is a 1967 Japanese

war film War film is a film genre concerned with warfare, typically about navy, naval, air force, air, or army, land battles, with combat scenes central to the drama. It has been strongly associated with the 20th century. The fateful nature of battle s ...

directed by Kihachi Okamoto. The subject of the majority of the movie is the period between noon on August 14, 1945 and noon on August 15, 1945, when

Emperor Hirohito Emperor , commonly known in English-speaking countries by his personal name , was the 124th emperor of Japan, ruling from 25 December 1926 until his death in 1989. Hirohito and his wife, Empress Kōjun, had two sons and five daughters; he was ...

's decision to surrender to the Allies in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

was broadcast to the Japanese people, and the attempted coup d'état to prevent that from happening. Film historian Joseph L. Anderson describes the film as "a meticulous reconstruction of the day Japan surrendered and thus ended the

Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, including the vas ...

Cast

Production

According to Okamoto,

Masaki Kobayashi was a Japanese film director and screenwriter, best known for the epic trilogy ''The Human Condition'' (1959–1961), the samurai films '' Harakiri'' (1962) and '' Samurai Rebellion'' (1967), and the horror anthology ''Kwaidan'' (1964). ''Sens ...

was originally supposed to direct ''Japan's Longest Day'' but didn't want to, so co-producer

Sanezumi Fujimoto was a Japanese film producer. He served as the head of production for Toho Studios. He was co-producer of Akira Kurosawa's ''The Hidden Fortress''. He also produced many other films, including Yasujirō Ozu's '' The End of Summer'', Kihachi Okamo ...

suggested that Okamoto direct it. Okamoto believes that this film and his subsequent film ''

The Human Bullet is a 1968 Japanese satiric anti-war film about a soldier who becomes assigned to a suicide mission against the US Forces during the late stage of World War II. It was written and directed by Kihachi Okamoto. Plot During the last days of the w ...

'' (1968) are expressions of his anti-war feelings. ''Japan's Longest Day'' portrays the actual people who were able to remain above the fighting, but did fight with each other, while ''The Human Bullet'' is a

satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming o ...

of those who did have to fight in the war.

Release

''Japan's Longest Day'' was released in Japan on August 12, 1967, close to the anniversary of the surrender. This started a trend of releasing World War II films on the anniversary, which included Okamoto's 1971 film '' The Battle of Okinawa''. It became the second highest grossing film in Japan in 1967. Shinobu Hashimoto won the Kinema Junpo Award for best screenplay. The film was re-released theatrically in Japan on November 21, 1982 as part of

Toho is a Japanese film, theatre production and distribution company. It has its headquarters in Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Osaka-based Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group. Outside of Japan, it is best known as the producer ...

's 50th anniversary. A remake of ''Japan's Longest Day'', identically titled in Japanese but released in English under the title ''

The Emperor in August is a 2015 Japanese historical drama film directed by Masato Harada. It was released on August 8, 2015. A remake of ''Japan's Longest Day'' (1967), the film depicts the chain of command of Imperial Japan's government, military, and War Council und ...

'', was issued in 2015 by

Shochiku () is a Japanese film and kabuki production and distribution company. It also produces and distributes anime films, in particular those produced by Bandai Namco Filmworks (which has a long-time partnership—the company released most, if not al ...

, directed by

Masato Harada is a Japanese film director, film critic, and sometimes an actor; he is best known to foreign audiences as Omura in ''The Last Samurai'' and as Mr Mita in ''Fearless''. In both his acting roles he portrayed the villain who wants Japan to westerni ...

References

{{Kihachi Okamoto 1967 films Films directed by Kihachi Okamoto Films with screenplays by Shinobu Hashimoto 1960s Japanese-language films World War II films based on actual events Pacific War films Toho films Films produced by Tomoyuki Tanaka Films produced by Sanezumi Fujimoto Films scored by Masaru Sato Cultural depictions of Hirohito 1960s Japanese films