Night Raid 1931: A New Perspective in Historical Anime

In the anime medium, works that are considered to be historical dramas usually seem to focus on the romanticized eras of samurai warriors and powerful daimyos. There are very few that discuss events of the twentieth century, especially events that led up to World War II and Japan’s overwhelming defeat. There are notable titles like Barefoot Gen and Grave of the Fireflies that show the suffering of Japanese civilians, victimized by the nuclear bombs and other American military attacks, but there are hardly any that explicitly show Japan acting as the aggressor.

This is gradually changing, and some anime producers are becoming more aware of the past and telling it like it was. The example I want to focus on is called Night Raid 1931. Anime News Network’s Theron Martin explains that Night Raid “delves deeply and unflinchingly into a period of history that many Japanese would doubtless rather forget: the period before World War II where Japan was exerting its might on the Asian continent and where its future totalitarian elements were gradually gaining traction.”

The story mostly focuses on a Japanese spy agency that deals with rescues and intelligence gathering, and they are presented as unmistakable heroes. But the setting changes when it reaches episode 7, entitled “The Incident.” This episode tells the story of how a group of Japanese military personnel were evaluating the values of the Manchuria area. Eventually a plan was proposed, in which they would stage a bombing of a nearby Japanese railway, and place the blame on the Chinese. The Imperial High Command decided not to go through with it, but we later see that certain military officers went ahead and staged the bombing anyway. This led to the Japanese army invading and occupying Manchuria, in a move that would be later known as the Manchurian Incident. When Japan was having difficulty with maintaining order in the area, they turned to the League of Nations for help. However, the League refused to recognize the sovereignty of Japan’s newly claimed territory, and demanded that Japan withdraw its troops. Japan refused, and subsequently left the League of Nations. This would be just one event that would eventually result in Japan’s aggressive expansions and the attack on Pearl Harbor years later.

Because it’s an anime, there are plenty of supernatural and fictionalized elements in the story. The protagonists all have special powers they use in their work, and the antagonists are fictional characters with diabolical ambitions that were not necessarily aligned with the Japanese Empire. However, what is truly unique about this series is that it is one of the very few Japanese anime shows that acknowledge Japan as an aggressor in the early 20th century.