Casshern and the spectre of Japan's war crimes in Asia

Abstract

The science fiction film Casshern (Kiriya, 2004), through references to Japan's war crimes in Asia during World War II, particularly human experimentation at Unit 731, suggests that lingering memories of the war have not lost their grip on the Japanese psyche, even in the twenty-first century. This article examines how this film stages the return of repressed war memories through the portrayal of monstrous bodies, drawing on Igarashi Yoshikuni's theory of Japanese post-war popular culture. Additionally, the dystopic, retro setting contrasts with the types of cities more commonly seen in Japanese science fiction, and contributes to the damning portrayal of Japan's war guilt.