Boy Soldiers: The Secret War in Okinawa
A documentary byChie Mikami and Hanayo Oya

REVIEW LINKThe Japan Times ( 2018/07/18 )‘Boy Soldiers: The Secret War in Okinawa’: Gripping stories told by Okinawans provide afirsthand account of war——— BY MARK SCHILLINGSYNOPSIS
Okinawa, the chain of islands at the southernmost tip of Japan that are currently tattooed by US military bases.
These islands became the bulwark to protect the Japanese mainland toward the end of World War II. After theAmericans landed and a violent battle ensued, over 200,000 lives were lost, including many civilians.
While the bloody war depicted in films such as “Hacksaw Ridge” ensued on the surface, there was anothersecret war developing in its shadow that not even Japanese people are aware of. For over 70 years after thewar, survivors have been afraid to share details of this brutal secret war which left deep scars that still have yetto heal.
Guerrilla units composed of 15 and 16-year-old soldiers known as the “Homeland Guard.” A forced civilian
evacuation ordered by the Japanese army which resulted in a malaria epidemic that killed over 3,600 civilians.
A military system enacted to control civilians which ended up encouraging them to mistrust and sometimes
even kill innocent people. What sort of part did the young elite generals who had just graduated from theJapanese army’s enigmatic “Nakano school” play in this secret war? This documentary connects the dots inthis hidden history in order to unveil horrifying truths.
This film uncovers Japan’s greatest taboos concerning the Battle of Okinawa, and also sounds alarms
concerning the recent steps that the modern Japanese and American governments have taken toward
remilitarizing Japan.

DIRECTORS’ BIOGRAPHIES & FILMOGRAPHIES

Chie Mikami
Chie Mikami is a journalist and documentary filmmaker. Entering Mainichi
Broadcasting System as an announcer, she moved to Okinawa when Ryukyu
Asahi Broadcasting Corp was established in 1995. Concurrent with her
duties as the main local news anchor, she has produced numerous
documentary programs on topics such as Okinawan culture, nature, theBattle of Okinawa, and the issue of the U.S. military bases. Her programs
have won numerous broadcasting awards. Her first documentary film “TheTargeted Village” (2013) won both the Citizens' Prize and the Directors
Guild of Japan Award at the 2013 Yamagata International Documentary Film
Festival. Her second documentary film “We Shall Overcome” (2015) wasinvited to the Wide Angle Documentary Competition in Busan InternationalFilm Festival and Yamagata Documentary Film Festival's InternationalCompetition. Her third documentary film “The Targeted Island: A Shield Against Storms” (2017) was selected
Yamagata Documentary Film Festival's special invitation film. Besides being a filmmaker Mikami is afreelance journalist and an Okinawa folkloristics lecturer at Okinawa International University.
Hanayo Oya
Hanayo Oya is a journalist and documentary filmmaker. She was born andgrown up in Chiba prefecture, Japan, in 1987. Soon after graduation in 2012,
she started working as a news reporter with Ryukyu Asahi BroadcastingCorp, a local TV station in Okinawa, where she covered stories mainly about
the issue of the U.S. military base in Okinawa, and of the Self-Defense
Forces’ deployment to Yaeyama Islands, as well as crimes and accidents
caused by the U.S. military servicemen. She has received six awards withher documentaries and reports: The first documentary “At the End of theRoad −dialogue with a former Japanese soldier fought in the Battle ofOkinawa−” (2016) has received the Award for Excellence of the Progress
Prize. The second documentary “I was the Terrorist−The U.S. veteransstood up to stop the new U.S. military base construction in Okinawa−”(2016) has won the Highest Award of the Progress Prize and more. “Boy Soldiers: The Secret War in Okinawa”
is the first documentary film that she has produced as a freelance journalist. Besides her career as journalist
and documentary filmmaker, she acts as adjunct researcher at the Institute for Journalism at Waseda University,and educates future journalists.

DIRECTORS’ STATEMENT
We worked as colleagues at a local TV stations in Okinawa -Chie Mikami was an anchor, and Hanayo Oya
was a news reporter-. Having done many interviews with survivors of the Battle of Okinawa, we realized thatno matter what experience they had or where they were during the war, all of them have reached to one single
conclusion: “Japanese military didn’t protect us.” So what exactly happened for them? What has the Japanesemilitary done to their own citizens? Hearing the voices of the survivors and bringing hidden facts under light
was a responsibility for us as journalists working for Okinawa. Therefore, we have decided to make thisdocumentary film.
Mikami focused mainly on Okinawa island, while Oya covered in Yaeyama islands and the U.S. Finding outand interviewing the survivors was not easy. It’s been 73 years since the Battle had ended. Many of them werealready gone. However, there were those who decided finally to speak out their experience in their last days,
and allowed us to reveal the secret war that they got involved in: Boy soldiers, the Hateruma malaria epidemic,
and the spy lists.
Although these three histories were virtually unknown even in Okinawa, we realized that they clearly indicate
the fact that the Japanese military utilized citizens as if they were weapons, kept them under control, and took
their lives if they had a possibility to become spies, only to protect the nation. At the same time, we had to faceto the truth that civilians had played an important role in the secret war. The military strategy to utilize themin the war let them have tremendous fear each other, and kill each other to protect their own lives. The borderamong perpetrators and victims were ambiguous in the war.
“Current circumstances in Japan bring my memories back. I wonder the same tragedy would be repeated”,
said almost all the survivors whom we have interviewed. Today, “protecting the nation from external threat”
is the cliches that the Japanese government uses to justify a deployment of the Japanese Army, “Self-DefenseForces”, to Okinawa. Their missile units are now to be deployed on Ishigaki, Miyako, Okinawa, and Amami
islands that are defined as keystones of national defense against China. Most of Japanese citizens believe thatthe deployment of the SDF along with the U.S. military to Okinawa is necessary to protect the nation. However,little did they know the history that only 73 years ago in Okinawa, citizens were manipulated and sacrificed
their lives under the same theory.
We believe that earning a lesson from the Battle of Okinawa is an ultimate act that citizens could do to prevent
another possible war. And through the film, we hope that those who wish to have strong arms and weapons toprotect the nation question themselves.
CREDITS
Director & Narrator: Chie Mikami 三上智恵, Hanayo Oya 大矢英代
Producer: Yoshiko Hashimoto 橋本佳子, Shigeki Kinoshita 木下繁貴
Assistant Director: Masato Higa 比嘉真人 Cinematographer: Mamoru Hirata 平田守
Editor: Keita Suzuo 鈴尾啓太 Music: Yuji Katsui 勝井祐二
Production: DOCUMENTARY JAPAN, TOFOO FILMS, Chie Mikami, Hanayo Oya ドキュメンタリージ
ャパン、東風、三上智恵、大矢英代
Original title: Okinawa Supai Senshi 沖縄スパイ戦史 Official website: http://www.spy-senshi.com
2018｜Japan｜114 min｜HD, DCP｜Color/B&W©2018 “Boy Soldiers: The Secret War in Okinawa” Production Committee