In Japan lately there have been a lot of commercials for this movie:
The movie’s title is : Taiheiyo no kiseki –fokksu to yobareta otoko ( or, Miracle of the Pacific: The Man Called Fox).
Story highlight here:
On 7 July, Captain Oba and his men participated in the largest banzai charge of the war in the Pacific. After 15 hours of intense and unrelenting hand to hand combat, almost 4,300 Japanese soldiers were dead. Allied forces declared the island secured on 9 July 1944. By 30 September 1944, the Japanese Army made an official presumption of death for all personnel of unknown status and they were declared killed in action. That included Captain ?ba, and he was awarded a “posthumous” promotion to Major.
In reality, Captain ?ba survived the battle and took command of 46 other soldiers. ?ba then led over 200 Japanese civilians deeper into the jungles to evade capture. He and his men organized the civilians and placed them in mountain caves and hidden jungle villages. When the soldiers were not assisting the civilians with survival tasks, Captain Oba and his men continued their battle against the garrison of U.S. Marines. ?ba used Mount Tapochau as their primary base; at 473 meters (1,552 ft), the peak offered an unobstructed 360-degree view of the island. From their base camp on the western slope of the mountain, ?ba and his men occasionally conducted guerilla-style raids on American positions. Due to the speed and stealth of these operations, and the frustrated attempts to find him, the Marines on Saipan eventually referred to ?ba as “The Fox”.
Captain Oba and his men held out on the island for 512 days, or about 16 months. On 27 November 1945, former Major General Umahachi Am?, commander of the 9th Independent Mixed Brigade during the Battle of Saipan, was able to draw out some of the Japanese in hiding by singing the anthem of the Japanese infantry branch. Am? was then able present documents from the defunct Imperial General Headquarters to Captain ?ba ordering him and his men to surrender themselves to the Americans. On 1 December 1945, three months after the official surrender of Japan, the Japanese soldiers gathered once more on Mt. Tapochau and sang a song of departure to the spirits of the war dead. ?ba then led his people out of the jungle and they presented themselves to the Marines of the 18th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Company. With great formality and commensurate dignity, Captain ?ba surrendered his sword to Lieutenant Colonel Howard G. Kurgis, and his men surrendered their arms and colors. They were the last organized resistance of Japanese forces on Saipan.
According to Japan Probe-the movie makes Oba out to be something of a hero: “placing emphasis on how Oba saved the lives of civilians by helping them hide in the jungles. Considering the fact that many other Japanese civilians died in the battle and thousands committed suicide rather than face capture, Oba’s actions probably did save some from such a fate.“.
Also from Japan Probe-One of the trailers:
The film hits theaters across Japan on February 11th.
Skippy,
Not sure from reading your posts if you are for “net freedom” and do any movie downloads, but if you go to this site:
http://www.moviewatch.in/
You may be able to find it. That site contains many movies and TV shows, and if you do an advanced search for war movies and the decade they were made, you will find tons of great movies.
I was able to get that 3 part movie Japanese movie on WW2 “The Human Condition” from the site, and the good thing about it was that it was subtitled in English. They have many other Japanese movies there, and the majoirty are subtitled.
A good site to go to if you want all of the classic movies you had mentioned in a few posts back.
After Japan’s defeat and occupation, the Captain was contacted, under flag of truce, by a group of American officers who hoped to persuade him to surrender his detachment. He was told he had fought honorably and well, and there was no shame or dereliction of duty attached to his defeat.
He responded that he was not defeated. Cut off, outnumbered, surrounded, ill equipped and short on supplies, yes…But NOT defeated.
How can you not admire such a reply?
Fortunately, he agreed that he was duty bound to accept orders from his commanding General, verifiable orders, to do what he eventually did.
The U. S. Park Service Museum at the American Cemetary in Saipan tells (told?) the tale of his command’s actions as a forlorn hope, and his surrender.
Thanks for this!
I had not heard about this film.
Oba was one impressive officer.