Fighting Soldiers
(“Tatakau heitai”)
1939 / B&W / 16mm / 66 min / English Subtitles
Director, Editing: Kamei Fumio
Photography: Miki Shigeru
Sound: Kanayama Kinjiro
Location Sound: Fujii Shinichi
Music: Koseki Yuji
Producer: Matsuzaki Keiji
Production Company: Culture Films Department, Toho
Source: Kawakita Memorial Film Institute
Even though Kamei himself repeatedly said that this was not an antiwar film, in books, essays, and in the media Fighting Soldiers has been described as the representative example of anti-war film. It is also the representative “mysterious” work of the Kamei Fumio. Kamei, along with cinematographer Miki Shigeru, assistant Segawa Junichi and sound recordist Fujii Shinichi, followed the army in its frontline strategy against China, trying to capture what they saw as it really was. Because the film was not as rousing as army censors had hoped, its exhibition was prohibited and it was hidden in storage. The film was forgotten and regarded as lost for many years. While making the Showa Document series for Asahi Broadcasting in 1976, the staff of Nippon Eiga Shinsha accidentally discovered a print of the film behind the screen in a sound studio. The film garnered attention as a forgotten anti-war film. Without narration and formed only with images, sounds, music and intertitles, it is said to be Kamei’s best film, despite, according to Kamei, the absence of several important scenes. It appears that Toho, fearing censorship, made some cuts itself in anticipation of the film’s release. The script as taken down by Tsuchimoto Noriaki was published in Henkyo 4 (Kirokusha), July 1987.