A Japanese Tragedy

A Japanese Tragedy (日本の悲劇, Nihon no higeki), also known as Tragedy of Japan, is a 1953 Japanese drama film written and directed by Keisuke Kinoshita. The film tells the story of a widowed mother who turns to prostitution to raise two children during and after World War II, but her children, ashamed of her, reject her. It was ranked as the 6th best film of the year in 1953 by Kinema Junpo.

The film was experimental for its time, with a complex use of flashbacks that creates continuity between the war and post-war periods. Kinoshita also interspersed newsreel footage and newspaper pages within the film in an attempt to relate the story of the film to the wider context of Japan's post-war difficulties. It is a social problem film, with the director having written that: "No matter what kind of social structure, no matter what form of government, I think humans must not be left in a state of misery;” Kinoshita sought to make the film's narrative more realistic than previous hahamonos (Japanese films about mothers).