Men and War

Men and War (Japanese: 戦争と人間, Hepburn: Sensō to ningen) is a trilogy of epic war films directed by Satsuo Yamamoto, adapted from Junpei Gomikawa’s novel of the same name. The story traces the Godai family conglomerate’s expansion and its entanglement in the Second Sino-Japanese War, covering events from the March 15 police raids (1928) through the 1939 Nomonhan incident. Yamamoto originally planned a five-part series that would have extended through the Pacific War and the Tokyo Trials, but after the second film, Nikkatsu cut the project to three installments for financial reasons.

**Part I** (subtitled *Prelude to Destiny*, 1970; also released internationally as *The Battle of Manchuria*) begins with Shimegi Kohei’s brother, a subordinate of an engineer at a Godai factory, being arrested during the March 15 police raids. Kohei is taken in by the engineer and introduced to the Godai family. In the family salon, Godai head Yusuke meets with his eldest son Eisuke and his brother Kyosuke, who has returned from Manchuria with ties to the Kwantung Army. The younger son Shunsuke befriends Kohei and introduces him to left-wing artist Haiyama. The elder Godai sister, Yukiko, falls in love with Lieutenant Tsuge. When Chiang Kai-shek’s National Army displaces warlord Zhang Zuolin, Godai operative Shigata Komijiro provokes a clash between Nationalists and Japanese troops at Jinan. The Emperor is expected to order an attack on Zhang’s army, but the order never comes; the Kwantung Army assassinates Zhang anyway. Another Godai employee, Takahata, is abducted by bandits from a remote outpost and trades supplies for his freedom. He is later taken hostage by Korean guerrillas led by Xu Zailin—whose family was killed by Japanese for their role in the Sam-il movement—but is freed without ransom on Communist Party orders. Takahata’s arrangement ends when a Japanese agent is spotted on one of his shipments; his post is destroyed and his wife Motoko abducted. He traces her to the Korean guerrillas and pays ransom, but is told she committed suicide after being raped. Despite protests from the Japanese consulate, the Kwantung Army invades Manchuria. Kohei’s brother, drafted, is killed in an attack at Changchun. Tsuge is sent to Taiwan to investigate the Musha incident, but after criticizing colonial policy, he is ordered to Manchuria.

**Part II** (*Land of Love and Sorrow*, 1971)