Fumio Kamei

Directing·Apr 1, 1908·Fukushima Prefecture, Japan

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Fumio Kamei (1908–1987) was a Japanese documentary and fiction film director known for his politically charged works. Influenced by Soviet montage theory, he began his career at Photo Chemical Laboratories (PCL), making propaganda films about Japan’s war in China. His 1939 film Fighting Soldiers was banned for its unflinching portrayal of exhausted troops, and he later became the first director to lose his license under the 1939 Film Law and the only filmmaker arrested under the Peace Preservation Law. After World War II, Kamei helped reorganize Nippon Eiga-sha and directed The Japanese Tragedy (1946), a documentary critical of Japan’s imperialist past, which was ultimately censored. He continued making politically engaged documentaries and fiction films, tackling issues such as U.S. military bases in Japan, nuclear weapons, social discrimination, and environmental destruction.

Film	Credit
AAll Living Things Are Friends—Lullabies of Birds, Insects and Fish1987 · Director	Director
AAll Must Live: People, Insects and Birds1984 · Director	Director
Men Are All Brothers1960 · Director	Director
LLiving in a Rough Sea1958 · Director	Director
The World Is Terrified: The Reality of the “Ash of Death”1957 · Director	Director
Record of Bloodshed: Sunagawa1957 · Director	Director
It Is Good to Live1956 · Director	Director
WWheat Will Never Fall1955 · Director	Director
TThe People of Sunagawa1955 · Director	Director
A Lonely Woman in a Lonely Land1953 · Director	Director
CChildren of the Base1953 · Director	Director
Become a Mother, Become a Woman1952 · Director	Director
CChobei the Rogue1949 · Director	Director
A Woman's Life1949 · Director	Director
War and Peace1947 · Director	Director
Tragedy of Japan1946 · Director	Director
Kobayashi Issa1941 · Director	Director
Fighting Soldiers1939 · Director	Director
PPeking1938 · Director	Director
Shanghai1938 · Director	Director
SShape without Shape1935 · Director	Director
TThe China IncidentDirector	Director