The Forgotten Force

Apr 4, 1994

0h 56m

★ 6.0

Tells the story of Australia's role as part of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force in the occupation of Japan

Overview

After the atomic obliteration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, over 36,000 Australian men and women, part of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force (BCOF), marched onto Japanese soil. They were assigned the toughest and most dangerous area of Japan: Hiroshima Prefecture, which included the atom-bombed city. The Forgotten Force tells for the first time the story of Australia's role in Japan. Rare archival and private footage, photographs and eyewitness accounts from both sides vividly recreate the atmosphere of post-war Japan - the horror of Hiroshima and its aftermath; the struggle to build a new "democratic" society while under the heel of military rule; the growth from suspicion and fear to friendship and trust between foes.

Genres

Documentary

History

War

Production Companies

Film Australia

Australian Broadcasting Corporation

The Japan Foundation

The Forgotten Force Trailers

Cast

Narrator

Hugo Weaving

The deep conversation between a Japanese architect and a French actress forms the basis of this celebrated French film, considered one of the vanguard productions of the French New Wave. Set in Hiroshima after the end of World War II, the couple -- lovers turned friends -- recount, over many hours, previous romances and life experiences. The two intertwine their stories about the past with pondering the devastation wrought by the atomic bomb dropped on the city.

0.0

Naval Port Child: Yokosuka Cleaning 1946

Aug 10, 2023

Post-war Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture. Adults who are swayed by the US military stationed in the country and swayed by US intentions cannot afford to care about children who should be protected. The war orphans, who had no choice but to survive on their own, were used to shining shoes for American soldiers, picking up cigarettes, and sometimes committing crimes. However, at some point, they came across a "cleaning" job. They work hard instead of committing crimes and earn money by being appreciated by people. The orphans begin to regain their smiles through experiences that make them feel like they should be alive. The children started to have a modest dream of "renting a house and living" with their own earnings, but they were attacked by an even harsher reality...

8.6

The Dawn of Kaiju Eiga

Apr 2, 2019

Japan, 1954. A legend emerges from the ashes of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, devastated by atomic bombs in 1945. The creature's name is Godzilla. The film that tells its story is the first of kaiju eiga, the giant monster movies.

0.0

Effects of the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Jan 1, 1946

This was the only documentary made in the aftermath of the atomic bombings of 1945. Japanese filmmakers entered the two cities intent on making an appeal to the International Red Cross, but were promptly arrested by newly arriving American troops. The Americans and Japanese eventually worked together to produce this film, a science film unemotionally displaying the effects of atomic particles, blast and fire on everything from concrete to human flesh. No other filmmakers were allowed into the cities, and when the film was done the Americans crated everything up and shipped it to an unknown location. That footage is now lost. However, an American and a Japanese filmmaker each stole and hid a copy of the film, fearful that the reality of Hiroshima and Nagasaki would be hidden from history. Eventually, these prints surfaced and became our only precious archive of the aftermath of nuclear warfare -- a film that everyone knows in part, yet has rarely seen in its entirety.

6.7

Hiroshima and Nagasaki: 75 Years Later

Aug 2, 2020

Hiroshima and Nagasaki: 75 Years Later is told entirely from the first-person perspective of leaders, physicists, soldiers and survivors.

7.5

Barefoot Gen

Jul 21, 1983

A story about the effect of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on a boy's life and the lives of the Japanese people.

7.6

Hiroshima

Oct 7, 1953

Historical fiction about the aftermath of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, on 6 August 1945, and its effects on various civilians, especially children, of that city.

7.1

Hiroshima

Aug 6, 2005

The documentary recounts the world's first nuclear attack and examines the alarming repercussions. Covering a three-week period from the Trinity test to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the program chronicles America's political gamble and the planning for the momentous event. Archival film, dramatizations, and special effects feature what occurred aboard the Enola Gay (the aircraft that dropped the bomb) and inside the exploding bomb.

7.0

Three Stripes in the Sun

Nov 23, 1955

A racist sergeant stationed in post-war Japan finds himself softening towards the children and falling for a local woman.

3.5

Girls in Summer Dresses: Hiroshima, August 6, 1945

Aug 7, 1988

In 1945, the second- and third-year students of a Hiroshima girls' school are taken away to work in war factories. The remaining 220 girls of the first year try to make the best of their new-found status as the only teenagers in an almost deserted town, even amid the deprivations of wartime. On the seventh of August, an American bomber changes their lives forever. Broadcast on the 43rd anniversary of Hiroshima in memory of "the girls who lost their lives to the atom bomb." (Source: Anime Encyclopedia)

7.5

Hiroshima: The Aftermath

Jun 6, 2015

Brand new documentary marking the 70th anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings which ended WWII and began the nuclear age. Features interviews with survivors from both sides.

7.2

Shadow of Fire

Nov 25, 2023

In the black market, a war orphan is confronted with the struggles of people living in the immediate aftermath of WWII.

6.0

The Day They Dropped The Bomb

Jul 29, 2015

On August 6 1945, one plane dropped one bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. In an instant, the city was destroyed and 80,000 people were dead. But the dropping of the Atomic bomb also launched the Nuclear age, shaping all of our lives and changing the world for ever. For this film we have tracked down people who made the bomb, people who dropped the bomb, and people who were in Hiroshima – some less than half a mile from ground zero -when the bomb fell on their city. Many of the witnesses are in their 90s and this will be the last time they will be able to tell their extraordinary stories. The Day They Dropped The Bomb is told through witness recollections, rare archive film and photographs shot at the time. The documentary will be broadcast for the 70th anniversary of Hiroshima next year by ITV and in America by the Smithsonian Channel.

5.0

Pride

May 23, 1998

Based on the International Military Tribunal for the Far East of 1946–48, depicts Japanese prime minister Hideki Tojo as a family man who fought to defend Japan and Asia from western colonialism but was ultimately hanged by a vengeful United States.

6.0

History of Postwar Japan as Told by a Bar Hostess

Jun 3, 1970

Postwar Japan as it is described by Etsuko, the manager of a bar catering to foreigners in Yokosuka. The way of life of a woman brimming with vitality, who skipped the countryside right after the war and, with her womanhood as a weapon, lived through atomic bombings, black markets, prostitution aimed at American soldiers and the Korean War. Inserting newsreels, Shohei Imamura depicts the history of twenty-five years in the Japanese postwar by way of the female body. (doclisboa)

7.9

In This Corner of the World

Nov 12, 2016

Japan, 1943, during World War II. Young Suzu leaves her village near Hiroshima to marry and live with her in-laws in Kure, a military harbor. Her creativity to overcome deprivation quickly makes her indispensable at home. Inhabited by an ancestral wisdom, Suzu impregnates the simple gestures of everyday life with poetry and beauty. The many hardships, the loss of loved ones, the frequent air raids of the enemy, nothing alters her enthusiasm…

6.5

The Beginning or the End

Feb 19, 1947

The research, development, and deployment of the first atomic bomb, as well as the bombing of Hiroshima, are detailed in this docudrama.

7.1

The Thick-Walled Room

Oct 31, 1956

A group of rank-and-file Japanese soldiers are jailed for crimes against humanity, themselves victims of a nation refusing to bear its burdens as a whole.

7.5

Black Rain

May 13, 1989

Shigematsu Shizuma, who lives with his family in a village near Fukuyama, was in Hiroshima with his wife and niece just after the devastating atomic bombing, a tragedy that cruelly took the lives of thousands of people and forever marked the harsh existence of the survivors.

The Forgotten Force

Overview

Genres

Production Companies

The Forgotten Force Trailers