Japanese

Maebashi Army Airfield

(Rikugun Maebashi hikojo)

JAPAN / 2018 / Japanese / Color, B&W / Blu-ray / 69 min

Director: Iizuka Toshio
Photography: Shigeeda Akinori Editing, Narrative Structure: Nabeshima Jun
Production Company, Source: Amour

In the final stages of the Pacific War, Japan had lost a large number of airplanes and troops, and Maebashi Army Airfield was set up to tackle the urgent need for training new pilots. It operated for only one year. People living around the airfield relate their vivid, tangible memories of things like meeting and bidding farewell to kamikaze pilots; and being shot, attacked by planes from aircraft carriers, and firebombed. This film was made to prevent their experience of war from fading, by passing it down to future generations.