When the Fog Clears Information

                                                                                                                                         Total Running Time：80 Minutes
 
 
   
 There are places in this world where you could never return.
Among these are Kiska and Attu islands, which are part of the Aleutian chain in the North Pacific Ocean. Covered by dense fog almost all year round, these two islands were the only American territory occupied by Japan during World War II. Although more than 6000 people lost their lives there, not many know about this battlefront. It is the “Forgotten War.” To make this “Forgotten War” unforgettable, this film follows the path of this conflict to find the untold story and sheds light on the personal stories of individuals whose lives changed forever.
   
 Kiska : Torn apart by war, united by the gifts of the flower of Kiska Island.
 
In Japan, Chiyo Shinoda treasured the wilted flower that her husband sent her from far across the Pacific Ocean at the height of WWII. It was enclosed in a letter he sent from Kiska Island, Alaska in the summer of 1942. Her husband, Isamu Shinoda, then 37, was the captain of a crew of 81 aboard submarine chaser Number 27, stationed in Japanese-occupied Kiska. Eight days later, he and his crew were killed there.
Sixty-seven years had passed when, in January 2009, his 98-year-old war-widow Chiyo received another Kiska flower by mail at her home in Gifu, Japan. An attached note read, “From the sons of Catherine Abele.” It was later found that “the sons of Catherine Abele” were the bereaved family of U.S. submarine Grunion, that had sunk Isamu’s ship off the coast of Kiska Island. How did such a thing happen after nearly 70 years after the end of the war?
This curious question leads to some incredible stories about two families, Japanese and American, whose fate was entwined by the deaths of the men in their families, fighting on opposite sides of the deadliest military conflict in history.
 
 Attu : The photographer’s journey to Attu Island.
 
In June 1942, Kira Sugiyama, a photographer who landed on Attu Island with the Imperial Japanese Army, filmed the moment of occupation. He had captured the evocative scenery of Attu, such as the beautiful flowers and some of the Aleuts who then lived on this island. The Aleut people from Attu were taken to Japan as war prisoners and after the war were never allowed by the U.S. government to return to their island. In June 2017, Masami Sugiyama, the student of Kira Sugiyama (same surname but no relation), visited Attu Island to take pictures of the Attu flower, just like his mentor did over 70 years ago. We follow this photographer’s journey and shine a light on Aleut people who lost their homeland during this forgotten war in the Aleutians.
 
 In telling these personal stories, the film weaves together accounts of the two islands that were the site of some of the fiercest but least known battles during WWII.

   
Writer/Director : Tadashi Ogawa
Producer : Akihiro Hirano
Director of Photography : Taiki Ikemura
Composer: Tact NOCA
Title Design : Katsumi Komagata
Co-Producer : Tadashi Ogawa
Associate Producer : Toshiko Hoshino
Narrator : Patrick Harlan
 
   
 Tadashi Ogawa is a Tokyo-based director who has been working for both film and TV. He received a 2014 Int’l Emmy Award nomination for the documentary of a children’s book about sign language, “Nonfiction W: Picture Book Touch, Feel, and Fragility.”
His recent works for the Japanese state-run channel were “Sailfish : The Enigmatic Hunter in Caribbean” and “Great Nature : Cenote and the Underworld of Ancient Maya”.
 
   
The film (incomplete version then) was premiered on May 17, 2018 in Anchorage, as part of the 75^th Battle of Attu Commemoration.
It was completed at the end of 2018 and is available for distribution and theater booking. It will be screened in several Alaska cities and Seattle in March 2020.
 
  General Inquiries : dandytada@hotmail.com (Director : Tadashi Ogawa)
https://www.whenthefogclears.com/ (English page is coming soon)