In Search of the Unreturned Soldiers

Narrated by Imamura himself, who also takes on the on-screen role of interviewer, this pair of documentaries made for television explore the phenomena of Japanese soldiers who never returned to their homeland but instead opted to remain in the countries where they were stationed.

Imamura travels across Southeast Asia in search of these unreturned soldiers, in the hope of learning something about their choice, but also the nature of their lives in the intervening years since the war ended. The conversations themselves range from the cordial to the probing from dissections of the Japanese character to the role of the Emperor, the communist party, and the massacres committed by Japanese soldiers across Southeast Asia during the war.

In Search of the Unreturned Soldiers, dir. Shōhei Imamura, Japan 1970/1, Japanese with English subtitles, 95 min.