David W. Conde, or William David Wellwood Conde, (1906-1981) was an American author, journalist, and film censor who worked in occupied Japan.
Born in Ontario, Canada, he became a naturalized American citizen in 1932. From October 1945 to July 1946, he served as the director of the Motion Picture Department of the Civil Information and Education Section (CIE) in the occupation government of Japan. From 1946 to 1947 he reported on the Tokyo War Crimes Trial as a Reuters journalist. In 1947, he was forced by MacArthur's government to return to the United States. He later worked as a foreign correspondent in Tokyo, and wrote several books about Asian and American politics.[1] [2] He died in Oakland, California in 1981.
During his time heading CIE's Motion Picture Department, Conde was tasked with promoting democratic and anti-militaristic films.[3] Much of his recognition comes from this role in early post-war Japanese cinema. Conde was known to be left-leaning and a union supporter, and has been linked to the Toho labor disputes at Toho studios.[4] His expulsion from Japan in 1947 may have been related to suspicions that he was a communist.[5][6] Much of his papers and effects are held by the University of British Columbia, and the University of California, Berkeley's East Asian Library.
References
edit- ^ "David Conde Fonds". University of British Columbia Archives. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
- ^ "Conde, David W." Worldcat. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
- ^ Takemae, Eiji (2003). The Allied occupation of Japan. New York: Continuum. p. 184. ISBN 0826415210.
- ^ Burkman, Thomas W. (1988). The Occupation of Japan: Arts and Culture. p. 157.
- ^ Foreign correspondents in Japan : reporting a half century of upheavals, from 1945 to the present (1st ed.). Rutland, Vt.: C.E. Tuttle. 1998. p. 33. ISBN 0804821143.
- ^ Hirano, Kyōko (1992). Mr. Smith goes to Tokyo : the Japanese cinema under the American occupation, 1945-1952. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. p. 8. ISBN 1560984023.
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