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Post-War Japan: 1945–1960

Stories

Japan · 1945–1960 · exact time + place

The rapid reconstruction and modernization after WWII — depicted in films and stories about resilience and change across the entire country, from burnt cities to economic miracle. The button below opens StoryTerra with both Japan and 1945–1960 already set.

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Sets Japan + 1945–1960 automatically

10 famous Post-War Japan stories

Live snapshot of the top 10 most popular catalogue items (2026-09-04). Click any card to open this entry on the live map.

Browse 41 books, 100 movies and 2 games set in Japan.

My Neighbor Totoro

My Neighbor Totoro

Studio Ghibli-Nibariki-Tokuma Shoten
movie

Two sisters move to the country with their father in order to be closer to their hospitalized mother and discover the surrounding trees are inhabited by Totoros magical spirits of the forest. When the youngest runs away…

Setting: Rural JapanTime Period: 1950s
Godzilla Minus One

Godzilla Minus One

TOHO-TOHO Studios-Robot Communications
movie

In postwar Japan a new terror rises. Will the devastated people be able to survive... let alone fight back?

Setting: JapanTime Period: Post-WWII Japan
Truman

Truman

by David McCullough
book

The Pulitzer Prize–winning biography of Harry S. Truman, whose presidency included momentous events from the atomic bombing of Japan to the outbreak of the Cold War and the Korean War, told by America’s beloved and…

Setting: Japan; Korea; USATime Period: 1945
Ikiru

Ikiru

TOHO
movie

Kanji Watanabe is a middle-aged man who has worked in the same monotonous bureaucratic position for decades. Learning he has cancer he starts to look for the meaning of his life.

Setting: JapanTime Period: 1950s
Tokyo Story

Tokyo Story

Shochiku
movie

The elderly Shukishi and his wife Tomi take the long journey from their small seaside village to visit their adult children in Tokyo. Their elder son Koichi a doctor and their daughter Shige a hairdresser don't have…

Setting: Tokyo, JapanTime Period: Post-War Japan
Godzilla

Godzilla

Toho Film (Eiga) Co. Ltd.-Toho
movie

Japan is thrown into a panic after several ships are sunk near Odo Island. An expedition to the island led by Dr. Yemani soon discover something far more devastating than imagined in the form of a 50 meter tall monster…

Setting: Japan; Odo Island, JapanTime Period: 1954
Hiroshima Mon Amour

Hiroshima Mon Amour

Pathé Entertainment-Daiei Film-Argos Films-Como Films-Pathé Overseas
movie

The deep conversation between a Japanese architect and a French actress forms the basis of this celebrated French film considered one of the vanguard productions of the French New Wave. Set in Hiroshima after the end of…

Setting: Hiroshima, JapanTime Period: Post-World War II
Late Spring

Late Spring

Shochiku
movie

Noriko is perfectly happy living at home with her widowed father Shukichi and has no plans to marry -- that is until her aunt Masa convinces Shukichi that unless he marries off his 27-year-old daughter soon she will…

Setting: JapanTime Period: Post World War II Era
Good Morning

Good Morning

Shochiku
movie

A lighthearted take on director Yasujiro Ozu’s perennial theme of the challenges of inter­generational relationships Good Morning tells the story of two young boys who stop speaking in protest after their parents refuse…

Setting: Tokyo, JapanTime Period: 1950s
Stray Dog

Stray Dog

Toho-Shintoho Company-Film Art Association
movie

A bad day gets worse for young detective Murakami when a pickpocket steals his gun on a hot crowded bus. Desperate to right the wrong he goes undercover scavenging Tokyo’s sweltering streets for the stray dog whose…

Setting: Tokyo, JapanTime Period: Post-WWII Era

The 10 stories above are just a sample of the 143 in the catalogue for this entry. For the live 1945–1960 catalogue, use the button above — or browse Edo Japan and all Japan stories. On the live map you can also filter by the exact time the stories take place — any year, decade or century, from BCE to the future.

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