シベリア抑留から生還した台湾人の元日本兵たちの存在に迫ったドキュメンタリー。 日本統治下の台湾では約20万人におよぶ台湾人が日本軍の兵士として戦地へ送られ、終戦後、そのうちの一部はソ連軍の捕虜となり極寒のシベリアに送られた。約60万人の旧日本軍兵士や民間人がソ連によってシベリアや中央アジア各地の収容所に連行されたシベリア抑留では、抑留者たちは鉄道建設や伐採、鉱山開発など過酷な労働を強いられ、飢えと氷点下の寒さで約6万人の命が失われた。しかしその中にいた台湾人捕虜の存在は、戦後の日台を取り巻く複雑な国際情勢の狭間で長く見過ごされ、現在に至るまで正確な人数は分かっていない。 本作には、現在確認されている唯一の生存者である呉正男をはじめとする3名の台湾出身の元日本兵が登場。彼らが抱え続けてきた“空白の記憶”に光をあて、時代の荒波に翻弄されてきた彼らとその家族の思いや、台湾の世代ごとに異なるアイデンティティなど心の機微を丁寧に描き出す。監督のコー・ビンスンはシベリア鉄道に乗って彼らの帰還までの道のりをたどるとともに、台湾と日本に残された写真や手紙、録音テープ、そして断片的な記憶を丹念に拾い集め、沈黙の奥に封じ込められた感情を浮かび上がらせていく。

A documentary that sheds light on the existence of former Japanese soldiers from Taiwan who survived Siberian internment. Under Japanese rule, approximately 200,000 Taiwanese were sent to the battlefields as Japanese soldiers, and after the war ended, some of them became prisoners of the Soviet army and were sent to the freezing cold of Siberia. In the Siberian internment, where about 600,000 former Japanese soldiers and civilians were taken by the Soviets to camps across Siberia and Central Asia, the internees were forced into harsh labor such as railway construction, logging, and mining, and approximately 60,000 lives were lost to starvation and sub-zero temperatures. However, the existence of Taiwanese prisoners among them was long overlooked amid the complex postwar international circumstances surrounding Japan and Taiwan, and to this day the exact number remains unknown. This film features three former Japanese soldiers from Taiwan, including Wu Zhengnan, currently the only confirmed survivor. It shines a light on the "blank memories" they have carried, carefully depicting the emotions of these men and their families tossed about by the waves of the era, as well as the differing identities across generations in Taiwan. Director Ping-Win Ko follows their journey home aboard the Trans-Siberian Railway, meticulously gathering photographs, letters, audio tapes, and fragmentary memories left in Taiwan and Japan, bringing to the surface the emotions sealed away in silence.

上映スケジュール / Showtimes

Source: cinematokyo.com · Tokyo mini-theater & independent cinema showtimes.