Karafuto 1945 Summer Hyosetsu no Mon
Karafuto 1945 Summer Hyosetsu no Mon (樺太1945年夏 氷雪の門) is a 1974 Japanese film based on the Soviet Union's military action on Karafuto during the Soviet–Japanese War near the end of World War II. The movie is set in Maoka (present day Kholmsk), and the story is based on the deaths of nine women who worked in the postal telegraph office in the city. Twelve women worked in the office, and on August 20, 1945, nine of them committed suicide.[1]
| Karafuto 1945 Summer Hyosetu no Mon | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Mitsuo Murayama |
| Written by | Toshio Kaneko (book) Takeo Kunihiro (screenplay) |
| Starring | Terumi Niki Yumiko Fujita Kawai Okada Keiko Torii Hiromi Kurita |
| Music by | Seiji Yokoyama |
Release date | August 17, 1974 |
Running time | 120 minutes |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
| Budget | 500 million yen |
Plot
The film is set in Karafuto after the radio broadcast of the Imperial Rescript on the Termination of the War. On August 15, 1945, Soviet forces invaded Karafuto. On August 20, the postal telegraph office in Maoka suspended operations and nine of the twelve telephone operators committed suicide by taking potassium cyanide while the city was being invaded.[2]
Pressure by the USSR
Despite the film's release in many nations, including the Soviet Union, Moscow argued that the film defamed the Soviet Union and the Soviet people and would only make people more hostile towards the USSR.[3] The movie was eventually banned in the Soviet Union after two weeks' distribution in Hokkaidō and western Kyūshū. On August 25, 2008, a Japanese television drama was aired called Kiri no Hi, which was based on the same historical events. However, the television drama caused less of a political uproar from Russia than Karafuto 1945 Summer Hyosetsu no Mon, due to the movie's insistence as a work of "fiction" and because it did not focus on the Red Army's brutal actions but instead talked about a wish for world peace.
Re-release
On July 17, 2010, when the film was almost 36 years old, it was released in various theatres worldwide.[3][4]
Original cast
- Terumi Niki as Ritsuko Sekine
- Yumiko Fujita as Ayako Sakamoto
- Kawai Okada as Natsuko Saito
- Keiko Torii as Nobue Fujikura
- Keiko Nomura as Yumi Sihida
- Nishiki Imadegawa as Keiko Torigai
- Takako Yagi as Masako Horie
- Fusako Aihara as Takako Kanzaki
- Kaoru Kiryū as Sumiko Aoki
- Mari Okamoto as Tomoko Katori
- Midori Kiuchi as Yayoi Nakamura
- Yōko Minamida as Husae Yasukawa
- Takahiro Tamura as Norio Yasukawa
- Gō Wakabayashi as Tadao Hisamitsu
- Hiromi Kurita as Mihoko Sugawara
- Shinichirō Mikami as Captain Yoshizaki
- Shōgo Shimada as Division Commander
- Shin Kishida as Military Commander
- Kenji Sahara as Toshikazu Okaya
- Mitsuo Hamada as Kiyoharu Nakanishi
- Yukiko Okada as Akiko Saitou
- Masao Imafuku as Tatsuzou Sekine
- Harue Akagi as Shizu Sekine
- Reiko Nanao as Kin Morimoto
- Tetsurō Tamba as Chief of staff
- Junkichi Orimoto as Kanzaki Yuuti
- Ichirō Izawa as Ryousuke Huzikura
- Jukei Fujioka as Regimental Commander
- Minoru Chiaki as Planter
- Tetsu Mizuno as Osamu
References
- "『樺太１９４５年夏 氷雪の門』主演二木てるみさんインタビュ". シネマジャーナル. Retrieved 19 December 2019.
- "樺太１９４５年夏 氷雪の門". Kinema Junpo. Retrieved 27 December 2020.
- ソ連政府の圧力により公開中止!?日本人少女たちの悲劇を描いた幻の映画、36年ぶりに公開 Archived 2011-07-12 at the Wayback Machine (in Japanese)
- "樺太１９４５年夏 氷雪の門". Agency for Cultural Affairs 映画情報システム. Retrieved 2 November 2019.