''Sanga Moyu'' (山河燃ゆ) is a Japanese television drama based on the 1983 novel ''Futatsu no Sokoku'' (二つの祖国) by Toyoko Yamazaki. It was

NHK , also known by its Romanization of Japanese, romanized initialism NHK, is a Japanese public broadcasting, public broadcaster. It is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television licence, television license fee. NHK ope ...

taiga drama is the name NHK gives to the annual year-long historical drama television series it broadcasts in Japan. Beginning in 1963 with the black-and-white ''Hana no Shōgai'', starring kabuki actor Onoe Shoroku II and Awashima Chikage, the network regul ...

in 1984.

Synopsis

The Amo family lives in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, California. Two of the sons, Kenji and Tadashi, live in Japan. Kenji returns to the United States before war broke out in 1941, and is sent to

Manzanar Manzanar is the site of one of ten American concentration camps, where more than 120,000 Japanese Americans were incarcerated during World War II from March 1942 to November 1945. Although it had over 10,000 inmates at its peak, it was one ...

with his family as part of the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans. Kenji joins the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

and is sent to fight in the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

, where he shoots Tadashi, who joined the

Imperial Japanese Army The Imperial Japanese Army (IJA; , ''Dai-Nippon Teikoku Rikugun'', "Army of the Greater Japanese Empire") was the principal ground force of the Empire of Japan from 1871 to 1945. It played a central role in Japan’s rapid modernization during th ...

. Isamu, the third son, joins the 442nd. After the war Kenji finds Nagiko, a childhood friend who had confessed her love for him just before he returned to the United States. She was a victim of the bombing of Hiroshima. Kenji then becomes an interpreter at the

International Military Tribunal for the Far East The International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE), also known as the Tokyo Trial and the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, was a military trial convened on 29 April 1946 to Criminal procedure, try leaders of the Empire of Japan for their cri ...

, where he commits suicide in the courtroom because of the internal turmoil caused by his split loyalties.

Cast

* Matsumoto Kōshirō IX as Kenji Amo * Toshiyuki Nishida as Tadashi Amo * Kenji Sawada as Charlie Tamiya * Yoko Shimada as Nagiko (Imoto) Tamiya * Yumi Takigawa as Emi (Hatanaka) Amo * Minoru Ōki as Imoto *

Toshiro Mifune was a Japanese actor and producer. The recipient of numerous awards and accolades over a lengthy career, he is widely considered one of the greatest actors of all time. He often played hypermasculine characters and was noted for his commandin ...

as Otoshichi Amo * Keiko Tsushima as Teru Amo * as Isamu Amo * Yoshie Kashiwabara as Haruko Amo

Reception

Several Japanese American organizations like the Japanese American Citizens League were concerned that the portrayal of split loyalties would affect the movement for redress. Some individual Japanese Americans, including Mike Masaoka, also wrote to the NHK to express their concerns about airing the show in the United States. It was not broadcast in the United States until 1989. The show's name was also changed from "Futatsu no Sokoku" (Two Homelands) to "Sanga Moyu" (The Mountains and Rivers are Burning) for this reason. The series was considered unusual in Japan because NHK's Taiga dramas usually concern history before the Meiji era. Many Japanese films at the time showed Japan as being the victims of World War II, but the NHK chose to include Japanese atrocities. According to the

Japan Times ''The Japan Times'' is Japan's largest and oldest English-language daily newspaper. It is published by , a subsidiary of News2u Holdings, Inc. It is headquartered in the in Kioicho, Chiyoda, Tokyo. History ''The Japan Times'' was launched by ...

, the original novel was based on the life of Akira Itami.

TV schedule

References

{{Authority control Taiga drama 1984 Japanese television series debuts 1984 Japanese television series endings 1980s drama television series Cultural depictions of Hideki Tojo Cultural depictions of Hirohito