Japan's Longest Day

Based on the book of the same name, worth reading even after watching this movie, the film recounts how difficult it was for the Japanese leadership to arrive at the decision to surrender, even after two atom bombs, and the little-known attempted coup to derail the process, which came close to succeeding. It manages to tell the story with great suspense at the same time that it conveys the feelings and values of the principal characters so well that we are able to relate across a wide cultural divide. One of the major reasons is Toshiro Mifune, in one of his best performances. The one weakness is the junior officers who are more one-dimensional and to Western eyes, over-acting. Although expensive, it seems the only way to be able to see this unique film.

As a fan of foreign films in general, I am resigned to the inevitable necessary evil of subtitles (still preferable to dubbing). But what I can't stand and will never get used to are subtitles that are either too small, on the screen for too short a time, or infuriatingly white over a white background. There is no excuse for such.But I have yet to see a movie in any language so artfully and pleasingly subtitled as "Japan's Longest Day". Almost no grammatical errors or typos (the only mistake I noticed was a consistent misspelling of "led" as "lead"), and variously colored to indicate multiple speakers - brilliant!Oh... and by the way - the movie was riveting as well (once the first 20 minutes or so were up). As the film started, I was initially worried that the entire thing was going to be a newsreel-style documentary of historical tableaus. All such concerns vanished however, once the actual plot (pun intended) got underway and we were sucked into the intrigue surrounding an attempted Japanese military coup in the last hours of the Second World War. From then to the last moments of the film, it was impossible to turn away from the superbly acted hyper dramatic events unfolding at lightning speed.I always knew as a bald fact of history that there had been a last-minute attempt by certain junior officers to stop the Japanese surrender, but (assuming this movie is historically accurate) I had no idea what a close thing the actual events were. What a catastrophe was averted by the failure of the coup plotters!Well worth the watching. Just be patient during the movie's rather clumsy start - you won't regret it once the real action starts.

This excellent film is based on the book by the same name, "Japan's Longest Day." It was compiled by a team of eminent historians collectivel known as the Pacific War Historical Society - painstakingly researched and then written and edited for continuity by a smaller group of authors. Amazon usually has the book available. It's a totally absorbing read which ratchets up the tension as well as the film does. If you read the book first, these characters will come even more vividly to life - Mifune's war minister Korichika Anami, and the young firebrand officers who tried to stage the coup, especially Major Hatanaka. I highly recommend both.

As far as I can tell, the drama seems to generally fit the history, as well as i know it; of the final days before surrender by government of the Empire of Japan to the Allies of World War 2. As in any movie, I think some events and the contents of the Emperor's address to the nation are somewhat condensed. However I believe that the spirit of the movie mostly reflects the truths of the time.The movie is in Japanese with English subtitles. This is a modern historical drama, not a typical war movie. I was impressed at how the movie moved me in better understanding not just the events, but the feelings and values of the people of the time. I particularly enjoyed the acting of Toshirô Mifune. He made a very convincing Japanese military chief.I felt the only weakness of the movie was that the young Army officers who attempted a coup to prevent the surrender seemed somewhat over-played as wild-eyed hot heads. But for all I know that might, or might not be accurate. In any case I believe the director intentionally set out to portray the the leaders of the attempted coup that way.From a modern American perspective, I found the movie to be moving and enlightening about the time. I also have some suspicion that the drama intentionally try's to show a slightly sanitized version of history that might try to take away some residual self-guilt about the war and how it ended in Japan.Any movie that is exciting and makes me think like this is a good movie in my book!

I won't go into the plot, everyone else has done a super job of that. Just want to say- you need to own it so that you can watch it, back it up, freeze it or whatever you need to do to follow all the actors and plot lines. YES IT IS IN JAPANESE, WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES, and boy do those titles fly by fast... I have seen it once now, but I spent most of the time reading script, so next time around I will be able to watch it more. There are some scenes early on where there is script above and below the picture explaining where the are on top, then dialogue below. You will also spend some time sorting out who is who as there are about 30 important people to keep track of. Don't let this put you off, just plan on more than one viewing to take in this story and all the people who worked so hard to make it great.

This movie should be required viewing for all history revisionists who say that Japan was ready to surrender without the atomic attacks and Russian invasion. The Emperor gets off a bit too easily here as it is a Japanese movie but it perfectly shows the fanaticism of the Army, many of whom were insistent, even after the decision of the Emperor to surrender, that Japan should fight to the last person and that every Japanese citizen should die.This movie is also a window into Japan's lack of introspection in their role and behavior in WWII. It was unsettling at the very end of the film when they said that their current freedoms in Japan (1968) were a result of the heroic deaths of the 2 million Japanese servicemen who died in WWII.

This film shows with considerable realism the dramatic events which took place immediately before and during the day of 15 August 1945, when emperor Hiro-Hito announced to the population, that Japan was capitulating.The action of the film begins on 26 July 1945, when Truman, Churchill and Chiang Kai-shek issued the Potsdam Declaration, a document which stated that only an "unconditional surrender" of Japan will be accepted - it also stated the intentions of allied powers to remove from power those who led Japan into successive agressive wars beginning in 1931, to deprive Japan of all of its armed forces and of all of its colonies, to occupy the Japanese territory and to judge and punish the war criminals. Allied leaders were also warning in this document, that all those points are not negotiable.From that moment on an intense and dramatic debate began amongst Japanese leaders, both military and civilian. Most military men as well as a majority of civilian leaders, were against unconditional surrender as long as Japan had any means to fight. At that moment Japan had still millions of soldiers available. On four main islands there was more than 2 million fully armed and equipped soldiers, with an artillery of thousands of guns, mortars and rocket launchers and an armored force with many hundreds of tanks and tank destroyers. No less than nine thousand planes were ready to be used in kamikaze missions and more were produced daily. As for the Navy, although it lost almost all of its major warships, hundreds of small submarines were being prepared for the battle in coastal waters as well as thousands of Kaiten "human torpedoes" and suicide motor boats. It was also the intention of the Japanese government to call to arms the whole population and send EVERYBODY, including the women and children, to fight, with any weapon available, from hunting guns, ancient muskets and bows to swords, bamboo spears and clubs.Those who advocated the acceptance of Potsdam Declaration and the capitulation were a minority - until the 6 August, when the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima... That changed radically the perception of things by most civilian and even some military leaders and especially by the Emperor himself. With this event the action of the film REALLY begins.As we all know, Japan ultimately accepted the Potsdam Declaration terms on 15 August and the formal surrender ceremony took place on 2 September 1945 on board of American battleship USS "Missouri". But between 6 and 15 August many dramatic events took place before finally Emperor's voice accepting the capitulation was heard by his subjects... This long, but fascinating film describes them faithfully and brilliantly.In this film most of the greatest Japanese actors from the 60s are present, including Toshiro Mifune who plays general Anami (the Minister of War) and Tatsuya Nakadai, who is the narrator. If you look well, you will recognise amongst the actors quite a lot of familiar faces from some famous movies, including the "Seven samurai"...This film is a really great historical reconstruction of a very, very important moment in world history, because if things have happened differently, the great final battle for Japan would have been fought in 1946 and 1947, on islands of Kyushu and Honshu. According to American estimations this fight would cost lifes of no less than half a million of American and around 2 million Japanese soldiers. The estimation of Japanese civilian losses, based on the results of the battle of Okinawa, defied imagination. Considering that Imperial Army had orders to force into suicide or simply kill Japanese civilians on territories which risked to be seized by Americans, it was calculated that no less than 15 million Japanese civilians would be killed, some of them in suicidal charges against American forces but mostly by their own army - many more millions would simply starve, as all means of producing food would be destroyed in fighting and there was not enough food reserves anywhere in the world to feed all the remaining Japanese population. As a matter of fact, the capitulation of Japan prevented the destruction of this country and the genocide of its population.I was absolutely impressed by this film and I am absolutely keeping it for another viewing - and later for my children. It is not exactly a film to be enjoyed, but it is an important quasi-document, which allows to better understand the final weeks of World War II in Pacific.