Karafuto 1945 Summer Hyosetsu no Mon

Karafuto 1945 Summer Hyosetsu no Mon (樺太1945年夏 氷雪の門) is a 1974 Japanese film based on the Soviet Union's invasion of Karafuto during the Soviet–Japanese War near the end of World War II. The movie is set in Maoka (present day Kholmsk), and the story is based on the deaths of nine women who worked in the postal telegraph office in the city. Twelve women worked in the office, and on August 20, 1945, nine of them committed suicide.[1]

Karafuto 1945 Summer Hyosetu no Mon
Directed byMitsuo Murayama
Written byToshio Kaneko (book)
Takeo Kunihiro (screenplay)
StarringTerumi Niki
Yumiko Fujita
Kawai Okada
Keiko Torii
Hiromi Kurita
Music bySeiji Yokoyama
Release date
  • August 17, 1974 (1974-08-17)
Running time
120 minutes
CountryJapan
LanguageJapanese
Budget500 million yen

Plot

The film is set in Karafuto after the radio broadcast of the Imperial Rescript on the Termination of the War. On August 15, 1945, Soviet forces invaded Karafuto. On August 20, the postal telegraph office in Maoka suspended operations and nine of the twelve telephone operators committed suicide by taking potassium cyanide while the city was being invaded.[2]

Pressure by the USSR

Despite the film's release in many nations, including the Soviet Union, Moscow argued that the film defamed the Soviet Union and the Soviet people and would only make people more hostile towards the USSR.[3] The movie was eventually banned in the Soviet Union after two weeks' distribution in Hokkaidō and western Kyūshū. On August 25, 2008, a Japanese television drama was aired called Kiri no Hi, which was based on the same historical events. However, the television drama caused less of a political uproar from Russia than Karafuto 1945 Summer Hyosetsu no Mon, due to the movie's insistence as a work of "fiction" and because it did not focus on the Red Army's brutal actions but instead talked about a wish for world peace.

Re-release

On July 17, 2010, when the film was almost 36 years old, it was released in various theatres worldwide.[3][4]

Original cast

See also

References
  1. "『樺太１９４５年夏 氷雪の門』主演二木てるみさんインタビュ". シネマジャーナル. Retrieved 19 December 2019.
  2. "樺太１９４５年夏 氷雪の門". Kinema Junpo. Retrieved 27 December 2020.
  3. ソ連政府の圧力により公開中止!?日本人少女たちの悲劇を描いた幻の映画、36年ぶりに公開 Archived 2011-07-12 at the Wayback Machine (in Japanese)
  4. "樺太１９４５年夏 氷雪の門". Agency for Cultural Affairs 映画情報システム. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
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