History of Postwar Japan as Told by a Bar Hostess (にっぽん戦後史 マダムおんぼろの生活, Nippon sengoshi – Madamu Onboro no seikatsu) is a 1970 Japanese documentary film by director Shōhei Imamura.
[1][2][3] Director Shōhei Imamura interviews Emiko Akaza, the bar hostess of the film's title, who reflects on her life as a prostitute and madam in post-war Yokosuka and comments on news reel footage of Japan's history from 1945 to the present.
Characteristically, Imamura seeks to investigate an alternative interpretation of recent Japanese history through the eyes of a person living in the lower strata of that society.
[4] Beginning with this film, Imamura was to spend the next decade working in the documentary format.
The film was shown in Los Angeles in 1998 with any earlier American release being undetermined.