• The story begins, with the protagonist (a little girl named Chitose) experiencing life as a normal child, but as the war gets more intense, she begins to notice that all isn’t right in the world. She notices a male student getting bullied for refusing to change his name to a Japanese surname*. He talks about how horrible the Japanese are, Chitose is shocked by this since she has no idea (as a Japanese child in elementary school) how terribly mistreated the Koreans are by Japanese troops. Her Korean classmate then joins the Korean Liberation Army and gets murdered by Japanese troops, when he tries to fight them off at the border. Another instance of this is when Koreans are cheering in the street, after Japanese has lost the war, and Chitose can’t comprehend it. Her father has to explain to her that it’s because ‘their prisoners are being set free.’
* The sōshi-kaimei (name-changing) edict is later turned on its head toward the end of the film, when Chitose’s family has to hide that they are Japanese and speak only Korean—while they’re fleeing the country.
• Later, the Korean housekeeper (a teenage girl, named Ohana) is sewing a patch into Chitose’s Shōwa-era set of trousers and she accidentally leaves the needle in, Chitose carelessly slips them on and the needle gets lodged really deep in her body. After surgery, the doctor says that the accident could have been fatal and after Chitose’s younger sister had already passed away, Ohana is abruptly fired. Later, Chitose is out walking with her mother and she sees Ohana working at a brothel. In her childhood, she obviously had no idea about sex work but the atmosphere in the film is so dense that it implies that Chitose can somehow sense that her former babysitter was in a bad situation. I teared up at this scene because the implications of a kind girl, like Ohana, being forced to work as a comfort woman was so cruel. At the end of the film, Chitose is an adult but stilly harbors guilt for what happened to Ohana—after receiving flowers, following her live theater performance as an adult, Chitose suspects that they are from Ohana and screams her name outside, in a crowded Tokyo street.
• Ohana’s fate correlates to the entire theme of the film: unpredictable circumstances can lead us to ruin. As citizens, we are often punished by our government’s decisions to go to war and persecute other innocent civilians. Chitose’s father was a solider for the Imperial Japanese army, but the film brings up the question of ‘was that really his choice?’ Ohana is punished for something that was an accident and then has to live in a tortuous situation for years, until the Japanese troops are driven out of the country. Chitose and her family lose their home in Korea because Japanese forces stole that land—far before Chitose’s family was ever stationed there (Korean land was usurped in 1906 and Chitose’s story begins in 1941), so they are yet again having to suffer for an ‘original sin’ that was committed decades ago.
• Japanese families, that include Japanese children and the elderly, were forced to flee the country on foot, or else be killed by Russian troops. After the Japanese pilgrimage, a Korean man offers to help them. The elder of the village, then asks the man, ‘Are you sure? They took your son and you don’t know if he’s even still alive.’ The man still agrees to help, understanding that a group’s evils shouldn’t mean that individuals should have to suffer. That man’s kindness and understanding made him an exemplar, in this film’s cruel premise.
• This story has a unique perspective. Before I completed the movie, I had never thought about what it would be like to occupy another country, after your homeland had lost the war. Not mention the guilt you would have to bear, knowing your people are the oppressors. Truly, a powerful movie!
• The animation wasn’t the greatest and the film had pacing issues during the scenes that involved the forced immigration of the Japanese characters, but I really liked the character designs. They are like a blend of Chibi Maruko-chan and Isao Takahata’s Only Yesterday, Chibi Maruko-chan is a successor to this film, so it’s probable that it was influenced by the designs (round, mochi-like faces with rosy cheeks). Some of the facial expressions that Chitose made during this film were heart-breaking, not to mention the feeling of resignation that was conveyed through her parents’ emotional articulations.
• This film is ground-breaking! I recommend this to anyone who has an interest in history, particularly Shōwa-era Japanese and Korean history. It’s a touching film, from an objective child’s perspective, it allows for more understanding in the controversial topic of Japanese-Korean relations. I give this film a solid 6.5/10!
Historical Notes:
1. In the beginning of the film, Chitose’s family were able to procure a home because after Japan conquered Korea—Japanese troops required all citizens of Korea to provide deeds and documentation, proof of their land ownership. During that period, many Korean land owners had procured their estates through word of mouth, so many people lost their homes.
2. During one of the classroom scenes, Japanese students are bullying a Korean kid for keeping his given name, instead of switching to a Japanese surname. The film doesn’t directly talk about this, but this is a reference to sōshi-kaimei—an ordinance of law, put into place by Imperialist Japan, that pressured all Koreans to legally change their names.
3. When Korean deserters attempted to escape in the movie, many of them—including Chitose’s classmate, was shot down by Japanese troops when they attempted to escape to China. Korea’s exiled resistance was called the Korean Liberation Army (formed December 10th, 1941) and the escapees, who made it to China, would go on to form the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea—this providence is now referred to as North Korea.
4. Ohana was forced to become a comfort women, after losing her job working for the family. Comfort women were impoverished Korean women who were forced into prostitution and sex slavery, and specifically were formed to serve Imperialist troops.
5. Korean citizens were cheering at the end of World War II because many Koreans had been taken to mainland Japan for forced labor, and would subsequently be returned after the war.
6. Russian troops were mentioned as co-occupants during the last arc because before Japan predominantly took control of Korean resources; in February 11th, 1896, the tsar of Russia had governed Korea for a year after (Queen Min, a high profile leader in Korea) was assassinated by Japanese troops. During Russia’s occupation, the Independence Club (a group of Korean activists) attempted to gain more Western influence, particularly through Russia, to counterbalance the growing influence of Japan in their country. This led to the Russo-Japanese war. At the end of the film, when Japan loses World War II, Russia helps Korean drive the remaining Japanese occupants out. This is emblematic of Korea’s eventual independence through Western assistance.
