From: doi@jrd.dec.com (Hitoshi Doi =?ISO-2022-JP?B?GyRCRVowZj9OO1YbKEI=?= )
Newsgroups: rec.arts.anime
Subject: [Curtis Hoffmann] Film tells how army doomed Okinawans to a malari
Date: 31 Aug 92 02:45:11 GMT
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation Japan, R&D center
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Reprinted from the Aug. 12, 1992, Japan Times without Permission.


Film tells how army doomed Okinawans to a malarial island
By Miu Oikawa

   Every summer, Keifuku Janamoto recalls the blazing red skies over the
islands of Okinawa.
   He was a little boy when he saw the burning villages and houses from
the mountains in Northern Okinawa where he had taken refuge from the
attacking American forces during World War II.
   Forty-seven years later, the memory still serves as a driving force
for his plays and films, which often deal with Okinawa's experiences
during the war.
   Janamoto, 50, is now commemorating another tragedy, which befell the
people of Hateruma Island, Japan's southernmost island, during the
Battle of Okinawa.
   Hundreds died of malaria in the closing days of the war after being
forcibly moved to a maleria-infested island by the Imperial Japanese
Army.
   In commemoration of the 20th anniversary of Okinawa's return to Japan
from the United States, Janamoto and his producers re-created the
incident in an animated film called, "The Voice of Stone."
   "I wanted to tell people that in war, people die even when bombs
don't come falling on you," said Janamoto, who wrote the screenplay.
"What happened in Hateruma is a symbolic incident showing that."
   The incident began in January 1945, when a spy for the Imperial
Japanese Army, Torao Yamashita, came to the island posing as an
elementary-school teacher.
   Yamashita's mission was to survey the 12.7-sq.-km island's livestock,
which the army wanted as food for soldiers.
   By April Yamashita ordered all 1,600 residents to move to Iriomote
Island, 24 km away, although they knew it was infested with malaria.
Eventually, one-third of them -- about 480 islanders -- died of the
disease.
   The film refers to the rock on an Iriomote beach on which the
principle of Hateruma's elementary school scraped the words "Don't
forget" at the time of the incident.
   The film is based on the accounts of 20 Hateruma survivors.
   "At first, they wouldn't say anything.  They just sat there, tears
flowing from their eyes and without saying a word," Janamoto recalls.
   "It took a great deal of time before they began telling us the
story... When they finally spoke, their lips and bodies were trembling."
   The film producers tried to focus on the vicious acts the army
committed against its own people.
   "What is tragic about this incident is that the lives of the Japanese
were taken by Japan's own army.  It is quite different from just dying
of malaria," said Shigeru Omachi, who was in charge of animation.
   Janamoto said it is important that Japan reflect on the past if it
wants to play a role in the international community and to help bring
peace to the world.
   "The Voice of Stone" will not be shown in public theaters.  Copies
can be bought for 210,000 yen or rented for 20,000 yen.
   The distributors are hoping the film will be shown at schools or
public gatherings.



--
Hitoshi Doi, International Open Systems Engineering        doi@jrd.dec.com
Japan Research and Development Center               decwrl!jrd.dec.com!doi
Digital Equipment Corporation Japan                     doi@decvax.dec.com