War films are easily one of my least favorite genres, not so much for the content, but for its tendency to sensationalize and glorify tragic events. Admittedly in recent years we have seen a drift from the norms (ie: Sam Mendes’ Jarhead and Clint Eastwood’s Flags of our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima), but more often than not the message of war as hell is tossed to the wayside in favor of saber rattling sentiment and crowd pleasing carnage.

For a war film to be both educational and entertaining involves a rather fine balance. Be too metaphysical, preachy, and/or esoteric (see: Terrence Malick), you run the risk of alienating this bread and butter naive youth audience. Play up the violence, and you’ll attract them in droves, but alienate those looking for historical reflection. Stay to the middle, and you run the risk of being deemed inconsequential by both sides.

Strangely enough, Kihachi Okamo’s Battle of Okinawa (aka: Gekido no showashi: Okinawa kessen) is a film that seems to cover all three cases, excessive violence, dour melodramatic reflection, and potential tedium. Direct and simple in its narrative thrust, the film documents the final land battle between the Japanese and Americans on the island of Okinawa, where over 100,000 Okinawan citizens and half as many Japanese troops met their end over a period of just over three months. Through a blend of archival footage, near documentarian narration, talented acting, and good old fashioned drama, the horrific struggle of the 32nd Division and the brave Okinawan citizens who joined them as troops, nurses, and fellow patriots, is brought to vivid life.

Being a project of Kihachi Okamoto (Japan’s Longest Day), Battle of Okinawa is a film concerned first and foremost with conveying history, albeit with a slight political bias, rather than potential recruitment of audience members through depictions of patriotic bloodshed. Though the film certainly has that in spades, including exploding flesh, flowing arteries and severed limbs, it is never handled in a sensationalistic or exploitative manner. Instead the film points out the preposterousness and hopelessness of the entire situation. For example, the issue of the troops, forced to choose between doing what they know would be strategically sound, or carrying out the perplexingly illogical orders made by the mainland bureaucrats. The former would lead them to a dishonorable success, the latter an honorable defeat. Time and time again they are faced with tasks such as constructing airfields, only to never be delivered planes, and evacuating civilians, though without any means of transportation. It’s a terrible terrible mess, but as the film portrays, the soldiers and the Okinawan citizens faced it bravely, even until the bitter end. Its final sequence, of a small child wandering amongst a sea of death, is at once disturbing reminder of the tragic legacy of the events, as well as a hopeful prediction of a possibly brighter future.

However, what the film doesn’t really show is the reported intimidation tactics used by the military to get the civilians to do their bidding. While currently a point of contention between historians and the Japanese government, the military purportedly induced civilian suicides by providing them hand grenades and telling them they were better off controlling their own moment of death than face the inevitable rape, torture, and other acts of disgraceful debauchery at the hands of the devil hearted Americans. The film takes the government’s more conservative stance, showing the soldiers providing the grenades as often as they fight off the willing citizens, proclaiming their suicides would be fruitless, and to simply live. Keeping with this sentiment, Americans are seen primarily as faceless aggressors throughout the film, speaking jovially in English and broken Japanese, while shooting anything that moves — and sometimes things that have already stopped moving. While I’m sure some of this undoubtedly happened (see, for instance the latest rape case involving our uniformed men), I don’t believe it was indicative of all the Allied soldiers. But, on the other hand, the film’s treatment of these soldiers is no different than the slandering our historical enemies receive in our American films.

In closing, Battle of Okinawa deserves props for its attempt toward educating people about a famous and immensely tragic battle in World Word II. It may not be entertaining in the classical sense, but that’s not Okamoto’s intention. The picture features some excellent performances by Tetsuro Tamba (Castle of Sand, Blind Beast vs. Killer Dwarf), Tatsuya Nakadai ( Kill! , The Face of Another), and Keiju Kobayashi (Shinsengumi, Nippon Chinbotsu), and as well as some striking cinematography by Hiroshi Murai (Japan’s Longest Day, Samurai Assassin), making it worth a look for classic Japanese cinephiles and war scholars alike.

The DVD

AnimEigo presents Battle of Okinawa in a brand new, completely restored anamorphic widescreen transfer, maintaining its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio. The film is presented in its original Japanese language track and AnimEigo’s usual stellar subtitles (again with limited [dialog only] or full [dialog plus historical notes] subtitle options). As far as I could tell the transfer was perfectly fine. As I’ve mentioned in previous reviews, my Sony DVD player has a tendency to bleed reds, so some of the darker cave sequences looked a bit funky. On my computer and Toshiba I saw no such problem. Darks are dark, and the colors comfortably Technicolor. The subtitles this time around repeated a few cultural notes two to three times, though given the length of the film, these were probably intended as reminders. It’s also worth noting the subtitle track features the kindest intermission notification I’ve ever seen. Good stuff.

On the extras front AnimEigo has provided its usual round of production notes (I love these so), though as the menus note, these can now be read on their website. The notes proved invaluable to me in understanding the events surrounding the film, so I must stress the need to read these before watching Battle of Okinawa. Also included are a picture gallery featuring production stills from the film, and trailers for both Japan’s Longest Day and Battle of Okinawa.

Sadly, the DVD jacket seems to be missing the usual snappy AnimEigo warnings, though I would imagine given the content of the film, a joke would be a bit inappropriate.

In closing, I would recommend this DVD to people looking to learn a bit more about WWII from a non-western perspective. It may not be one that you’ll find yourself re-watching, but it is nonetheless illuminating.

About the Author

Chris Nelson has been a film fanatic since age six. A former film and English major, he is now a Software Engineer and contract Technical Writer living in the Silicon Valley. He’s thrilled to be back to reviewing Japanese cinema after this past month of mainstream and oddball fare.