The Forgotten Soldiers

This documentary is one of the most impressive Oshima has made. He reopens an old wound of the Japanese people by showing the suppressed feelings of guilt towards the Korean soldiers that fought for Japan. The Japanese are enjoying their peace and quiet after the war. They do not feel like thinking about their solidary neighbours. Many Korean ex-soldiers are begging in the streets of their cities, almost 20 years after the war. Often, they are invalids who cannot lay any claim whatsoever on a benefit by the Japanese government.
The producer of Nippon Television Network, Ushiyama Jun'ichi, offered Oshima to make an episode for his T.V.-series of documentaries that was broadcast on Japanese television under the name: Non-Fiction-Theatre. Oshima put the cat among the pigeons by showing the anger and grief of the Korean ex-soldiers in a Japanese documentary. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)