{ "id": "epr6scqmv0", "slug": "for-those-we-love", "title": "For Those We Love (俺は、君のためにこそ死ににいく)", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": 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"label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical", "label": "War and historical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical" } ] } ], "excerpt": "For Those We Love (俺は、君のためにこそ死ににいく) is a 2007 Japanese war drama directed by Taku Shinjo, written and executive-produced by Shintaro Ishihara, about kamikaze pilots at Chiran and canteen matron Tome Torihama, released by Toei on 12 May 2007.", "snippet": "For Those We Love (俺は、君のためにこそ死ににいく) is a 2007 Japanese war drama directed by Taku Shinjo, written and executive-produced by Shintaro Ishihara, about kamikaze pilots at Chiran and canteen matron Tome Torihama, released by Toei on 12 May 2007.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical.war-action-and-adventure.war-action-films-released-since-2000.yr-2000-2016", "markdown": "# For Those We Love (俺は、君のためにこそ死ににいく)\n\n**For Those We Love** (俺は、君のためにこそ死ににいく, *Ore wa, kimi no tame ni koso shini ni iku*, literally \"I go to die precisely for you\") is a 2007 Japanese war drama directed by Taku Shinjo that depicts young kamikaze pilots in the last months of the [Pacific War](https://www.edgepedia.org/pacific-war) and the restaurant matron who cared for them at the Chiran airbase in [Kagoshima Prefecture](https://www.edgepedia.org/kagoshima-prefecture). Shintaro Ishihara, then Governor of Tokyo, wrote the screenplay and served as executive producer, basing the film on the testimony of Tome Torihama, the real-life figure known as the \"mother of the kamikaze\" (特攻の母).[1](https://cinema.eiga.com/movie/33966/) • [2](https://www.cinematoday.jp/interview/A0001384)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Original title | 俺は、君のためにこそ死ににいく (*Ore wa, kimi no tame ni koso shini ni iku*)[1](https://cinema.eiga.com/movie/33966/) |\n| Release | 12 May 2007, Toei distribution, Japan; 141 minutes[1](https://cinema.eiga.com/movie/33966/) |\n| Director / writer | Directed by Taku Shinjo (新城卓); screenplay and executive production by Shintaro Ishihara[1](https://cinema.eiga.com/movie/33966/) |\n| Historical basis | The true story of Tome Torihama (1902–1992), who ran a canteen near the Chiran kamikaze base and was known as the \"mother of the kamikaze\"[1](https://cinema.eiga.com/movie/33966/) • [3](https://www.kinenote.com/sp/public/cinema/detail.aspx?cinema_id=38442) |\n| Lead cast | Keiko Kishi as Tome Torihama; Satoshi Tokushige, Yosuke Kubozuka, and Michitaka Tsutsui as pilots[1](https://cinema.eiga.com/movie/33966/) |\n| Setting | The Imperial Japanese Army special-attack (kamikaze) base at Chiran, Kagoshima, at the end of the Pacific War[4](https://movie.maeda-y.com/movie/00903.htm) |\n| Other English titles | *Assault on the Pacific: Kamikaze* and *I Go to Die for You*[5](https://japanonfilm.wordpress.com/2024/12/17/for-those-we-love-assault-on-the-pacific-kamikaze-i-go-to-die-for-you-ore-wa-kimi-no-tame-ni-koso-shini-ni-iku-2007/comment-page-1/) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Story and setting\n\nThe film is set at the end of the Pacific War, when the Japanese military, in a deteriorating position, formed the Special Attack Units (tokkotai) as a last resort, sending young pilots on one-way suicide missions in bomb-laden aircraft.[1](https://cinema.eiga.com/movie/33966/) The young airmen gathered at the Army special-attack base at Chiran in Kagoshima Prefecture spent their final days there before flying out on their missions.[4](https://movie.maeda-y.com/movie/00903.htm)\n\nAt the center of the story is Tome Torihama, who ran a canteen serving the base and was affectionately called the \"mother of the kamikaze\" by the pilots. Unable to hold them back, she watched over the young men with maternal devotion while carrying her own complicated feelings about their fate.[1](https://cinema.eiga.com/movie/33966/) • [6](https://eiga-chirashi.jp/091026_1/091026000035.pdf) The film is structured as an ensemble piece following several pilots: Nakanishi (Satoshi Tokushige), torn over his duty as a soldier, entrusts the mailing of his personal effects to Tome; Bando (Yosuke Kubozuka), hastening his own death after losing comrades, asks Tome to tell his father that he volunteered for the special attack only after his friends had died; and another pilot (Michitaka Tsutsui) murmurs to her that \"Japan will lose the war.\"[6](https://eiga-chirashi.jp/091026_1/091026000035.pdf)\n\nIshihara's screenplay draws on episodes Torihama related during her lifetime, and the film also touches on how the special-attack campaign began and how the first pilots were chosen, including the futility of missions cut short by poor maintenance.[2](https://www.cinematoday.jp/interview/A0001384) • [4](https://movie.maeda-y.com/movie/00903.htm)\n\n## Production\n\nIshihara conceived the film after hearing Torihama's stories and being moved by them; the opening of the film carries his message that he wished to convey the \"hidden, sad yet beautiful stories\" of the pilots he heard from her.[2](https://www.cinematoday.jp/interview/A0001384) • [3](https://www.kinenote.com/sp/public/cinema/detail.aspx?cinema_id=38442) The production recreated the Hayabusa fighter from period design drawings at a reported cost of 50 million yen.[6](https://eiga-chirashi.jp/091026_1/091026000035.pdf) The crew included cinematographers Masaharu Ueda and Hiroyuki Kitazawa, composer Naoki Sato, and art director Hidekazu Ozawa.[1](https://cinema.eiga.com/movie/33966/)\n\nThe large cast pairs established actors with younger performers: Keiko Kishi plays Tome, while the pilots are played by Satoshi Tokushige, Yosuke Kubozuka, and Michitaka Tsutsui, supported by Taiki Maekawa, Mika Tobuta, Noriko Nakagoshi, Sachiko Sakurai, Naho Toda, Yoko Minamino, and others.[1](https://cinema.eiga.com/movie/33966/) In interviews before release, Tokushige and Kubozuka said they had told the director they did not want to appear in a film that would either affirm the war as \"not a mistake\" or treat it as something to be settled, and described the project as an effort to make the pilots' lives known to many people rather than a conventional war film.[2](https://www.cinematoday.jp/interview/A0001384)\n\n## Reception and interpretation\n\nThe film's nationalist pedigree made it controversial before and after release. The *South China Morning Post* described it in 2008 as both a eulogy for the kamikaze pilots and, in its view, an attempt by Ishihara to glorify Japan's militarist past.[7](https://www.scmp.com/article/624518/examining-futility-war) Japanese critics were divided: one eiga.com review argued that the film should not be dismissed unseen as mere war glorification, reading three distinct perspectives in it, Torihama's grief, Ishihara's celebration, and director Shinjo's sense of futility, and concluding that Shinjo's restrained long-shot direction made it an anti-war film in which sorrow quietly accumulates; the same review noted that the film does not extend its imagination to the deaths such devotion to country inflicted on others.[8](https://eiga.com/movie/33966/critic/)\n\n[Academic writing](https://www.edgepedia.org/academic-writing) places the film in a cycle of 2000s Japanese war films, alongside *Men of the Yamato* (2005), *Sea Without Exit* (2006), *Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto* (2011), and *The Eternal Zero* (2013), that balances lamentation for the war's destruction with celebration of self-sacrifice, while critics argue these films evade or deny Japanese responsibility for the conflict.[9](https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/sideways-in-time/forever-being-yamato-alternate-pacific-war-histories-in-japanese-film-and-anime/B6888500EF00322A8D0D207A2DB811BB) The scholar Aaron Gerow observes that the film has difficulty linking the individual and the collective in its form, shooting much of the action in medium-long and long shots, and that it remains divided over how to represent the nation.[10](https://yale.elsevierpure.com/ws/portalfiles/portal/39962760/GerowWarNationalismJCinema.pdf) A study of the tokko pilots in popular culture concludes that neither the image of the \"suicide bomber\" nor that of the \"cosmopolitan patriot\" fully does justice to the pilots' history.[11](https://researchportalplus.anu.edu.au/en/publications/the-asia-pacific-war-in-popular-culture-remembering-the-memory-of/)\n\nIn the United States the film circulates under the title *For Those We Love* and has been available on streaming services.[12](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/for-those-we-love)\n\n## References\n\n1. [俺は、君のためにこそ死ににいく : 作品情報・キャスト・あらすじ, 映画.com](https://cinema.eiga.com/movie/33966/)\n2. [『俺は、君のためにこそ死ににいく』徳重聡＆窪塚洋介 単独インタビュー, シネマトゥデイ](https://www.cinematoday.jp/interview/A0001384)\n3. [俺は、君のためにこそ死ににいく, KINENOTE](https://www.kinenote.com/sp/public/cinema/detail.aspx?cinema_id=38442)\n4. [超映画批評『俺は、君のためにこそ死ににいく』40点](https://movie.maeda-y.com/movie/00903.htm)\n5. [For Those We Love / Assault on the Pacific: Kamikaze / I Go to Die for You, Japanonfilm](https://japanonfilm.wordpress.com/2024/12/17/for-those-we-love-assault-on-the-pacific-kamikaze-i-go-to-die-for-you-ore-wa-kimi-no-tame-ni-koso-shini-ni-iku-2007/comment-page-1/)\n6. [『俺は、君のためにこそ死ににいく』チラシ, eiga-chirashi.jp](https://eiga-chirashi.jp/091026_1/091026000035.pdf)\n7. [Examining the futility of war, South China Morning Post (2008)](https://www.scmp.com/article/624518/examining-futility-war)\n8. [俺は、君のためにこそ死ににいく : 映画評論・批評, 映画.com](https://eiga.com/movie/33966/critic/)\n9. [Forever Being Yamato: Alternate Pacific War Histories in Japanese Film and Anime, Cambridge University Press](https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/sideways-in-time/forever-being-yamato-alternate-pacific-war-histories-in-japanese-film-and-anime/B6888500EF00322A8D0D207A2DB811BB)\n10. [War and Nationalism in Recent Japanese Cinema, Aaron Gerow](https://yale.elsevierpure.com/ws/portalfiles/portal/39962760/GerowWarNationalismJCinema.pdf)\n11. [The Asia-Pacific War in Popular Culture: Remembering the Memory of the Tokko Pilots, Australian National University](https://researchportalplus.anu.edu.au/en/publications/the-asia-pacific-war-in-popular-culture-remembering-the-memory-of/)\n12. [For Those We Love streaming, JustWatch](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/for-those-we-love)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › War and historical films (individual works) › War action and adventure › War action films released since 2000 › Released 2000 to 2016*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/for-those-we-love", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/for-those-we-love.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"For Those We Love (俺は、君のためにこそ死ににいく)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/for-those-we-love. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[For Those We Love (俺は、君のためにこそ死ににいく)](https://www.edgepedia.org/for-those-we-love)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/for-those-we-love](https://www.edgepedia.org/for-those-we-love). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"For Those We Love (俺は、君のためにこそ死ににいく)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/for-those-we-love. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "For Those We Love is a 2007 Japanese war drama directed by Taku Shinjo, written and executive-produced by Shintaro Ishihara, about kamikaze pilots at Chiran and canteen matron Tome Torihama, released by Toei on 12 May 2007." }