Commercial motion pictures, developed with late 19th Century American technology, were enthusiastically adopted by Japanese audiences who had a long tradition of viewing gentō (magic lantern presentations).
In the 1920s, Japan and the USA were the world’s largest producers of motion pictures.
Certain screen actors in each nation became major stars, drawing large audiences to movie theaters. At the end of the 1920s,”talkies” were extremely popular in both countries.
Japanese movie poster 1928, Wiki Media Commons.
U.S. Library of Congress 1921; Public Domain.
Interesting that they were both the largest producers. If that continued, I wonder if that says anything about how each country created or communicated the war’s message. Wasn’t there war news reels at the movies? Holly