It
has been a long time coming, but the suffering of Korean women forced into
sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army—the wianbu comfort women—are finally
starting to be acknowledged by NGOs and documentary filmmakers. However, the
plight of hundreds of thousands of Korean farm-boys pressed into hard (often
even fatal) involuntary labor is still a story that remains largely untold (Battleship Island addresses the slave
labor, but its principal characters are far from representative). Chung
Byung-ho, a U.S.-trained Korean anthropologist and Yoshihiko Tonohiro, chief
priest of the Ichijoji Buddhist temple joined forces to honor the memories and
repatriate the remains of 155 Korean young men who perished while constructing
the Uryu Dam in Hokkaido. David Plath documents their long-deferred homecoming
in So Long Asleep: Waking the Ghosts of War
(trailer
here), which screens during the 2017 Margaret Mead Film Festival.
The
area surrounding Lake Shumarinai has recorded some of Japan’s lowest
temperatures ever, so you can imagine what the working conditions were like for
the young Koreans, who were essentially slave laborers. The discovery of their
remains was initially a matter of chance. Tonohiro and some colleagues had come
to admire the dam, where they were approached by the caretaker of the local
temple, which had storeroom full of memorial tablets. These tablets were a bit
different, in that they were inscribed with the deceased’s native Korean name
and their assigned Japanese name.
Tonohiro
soon discovered the remnants of bodies still collectively buried at the former
municipal graveyard. The priest began an effort to excavate and repatriate the
remains, but the project really took shape when Chung started directing their
efforts. Many Korean, Japanese, and Zainichi Korean-Japanese provided the labor,
embracing the project’s spirit of healing. Yet, not quite everyone fully came
on board. Japanese war crimes-deniers successfully manipulated the local bureaucracy
to thwart a memorial, while North Koreans who participated in the excavations,
were not allowed to continue to South Korea for the internment ceremony.
Since
the mass graves were located on their ancestral lands, the indigenous Ainu
people prepared special rituals for the reclamation process, which makes So Long Asleep an especially fitting
selection for the Mead fest. The film is also relevant to students of
comparative religion, because it captures Buddhist, Catholic, and Shamanistic ceremonies
performed for the 155 repatriated remains.
In
terms of production values, So Long
Asleep is pretty no-frills, but it captures some deeply moving moments.
Frankly, it is surprising how much emotional kick this film has, since most of
wartime laborers’ friends and family are now deceased. Yet, many young Korean
and Japanese people recognized the enormity of their fate and became genuine
surrogate mourners.
So Long Asleep gives us a thimble-full
of hope Japan and South Korea can finally heal their wounds and resentments stemming
from the war and occupation (to unite against a common threat to regional
stability, the Communist PRC regime). It is also an inspiring example of faith
(Buddhism, Shamanism, Catholicism) in action, making a constructive difference
in society. Highly recommended, So Long
Asleep screens this Saturday afternoon (10/21), as part of this year’s
Margaret Mead Film Festival at the American Museum of Natural History.
