Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

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This clip shows historic footage of Japanese prisoners of war (POWs) returning to a destroyed Japan accompanied by a commentary and an interview with former Japanese POWs that explain their feelings of apprehension. Japanese POWs are shown leaving a train to embark on the Japanese ship that will transport them home. Marekuni Takahara speaks of his impression of Japan on his return accompanied by images of a destroyed city. His family appear in a formal photograph taken at the funeral they had held for him, believing him to be dead.

Educational value points

• The detachment and apprehension felt by Japanese POWs as they began the process of repatriation to their homeland is shown on their faces and in their demeanour. The shame they felt at the dishonour of their capture and imprisonment meant they were uncertain how they would be received on return to Japan. Since the Japanese government had denied their existence and because they had not communicated with their families to hide their shame, their future was uncertain.

• The clip shows a photograph of Takahara’s funeral that was conducted while he was a prisoner of war, a not uncommon experience for repatriated POWs. Their families would have been informed that they had died in battle. Many of those who returned did not renew their relationships with their families because the record of ‘killed in action’ conferred honour on families, but to be a prisoner was shameful. Takahara was received by his family as a ‘ghost’.

• Historical footage of destroyed cities conveys the reality of defeat that awaited repatriates to Japan. The footage shows images of the total destruction caused by an atomic bomb at Nagasaki three days after Hiroshima suffered a similar fate on 6 August 1945. Many other Japanese cities were devastated by fire bombing, including a large part of Tokyo. The POWs also faced occupying Allied forces, meaning that Japan was itself a prisoner of war.

• The clip shows the process of repatriation of Japanese POWs back to Japan, commencing in March 1946 with the arrival of the Daikai Maru Osaka, the first Japanese merchant ship to enter Sydney Harbour since 1941. The ship took approximately 3,000 Japanese POWs and civilians to Japan. Australia was responsible for the repatriation of Japanese service personnel in all those areas where Japanese had surrendered and for those who had been POWs in Australia.

• Throughout the Second World War the Japanese government refused to admit that Japanese soldiers would have allowed themselves to be captured. When the Australian prime minister John Curtin (1938–45) referred to the more than 200 POWs who had died in the Cowra breakout, Japan accused the Australian government of the ‘cold-blooded murder of Japanese civilian internees’, refusing to admit that Japanese soldiers would have allowed themselves to be captured.

• The film uses various visual and sound effects to strengthen the messages of the narration and spoken reflections. Archival footage is used to reinforce the narrative and illuminates Takahara’s reflections. Subdued music creates a mood of sadness accompanying footage of prisoner repatriation at the beginning of the clip and the closing scene of Takahara’s funeral photograph. The sound of an atomic explosion introduces the scenes of devastated Japanese cities.