaki Aerospace Company, Kawasaki Kōkūki Kōgyō K.K. for the Imperial Japanese Army, it saw combat ...

Army Type 95 fighter (Allied name "Perry") *

Mitsubishi Ki-21 The was a Japanese heavy bomber during World War II. It began operations during the Second Sino-Japanese War participating in the Nomonhan Incident, and in the first stages of the Pacific War, including the Malayan, Burmese, Dutch East Indie ...

Type 97 heavy bomber (Allied names "Gwen" and "Sally") *

Nakajima Ki-27 The was the main fighter aircraft used by the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service up until 1940. Its Allies of World War II, Allied World War II Allied names for Japanese aircraft, nickname was "Nate", although it was called "Abdul" in the China ...

Type 97 fighter (Allied names "Nate" and "Abdul") *

Mitsubishi Ki-30 The was a Japanese light bomber of World War II. It was a single-engine, mid-wing, cantilever monoplane of stressed-skin construction with a fixed tailwheel undercarriage and a long transparent cockpit canopy. The type had significance in ...

Type 97 light bomber (Allied name "Ann") * Nakajima Ki-34 Army Type 97 transport (Allied name "Thora") * Nakajima Army Type 91 fighter *

Toyota AA The A1 was the first prototype passenger car built by the company that became Toyota. It was redesigned and put into production as Toyota's first production cars, the AA sedan and the AB cabriolet. These were succeeded by the similar AE, AC and ...

passenger sedan

Production

Made to commemorate the 2,600th anniversary of the Imperial era in Japan in 1940, ''The Burning Sky'' took three years to film. ''Complete history of Toho special effects movies'', 1983, p. 82, "Prehistory of Toho special effects movies" (in Japanese) The Japanese

Army Ministry The , also known as the Ministry of War, was the cabinet-level ministry in the Empire of Japan charged with the administrative affairs of the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA). It existed from 1872 to 1945. In the IJA and the Imperial Japanese Navy ...

and Army Aviation Headquarters fully cooperated in the making of the film, and 947 real Imperial Japanese Army Air Service military aircraft in use during the Second Sino-Japanese War, as well as active air personnel, participated in the filming. In addition to a large number of what then were state-of-the-art Nakajima K-27 fighters and Mitsubishi Ki-21 heavy bombers, older Kawasaki Ki-10 fighters also appear in Chinese markings, portraying

Polikarpov I-15 The Polikarpov I-15 () was a Soviet biplane fighter aircraft of the 1930s. Nicknamed ''Chaika'' (', "gull") because of its gulled upper wings,Gunston 1995, p. 299.Green and Swanborough 1979, p. 10. it was operated in large numbers by the Soviet ...

fighters of the

Republic of China Air Force The Republic of China Air Force ( Chinese, 中華民國空軍), or the ROCAF; known colloquially as the Taiwanese Air Force ( Chinese, 臺灣空軍) by Western or mainland Chinese media, or commonly referred as the National Military Air Force ...

. Director

was skeptical of

special effects Special effects (often abbreviated as F/X or simply FX) are illusions or visual tricks used in the theatre, film, television, video game, amusement park and simulator industries to simulate the fictional events in a story or virtual world. ...

, so he focused on real scenes, but some scenes lacked the impact he desired, so special effects scenes were added. However, most of the flight scenes were shot with actual aircraft actually flying for the movie, rather than using special effects or reusing existing film such as that of

newsreel A newsreel is a form of short documentary film, containing news, news stories and items of topical interest, that was prevalent between the 1910s and the mid 1970s. Typically presented in a Movie theater, cinema, newsreels were a source of cu ...

s. In addition, a camera was installed in the

cockpit A cockpit or flight deck is the area, on the front part of an aircraft, spacecraft, or submersible, from which a pilot controls the vehicle. The cockpit of an aircraft contains flight instruments on an instrument panel, and the controls th ...

of a Ki-27 fighter during training scenes depicting the

strafing Strafing is the military practice of attacking ground targets from low-flying aircraft using aircraft-mounted automatic weapons. Less commonly, the term is used by extension to describe high-speed firing runs by any land or naval craft such a ...

of targets at sea during

flight school Flight training is a course of study used when learning to aviator, pilot an aircraft. The overall purpose of primary and intermediate flight training is the acquisition and honing of basic airmanship skills. Flight training can be conducted un ...

and during the

dogfight A dogfight, or dog fight, is an air combat manoeuvring, aerial battle between fighter aircraft that is conducted at close range. Modern terminology for air-to-air combat is air combat manoeuvring (ACM), which refers to tactical situations requir ...

scenes between Ki-27 and Ki-10 fighters, giving a sense of realism from the perspective of a fighter pilot. As a result, ''The Burning Sky'' ranks in terms of realism among Japanese films of the era in the same category as the 1942's and 1944's '' Kato hayabusa sento-tai'' ("''Kato Hayabusa Combat Team''"). For the crash-landing scene, a

model airplane A model aircraft is a physical model of an existing or imagined aircraft, and is built typically for display, research, or amusement. Model aircraft are divided into two basic groups: flying and non-flying. Non-flying models are also termed s ...

made of pasted-together

construction paper Construction paper, also known as sugar paper, is coloured cardstock paper. The texture is slightly rough, and the surface is unfinished. Due to the source material, mainly wood pulp, small particles are visible on the paper's surface. It is u ...

was launched from a cliff with a

slingshot A slingshot or catapult is a small hand-powered projectile weapon. The classic form consists of a Y-shaped frame, with two tubes or strips made from either a natural rubber or synthetic elastic material. These are attached to the upper two ends ...

while three cameras filmed the action from the bottom of the cliff, but the model airplane blew away in the wind. It was not seen again. (in Japanese) The early part of ''The Burning Sky'' depicts the training and life of young airmen at the Kumagaya Army Flight School in a realistic and sometimes humorous manner, and serves as an advertisement for military enlistment. The movie was unique even at the time in that no women appear in it.

appears in the role of a military doctor attached to the Army Air Service in order to attract a female audience.

Theme song

The movie's theme song also was entitled "The Burning Sky." wrote the lyrics, Kosaku Yamada composed the melody, and Tokio Niki arranged the song. and

provided the vocals.

Nippon Columbia , often pronounced ''Korombia'', operating internationally as , is a Japanese record label founded in 1910 as Nipponophone Co., Ltd. It affiliated itself with the Columbia Graphophone Company of the United Kingdom and adopted the standard UK C ...

released the song in May 1940. It was included in the 64th volume of the

NHK , also known by its Romanization of Japanese, romanized initialism NHK, is a Japanese public broadcasting, public broadcaster. It is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television licence, television license fee. NHK ope ...

radio program ("National Song"). Sato's bright and lively lyrics and Yamada's sophisticated melody reminiscent of a German march gained popularity. As a movie theme song, it became a hit as a wartime military song alongside ("Sky God Soldier"), a song about the Imperial Japanese Army's

paratrooper A paratrooper or military parachutist is a soldier trained to conduct military operations by parachuting directly into an area of operations, usually as part of a large airborne forces unit. Traditionally paratroopers fight only as light infa ...

s, and many recordings of "The Burning Sky" were produced after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. On the record, a mixed

chorus Chorus may refer to: Music * Chorus (song), the part of a song that is repeated several times, usually after each verse * Chorus effect, the perception of similar sounds from multiple sources as a single, richer sound * Chorus form, song in whic ...

is added, and in the third verse, Fujiyama's singing voice is mixed with humming for added effect. On the other hand, a male chorus version is used in the beginning and end of the movie. Later,

Tatsunoko Production and often shortened to , is a Japanese animation company. The studio's name has a double meaning in Japanese: "Tatsu's child" (Tatsu is a nickname for Tatsuo) and " sea dragon", the inspiration for its seahorse logo. Tatsunoko Production was e ...

's 1971

television series A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming plat ...

used an instrumental version of "The Burning Sky" as background music.

Baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

player Toru Nimura, who played for the

Chunichi Dragons The are a professional baseball team based in Nagoya, the chief city in the Chūbu region of Japan. The team plays in the Central League of Nippon Professional Baseball. They have won the Central League pennant nine times (most recently in 2011 ...

from 1984 to 1995, used the opening line of the song as his

walk-up music The use of music at sporting events is a practice that is thousands of years old, but has recently had a resurgence as a noted phenomenon. Some sports have specific traditions with respect to pieces of music played at particular intervals. Others ...

. The

copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive legal right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, ...

for the lyrics expired at the end of 1992, and the copyright for the song expired at the end of 2015, leaving both in the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no Exclusive exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly Waiver, waived, or may be inapplicable. Because no one holds ...

. The lyrics are as follows:

''The burning sky is a current of air.
The clouds are rising, they are flying.
The wings are shining like a swift wind, sounding true and maintaining their altitude.
Competing with the light, Aviation Japan, we conquer the skies.'' ''The plane's wings are in turmoil, it's a storm, it's raining,
The sparkling propellers are the first to dedicate themselves to the
empire An empire is a political unit made up of several territories, military outpost (military), outposts, and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a hegemony, dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the ...
,
Our brave and invincible wings.
We are the elite, our fighting spirit is inexhaustible.'' ''Far above the ground, both in the south and in the north,
We attack and defend, fighting and bombing in every direction.
Say hello to the devil's wings on the front lines.
We conquer the skies of
East Asia East Asia is a geocultural region of Asia. It includes China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan, plus two special administrative regions of China, Hong Kong and Macau. The economies of Economy of China, China, Economy of Ja ...
with the help of
radio wave Radio waves (formerly called Hertzian waves) are a type of electromagnetic radiation with the lowest frequencies and the longest wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum, typically with frequencies below 300 gigahertz (GHz) and wavelengths g ...
s.'' ''Open up the skies, hope, road,
Seven Seas "The Seven Seas" is a figurative term for all the seas of the known world. The phrase is used in reference to sailors and pirates in the arts and popular culture and can be associated with the Mediterranean Sea, the Arabian Seven Seas east of Af ...
,
Conquer the continent, and advance through culture,
Let's say the wings of the
Golden Goose "The Golden Goose" () is a fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm (KHM 64). Story A man and his wife have three sons, the youngest of whom is named Dummling because he is neither handsome nor strong like his elder brothers. The eldest brot ...
in high spirits,
We, young people, will surpass the world and bear the prestige of our nation.''

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Moyuru Ozora 1940 war films Japanese war films Toho films Japanese black-and-white films Films directed by Yutaka Abe Films scored by Fumio Hayasaka