07/04/2008
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Japanese theatres cancel the release of a documentary about Nipponese militarism
A rest place for millions of fallen in conflicts or a symbol of the sanctification
of the military regime that subdued a part of the Far East before and after World
War II? For years the Japanese war cemetery Yasukuni has been a source of tension
between Tokyo and the countries that have been occupied by the Nipponese army
during the last century. Many Japanese prime ministers regularly visited it although
they knew how much this was controversial. But in Japan it is almost taboo to
start any discussion about Yasukuni aimed at a self examination of the past. And
nothing will change even now, after Tokyo and Osaka decided not to show a documentary
inviting Japanese people to self-criticism.
Schedule cancellation. Last week “Yasukuni” won the prise for the best documentary at the international
Hong Kong film festival. It was scheduled for release in Japan on April 12th. But distributors have stepped back, scared by extreme right-wing nationalists
threats to theatres and to the film director Li Ying, a Chinese who has lived
in Japan for twenty years. Moreover about forty deputies of the Liberal Democratic
party (on power since the postwar period) asked Li to preview the film: for many
people this is a sort of precautionary censorship.
Reactions. “Yasukuni” aims at make people thinking about the various currents of thought
regarding the military cemetery, where 2.5 million Japanese soldiers rest together
with about one thousand war criminals, 14 of which tagged “A-class” and where
a museum rewrites the Second World War history with a strain which far away from
the “mea-culpa” adopted by other peoples, like German. According to the director
Li the film is a love letter to Japanese people and Yasukuni symbolises “an illness
in the soul of the country”. Nipponese conservatives, instead, have stigmatised
the documentary as “Chinese propaganda”, criticising the 7.5 million Yen (47500
Euro) funding granted to Li from the Japanese Cultural Agency.
Schedule cancellation. Last week “Yasukuni” won the prise for the best documentary at the international
Hong Kong film festival. It was scheduled for release in Japan on April 12th. But distributors have stepped back, scared by extreme right-wing nationalists
threats to theatres and to the film director Li Ying, a Chinese who has lived
in Japan for twenty years. Moreover about forty deputies of the Liberal Democratic
party (on power since the postwar period) asked Li to preview the film: for many
people this is a sort of precautionary censorship.
Reactions. “Yasukuni” aims at make people thinking about the various currents of thought
regarding the military cemetery, where 2.5 million Japanese soldiers rest together
with about one thousand war criminals, 14 of which tagged “A-class” and where
a museum rewrites the Second World War history with a strain which far away from
the “mea-culpa” adopted by other peoples, like German. According to the director
Li the film is a love letter to Japanese people and Yasukuni symbolises “an illness
in the soul of the country”. Nipponese conservatives, instead, have stigmatised
the documentary as “Chinese propaganda”, criticising the 7.5 million Yen (47500
Euro) funding granted to Li from the Japanese Cultural Agency.
Nationalism in vogue. Yasuo Fukuda government dissociated itself from the request of the members of
the Parliament, but in the country debate is in full swing. It is a shame for
Japanese cinema: freedom of expression has been hurt”, the film workers Union
said. Major newspapers all aligned on a similar line. “Japan already experienced
enough, more than 60 years ago, how unhealthy and oppressive a society becomes
when people cannot freely speak their thought”, the newspaper Asahi has written
in an editorial. But recently the country I seeing a nationalistic revival, demonstrated
also by the recent release of the film “I'm going to die for you”, which glorifies
kamikaze sacrifices during World War II. And in last months the extreme right
wing groups drew attention on themselves for having imposed the cancellation of
other debates, among which a conference about the change of the woman's role in
the Japanese society and the annual meeting of the tendentially progressist teachers
Union.
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