Apr 28 01:05 AM US/Eastern
TOKYO, Japan, April 28 (AP) - (Kyodo) — At a time when the fate of a U.S. Marines base in Okinawa is dominating headlines in Japan, a Japanese documentary is shedding light on the troops stationed at such bases and the training they undertake before leaving home soil.
In a rare move for a non-American journalist, film director Yukihisa Fujimoto went inside the Parris Island camp in South Carolina and recorded the process through which pimply boys and girls become junior Marines in a 12-week program to make the film "One Shot One Kill" now screening in Tokyo.
Fujimoto, who is critical of Japan hosting many U.S. military facilities, said he was motivated to shoot the film after spotting young Marines in Okinawa and realizing he knew little about their backgrounds before being deployed to Japan, including the Futemma Air Station in the southern island prefecture.
Fujimoto, 56, said he was shocked to see fresh recruits forced to abandon "a set of values in the civilian community" only a couple of minutes after they arrive at the recruit depot, a traditional camp depicted in "Full Metal Jacket," Stanley Kubrick's film on the Vietnam War.
"Read Line One!" An instructor ordered newcomers to bid a temporary farewell over the phone to their families, reading out prepared phrases such as "I have arrived safely at Parris Island" and "Please do not send any food or bulky items in the mail."
"You will not add any extra words in there, you will not say I love you or anything, understand?" The instructor shouted to recruits within earshot, prompting them to respond, immediately and almost in unison, "Yes, sir!"
"The recruits became almost panicked, being yelled at all the time and doing things that are quite new to them, like having their heads shaved and learning how to hold a rifle. They are not allowed to sleep until 48 hours after their arrival at night," Fujimoto said.
That should be a crucial process to transform boys and girls next door into professional soldiers following "any orders," Fujimoto said.
Fujimoto along with producer Asako Kageyama and other aides started to shoot in January 2008 at the camp, which takes in about 500 newcomers every week and produces some 20,000 graduates a year.
Most recruits at first cannot behave how their instructors like. But Fujimoto's film shows the process through which such youngsters grow to become junior soldiers, through hard training including live-fire drills and bayoneting.
A recruit said during Fujimoto's interview he signed up for the program to become a full-fledged Marine and "help better the world...where there is now war. There is peace."
Fujimoto said, "You would say 'no' when asked if you can kill somebody. But Marines do not. That means the Marines we spot in Japan came from a world different from ours."
"I hope my film will help people have second thoughts about the issues of a Japan-U.S. bilateral security treaty and why Japan has to host the bulk of U.S. military facilities," the director said.
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