is a song featured in the 1945

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 ...

film '' Soyokaze''. It was written by poet and lyricist and composer , who also produced the film. The song is a duet, featuring the Japanese actress and the singer and released in January 1946. It is considered the first hit song in Japan after

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 opposin ...

. was released on October 11, 1945, and was the first movie produced after World War II in Japan. It was a commercial success, but was heavily criticized by movie critics. Throughout the autumn of that year, the song ''Ringo no Uta'' increased in popularity, eventually becoming more famous than the film's theme song, ''Soyokaze''. ''Ringo no Uta'' was first broadcast on the radio on December 10, 1945, and the 78rpm record was released by Nippon Colombia in January 1946. Sato's lyrics express a girl's feeling in a red apple, one which matched the feelings of freedom after the war. The record achieved unprecedented sales, exceeding 100,000 copies.

Background

''Ringo no Uta'' is actually very different stylistically, in comparison with how it was first conceived. Although ''Soyokaze'' is a heartwarming film featuring a variety of songs and a love story, the film script originally had a strong nationalistic slant, intended to stir up jingoistic feelings in a wartime Japanese audience. Likewise, ''Ringo no Uta'' was also originally written as a 'wartime' song with the same general nationalistic tone, but ironically fell foul of the strict censorship rules set by the then Japanese military authorities. Lyricist Hachiro Sato intended to write an upbeat military march, but the military authorities decided that the song was too 'soft' for a wartime song. However, the situation changed completely when the war ended on August 15, 1945. The plan to produce the first postwar film started just two weeks after this date, in the hope that the film would offer some solace and encouragement to the Japanese people, who were experiencing desperate poverty and the ignominy of wartime defeat. It was with this backdrop that ''Soyokaze'' was developed, as the production of ''Ringo no Uta'' was also resumed. Composer Tadashi Manjome, who was also the producer of the movie ''Soyokaze'' discussed the situation with Sato, and the lyrics to the song were accordingly altered from their wartime original. Michiko Namiki was appointed as the leading role on Manjome and Sato's recommendation. Manjome and Sato encouraged Namiki to sing more brightly, but she found it extremely hard to sing in this way, having lost her parents, elder brother and boyfriend during the war. This sense of loss weighed heavily on her for a considerable time. However, the record became an unprecedented hit - an upbeat, positive song enriched by her bright voice, and contributed greatly to the revival of postwar Japanese culture.

References

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External links

Michiko Namiki discography
(Nippon Columbia) 1946 songs Songs in Japanese Songs written for Japanese films