Sayoko is director of the Hiroshima Animation Festival, one of the few events that presents animated programs about peace (the festival is held every other year). In 2000 she said on the festival’s Website, “Love and Peace is not our slogan, but it is rather a spirit of our festival. As you may know, ASIFA was founded as an international association, not only for the development of animation, but also to seek the world peace and anti-war, because ASIFA was founded by filmmakers who actually went through the nightmare of World War II. Throughout its history, ASIFA has well been organized to enhance the communication of the east and the west, even under the period of Cold War. Thus, the spirit of ASIFA and Hiroshima were united together to establish the first festival in 1985, which was the 40th anniversary of Hiroshima A-bomb.”

There is also the annual International Helen Victoria Haynes World Peace Competition, organized by a member of ASIFA-Central (midwest, U.S.). It is an animation storyboard competition aimed at students and there is no entry fee.

It is refreshing to know that many animators who care about peace are willing to devote countless hours and their own money to create works on the subject. The results are often highly creative labors of love from the animation community to the world. (Why were none of the films discussed funded by Uncle Sam?)

Renzo and Sayoko Kinoshita’s Pica Don made the Hiroshima survivors realize that animation could deliver a dramatic and moving message. © Studio Lotus Inc.

Other Films
Animator Mark Kausler recently told me about three works I have yet to see. He writes, “If you want to give prizes for anti-war cartoons, consider Charles Mintz at Columbia. He did a Krazy Kat on the League of Nations preventing war, Disarmament Conference. He also produced two Color Rhapsodies commenting on war and munitions manufacturers peddling their wares; Neighbors and the remake, Peaceful Neighbors.”

The Big Cartoon Data Base on the Internet tells us that in Disarmament Conference (1931) “Krazy tries to bring peace among feuding jungle animals until a group of angry hornets comes and spoils everything.” In Neighbors (1935) “An evil vulture tricks two roosters into killing each other by selling weapons to each of them. An unusually dark and moody cartoon for its time.” The site does not provide any plot details for Peaceful Neighbors (1939).

There are also excellent films about peace from behind the Iron Curtin. One example is The Fly (1966), from the Zagreb Studio in what was then Yugoslavia. The film by Aleksandar Marks and Vladimir Jutrisa opens with a man trying to swat a tiny fly. Unfortunately for him, the fly grows in size till it is bigger and more powerful than the man. It attacks the man and destroys the territory he occupies. The man symbolically falls through space. The final shot shows the fly and the man putting their arms over each other’s shoulders. Hopefully they will coexist in peace. Ronald Holloway in Z is for Zagreb (1972, Tantivy Press, London) calls it “Zagreb’s most successful cartoon.” (Available on The Best of Zagreb, a DVD from Image Entertainment.)

The Last Raid — Kumagaya by Renzo and Sayoko Kinoshita tells of a young girl’s attempt to survive WWII air raids in Japan. © Studio Lotus Inc.

After reading an early draft of this article, Sayoko Kinoshita (Peace Bird) wrote me that her film Pica Don (1979, made with her late husband Renzo Kinoshita) was the first animated film made in Japan to depict the atomic bomb. When they went to Hiroshima to research the project they were “really criticized by the people of Hiroshima, because at that time, animation art/media was recognized only as entertainment for children, and people could not imagine and did not want their hardships to be described by animation. It was only after the completion of Pica Don that people understood the effectiveness of animation.” She says the film inspired others to make films on the same theme. Pica Don is a 10-minute 35mm film that has no dialogue. It describes the tragic consequences of the A-bomb explosion.

In 1993, the couple completed The Last Air Raid — Kumagaya, another powerful anti-war animated film. The 28-minute work tells the story of Sachiko, a 7-year-old girl who lost her parents in an air raid on Tokyo. For her safety, she goes to Kumagaya City near Tokyo to live with an uncle. On August 14, 1945, the night before the end of WWII, the last air raid in Japan hit Kumagaya. Sachiko was one of the many that passed away that night. The next day the survivors heard their emperor surrender.

One group of films that has been left out of this article is action/adventure films that use peace as a pretext for making war films. Making the world safe for democracy by destroying evil empires is not my idea of a peace message. Did you know, “G.I. Joe is the code name for a highly trained special mission force whose main purpose is to defend human freedom and world peace?” (Quote from www.topdogmusic.com/productpages/gijoethemoviedvd.htm)

Karl Cohen teaches animation history at San Francisco State, is the author of Forbidden Animation: Censored Cartoons and Blacklisted Animators (McFarland, 1997), is president of ASIFA-SF and is a frequent contributor to Animation World Magazine. In 1984, he directed, shot, edited and did the effects for an anti-nuke film Speak Up! Uncle Sam is Hard of Hearing. This short includes an animated/special effects sequence and is distributed by Canyon Cinema.