The Japanese film “OKINAWA : The Afterburn”

I was so disappointed when I heard the news that an Osprey crashed in the sea off Nago City, Okinawa Prefecture last December. Actually, I was afraid that this could happen at some point. I have visited U.S. Air Force’s Kadena Base in Okinawa for their festival before and gotten inside an Osprey which was opened to the public. Thus I was concerned with the safety of the aircraft. The Osprey in front of me was just huge and I felt coercive pressure. “Can such a huge aircraft takeoff and land vertically? Can it keep it’s balance?” Many questions came to my mind as I didn’t know about its function. When I got into the Osprey, a monitor image kept airing that how Osprey has wonderful functions and it is like a dream aircraft…

By the way, going back to a little while before the accident, the screening of “OKINAWA : The Afterburn” was held at a movie theater Theatre Cinq in Fukui City. It was held by a voluntary film club “Mini-Kinema-Fukui”, which received the “Fukui Shimbun Culture Award” with Natsu Miyashita(Writer from Fukui) last year. The film is a full-length documentary directed by an American director John Junkerman, who studied in Japan. The producer Tetsujiro Yamagami started a film production company when he was thirty two and he continues to make films on the theme of Okinawa. After the showing of the film, his talk show was held too.

In the film, a former Japanese soldier and a former U.S. soldier who actually fought the ground war in Okinawa appeared and talked about their own frightful experiences. While I was watching the film, I had to face the act of folly called war which humans become not humans. Also, I was surprised to see one of the criminals of the rape of a schoolgirl by U.S. servicemen in Okinawa in 1995 appeared and gave an interview about the crime. The principal offender assaulted a woman again even after returning to the U.S. and finally killed himself. I was overwhelmed the unreasonable situation of Okinawa that they have to accept such a brutal person.

It was just one-hundredth screening of “Mini-Kinema-Fukui” that day. They continue their activities because they want to introduce films in different genres that would not be released in local areas. If you have the opportunity, please come to their screening this year. (H.S)