{ "id": "epzpz3nk0j", "slug": "the-emperors-naked-army-marches-on", "title": "The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On (ゆきゆきて、神軍)", "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.genre-form", "label": "Films by genre, form, and subject", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.documentary", "label": "Documentary and biographical films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.documentary" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.documentary.documentary-by-subject-politics-war-society", "label": "Documentary films by subject: politics, war, and society", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.documentary.documentary-by-subject-politics-war-society" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.documentary.documentary-by-subject-politics-war-society.yr-1927-2016", "label": "Released 1927 to 2016", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.documentary.documentary-by-subject-politics-war-society.yr-1927-2016" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.documentary", "label": "Asia (other) · 1946 to 2000: Documentary and biographical films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.documentary", "path": [ { "id": "geo.asia", "label": "Asia (other)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1946", "label": "Asia (other) · 1946 to 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1946.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946.culture" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form", "label": "Films by genre, form, and subject", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.documentary", "label": "Documentary and biographical films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.documentary" } ] } ], "excerpt": "The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On (ゆきゆきて、神軍, Yuki Yukite Shingun) is Kazuo Hara's 1987 Japanese documentary following veteran Kenzo Okuzaki's violent investigation into post-surrender executions and cannibalism in his New Guinea unit; Caligari Film Prize winner.", "snippet": "The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On (ゆきゆきて、神軍, Yuki Yukite Shingun) is Kazuo Hara's 1987 Japanese documentary following veteran Kenzo Okuzaki's violent investigation into post-surrender executions and cannibalism in his New Guinea unit; Caligari Film Prize winner.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.documentary.documentary-by-subject-politics-war-society.yr-1927-2016", "markdown": "# The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On (ゆきゆきて、神軍)\n\n**The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On** (ゆきゆきて、神軍, *Yuki Yukite Shingun*) is a 1987 Japanese documentary directed by Kazuo Hara that follows Kenzo Okuzaki, a World War II veteran of the [New Guinea campaign](https://www.edgepedia.org/new-guinea-campaign), as he confronts his former officers about the deaths of soldiers in his unit after Japan's surrender.[1](https://jfdb.jp/en/title/9868) • [2](https://www.criterion.com/films/30723-the-emperor-s-naked-army-marches-on) Released in Japan on August 1, 1987, it won the Caligari Film Prize at the [Berlin International Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/berlin-international-film-festival) and is regarded as a landmark of documentary filmmaking.[1](https://jfdb.jp/en/title/9868) • [3](https://mubi.com/en/us/films/the-emperors-naked-army-marches-on)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Director and cinematographer | Kazuo Hara, who also wrote the film[1](https://jfdb.jp/en/title/9868) |\n| Japanese release | August 1, 1987; 122 minutes; color documentary[1](https://jfdb.jp/en/title/9868) |\n| Producer / planning | Sachiko Kobayashi (Shisso Productions); project conceived by Shohei Imamura[4](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/japan%202021%3Cbr%3E100%20years%20of%20japanese%20cinema/2021/12/18/emperors-naked-army/) |\n| Central subject | Kenzo Okuzaki, a New Guinea veteran who calls himself the sole \"Impartial Soldier of the Emperor's Army\"[1](https://jfdb.jp/en/title/9868) |\n| Core investigation | The execution of two soldiers 23 days after Japan's surrender, officially for desertion[5](https://www.idfa.nl/en/film/b64e731a-b698-4ac7-9963-531d7de3deb8/the-emperor%27s-naked-army-marches-on/) |\n| Award | Caligari Film Prize, 1987 Berlin International Film Festival[1](https://jfdb.jp/en/title/9868) |\n| Production span | Started in 1982; roughly five years to complete[5](https://www.idfa.nl/en/film/b64e731a-b698-4ac7-9963-531d7de3deb8/the-emperor%27s-naked-army-marches-on/) • [6](https://www.rogerebert.com/far-flung-correspondents/for-the-sake-of-mankind-a-look-at-the-emperors-naked-army-marches-on) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### The subject: Kenzo Okuzaki\n\nOkuzaki runs a battery and used-car repair shop in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, with his wife Shizumi, and travels Japan alone in a car flying a flag of his own \"Emperor's Army,\" calling himself its sole \"Impartial Soldier of the Emperor's Army\" (神軍平等兵).[1](https://jfdb.jp/en/title/9868) • [7](https://eiga.com/movie/39908/) He had served in the Independent Engineering Troop Unit 36, one of the few survivors of the desperate fighting in [New Guinea](https://www.edgepedia.org/new-guinea), where his unit was driven into the jungle, beset by malaria, hunger, and Australian troops; only about thirty men survived.[4](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/japan%202021%3Cbr%3E100%20years%20of%20japanese%20cinema/2021/12/18/emperors-naked-army/) • [5](https://www.idfa.nl/en/film/b64e731a-b698-4ac7-9963-531d7de3deb8/the-emperor%27s-naked-army-marches-on/)\n\nBefore the film, Okuzaki had already served prison time for acts against the Emperor: he fired pachinko balls at Emperor Hirohito with a handmade slingshot, killed a real-estate broker, and published pornographic drawings of the Emperor, spending thirteen years in jail.[4](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/japan%202021%3Cbr%3E100%20years%20of%20japanese%20cinema/2021/12/18/emperors-naked-army/) • [8](https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/movies/the-emperors-naked-army-marches-on-2) IDFA's synopsis describes him as the only Japanese to publicly offend Hirohito, and explains his fixation: after Hirohito's 1946 renunciation of his divine status made him immensely popular, Okuzaki found he could not bring charges against the Emperor for the war.[5](https://www.idfa.nl/en/film/b64e731a-b698-4ac7-9963-531d7de3deb8/the-emperor%27s-naked-army-marches-on/)\n\n## The investigation\n\nThe film's spine is a war crime. Japan had already surrendered, but Okuzaki's unit held out for another three weeks, and the commanding officer executed two soldiers who, in the official version, had deserted. Okuzaki believes the two bodies were meant to serve as food for the starving remaining men.[5](https://www.idfa.nl/en/film/b64e731a-b698-4ac7-9963-531d7de3deb8/the-emperor%27s-naked-army-marches-on/) Learning of the executions, which took place 23 days after the war's end, he sets out with the victims' relatives to question the five officers responsible.[7](https://eiga.com/movie/39908/)\n\nThe interrogations are the film's most notorious element. Okuzaki alternates apologetic politeness, presented with business cards, with deception and sudden violence: his wife and an anarchist friend pose as relatives of the dead soldiers, and officers who claim amnesia recover their memories when he threatens to beat them; one recently hospitalized interviewee ends up in an ambulance.[9](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-emperors-naked-army-marches-on) • [10](https://www.midnighteye.com/reviews/the-emperors-naked-army-marches-on/) The officers admit witnessing the executions but give conflicting accounts, some saying they fired blanks or deliberately missed, so who actually shot the two men remains unresolved; the veterans also testify to cannibalism under starvation conditions.[7](https://eiga.com/movie/39908/) Okuzaki frames his methods as serving a larger purpose, telling the camera at one point that he acts \"for the sake of mankind,\" so that people stop regarding war as heroic.[6](https://www.rogerebert.com/far-flung-correspondents/for-the-sake-of-mankind-a-look-at-the-emperors-naked-army-marches-on)\n\n## Production and aftermath\n\nThe project was conceived by director Shohei Imamura, who had employed Hara as an assistant cameraman on *Vengeance Is Mine* and *Eijanaika* and introduced him to Okuzaki; the film follows the tradition of Imamura's own documentaries about the failures of the Japanese Empire.[11](https://ica.art/films/imamura-the-emperors-naked-army-marches-on) Filming began in 1982 and met repeated adversity, including the confiscation of all reels by the Indonesian government, and Okuzaki's illegal actions repeatedly endangered the production.[5](https://www.idfa.nl/en/film/b64e731a-b698-4ac7-9963-531d7de3deb8/the-emperor%27s-naked-army-marches-on/)\n\nThe events shown continued past the filming. On December 15, 1983, Okuzaki visited the home of Furushimizu, the former company commander he held responsible for the executions, and fired a gun at Furushimizu's son, who happened to be present; he was arrested two days later. His wife Shizumi died on September 18, 1986, and on January 28, 1987, Okuzaki received a 12-year prison sentence for attempted murder and related charges.[7](https://eiga.com/movie/39908/) The Yamagata festival notes that as the film progresses, Okuzaki becomes conscious of being filmed, directs violence even toward Hara behind the camera, and manipulates reality until the fiction within him becomes indistinguishable from it.[4](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/japan%202021%3Cbr%3E100%20years%20of%20japanese%20cinema/2021/12/18/emperors-naked-army/)\n\n## Reception and legacy\n\nThe film was a hit in Japan on its 1987 release despite playing only single theaters, and no major distributor would handle it, but it won the Caligari Film Prize at the 37th Berlin International Film Festival and was praised abroad.[7](https://eiga.com/movie/39908/) • [12](https://www.filmfestdc.org/PDFs/catalog1988.pdf) It was revived in Japanese mini-theaters in August 2020, marking 75 years since the war's end and the centenary of Okuzaki's birth.[7](https://eiga.com/movie/39908/)\n\nCritics have treated it as a defining work of confrontational documentary. Richard Brody of *The New Yorker* describes Hara calmly observing the \"compromised yet fanatically dedicated inquisitor\" with a visual clarity that raises the drama to a high aesthetic order.[8](https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/movies/the-emperors-naked-army-marches-on-2) The Midnight Eye review calls it a precursor to later Japanese documentary trends favoring a spare, handheld, low-budget camera style, and RogerEbert.com credits it with paving the way for films such as [Joshua Oppenheimer](https://www.edgepedia.org/joshua-oppenheimer)'s *The Act of Killing* and *The Look of Silence*.[10](https://www.midnighteye.com/reviews/the-emperors-naked-army-marches-on/) • [6](https://www.rogerebert.com/far-flung-correspondents/for-the-sake-of-mankind-a-look-at-the-emperors-naked-army-marches-on) The film also forces questions of documentary ethics: the camera is described as both witness and perpetrator, and the power relations among subject, interviewer, and filmmaker shift throughout.[11](https://ica.art/films/imamura-the-emperors-naked-army-marches-on)\n\nReported running times differ slightly among sources: 122 minutes in the Japanese Film Database and Kinenote, 121 minutes at [Criterion](https://www.edgepedia.org/criterion) and MUBI, and 123 minutes at the BFI and Time Out.[1](https://jfdb.jp/en/title/9868) • [2](https://www.criterion.com/films/30723-the-emperor-s-naked-army-marches-on) • [13](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/dafd0a20-7757-5c91-8211-3b2debae3f31/the-emperors-naked-army-marches-on)\n\n## References\n\n1. [ゆきゆきて、神軍 (The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On), Japanese Film Database](https://jfdb.jp/en/title/9868)\n2. [The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On (1987), The Criterion Collection](https://www.criterion.com/films/30723-the-emperor-s-naked-army-marches-on)\n3. [The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On, MUBI](https://mubi.com/en/us/films/the-emperors-naked-army-marches-on)\n4. [The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On, BFI Southbank programme notes (Japan 2021: 100 Years of Japanese Cinema)](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/japan%202021%3Cbr%3E100%20years%20of%20japanese%20cinema/2021/12/18/emperors-naked-army/)\n5. [The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On, IDFA Archive](https://www.idfa.nl/en/film/b64e731a-b698-4ac7-9963-531d7de3deb8/the-emperor%27s-naked-army-marches-on/)\n6. [For the Sake of Mankind: A Look at The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On, RogerEbert.com (Wael Khairy, 2020)](https://www.rogerebert.com/far-flung-correspondents/for-the-sake-of-mankind-a-look-at-the-emperors-naked-army-marches-on)\n7. [ゆきゆきて、神軍 作品情報, 映画.com](https://eiga.com/movie/39908/)\n8. [The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On, The New Yorker (Richard Brody)](https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/movies/the-emperors-naked-army-marches-on-2)\n9. [The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On, Time Out](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-emperors-naked-army-marches-on)\n10. [Midnight Eye review: The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On](https://www.midnighteye.com/reviews/the-emperors-naked-army-marches-on/)\n11. [The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On, ICA](https://ica.art/films/imamura-the-emperors-naked-army-marches-on)\n12. [The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On, Filmfest DC catalog (1988)](https://www.filmfestdc.org/PDFs/catalog1988.pdf)\n13. [The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On (1987), BFI](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/dafd0a20-7757-5c91-8211-3b2debae3f31/the-emperors-naked-army-marches-on)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Films by genre, form, and subject › Documentary and biographical films › Documentary films by subject: politics, war, and society › Released 1927 to 2016*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 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/the-emperors-naked-army-marches-on", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/the-emperors-naked-army-marches-on.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": "\"The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On (ゆきゆきて、神軍)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/the-emperors-naked-army-marches-on. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On (ゆきゆきて、神軍)](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-emperors-naked-army-marches-on)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/the-emperors-naked-army-marches-on](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-emperors-naked-army-marches-on). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On (ゆきゆきて、神軍)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/the-emperors-naked-army-marches-on. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On is Kazuo Hara's 1987 Japanese documentary following veteran Kenzo Okuzaki's violent investigation into post-surrender executions and cannibalism in his New Guinea unit; Caligari Film Prize winner." }