Yesterday is Now explores the divisions in Japanese society about the legacy of Japan’s twentieth-century wars and occupation of neighbouring Asian countries.
Through frank and probing interviews, it raises issues around Japan’s responsibility for war crimes that include sexual slavery, slave labour, the use of humans in biological-warfare experiments, and civilian massacres.
The documentary’s diverse slate of subjects includes family members of the Japanese war dead, right-wing nationalists, politicians, students, and artists, as well as a teacher, a labour unionist, a journalist, a former soldier, and an A-bomb survivor.
Yesterday is Now combines their thoughts and revelations with archival footage and contemporary images to create a riveting insight into the unfinished business of Japan’s wartime past.
A sobering look into how a society can be mobilized into war, how atrocities can be committed in the name of a nation, and how war lives on in peacetime.
English + Japanese with English subtitles, 96 minutes Documentary DVD, Canada, 2002
YESTERDAY IS NOW the war, 55 years after Japan’s surrender
Japanese language version DVD:
WOUNDS OF HISTORY
歴史の傷跡 –大戦
そして日本敗戦から55年
© Celine Rumalean 2002-2020
Reproduction without the copyright holder’s permission is strictly prohibited.