MEN BEHIND THE SUN

Men Behind the Sun Prior to the Second World War Prior to the Second World War Prior to the Second World War The banks of Song Hua River The banks of Song Hua River Original Building House Lt. Ishii Shiro Hoshino's Failed Escape Stand Up Outdoor Frostbite Experimental Station Outdoor Frostbite Experimental Station Outdoor Frostbite Experimental Station The moral of the Japanese troops was very bad. A large deficit of manpower. Geisha Testing the Pottery Bombs Testing the Pottery Bombs War... what is it good for? Decompression Chamber A Healthy Boy A Healthy Boy A Healthy Boy Philosophy of the small in numbers Retreat without surrender Bloody Sun

Visitors: 625

Our Score: 7/10

Interview with the Director

"History Never Repeats... I tell myself before I goto sleep." - Split Enz

By 1945, the Japanese forces were suffering losses on the battle front. To win the war by biological warfare, the military Headquarters reinstated a Lt. General to be the Squadron commander. Yet this person had previously been relieved off this post because of corruption.
This man, the inventor of the Ishit Water Purifier. A medical doctor, Lt. Ishii Shiro.
A group of young soldiers were sent to Harbin to provide new blood for this squadron.
The banks of Song Hua River...

Perhaps the most honest look at war I have ever witnessed, Men Behind the Sun does not spare us or grant us comfort lies, there are no masks, no pretty patriotic ideals to hide behind, only the fact of war and what man can become when the lines of morality and survival become blurred.

The Philosophy of the cat goes something like this:

"A smart rat can beat a cat. Fleas and germs can defeat bombers and guns too! This is...my theory behind 731 Squadron. It is also my philosophy. For victory, we shall groom the strongest and nurture them, the same applies for the Youth Corps." - Lt. Ishii Shiro, Men Behind the Sun

Once Nagasaki was bombed, it proclaimed the end of the war, and the unit was destroyed, all data burned. Years spent experimenting in atrocities for data that was worthless to mankind, and incinerated in fire, except for Ishii's own private data which America in fact traded for his immunity from being arrested for war crimes. That one thing thats so hard to accept, that all the men involved with Unit 731 were given immunity by America in exhange for the results of these terrible experiments. 3000 lives; brutally tortured men, women and children.

When I watched this movie I could not deny that these atrocities occured. If you go into this movie looking for realistic gore you're missing the point of the movie. A movie is made to teach us something, about humanity, or the lack thereof, in the desperate struggle to understand, and survive, and the lengths some will go to to that end.

Men Behind the Sun as a film had some charismatic characters, in a environment I cannot begin to understand or nightmare to ever experience.

One can only appreciate how good we have it, and feel great sorrow in the face of what war does to mankind's morality.

Men Behind the Sun is well made in nearly every respect, and though difficult to swallow at times one may wonder what it means the imagery of the men behind the sun...

The sun of the Japanese flag and the powers that be, or Men wielding cruel power in the faceless mask of the infinite... the cast shadow from this sun is our own fear and only in facing this fear can we assure, that history does never repeat.

Timeline:

August 11-15, 1945
15 trains were used to transport retreating troops.
The trains passed through An Dong, China and
arrived at Pusan, Korea.

August 18-25, 1945
Squadron members took a boat from Pusan, Korea and
arrived at such Japanese ports as
Saseho, Ikaruga, Sensaki, etc.

September 25, 1945
Shiro Ishii returned to Japan and stayed at the Tokyo
hotel of Wakamatsu in the Shinjuku district.

December 1945
After Shiro Ishii left Tokyo and returned home to
Chiba Prefecture, he was arrested by American
Intelligence officers and brought back to Tokyo.

1946
Shiro Ishii reached an agreement with the Americans
for immunity from war crimes prosecution.
He handed over his experiment results to the Americans.

June 1946
An epidemic of bubonic plague "Black Death"
erupted in Ping Fang, Harbin from the plague-
carrying fleas left behind by the 731 Squadron.

April 10, 1947
The Americans informed the Russians that
Shiro Ishii and the others responsible for 731
Squadron were missing.
Therefore they could not be brought to trial
for war crimes.

1951
Shiro Ishii arrived on the Korean War front from Tokyo.

January 28 - February 17, 1952
Bacterial weapons appeared on the Korean
battlefields.

October 9, 1959
Shiro Ishii died of illness in Chiba Prefecture.
Other members of the Squadron were scattered all over
Japan. Among the former Youth Corps members, many
had difficult lives because their education was not
recognized by society. There was not a single survivor
of the experiments conducted by the 731 Squadron.
Of the estimated 3000 victims who were of Chinese,
Korean, Russian, and other nationalities,
did they die in vain?

 

Little boy carries his dreams and gun
Child drops a ball to the stone cold ground
Fire envelops the men behind the sun
When history repeats it will make no sound.

Woman is the sun that has been forgot
In the quest for power man has sought
Ceaseless sorrow without end
To learn or begin all over again

- Jonathan M Berman Sep 19 2005
Dedicated to those who have lost their lives in WW II