Something Like an Autobiography - Akira Kurosawa [103]
On the Banks of the River Sai
AT THE SAME TIME Drunken Angel was released in the movie theaters, April 1948, the Third Toho Dispute broke out. After completing my film I was at last able to go up to Akita and carry out the Buddhist memorial services for my father, but I was called back right away because of the Dispute. I returned only to be caught up in it.
When I look back on it now, this third strike has all the appearances of a children’s quarrel. It was like two siblings fighting over a doll, snatching it away from each other head by arm by leg until it’s in pieces. The two children in this struggle were the company and the union, and the doll was the studio.
The strike began with a company offensive in which a number of people lost their jobs. Management’s aim was to rid the employees’ union of its strong leftist element. In December of the preceding year those dealing with personnel matters at the top executive level had seen fit to make a notorious “Red-hater” president of the company. They had also put a strike-breaking specialist in charge of labor affairs, and no bones were made about the fact that union members with leftist tendencies were in danger of losing their jobs. It was true, however, that the leftist voice was the strongest one in the employees’ union at the studio, and in many areas the union was going too far, even demanding control of production by the workers.
But at the point when the management launched its punitive attack, the union and the film directors had already heard the criticisms on the sets where the films were being made, and they were well aware that the situation had gotten out of hand. They themselves were already imposing a better discipline, and the production of films was beginning to proceed smoothly again. Just at this sensitive Juneture the management came in with force. This was a tremendous blow to us. We were finally building a firm foundation for production again out of the desolation left in the wake of the Second Toho Dispute. We were infuriated. Nor can I believe that this course of action did the management any good. One incident was so foolish I still can’t forget it. We directors were trying to explain the situation to the new president of the company. He was listening, and it began to appear that we were arousing his sympathies. Just at that moment our attention was diverted to the huge plate-glass window of the room where we were meeting. Outside was a union demonstration, led by a big red flag. You might as well have waved a red-lined toreador’s cape in front of a raging bull. There wasn’t one more word we could say to our new Red-hating president. The third strike began, to last 195 days.
My personal experiences in this strike, from its unfortunate inception through to the end, were only bitter ones. Once again the studio employees’ union split. The defectors from the union proceeded to take up with those who had left as a result of the previous dispute and were now based at the rival company Shin [New] Toho. Through them Shin Toho increased its power yet further and began to plot the recapture of Toho’s studios. The Toho studio atmosphere became a repeat of the Battle of Guadalcanal.
In order to guard the studio against daily assaults from Shin Toho, the employees set up camp in the studio itself, and the place took on the air of a fort. With the objectivity of hindsight, all of this now looks like childish squabbles or a silly joke, but at the time it was a strategy planned with dead seriousness. First they strung up barbed-wire entanglements wherever you could get into the studio lot from outside. Then the lighting technicians set up their spots to prevent anyone sneaking in during the night. But the greatest work of genius was the fans: They set up two big wind machines just inside the front and back gates of the lot, facing outward like heavy artillery. In the event of a storming of the gates, they were ready