Meet the Watanabes

[Music] [Applause] [Music] this is downtown tokyo capital of japan on a spring morning not so long ago and this good looking young girl you will want to meet she is miss yoshi watami window shopping a bit as she strolls along on her way to school perhaps she has something else on her mind too ah yes this is her birthday she is 20 years old today so let's tag along for a moment with the beautiful yoshi and find that she is looking for a telephone [Music] in the office of the fuji spinning company the phone rings and the managing director answers meet mr watanabe the father of yoshi what is yoshi telling him a good guess she's reminding her father that it's her birthday [Music] but he already knew that [Music] so that afternoon at the watanabe home in a tokyo residential suburb a messenger delivers a present and meet mrs watanabe who is accepting it she shows it first to grandmother watanabe whose constant and adoring companion is her grandson hideo who is six years old [Music] still another watanabe son kiyoshi who himself is rushing home from school forgetting his manners he pauses to bow to his mother and grandmother and goes on up to his room by his inquisitive little brother [Music] and this is the oldest son isamu who is 26 a promising young civil engineer who works the post-war construction ministry of the japanese government rebuilding cities constructing fine modern roads and bridges big downtown office buildings and apartments for japan's teaming population so now you've met all the watanabes a forward-looking happy and industrious family of today's japan [Music] at a chamber of commerce meeting before going home that day mr watanabe takes active part in discussing the complex problems of finding foreign markets for japan's growing industries [Music] at a medical university a young intern is lecturing to a classroom see all those girl students it is a sign of the new times in japan co-education equal rights and opportunities for women and one of the co-eds is yoshi [Music] class is over and yoshi starts home only to catch sight of her fiance kobayashi's daydreaming about yoshi who pleasantly breaks into his reveries and they chat as only lovers do for this is a real love match no arranged marriage for this modern miss as in the days of old japan it is evening now and tokyo is folded into the soft twilight as the people start homework by bus by streetcar and by subway mr watanabe homeward bound 2 pauses at a bakery to pick up the birthday cake he had ordered for yoshi [Music] as yoshi cuts her cake looking on admiringly from the honor place at her right is her fiance while young hideo wonders what size piece he will rate [Music] at last the presents a necklace and bracelet of pearls the famous cultured pearls of japan from her parents who beam their pleasure [Music] a handbag from her fiance [Music] lace from grandmother watanabe [Music] a broach from brother isamu [Music] and linen handkerchiefs from hideo and kiyoshi all the gifts are products of new japan patriotic pride swells in mr watanabe as he reflects on japan's productivity he recalls the chamber of commerce conference and tells the family gathering what had come up for discussion the promising future of japan such things as its great steel works shipbuilding textiles fabrics and fashions toys can goods and bicycles [Music] the myriads of products that will help stabilize the economy of the free and independent nation which only a few years ago was ground to rubble by history's greatest war [Music] isamu takes up the story visualizing the tourist industry that is destined to flourish in japan an ambitious plan for building a giant arterial highway that will link the famous scenic spots of this incomparably beautiful country and attract tens of thousands of visitors every year the family sits and wrapped as the picture unfolds all but hideo who is intent only on his slug of the birthday cake [Music] now the watanabe family has moved into their cozy living room they listen to the radio that brother kiyoshi made himself as mother watanabe knits father lights up a cigar and the grandmother starts thumbing through her valuable collection of old wood block prints depicting the buildings people and scenery of ancient japan yoshi and her fiance are intent on their own plans for the future as they discuss the home they will build for they will be married as soon as yoshi is graduated and so the evening passes into late night another day dawns into the lives of the watanabes and of the millions of other families of new japan tokyo the metropolis of the orient comes with new activity as commuters hurry to work children scurry to school housewives take up their morning chores office workers settle at their desks factory hands at their machines and our charming heroine yoshi of the watanabes in the colorful kimono of yesteryear says her sayonara with a floral offering that symbolizes everlasting hopefulness and good will you