A scene from Mochinaga's last film A Badger and a Boy. © Tadahito Mochinaga.

In 1944, Mochinaga directed his first cartoon film, Fuku-chan's Submarine. Fuku-chan was one of the most popular newspaper comic strip boy-characters in Japan at the time. The film portrays a submarine attack on an enemy cargo ship. Though this, too, was to boost patriotism, Japanese children particularly enjoyed the scenes in which the kitchen crew cooked in the submarine kitchen. Released in November of the same year, the food shortage was quite serious in Japan, and the abundant food supply in the submarine kitchen -- vegetables, fruit, fish, rice, and more which were already luxury items in Japan at the time -- was prepared into various dishes along with a merry, rhythmic song.

Returning to China
Pouring all of his energy and efforts into this film, Mochinaga was exhausted. Not only that, but his house burned down in an air raid. Despite the warnings of his friends that Japan's defeat was inevitable, Mochinaga, accompanied by his wife, Ayako, left for Manchuria in June, 1945 to recuperate from both his physical and mental fatigue. However when they reached Chang Chun, the capital of Manchuria, he was asked to joined the art department of Man-Ei (Manchuria Film Studio).

Man-Ei was among the largest film studios in Asia in those days, and under Japanese control, some two thousand people -- Japanese, Chinese and Koreans -- worked on various films for the cultural promotion of Manchuria's puppet regime. Mochinaga noticed that the non-Japanese staff in the art department were forced to work under harsh conditions. He demanded that their working conditions be improved, and it was accepted. With several Chinese staff members, Mochinaga started working on the simple animation portions of a documentary film about Manchuria's agriculture.

Upon Japan's surrender on August 15, 1945, the situation drastically changed. As an organization Man-Ei was disbanded, and the company was handed over to the Chinese, and renamed Tong Pei (East North) Film Studio in October of the same year. The Japanese staff was given the choice to return to Japan or to remain. It was not easy to return to Japan and because he had found joy working with the Chinese staff, Mochinaga chose to remain.

Since a film studio was a valuable asset for both Mao Tse-Tung's Communist Forces and Chiang Kai-Shek's Nationalists, they fought over the ownership. Even the Soviet forces showed their interest in this studio, because of its scale and latest equipment. The whole of China plunged into civil war. When the Nationalists' attack on Chang Chun became intense in 1946, the studio staff, including Mochinaga, escaped and went further north. Arriving in the mining town of Hao Gang, they started the "new" Tong Pei Film Studio from scratch. The shooting crew set out to the front lines and concentrated on making news films to inform people about the status of the civil war. Thus, this became the starting point for filmmaking in what is later referred to as New China.

Mochinaga felt very much alive, sharing his experience as a filmmaker for the development of Chinese film culture. By that time, returning to Japan became easier and half of the Japanese staff left, but Mochinaga and his wife remained. His wife, Ayako, not only labored as his assistant, but also helped out in a newly built nursery for the children of the studio staff.