Rikugun / Army

An epic film spanning from the Meiji Restoration (1868–1889) to the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945), director Keisuke Kinoshita portrays the decline and rise of militarism in one family over three generations in Japan. The first generation's commitment to the samurai culture arises during the Satsuma Rebellion against the Meiji government. This commitment declines in the second generation, who has to fight in the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese Wars (1904–1905). When war hits the third generation, a mother's love for her son prompts her to beg him to stay while the father encourages his son to do what he could not. In the wordless final scene of the movie, Japanese wartime censors were concerned by the film's final scene because Japanese mothers were supposed to be portrayed as being proud to send their sons to battle, and rather than discouraging them from participating in the war.