New movie--Best Wishes for Tomorrow--looks for honor amid the recriminations of war (Japan)
War crimes constitute one of the leading issues of our time. But what exactly is a war crime, who should be held responsible, and how should perpetrators be brought to justice?
Whether we are talking about World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq or any other conflict, the principles and execution of justice should be the same for all sides.
Let me cite one example.
Bombers are on a mission to drop high-explosive incendiary devices on a city. There are no military bases in or around the city, nor are there factories manufacturing goods of military significance. The purpose of the mission is to terrorize the local population and, it is hoped, cause them to abandon the will to fight.
The bombers successfully destroy civilian targets in the city, killing between 20,000 and 30,000 people and injuring many times that number. However, 38 fliers parachute out of their planes and are captured by the enemy. These fliers assume that they will be treated as prisoners of war and dealt with according to the rules set out in the Geneva Conventions. But their captors consider them not prisoners of war, but war criminals. They are given a summary trial before a military tribunal, sentenced to death and executed.
Massive and indiscriminate aerial bombardment, causing hundreds of thousands of casualties and leaving millions destitute and homeless, occurred across Japan during World War II. But it was in the Tokai area, centering on Aichi and Mie prefectures, that the above incidents took place. And it was in Nagoya and its vicinity that the 38 American fliers were decapitated, cremated and buried, the last of them on July 17, 1945, just a few weeks before the end of the war on Aug. 15.
After the war, the commander of the Tokai Army and 19 of his subordinates who had participated in the trial and execution of the Americans were arrested. They themselves were put on trial in Yokohama in 1948. The commander was Lt. Gen. Tasuku Okada. The trial of Okada and his 19 subordinates forms the core of the story of the film “Ashita e no Yuigon (Best Wishes for Tomorrow)” that completed its shoot in the first week of July. I was fortunate to be able to write the script for this film, together with the director, Takashi Koizumi. We based the film both on the record of the trial itself, running to many thousands of pages, and on an account of it written by Shohei Ooka in his book “Nagai Tabi (A Long Journey)”.
In this film, we address the three questions at the opening of this article. Although the story of the trial is nearly 60 years old, I feel that the message coming out of it is totally relevant to our times. In an era of constant war crimes – be they caused by indiscriminate killing, torture under interrogation or any other gross infringement of human rights during a conflict – when the buck is passed as far down as it can be and leaders are not held to account for their heinous decisions, the story of Okada may show us another way of coming to terms with the aftermath of tragedy....
Read entire article at Roger Pulvers at http://www.fccj.or.jp
Whether we are talking about World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq or any other conflict, the principles and execution of justice should be the same for all sides.
Let me cite one example.
Bombers are on a mission to drop high-explosive incendiary devices on a city. There are no military bases in or around the city, nor are there factories manufacturing goods of military significance. The purpose of the mission is to terrorize the local population and, it is hoped, cause them to abandon the will to fight.
The bombers successfully destroy civilian targets in the city, killing between 20,000 and 30,000 people and injuring many times that number. However, 38 fliers parachute out of their planes and are captured by the enemy. These fliers assume that they will be treated as prisoners of war and dealt with according to the rules set out in the Geneva Conventions. But their captors consider them not prisoners of war, but war criminals. They are given a summary trial before a military tribunal, sentenced to death and executed.
Massive and indiscriminate aerial bombardment, causing hundreds of thousands of casualties and leaving millions destitute and homeless, occurred across Japan during World War II. But it was in the Tokai area, centering on Aichi and Mie prefectures, that the above incidents took place. And it was in Nagoya and its vicinity that the 38 American fliers were decapitated, cremated and buried, the last of them on July 17, 1945, just a few weeks before the end of the war on Aug. 15.
After the war, the commander of the Tokai Army and 19 of his subordinates who had participated in the trial and execution of the Americans were arrested. They themselves were put on trial in Yokohama in 1948. The commander was Lt. Gen. Tasuku Okada. The trial of Okada and his 19 subordinates forms the core of the story of the film “Ashita e no Yuigon (Best Wishes for Tomorrow)” that completed its shoot in the first week of July. I was fortunate to be able to write the script for this film, together with the director, Takashi Koizumi. We based the film both on the record of the trial itself, running to many thousands of pages, and on an account of it written by Shohei Ooka in his book “Nagai Tabi (A Long Journey)”.
In this film, we address the three questions at the opening of this article. Although the story of the trial is nearly 60 years old, I feel that the message coming out of it is totally relevant to our times. In an era of constant war crimes – be they caused by indiscriminate killing, torture under interrogation or any other gross infringement of human rights during a conflict – when the buck is passed as far down as it can be and leaders are not held to account for their heinous decisions, the story of Okada may show us another way of coming to terms with the aftermath of tragedy....