How do you make an anti-war film? I don't mean those gore-driven "war is hell" spectaculars that often seem like a sub-genre of horror movies. I am referring to a work that prompts people in any country to say, "We must never allow this sort of thing to happen again — not to our own people and not to anyone else."
As I explained in this column on May 20, I have been fortunate to be able to write the script, together with director Takashi Koizumi, for the film "Ashita e no Yuigon (Best Wishes for Tomorrow)" which we are now shooting at the Toho Studios in Tokyo. Our aim is to show the futility of war and the utter misery it visits on all those forced to participate in it.
"Best Wishes for Tomorrow" takes up the real-life story of Maj. Gen. Tasuku Okada of the Tokai Army defending central Honshu. Okada ordered the execution of captured American fliers a few weeks before World War II ended on Aug. 15, 1945. He and his men considered the Americans to be war criminals for the indiscriminate bombing of Japan that killed hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians. Okada and 19 of his subordinates were brought to trial before a military tribunal, and he was sentenced to death.