japanese
New Docs Japan
  • Japan’s Peace Constitution
  • Ride Forward on Your Bicycle
  • HOME TOWN—me & the Kobe Earthquake
  • Marines Go Home!—Henoko, Maehyang-ri, Yausubetsu
  • GENKI Love
  • The Tale of Yamanaka Tokiwa
  • Little Birds
  • Letter from Rokkasho Village no. 1–no. 3
  • And Life Goes On
  • Marines Go Home!—Henoko, Maehyang-ri, Yausubetsu

    (“Marines Go Home! Henoko, Mehyanni, Yausubetsu”)

    - 2005 / Japanese, Korean / Color / Video / 135 min

    Director, Editing: Fujimoto Yukihisa
    Photography: Fujimoto Yukihisa, Kodera Takuya, Miyazaki Toshiharu, Nishimaru Eiji
    Sound: Kubota Yukio
    Narrator, Producer: Kageyama Asako
    Production Company: Morino Eigasha
    World Sales: Hokkaido Asia Africa Latin America Solidarity Committee (Hokkaido AALA), Morino Eigasha

    Both Japan and Korea have U.S. military bases on their soil. Henoko, Okinawa continues a desperate campaign to block the construction of a U.S. Marine Corps heliport. A bombing practice site for the U.S. Air Force exists in Maehyang-ri, Korea. Yausubetsu, Hokkaido has the largest Self-Defense Forces maneuvers training ground in Japan. The film shows us a facet of Japan’s militarization as it follows people in each region engaging in lifelong anti-military protest activity.



    [Director’s Statement] I want to break away from the prejudice that documentary is about recording hard, sad realities. To me, documentary filmmaking is about joining people in their search for hope for the future, and recording that process. “Let there be warmth in human society, let there be light in all human beings.” In every age, film depicts hope.


    - Fujimoto Yukihisa

    Born 1954 in Yokkaichi, Mie Prefecture, Fujimoto Yukihisa graduated from the School of Political Science and Economics at Waseda University. After working as an assistant director for Tsuchimoto Noriaki, he made his directorial debut with Japanese Invasion of the Malay Peninsula (1992). Mining the Dark won the Second Prize at the 2002 Retina International Film and Video Festival.