Fuku-chan's Submarine (1944) - B&W / 32 mins

Fuku-chans's Submarine (フクちゃん部隊出撃の歌, Fuku-chan no sensuikan) is a 1944 Asahi anime production, directed by Isoji Sekiya and Ryuichi Yokoyama. It was a wartime propaganda exercise, made for children, to boost patriotism. The film portrays a submarine attack on an enemy cargo ship. The titular hero Fuku-chan (Little Fuku) was one of the most popular newspaper manga characters in Japan at the time. Due to food shortages being quite serious in Japan (vegetables, fruit, fish, rice, and more, were luxury items