Films that provide the Japanese perspective of the Second World War remain comparatively rare, reason enough to watch this. It was also made by Kon Ichikawa who made the more famous The Burmese Harp. Both are anti-war films but while there was something transcendent in the earlier film, this later film is viscerally and unrelentingly bleak. It graphically depicts the Japanese soldiers suffering in the worst ways imaginable and committing atrocities in order to survive. No one would want a repeat watching of the horror shown here, but it is worth watching once.

On Leyte island in the Philippines, Private Tamura is berated by his squad leader for being a burden after reporting back to his unit after being turned away at the field hospital. As there are already too many patients, he is considered still fit for duty despite his tuberculosis. He is ordered to return to the hospital and to commit suicide with his grenade if there is no place for him. The quartermaster gives him a few yams as rations for the trip. On the way, he runs into other units of Japanese soldiers who are similarly badly off and is wary of smoke rising from many fires. At the hospital he is once again turned away and joins a group of injured soldiers camping in the woods nearby. Each jealously guards what little food they have as the hospital considers them to be pests. The next day however the Americans attack with artillery. The walking wounded do their best to flee but the hospital is completely destroyed. Tamura is one of the few to survive and deliberately does nothing to check if there are any other survivors. Eventually he arrives at a deserted local village. When a young couple comes by to retrieve their hidden cache of salt, the woman screams at the sight of him so he shoots her and takes the salt for himself.

The rest of the film is more of the same. Now and then, Tamura manages to link up with fellow Japanese soldiers. But then something terrible happens and he is left alone again. As the days and maybe weeks pass, starvation turns his body thin and frail. His uniform falls apart. He barely knows where he is or what he is doing. Some of his encounters with other soldiers are so awful it would be ugly to even describe them here. The most memorable scene is the sight of the patients in the hospital as it is being bombed. They can’t walk and can’t even stand up, yet fear and pure survival instinct drive them to flee. So they wriggle across the dirt like worms as the bombs blast them to pieces. Tamura has little sympathy for his compatriots. They manage to uphold a certain outward civility and refrain from outright stealing from each other. But they carefully watch for when one of them dies so they can grab his stuff. There’s no let up in the darkness at all. At one point, Tamura meets a soldier who is seemingly meditating on top of a hill. It feels like it could be a callback to The Burmese Harp but no, it’s far worse than anything seen so far.

It’s tempting to speculate about the dramatic change in mindset about the war but it’s probably just because of the different source material. One criticism is that even this, dark as it is, makes light of the role of the Japanese as the aggressors of the war. The Japanese soldiers are portrayed as the victims, betrayed by high command perhaps, and given orders that are impossible to fulfill. Even when Tamura is shown shooting a Filipino woman, it’s out of panic when she doesn’t stop screaming. The soldiers do discuss the possibility of surrendering but then Tamura witnesses a soldier being shot and that’s the end of the plan. It’s doesn’t bother me that much as this film is really about the Japanese interacting with one another and war destroys any dignity or humanity they once had.

As there aren’t that many Japanese films about the war as I’ve said, this is undoubtedly a very important work. It’s shocking and horrifying exactly as the director intended. But without even the slightest touch of light, this is too bleak for me to actually admire. It’s an inferior to The Burmese Harp and only those with strong stomach should watch it.