The Human Bullet

Kihachi Okamoto's The Human Bullet (1968) made for the Art Theater Guild is a satirical send up of militarism and an avowed anti-war film with a sense of humor. He's a former graduate of Meiji University, where I teach part-time now (after working there for eight years full-time), and was drafted into the Air Force-so he had first hand knowledge of the follies of war. Minor Terada is an officer candidate who is par to f a tank suicide squad that is transferred to a submarine r suicide squad who faces the absurdities of the final days of the WWII as fanaticism over takes rationality as those in leadership positions cajole the survivors into the final battle agiasnt the American invaders. Okamoto brings the absurdity of the war home to his then present in 1968 in a final flourish.