This short documentary was created in 2015.
One old photograph was taken on May 26, 1945.
The photograph shows young pilots who belonged to the Imperial Japanese Army.
They were all teenagers and were scheduled to be deployed as special attack (suicide missions) in two hours.
The boys smiled even though they knew they would soon die.
Why were they smiling?
Were they made to laugh?
Are they smiling on purpose?
Or are they smiling from the bottom of my heart?
A director felt a sense of discomfort about their smiles, so she collected various testimonies from people who knew the boys and the situation at the time.
This documentary is to investigate the reasons for their smiles.
Screened at the Koto Cinema Festival in 2016
Screened at Rururu Cinema vol.25, sponsored by Gallery Space Rururu in 2016
Screened at Norwich Radical Film Festival, UK in 2016
Screened at Queen City Film Festival, USA in 2016
Production company: Mothers.inc (now Mott Co., Ltd.)