The Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On

Kazuo Hara’s most renowned film is a harrowing confrontation with one of Japanese history’s darkest chapters. His unforgettable subject and collaborator in The Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On is Kenzo Okuzaki—a former soldier, convicted murderer, and defiantly antiestablishment agitator—who has made it his life’s mission to expose the crimes committed by Japanese officers against their own men in New Guinea during World War II. As Okuzaki resorts to extreme measures in his crusade to find out the truth, what emerges is at once a shocking piece of investigative journalism, a courageous condemnation of militarism, and a riveting portrait of a single-minded man driven by a raw fury bordering on madness.