Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on November 2010

Saipan was one of the last battlegrounds in World War II, and a new film looks at a little known episode of the clash. Taiheiyo no Kiseki: Fox to Yobareta Otoko (“Miracle in the Pacific: A Man Called Fox”) tells the story of 47 Japanese soldiers who held out against US forces before finally surrendering in December 1945—three months after the end of the war. The film, directed by Hideyuki Hirayama (Hisshiken Torisashi), is based on the book Oba, the Last Samurai by former US marine Don Jones. Appearing at a recent press conference in Tokyo to mark the end of filming were stars Yutaka Takenouchi (Nagare Boshi), who plays Japanese army captain Sakae “The Fox” Oba, and American Sean McGowan (Fortress) as his opposite number. Takenouchi recalled how difficult it was filming the battle scenes in Thailand. “There is only so much you can learn from textbooks, and I wasn’t prepared for how grueling it would be,” he said. “I lost a lot of weight in the jungle. The temperature was more than 40 degrees every day.” McGowan said it was a weird feeling when he and Takenouchi were in World War II uniforms, facing each other: “I couldn’t believe how lucky we were, as actors, to be able to portray these special key moments in history.” Hirayama told the press he was fascinated by the story because so little has been written about Japanese survivors of the war. Taiheiyo no Kiseki premieres in Japan in February 2011.