Wildbear & ZDFE start production on Japanese WW2 docuseries

Inside Japan’s War

Australia’s Wildbear Entertainment has started production on a four-part docuseries that claims to be the first international series to explore the Second World War from Japan’s perspective.

Inside Japan’s War (4 x 60 minutes) will begin at the start of Hirohito’s rule in the mid-1920s and takes viewers through to the end of the Second World War, when the country’s empire dissolved and the government changed into a democracy.

The show will delve into the fierce Japanese-American battles and the militarisation of its society and is being sold by Germany’s ZDF Enterprises. Filming begins this month having been delayed by the pandemic.

Raif Rueckauer, VP of ZDFE.unscripted, said that the delayed production had provided more time for rare archive material to be uncovered.

It will also feature expert statements, archive images and film, as well as letters, diaries and interviews with Japanese and other Asian witnesses to the war.