(Narrator)
Nineteen days out of Yokohama,
we were practically drifting toward Soipon
at six knots on hour.
The convoy consisted
of five old Bonito vessels.
Our engines were in poor shape.
We carried badly needed supplies
toward the island outposts.
We were fishermen,
proud to be drafted into service,
and had two soldiers posted on each boat.
No need for more, we thought.
We were not prepared for defeat. Who is?
The lead boat, the Hyosuke Mam,
was captained by an old salt
who knew nothing about this watery arena.
His maps showed some 2,000 islands,
like sprinkled crumbs on a vast surface.
We were now passing
the Mariana Archipelago.
Once it had belonged to Spain,
then to Germany, and finally to Japan,
and we intended to keep it.
- This tropical world was a geological joke
- (Speaking Japanese)
of coral and volcano.
Some islands lasted, some disappeared.
Some were inhabited, others were not.
Who'd want to live there anyway?
This giant body of water
and all that was in it was ours.
Our belief in victory was unshakable.
We had stopped looking
at the steppingstones that paraded by.
They were of no interest.
We wanted to return home.
(Speaking Japanese)
(Narrator)
We now sighted Anatahan,
a jungle rock that stood high
out of the sleeping waters.
So it was duly recorded in the log,
6:00 in the morning, June 12, 1944,
the fourth year of a war to which
we had dedicated our lives like children,
playing a game
without vision or foresight.
(Speaking Japanese)
(Japanese)
(Bell clangs four times)
(Narrator) Four bells and our chief cook
and bottle washer
appeared promptly with asamestfl,
breakfast for the skipper.
His American sailor's hat was a reminder
of a defeated enemy ship.
(Man speaks Japanese)
(Plane approaching)
At first we thought it was
one of our own planes.
(Japanese)
(Japanese)
(Japanese)
(Machine gun fire)
The barren map of the world makes no note
of where misfortune strikes.
We went down fast. Few survived.
The Mariana Trench
over which we swam ashore
was over 35,000 feet deep.
The fiery centre of the earth
had blown this rock of Anatahan
a long way from the ocean floor.
How we got ashore, no one remembered.
We were dumped like garbage
on a hot coast, left to rot.
The change from a human being
with dignity to a helpless worm
takes but a second.
A merciful narcosis
kept us from suffering too much.
One of the men
had not only saved his hide,
but accomplished the heroic feat
of bringing a machine gun ashore.
A warrant officer
with a long service record,
he was the only one who knew what to do.
To defend this island for a couple of months
was not a difficult task, he thought.
He knew the enemy,
and he knew the Imperial Navy would not
permit us to stay abandoned very long.
Yes, we have picked the deepest part
of the Pacific Ocean,
deep and solemn.
And we were to be here
for seven long years.
And little did we know that the enemy
was not in planes overhead,
nor was it the lack of food,
the lack of water and medicine,
nor the venomous plants that hemmed us in.
How could we know that we had brought
the enemy with us in our own bodies,
an enemy that would attack without notice?
(Speaking Japanese)
One of our men had spotted
a deserted village.
This was good news
after many weeks of hardship.
(Japanese continues)
And so we entered
the twisting, haunted labyrinth
of an unfamiliar jungle,
a beautiful but vicious world
from which many of us never returned.
Oi!
Oi!
Oi!
Oi!
(Speaking Japanese)
What sort of a Japanese was this?
(Japanese continues)
His name was Kusakabe.
(Japanese continues)
Said he lived alone on the island.
The others had left when the war started.
He'd been plantation foreman,
exported copra.
But the jungle had taken over.
An unfriendly man.
Unfriendly to us,
and unfriendly to himself.
Imagine living
on an island like this by choice,
thousands of miles from nowhere.
(Speaking Japanese)
That's how we met Keiko.
At first,
she was only another fellow human being
stranded on this pinpoint on the map.
Then she was to become a female to us.
And finally, a woman.
The only woman on earth.
(Speaking Japanese)
Our eyes have stayed empty and remote.
We lost track of time. The rains had started.
They seemed never to end.
We built boats- toy boats to carry us
home on the wings of our longing.
This lonely island was our whole world.
We went to sleep at night
and dreamt of home.
Each morning we were back on Anatahan.
Like a rare bird of the wet jungle,
we caught an occasional glimpse of Keiko.
Some of us, sooner than the others,
longed for something
more than bread alone,
and we watched her,
and we watched each other.
The rain stopped. Nothing lasts forever.
Though the waves of the ocean lasted long.
First thing we did when the hot rays
of the sun came again
was to build a Shinto shrine
to speed our prayers.
Most of us believed in Shintoism.
There were two Christians, four Buddhists.
Others believed only in Japan.
We extracted salt from the sea,
hunted lizard and bat,
found wild potatoes,
lived on food that pigs would have rejected.
But best of all,
we found a way of making fire.
We had sunk to the level
of prehistoric man.
But our progress was not slow.
We achieved in weeks what the caveman
had taken centuries to accomplish.
And so we faced our new life,
halfway between Japan and New Guinea
on a deserted sea lane,
1,500 miles from the Philippines,
some 16 degrees above the equator,
resigned to wait.
(Man speaks Japanese phrase)
The first typhoon
struck us with an unjust fury.
What had we done to reap all this?
Why did man and nature
conspire to make us helpless?
The rocks that were so formidable
when we crawled ashore
were pebbles now in a giant sea.
It raged for three days.
The elements are cruel.
To the winds and to the sea,
man and his problems is as nothing.
The typhoon pounded at us.
The ocean wanted to wipe us out.
This island rock that was anchored firmly
to the bottom of the deep sea
seemed to tear loose and join the storm.
One year on Anatahan.
This was our home now--
three miles long, one mile wide,
most of it impenetrable.
We stood guard in turns to wait
for our navy to come-- it never came.
For the enemy to come-- he never came.
Nothing came but the waves.
The tides lifted and the tides fell.
We now took another step away
from prehistoric mom.
We had found empty beer bottles,
and now we found a way
of filling them-- with coconut wine.
If we drank quickly,
before it turned to vinegar,
it made us forget
where we were and who we were.
(Speaking Japanese)
(Japanese)
(Japanese)
We were scolded, of course.
But since when has alcoholism
been cured by scolding?
(Narrator)
Who are you combing your hair for?
(Japanese)
(Narrator) F0r you, naturally."
Was she combing it for him?
- (Japanese)
' (Speaking Japanese)
(Narrator) Takahashi was the first one
to break the social ice.
He brought a peace offering--
more shells for the wife,
as if she needed them.
(Speaking Japanese)
At that time we still thought
they were man and wife,
and we had not yet become savages.
(Speaking Japanese)
(Door shell curtain clattering)
(Japanese)
(Narrator) The difference
between a child and a grown-up
is in the way the brain
is in control of the emotions.
Kusakabe objected to anyone
paying attention to Keiko--
that was easy to diagnose.
More difficult to understand
was why he was so antagonistic to us,
and to himself.
(Shouting in Japanese)
Our leader, the boss of the island--
that is, boss for a while--
was not opposed
to a display of his authority.
Some men are drunk on wine.
Some are drunk on power.
(Speaking Japanese)
- (Shouts)
- Hai.
(Speaking Japanese)
(Narrator) $0 far, all these things
that happened to us on Anatahan
were very small.
Our life now consisted
of nothing but trifles.
How were we to know what was important
and what trifle was not?
She was a pretty woman.
She was a Japanese woman,
trained to obedience.
When she was young
she followed her father,
never dreamt of walking at his side.
When she married
she walked behind the husband.
Obedience to a husband
is considered to be the prime virtue
of Japanese womanhood.
(Japanese)
The full moon of the autumn equinox
is the time for the ohigan festival,
when we pay respect to our ancestors.
Our thoughts then go from them
to our family.
The word higa n" means the other shore.
It is taken from the Buddhist legend
that there is a river marking
the division of this earthly world
to a future one.
(Speaking Japanese)
This river is full of illusion,
passion, pain and sorrow.
Only when you cross the river,
having fought the currents of temptation
to gain the for shore,
do you reach enlightenment.
This was the time when we thought
of our families for away.
This was the time when we thought
of our families, all of us.
And so did Kusakabe.
He had brought with him,
when he came, wife and child.
At the outbreak of the war,
four years now,
they had left him
to go to Saipan for safety.
Keiko too had had a husband
who had left on the same boat.
She too had not heard from him again.
All this we found out later.
Careless as we might wish to be
in our relations to other human beings,
there is a time of accounting.
Left alone in an empty world,
it was natural for these two
to have formed a bond of sorts.
For a time they have forgotten
everything but each other.
Keiko?
Keiko?
Keiko?
Keiko?
(Speaking Japanese)
- (Speaking Japanese)
- (Narrator) Are you thinking of your home?"
Yes, but not when I see you."
She was prepared to hear just that.
A long journey begins with one step.
Hers was to be quite a long journey.
(shouts)
(Shouting in Japanese)
- (Blows landing)
- (Keiko screams)
(Shouting in Japanese continues)
(Narrator)
This was Anatahan.
We still kept track of the months,
though we had forgotten
the day of the week.
A little while later
no one would care what year it was.
Japan had forgotten us.
The horizon remained empty and remote.
But the circle around Keiko enlarged.
She was young.
Her body failed to remember
the blows it had received.
It also slipped her mind.
She became better-looking day by day.
She became queen bee,
and we, the drones, began to swarm.
- (Speaking Japanese)
- (Speaking Japanese)
(Narrator)
What's your husband doing?
All I know, he's not out
looking for another woman."
How would you like
to be my bride tonight?"
I don't need two husbands."
(Japanese)
(Speaking Japanese)
(All laughing)
(Narrator) Coconut wine
had become our steady diet.
With the coming of wine,
discipline vanished.
Some of us began to feel strongly
about being told to stand guard
day and night
against an enemy that never came.
Who was this man anyway,
who never allowed us to forget
what it meant to be a Japanese soldier?
All this talk of stand up and salute"
became more and more pointless.
(Japanese)
It took him years to achieve his position.
It took seconds to lose it.
(Japanese)
Typhoons and human beings
strike without much warning.
There are few signals,
and only the skilled--
the very skilled can read them.
' (Grunts)
' (Japanese)
(Japanese)
(Japanese)
The loss of face to a soldier in command
is not a pleasant experience.
To lose the respect of our fellow men
is not pleasant for anyone anywhere.
A good part of our life is spent
in trying to gain the esteem of others.
To gain self-esteem, however,
we usually waste little time.
We had thrown off the yoke of discipline.
We were free, free of all restraint,
which only meant that
we were slaves to our bodies.
- (Singing in Japanese)
- A folk song from Okinawa,
the Tsundara Bushi,"
had spread like a weed
among the soldiers during the war.
You and me, like an egg.
I'm egg white, you're egg yellow.
I embrace you."
(Singing continues)
(Speaking Japanese)
(Narrator) The day started with
a dispute over the words of a song.
How the day would end,
no one knew at the time.
(Japanese continues)
You are looking for trouble."
And we found it."
(Continues singing in Japanese)
'Keiko, Keiko, come out, come out.'
Those are the right words."
(Continues singing in Japanese)
(Speaking Japanese)
(Singing continues)
(Singing continues)
(Singing continues)
(Narrator) Semba was 19,
with the beard of a man
and the brain of a grasshopper.
He was next in line for Keiko's favours.
(Singing continues)
We gave little thought to our actions.
There is no medicine against stupidity,
and it was epidemic among us.
(Yowls)
(Singing continues)
(Japanese)
(Speaking Japanese)
(Speaking Japanese)
- (Blow lands)
- (Japanese continues)
- (Shouting in Japanese)
- (Blow lands)
(Shouts in Japanese)
- (Japanese)
- (Shouts in Japanese)
(Men resume singing)
(Singing continues)
(Japanese)
- (Speaking Japanese)
- (Speaking Japanese)
(Speaking Japanese)
(Narrator)
Then came the unexpected.
(Man on loudspeaker speaking Japanese)
(Narrator)
To all Japanese forces.
Three months ago, the 15th day of August,
Japan accepted unconditional surrender.
The Japanese emperor himself
is asking you to lay down your arms.
The war is over.
An American ship will take you home.
Hostilities have ceased.
All Japanese men and officers, surrender.
Surrender at once."
(Man on loudspeaker:
speaking Japanese, phrases repeating)
(Narrator)
The unbelievable had happened.
This could not be true.
We had just begun the war.
We were prepared to fight
for a thousand years.
We'd overrun Asia,
almost the entire Pacific.
How could we have lost so suddenly?
This was a enemy trick.
It could fool no one.
We came to ask him to lead us again.
There are those who lead
and those who wish to be led.
There is not necessarily
any other bond between them.
(Speaking Japanese)
(Speaking Japanese)
(Speaking Japanese)
(Narrator) The sacred soil of Japan
cannot be conquered.
So long as we have one drop of blood
in our veins, we will not give up.
Rather die than surrender."
(Japanese)
' Hui!
' Hui!
(Narrator)
But far away, in Japan,
our country had faced
the reality of defeat.
The emperor had called the troops home
and millions streamed buck,
away from the nightmare
of trying to conquer a world.
(Boat whistle blowing)
Father and son, wife and husband...
mothers, daughters, friends,
all those who had feared
they might never meet again.
The men who had fought in vain
came back home.
Though there were many
that did not come back.
But we knew nothing about
what took place in a new Japan.
We were still on Anatahan,
deserted by the world,
defending this volcanic rock.
Defending it against what enemy?
(Men singing mournfully in Japanese)
(Singing continues)
The only real enemy
most of us ever have is lonesomeness.
(Speaking Japanese)
(Narrator)
The jungle had disgorged a rare prize.
An enemy plane had been found wrecked,
the bodies vanished.
This was a doubtful reminder
of civilisation.
We fluttered around this sudden gift
from the skies like vultures.
What could we find
to make our life better?
Some of the things
were to make our life worse.
Nishio found a .45-calibre weapon
and a few bullets.
Amanuma too hit the jackpot.
Keiko found a parachute,
which meant elegance for us
instead of clothes made of tree bark,
or no clothes at all.
Semba, our friend the lady-killer,
found a ring.
The easy way to a woman's heart.
(Whispering in Japanese)
This lifeless moss of iron was the only
sign of life from the outside world so for.
Narayama was seaman first class.
Before joining the navy
he had been a first-class musician.
He had an idea
how to make use of rusty wire.
He was to convert a war machine
into a musical instrument.
(Gunshot)
This was the first shot
heard on the island.
It was not to be the last one.
Two old pistols, two new masters.
(Plucks string)
(Traditional song)
(Singing in Japanese)
Keiko!
Keiko!
Keiko!
(Speaking Japanese)
(Narrator)
Keiko was gone.
She had been absent all night.
This was a serious defection.
Keiko missing? Kusakabe
was more out of his mind than usual.
- Keiko!
- Keiko!
Keiko!
Keiko!
(Narrator)
Away from all our troubles,
our now useless leader
kept the machine gun ready to shoot.
This gun was never to shoot.
(Singing continues, stops)
(Speaking Japanese)
Our search party went into action.
Something must have happened to Keiko.
Was she dead?
We were too stunned
to count the men that were missing.
Keiko!
Keiko!
Keiko!
Keiko!
Keiko!
Keiko!
Keiko!
(Narrator)
Keiko was not dead. Far from it.
She was very much alive.
This was the beginning
of a new pattern on Anatahan.
Keiko had gone into circulation.
To spy on the humiliating details of another
human being's life would be unforgivable,
were we not concerned
in finding a clue to our own behaviour.
Nothing that happens
to a human being is alien to us.
There, but for the grace of God, go I.
(Speaking Japanese)
(Japanese)
(Speaking Japanese)
Keiko!
(Speaking Japanese)
(Japanese)
Nishio and his friend are not uncommon
among those we know.
They had guns now
to take the place of thinking.
Oi!
(Speaking Japanese)
Keiko?
(Speaking Japanese)
(Narrator)
Of course they had seen no one.
Why should they reveal her whereabouts?
They had plans of their own.
We had now been on this island
for a long time.
For all we knew,
we would be there forever.
It is easy to look back and label
all this commotion about Keiko ridiculous.
What we did there we might not
have done somewhere else.
Opinions differ on that point.
It is said that human beings
react according to a set pattern,
whether they are in a primitive
or a civilised society.
Maybe so.
(Speaking Japanese)
To look back on something
is not the some as living with it.
(Speaking Japanese)
(Japanese)
(Kusakabe shouting in Japanese)
(Speaking Japanese)
(Narrator) The relationship between a man
and a woman is based on emotions,
which often may not be
understood by others
who, in one way or another,
fumble just as much.
(Speaking Japanese)
It is easy to see what wrong others do.
We carry no mirror
to reflect our own actions.
(Speaking Japanese)
She was clearly the winner this time.
A bond had been made.
When a woman threatens to leave,
this has considerable influence
on the behaviour of a mom,
even when she's not
the only woman on earth.
Our leader took the occasion
to lecture on our behaviour.
Our mission was to defend Anatahan,
not to drink and chase after females.
Someday the enemy would appear.
(Speaking in Japanese)
But the enemy was on Anatahan.
Man's genius to destroy himself
was in clear evidence.
(Shamisen: plucking notes)
(Singing in Japanese)
(Narrator) The day began
with a harmless little ditty,
a prelude to violence.
(Singing continues)
(Speaking Japanese)
(Japanese)
(Japanese)
(Narrator) Keiko wanted to be
taught how to play the shamisen.
(Speaking Japanese)
(Narrator)
What about your husband?"
But she knew how to handle him now.
One more blow out of him
and she would leave him again.
(Japanese)
(Japanese)
(Narrator)
We were all in bondage to Keiko,
some more and some less.
She was the centre of our universe.
We had no one to call our own,
no one to care for us.
It is not good for man to be alone.
(Plucking)
(Plucking continues)
Kuroda was the oldest sailor among us,
and he confirmed our suspicions
about the marital status
of Keiko and Kusakabe,
as if legalistic technicalities made any
difference any more in Anatahan society.
It was he who noticed the photograph
and told us about it later.
(Speaking Japanese)
There was no law on our island, no police.
There were only two pistols.
(Door shell curtain clattering)
(Speaking Japanese)
(Japanese)
(Speaking Japanese)
(Shouting in Japanese)
(Japanese)
(Narrator)
Not so long ago,
these two had been members of
the Imperial Navy, disciplined and polite.
But the navy was all but forgotten,
and forgotten was what they had once been.
But they were still human beings,
and that classification is sufficient
to cover quite the variety of behaviour.
(Speaking Japanese)
(Speaking Japanese)
(Japanese)
(Speaking Japanese)
(Both speaking Japanese)
(Narrator) Certainly Kusakabe
had promised not to beat Keiko.
But in turn, he reminded her that she had
promised not to fool around with others.
(Nishio speaking Japanese)
The two gunmen suggested
that they settle their differences
where they could be
under scientific observation.
(Japanese)
They had an idea.
Keiko was able enough
to cook for four as easily as for two.
(Speaking Japanese)
Kusdkdbe could provide food
if he wanted to be friendly.
(Speaking Japanese)
(Japanese)
She did not object too much.
It would have done little good if she had.
Now these were no longer trifles.
The knife and the bullet had become law.
So the queen bee kept house
for three drones.
(Speaking Japanese)
At all these events that began now,
we were not present.
We were not inside their hut.
There is no way to check the story
of violence that now unfolded swiftly.
Even had we been there,
all our versions would differ.
(Japanese)
(laughs)
(Bottles rattling)
(Laughing continues)
(Narrator) One man who did
try to check what occurred
on the Hill of Fools, as we subsequently
called this corner of the jungle,
was our old friend Semba.
(Men speaking Japanese)
(Speaking Japanese)
(Japanese)
(Narrator) A little while later
his body was found in the swing
where only a week before
he had enjoyed the company of Keiko.
We can only guess
how he got into that hammock.
(Bottles rattling)
(Gas-PS)
(Narrator) We can only surmise how
a second body came to be found on that hill.
(Speaking Japanese)
(Japanese)
(Narrator) Two bullets,
buried deep in Nishi0's back,
helped us to guess correctly.
(Speaking Japanese)
In some parts of Asia,
there is a god of immediate retribution
whose function it is to spare us
long delays in deserved punishment.
Had he decided to become
the deity ofAnatahan?
Anyway, death was fishing in this jungle,
and on his hook, as bait,
he dangled Keiko.
(Gunshot)
(Gunshot)
So we buried our two victims
of our ill-fated mission
with due Shinto ceremony.
A little part of us went down with them
into the moist ground.
We felt sorry for the dead.
Even an insect an inch long
has half an inch of soul.
Time had stopped for these two,
but our miserable existence continued.
We had now been on Anatahan
for five years.
Five years can be short.
For us, they were endless.
Days can be as fatal as bullets.
All that kept us alive was the thought
of our country, our fatherland.
Somewhere to the north was another island,
an island that we loved and longed for
and could never forget
so long as we had breath in our bodies.
(Speaking Japanese)
We celebrated the new year
like good Japanese soldiers.
We paid our respect in the direction
of the Imperial palace
and sang our national anthem.
(All singing in Japanese)
(Shouting in Japanese)
(All chanting in Japanese)
(Narrator) We wished each other
a happy new year--
Omedetou gozaimasu--
and, as if nothing had happened, thanked
each other for the friendship of the past year
and hoped, courteously,
that this year would be
as pleasant as the last.
(Chattering)
(Singing in Japanese)
(Singing continues)
(Singing continues)
(Shouts in Japanese)
(Arguing in Japanese)
(Arguing continues)
(Singing off-key)
(Singing continues)
(Singing continues)
(Speaking Japanese)
(Japanese)
(Narrator)
At all this too,
no one else was present.
We can only reconstruct the events
from which we were barred.
The king and queen had left our festival.
- That we knew.
- (Laughs)
(Speaking Japanese)
But we never saw the king again.
He had been marked for death,
indelibly, long ago.
The only thing we did not know
was who would be the executioner.
(Grunts)
Now Kusakabe was royalty.
Anatahun had a new overlord,
a new king for a short time--
for a short time only.
(Speaks Japanese)
She followed him obediently.
But this was a travesty of obedience.
Obedience at the point of a gun
is no obedience at all.
We put Yomaginuma to rest with the others.
He died young.
He had no chance
to learn how to live properly.
Someday we will bring his ashes back home
and lie to his people that he had died
like a good soldier, honourably.
The queen had returned to the beehive,
but there was little rejoicing.
They should've attended the funeral.
We do not beat the dead.
(Speaking Japanese)
(Japanese)
(Narrator)
When human beings wish to quarrel,
they soon find a cause.
The litany is of no consequence.
This time, it was no food in the hut.
Why doesn't he go out and get some?"
There was no love in the hut also.
Next in line
was the ex-cook of the Hyosuke Maru--
Yoshiri.
He aspired to Keiko.
The goal of his ambitions
was not very lofty.
We are driven by forces
about which we know nothing.
The king is dead.
What price for the new king?
(Speaking Japanese)
(Japanese)
(Narrator) How long
will the tyrannical house of Yoshiri last?
(Shouts in Japanese)
(Japanese)
(Narrator) He was to wield his power
over Anatahan
for less than 24 hours.
Keiko was his, and all the coconut wine
he could guzzle.
Untold riches.
(Speaking Japanese)
But the queen was not to be his.
She had not been partial to the murder
of her previous consort.
The bond between them had been strong,
whatever the nature
of the elastic might have been
that binds together male and female.
He wanted her as queen and handmaiden.
No insolence.
He was not going to have
a cup thrown at his feet.
(Speaking Japanese)
(Laughing)
Would he have laughed quite so much
had he known that he would not see
the light of another day?
(Laughing)
All of us remember that night.
The moon was low.
The trees silent.
The air was full of mist.
The sea was deep, the rocks black.
Nature was indifferent
to the cruel destiny of man.
(Two gunshots)
The history of this unfortunate
is the history of an American sailor's hot.
The two pistols were thrown
into the ocean. They were gone.
There was to be no more bloodshed.
We chose Keiko peacefully.
That is, peacefully for us.
(Speaking Japanese)
But Keiko was not going to be chosen,
peacefully or otherwise.
She was through.
We started a hunt for the prize
that this time had been won
in fair competition.
(Plane approaching)
The foe had found us,
the long-looked-for enemy.
We were to be bombed, we thought.
For this we had been trained.
This was a simple matter.
(Plane engine droning)
To the Japanese army on Anatahan."
The bombs that had dropped told us
that war had been over for five years.
- A vessel would call and take us home.
- (Reading in Japanese)
This was, of course,
another crude enemy trick.
What did they think we were? Children?
(Continues reading)
This was hardly the time
for love letters from the enemy.
Let's find our Keiko."
Keiko!
Keiko!
Keiko!
Keiko!
Keiko! Keiko!
Keiko!
Keiko!
Keiko!
Keiko!
Keiko!
Keiko!
Keiko!
Keiko!
(Speaking Japanese)
(Speaking Japanese)
(Continues speaking in Japanese)
(Japanese)
(Narrator)
This method of persuasion
had worked exceedingly well in old Baghdad
and in ancient Rome,
and it could not fail
to work in our culture.
We did not see this.
We never saw her again.
She disappeared
as if she had never existed.
Long ago I heard her say that if
she had wings, she would fly home.
Keiko had gone. There was no more trouble.
There was also no more life.
Then, a year later, a ship came
and a white flag was found
in our jungle burial ground.
(Speaking Japanese)
(Japanese)
Eh?
(Narrator)
Letters. Letters from Japan.
- (Speaking Japanese)
- Hai.
- (Japanese)
- Hai.
- (Japanese)
- Hai.
uapiinegg
Hui!
- (Japanese)
- Hai.
uapiinegg
Hui!
- (Japanese)
- Hai.
(Speaking Japanese)
- (Japanese)
- Hai.
- Dobsan.
- Eh?
Kuroda!
(Narrator)
This one... was from Keiko.
Oh! (Speaking Japanese)
Keiko?
She had notified our families,
told them that we were alive.
Kuroda had no family
so she thoughtfully thanked him
and said she hoped her departure
had brought no trouble to him.
(Reading in Japanese)
This was embarrassing,
but definitely not an enemy trick.
(Narrator)
There was another letter,
from the governor of a prefecture.
The war had ended six years ago.
Your families are waiting."
This flag we send
surrendered a Japanese regiment.
Use it.
We want you home."
(Speaking Japanese)
(Narrator)
You can return if you wish.
I will never go back to a defeated Japan."
The rest of us... surrendered, gladly.
We had lost the battle of Anatahan.
Our days of hardship had ended.
We soared like eagles
over our sacred mountain.
It took ten hours to retrace
a journey of 19 days
and seven long years.
(Cheering)
We were back in Japan,
heroes to all but to ourselves.
Brother and Sister were there.
Our friends were waiting.
Father and Mother.
Our neighbours came.
We saw our wives.
Our children, now seven years older.
We would have to earn their affection
all over again.
We were home at last.
And if I know anything at all about Keiko,
she too must have been there.
- (Soldiers singing)
- (Shamisen playing)
(Singing continues)
(Shouting in Japanese)
(Arguing in Japanese)
(Arguing continues)
(Arguing continues)
(All arguing at once)
(Singing resumes)
- (Singing continues)
- (Shamisen continues playing)
(Singing fades)