Banned Films

The following three famous films have been banned from screening (and streaming) in Japan.

1. John Rabe
2.Nanjing! Nanjing!
3. Black Sun 731

What this means is that the Liberal Democratic Party government wants to erase Japan’s past history of aggression, or “war crimes”, against the world. In other words, they are undoubtedly “historical revisionists”.

Morimura Seiichi’s semi-documentary “The Devil’s Gluttony” was truly shocking, revealing the full extent of Unit 731. The Hong Kong film “Black Sun 731”, based on this documentary novel, was astounding in its grotesqueness. Ceramic bombs filled with fleas infected with the plague were actually used in mainland China, resulting in numerous casualties. Right-wingers online vehemently opposed this film, labeling it an “anti-Japanese film”. However, these are undoubtedly “historical truths”. You can watch the film here.
https://excelkobo.net/Movies/BlackSun731.mp4

This film is one that “Japanese people” should see. We must never “ignore” our country’s modern history. Like Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it is an “undeniable fact”.

A remake of “Black Sun 731” was released this year. Of course, this film is also “banned from domestic screening”. Does this country even have “freedom of expression”? Article 21, Paragraph 2 of the Constitution has been completely violated in this country. It says “Censorship shall not be permitted”.

I often see the following arguments of the film “731” by critics of the film “731”.

1. The film is poorly made.
2. The research is insufficient.
3. The portrayal of Japanese people is stereotypical.
4. It is particularly unpopular among young people in China.

These are the kinds of comments you’ll see popping up all over social media (the same people who normally say things like, “There’s no freedom on social media in China” are the ones who feel comfortable saying and writing these kinds of things).

But wait a moment. I want to start by saying that just because the film is poorly made doesn’t mean that the atrocities committed by the Japanese military didn’t happen. There’s no connection between the quality of the film and historical fact. It’s truly puzzling how patriotic right-wingers somehow manage to conclude themselves that “Unit 731 was fictional and didn’t exist”. rom these claim. Also, we need to consider that this film was never distributed in Japan. No Japanese person has seen it. Of course, there must be some Japanese people living in China who have seen it. However, we Japanese people basically cannot watch this film because it was caught in “censorship” that is supposed to be prohibited by the Constitution. This was the case with the above-mentioned “John Rabe” and “Nanking! Nanking!” Is it really appropriate to criticize the content of a film without even seeing it?