In Search of the Unreturned Soldiers

A screening of Shohei Imamura's 1970/1 documentary pair following Japanese soldiers who chose not to return home after the war.

This ICA screening presents Shohei Imamura's television documentaries about Japanese soldiers who remained in Southeast Asia after the Second World War rather than returning home. Narrated and presented on screen by Imamura himself, the films follow his travels across the region as he interviews the men about their choices and their lives since the war. The conversations range from cordial exchanges to probing discussions of the Japanese character, the Emperor, the communist party and wartime massacres. The programme runs 95 minutes and is in Japanese with English subtitles.