‘The Voices at War’ shines light on wartime radio announcers

The film version of national broadcaster NHK’s 2023 drama, “The Voices at War” is the latest in a long procession of domestic films, dramas and documentaries set during World War II. Most are focused on the events that led up to Japan’s surrender, with the atomic bombings topping the list.

Directed by NHK veteran Masae Ichiki, “The Voices at War” not only starts from the war’s early days but also shines a revealing light on a little-filmed aspect of Japan’s war effort: the radio announcers for NHK’s predecessor, Radio Japan, who spearheaded the government’s propaganda and indoctrination push in both Japan and its conquered Asian territories.

Though it is a fictionalized drama, the film uses the real names of the announcers — of whom there are almost too many to keep track — as well as period newsreel footage and photographs.

Since this is NHK presenting a slice of its corporate history, it’s no surprise that the announcers are framed as basically good, decent folks despite serving as government mouthpieces and encouraging their fellow Japanese to be like “100 million shattered jewels” — that is, to fight to their collective death.

In telling the announcers’ story, though, the film is less a whitewashing than a holding up of a smudged mirror to the era’s war fever, with the announcers playing an instrumental part in fueling it. And when the fever breaks and the mounting deaths and battlefield reverses become impossible to ignore, their agonies of regret, however sentimentalized, have the ring of baseline truth.

The one who first sees the war for what it is and becomes the most conscience-stricken about his work is Nobutaka Wada (Go Morita). Popular with listeners and respected by colleagues as a gifted storyteller and wordsmith (he is responsible for the “shattered jewels” line), Nobutaka openly speaks his mind and blithely flouts unwritten corporate rules, including one about not passing out drunk at work.

He attracts the attention of Mieko Oshima (Ai Hashimoto), a serious-minded fledgling announcer who sees him as a role model despite his rumpled exterior and fondness for booze. In one of the film’s better scenes, he gives her an improvised demonstration of how to hold a radio audience’s attention, spinning a vivid story about the common people around them. Meanwhile, he views her as a rising star and a future wife.

Their love story soon takes a back seat to war, with Nobutaka and young up-and-comer Morio Tateno (Kengo Kora) announcing the attack on Pearl Harbor. Morio becomes a gung-ho true believer in Japan’s victory, while Nobutaka, whose motto as a reporter is to “view your story with a microscope,” digs up the truth about Japan’s long slide to defeat after the Battle of Midway and comes to regard his talent for persuasion as an instrument of destruction for his all-too trusting listeners.

Meanwhile, his eager-beaver colleagues are fanning out across Asia to spread the blessings of Japanese culture while also baffling the enemy by broadcasting disinformation. That, however, doesn’t stop bombs from raining down. Then the homeland becomes a target, and Nobutaka seizes a chance for redemption in the ensuing chaos.

Former pop singer Morita disappears into the role of the conflicted Nobutaka, making him more relatable than contemptible. Like many of film’s announcers, as we are told rather triumphantly at the end, Nobutaka went on to a brilliant career postwar, “shattered jewels” forgotten.