Patriotic fever dreams and kamikaze pilots: Japan's most uncomfortable war movie nobody talks about.
In 1943 Japan is facing defeat. This makes Shinkichi, a straight, selfless student-patriot, ever more restless. He can no longer stand his soft "behind-the- gun" role of munition factory worker. School-mates one after another are going to the front, where he feels he should be. The last straw is an official report of his father's death in the Battle of Attu in the Aleutian Islands. He rushes to the naval air corps training camp at Tsuchiura along with his close school-mates Naito, Yamada, Saito and Tagawa as Volunteer pilot trainees leaving his mother and sweetheart weeping and helpless.
Acting
Tatsuya Fuji's simmering restraint before he breaks.
Direction
Morinaga walks the tightrope between elegy and recruitment poster.
Director
Kenjirō Morinaga
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Released in 1970, this was part of a brief wave of nostalgic war films that both critiqued and indulged in militarist sentiment—audiences were still processing 1968's student protests and the ANPO struggle.
The Tsuchiura Naval Air Group was a real training facility for kamikaze pilots; surviving instructors reportedly attended early screenings and walked out.
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