The Human Condition (novel)
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The Human Condition (novel)
is a six-part novel written by Junpei Gomikawa. It was first published in Japan in 1958. The novel was an immediate bestseller and sold 2.4 million copies within its first three years after being published. It became the basis for Masaki Kobayashi's film trilogy '' The Human Condition'', released between 1959 and 1961. It had also been broadcast as a radio drama before the film release. The novel is about the experience of the protagonist during World War II and is partly autobiographical. The novel is critical of Japan's role in the war. According to Naoko Shimazu, the novel is unique in that it portrays Japan as the aggressor during the war and how the Chinese, Korean and Japanese people themselves were victimized by those actions. Shimazu said that the novel was important for "purify ngthe Japanese from their polluted past, by expressing their deeply held anger". Right-wing Right-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social ...
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WikiProject Novels
A WikiProject, or Wikiproject, is a Wikimedia movement affinity group for contributors with shared goals. WikiProjects are prevalent within the largest wiki, Wikipedia, and exist to varying degrees within sister projects such as Wiktionary, Wikiquote, Wikidata, and Wikisource. They also exist in different languages, and translation of articles is a form of their collaboration. During the COVID-19 pandemic, CBS News noted the role of Wikipedia's WikiProject Medicine in maintaining the accuracy of articles related to the disease. Another WikiProject that has drawn attention is WikiProject Women Scientists, which was profiled by '' Smithsonian'' for its efforts to improve coverage of women scientists which the profile noted had "helped increase the number of female scientists on Wikipedia from around 1,600 to over 5,000". On Wikipedia Some Wikipedia WikiProjects are substantial enough to engage in cooperative activities with outside organizations relevant to the field at issue. For e ...
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WikiProject Books
A WikiProject, or Wikiproject, is a Wikimedia movement affinity group for contributors with shared goals. WikiProjects are prevalent within the largest wiki, Wikipedia, and exist to varying degrees within sister projects such as Wiktionary, Wikiquote, Wikidata, and Wikisource. They also exist in different languages, and translation of articles is a form of their collaboration. During the COVID-19 pandemic, CBS News noted the role of Wikipedia's WikiProject Medicine in maintaining the accuracy of articles related to the disease. Another WikiProject that has drawn attention is WikiProject Women Scientists, which was profiled by '' Smithsonian'' for its efforts to improve coverage of women scientists which the profile noted had "helped increase the number of female scientists on Wikipedia from around 1,600 to over 5,000". On Wikipedia Some Wikipedia WikiProjects are substantial enough to engage in cooperative activities with outside organizations relevant to the field at issue. For e ...
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Junpei Gomikawa
Junpei Gomikawa (March 15, 1916 – March 8, 1995; ) was the pen name of Japanese novelist Kurita Shigeru. He is best known for his 1958 World War II novel '' The Human Condition'' (''Ningen no joken''), which became a best seller. Gomikawa's novel became the basis for Masaki Kobayashi's film trilogy '' The Human Condition'' as well as a radio drama. Another novel by Gomikawa, the eighteen-volume ''Men and War'' (''Senso to ningen''), formed the basis for Satsuo Yamamoto's 1970-1973 film trilogy of the same name. Biography Gomikawa was born and raised in Dalian in colonial Manchuria, referring to himself as a "second generation Manchurian-Japanese". He enrolled in the Tokyo College of Commerce (today Hitotsubashi University) in 1933 but dropped out and entered the Tokyo University of Foreign Languages in 1936. In 1940, Gomikawa was arrested under suspicion of violating the Peace Preservation Law but nevertheless graduated and returned to Manchuria to take a job at the Ansha ...
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Autobiographical Novel
An autobiographical novel is a form of novel using autofiction techniques, or the merging of autobiographical and fictive elements. The literary technique is distinguished from an autobiography or memoir by the stipulation of being fiction. Because an autobiographical novel is partially fiction, the author does not ask the reader to expect the text to fulfill the "autobiographical pact".Philippe Lejeune"Autobiographical Pact," pg. 19 Names and locations are often changed and events are recreated to make them more dramatic but the story still bears a close resemblance to that of the author's life. While the events of the author's life are recounted, there is no pretense of exact truth. Events may be exaggerated or altered for artistic or thematic purposes. Novels that portray settings and/or situations with which the author is familiar are not necessarily autobiographical. Neither are novels that include aspects drawn from the author's life as minor plot details. To be consid ...
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JSTOR
JSTOR (; short for ''Journal Storage'') is a digital library founded in 1995 in New York City. Originally containing digitized back issues of academic journals, it now encompasses books and other primary sources as well as current issues of journals in the humanities and social sciences. It provides full-text searches of almost 2,000 journals. , more than 8,000 institutions in more than 160 countries had access to JSTOR. Most access is by subscription but some of the site is public domain, and open access content is available free of charge. JSTOR's revenue was $86 million in 2015. History William G. Bowen, president of Princeton University from 1972 to 1988, founded JSTOR in 1994. JSTOR was originally conceived as a solution to one of the problems faced by libraries, especially research and university libraries, due to the increasing number of academic journals in existence. Most libraries found it prohibitively expensive in terms of cost and space to maintain a comprehen ...
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Masaki Kobayashi
was a Japanese film director and screenwriter, best known for the epic (genre), epic trilogy ''The Human Condition (film series), The Human Condition'' (1959–1961), the samurai films ''Harakiri (1962 film), Harakiri'' (1962) and ''Samurai Rebellion'' (1967), and the horror anthology ''Kwaidan (film), Kwaidan'' (1964). ''Senses of Cinema'' described him as "one of the finest depicters of Japanese society in the 1950s and 1960s." Biography Early life Kobayashi was born in Otaru, then a small port on the island of Hokkaido, the son of a company employee. He was a second cousin of the actress and director Kinuyo Tanaka. In 1933 he entered Waseda University in Tokyo where he studied East Asian art and philosophy. He embarked on a career in film in 1941 as an apprentice director at Shochiku Studios, but was drafted into the Imperial Japanese Army in January 1942 and sent to Manchuria. Kobayashi regarded himself as a pacifist and a socialist, and resisted by refusing promotion to a ...
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Film Trilogy
A trilogy is a set of three works of art that are connected and can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works. They are commonly found in literature, film, and video games, and are less common in other art forms. Three-part works that are considered components of a larger work also exist, such as the triptych or the three-movement sonata, but they are not commonly referred to with the term "trilogy". Most trilogies are works of fiction involving the same characters or setting, such as ''The Deptford Trilogy'' of novels by Robertson Davies, ''The Apu Trilogy'' of films by Satyajit Ray, '' The House'' of a single anthology stop motion animated film, and ''The Kingdom Trilogy'' of television miniseries from 1994 to 2022 by Lars von Trier. Other fiction trilogies are connected only by theme: for example, each film of Krzysztof Kieślowski's Three Colours trilogy explores one of the political ideals of the French Republic ( liberty, equality, fraternity). Trilogies ...
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The Human Condition (film Series)
is a series of three Japanese epic war drama films directed by Masaki Kobayashi, based on the novel of the same name written by Junpei Gomikawa. The films are subtitled No Greater Love (1959), Road to Eternity (1959), and A Soldier's Prayer (1961). The trilogy follows the life of Kaji, a Japanese pacifist and socialist, as he tries to survive in the totalitarian and oppressive world of World War II-era Japan. Plot ''The Human Condition'' follows the journey of the well-intentioned, yet naïve Kaji who transitions from being a labor camp supervisor to an Imperial Army soldier and eventually Soviet POW. Constantly trying to rise above a corrupt system, Kaji time and time again finds his morals an impediment rather than an advantage. ''No Greater Love'' (1959) In World War II-era Japan, Kaji marries his sweetheart Michiko despite his misgivings about the future. To gain exemption from military service, he moves his wife to a large mining operation in Japanese-colonized Manchur ...
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The Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scholars, cinephiles and public and academic libraries. Criterion has helped to standardize certain aspects of home-video releases such as film restoration, the letterboxing format for widescreen films and the inclusion of bonus features such as scholarly essays and commentary tracks. Criterion has produced and distributed more than 1,000 special editions of its films in VHS, Betamax, LaserDisc, DVD, Blu-ray and Ultra HD Blu-ray formats and box sets. These films and their special features are also available via an online streaming service that the company operates. History The company was founded in 1984 by Robert Stein, Aleen Stein and Joe Medjuck, who later were joined by Roger Smith. In 1985, the Steins, William Becker and Jonathan B. Turell f ...
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Cineaste (magazine)
''Cinéaste'' is an American quarterly film magazine that was established in 1967. History and profile The first issue of ''Cinéaste'' was published in Summer 1967. The launching company was Cineaste Publishers, Inc. The founder and editor-in-chief is Gary Crowdus. It is published quarterly. ''Cineaste'' publishes reviews, in-depth analyses and interviews with actors, filmmakers etc. The magazine is independently operated from New York City with no financial ties to any film studios or academic institutions. Publication of the magazine is, however, made possible, in part, with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Politics The journal ''Jump Cut'' cited the magazine as contributing to left politics in the United States. The ''Jump Cut'' editors wrote: "Cinéaste has provided information and analysis unavailable elsewhere, and by so doing it has helped build a stronger left film culture in the U.S. Spec ...
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World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis powers. World War II was a total war that directly involved more than 100 million personnel from more than 30 countries. The major participants in the war threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. Aircraft played a major role in the conflict, enabling the strategic bombing of population centres and deploying the only two nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II was by far the deadliest conflict in human history; it resulted in 70 to 85 million fatalities, mostly among civilians. Tens of millions died due to genocides (including the Holocaust), starvation, ma ...
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Autobiography
An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life. It is a form of biography. Definition The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English periodical ''The Monthly Review'', when he suggested the word as a hybrid, but condemned it as "pedantic". However, its next recorded use was in its present sense, by Robert Southey in 1809. Despite only being named early in the nineteenth century, first-person autobiographical writing originates in antiquity. Roy Pascal differentiates autobiography from the periodic self-reflective mode of journal or diary writing by noting that " utobiographyis a review of a life from a particular moment in time, while the diary, however reflective it may be, moves through a series of moments in time". Autobiography thus takes stock of the autobiographer's life from the moment of composition. While biographers generally rely on a wide variety of documents an ...
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