Study of “HEITAI-YAKUZA”

Abstract

“HEITAI-YAKUZA” is a series of entertainment movie made by DAI-EI motion picture in 1960's. And the original novel of “HEITAI-YAKUZA” is “KISABURO-ICHIDAI” which was written by Yorichika Arima. This movie and novel describe NAIMU-HAN which shows us the organization of army life in Japanese army (TEIKOKU-RIKUGUN) before 1945. Also the novels describing NAIMU-HAN start arise from “SHINKU-CHITAI” written by Hiroshi Noma in 1952. After that, Kyojin Onishi wrote “SHINSEI-KIGEKI”, it describes a NAIMU-HAN, the organization of Japanese army life, too. If I put “HEITAI-YAKUZA” and “KISABURO-ICHIDAI” in the describing of NAIMU-HAN novels context, I can find out the value of hero, Kisaburo Omiya who breaks down the non-democratic society in Japanese army. After that, I analyze about the soldier's songs sung at NAIMU-HAN. The soldier's songs sung in “SHINKU-CHITAI” were spreading songs in Japanese army. Japanese soldiers had to sing the Japanese army songs, “GUNKA”, of obligation, but they did not like to sing these songs, liked to sing the soldier's songs, for example, “MANKI-SOTEN” and “GUNTAI-KAZOEUTA”. To understand this gap between the Japanese soldiers and the organization of the army will be a key to know the military life in Japan before W. W. Ⅱ. In the story of “KISABURO-ICHIDAI“, Omiya and “I“ brought over some Korean women to China to run the “P-YA (prostitution house)“. After the defeat of Japan, Yorichika Arima wrote that these Korean women sung “ARIRANG” and “HOTARUNO-HIKARI” to Omiya and “me”. “HOTARUNO-HIKARI” is one of the popular farewell songs in Japan. So “I” was moved by these songs but I think that it is a terrible mistake, because this song has a special meaning in Korea. Koreans sang the national anthem “AE-GUK-KA” on the melody of “Auld Lang Syne”, because they did not have a melody for their national anthem at that time. For this reason, I think that the Korean women did not sing this song as farewell song. The Korean women sang this song as their national anthem for Korean independence than as a farewell song. This gap of perception between Arima and the Korean women has continued now, between Japanese and Koreans.