Momotaro’s Sea Eagles 1943 B&W ⁄ 37 mins

Momotarō no Umiwashi (桃太郎の海鷲?, literally Momotarō’s Sea Eagles) is an animated Japanese propaganda film produced in 1942 by Geijutsu Eigasha and released March 25, 1943. Directed by Mitsuyo Seo, it featured many of the same animation team that later worked on the sequel, Momotaro’s Divine Sea Warriors (Momotarō Umi no Shinpei,1945), which is credited as being the first Japanese, feature-length, animated film. Planned by the News Division of the Imperial Japanese Navy, endorsed by the Ministry of Education, it was made for children. The film combined animated characters from the famous Japanese folk tale of Momotaro with the story of the then recent attack on Pearl Harbor (1941). A character highly derivitive of Bluto, from the Popeye cartoons, makes an appearance in this film as a drunk demon (.) sailor.. Momotaro, the human leader of an animal navy fleet, embarks on a mission to bomb Pearl Harbor (referred to as Demon Island).