freddyschmitz

"My patriotic sentiment won't allow me to experience joy."

Late World War 2 propaganda by Imperial Japan, directed by no more than 8 directors, including the great Kenji Mizoguchi and Hiroshi Shimizu. This movie consists of a bunch of patritotic anecdotes from various social strata of japanese society rather than a coherent linear story which was probably the result of having too many director working together. These anecdotes all circle around the themes of self sacrifice of the individual for motherland Japan and the emperor which is all one and the same thing. The japanese believed the emperor to be the direct descendant of Amaterasu, the sun goddess who sent her grandson to earth, who spawned the first Tenno who is one with the japanese people, meaning they are also of divine origin since they make up one single entity. Thus betraying emperor Hirohito (who was believed to be part of an unbroken chain of god-emperors) by not fulfilling your duty, be it as a soldier, a nurse, a wife or a student, would be the same as betraying your true self because the one is connected to the many, devaluing the "free individual" in favor of unity, homeland and duty. This film replaces "freedom" solely understood as the abscence of restrictions (a purely modern concept) with the freedom to fulfill ones duty according to ones own nature, imbedded in a hierarchy of a higher order (a primordial concept).

The difference of these two perceptions of what "freedom" constitutes is the difference between a liberal-democratic, secular and "enlightened" society and a primordial, traditional one.

The aforementioned anecdotes range from soldiers on the front reminiscing about their home, factory workers, a young boy applying for flying school behind his father's back, a police officer wandering his district, pupil marching through the japanese forests, a woman marrying a soldier before he is drafted, the civilian defense force quenching fires that were caused by air raids, a woman telling about an incident in which the americans sunk a ship full of wounded soldiers and fathers of kamikaze pilots drinking with their late sons army superiors.

The reason for this long introduction was meant to put the tone of this movie into context. It's pretty light hearted and optimistic considering the topics it dealt with. Not once is a character weeping for a lost son or husband, despairing over the hardships of the great war, then going on for 8 years. Especially the episode of the police man and the marching pupils reminded me of a japanese Heimatfilm, showing everyday life of japanese civilians during the war, a couple of humoristic scenes. There also is alot of singing. Even during the second to last scene, the fathers of the dead kamikaze pilots are cheerful and full of pride for their heroic sons, not once selfishly sheding tears for a kid lost, since they died for a higher order, fulfilling their duty to the Tenno. When mundane life is understood as merely one stage of human existence and individual life being inseperately connected to your people and the emperor, flying headfirst into the enemy is not as tragic as it sounds.

To wrap it all up, this movie is a bit all over the place, the narrative just being an excuse to shed light on the theme of self sacrifice, always from the same angle, concluding that determination and disregard for the detached, atomized individual is the only way worth living. With a runtime of only 80 minutes it is a moderately interesting display of the self-conception of Imperial Japan.