The Human Condition I: No Greater Love (I) (1959)

Masao Mishima: Kuroki Shochô

Quotes 

• Kuroki Shochô : You know, Kaji, theory may be correct and yet not always apply to reality.

  Kaji : Then either the theory is wrong or it was incorrectly applied.

• Kuroki Shochô : This is wartime. Peacetime reasoning does not apply.

• Kuroki Shochô : We must give them some incentive to work.

  Kaji : I think so too.

  Kuroki Shochô : What does a man in a cage dream of most?

  Kaji : Freedom., I suppose.

  Kuroki Shochô : Freedom? You must be a poet! It's women. Men dream of women. Women dream of men. What did you dream of as a bachelor? The ways of the empire? I doubt it. The way to make caged men work is to satisfy 70% of their bodily lust.

  Kaji : With what women?

  Kuroki Shochô : It's very simple. You're in charge of the comfort women. Send them in here.

• Kuroki Shochô : Do what you think is right. I respect revolutionary ideas.

• Kuroki Shochô : Your work here won't just be a desk job. It will cover all aspects of the men's lives. Rationing food, disposing of excrement from 10,000 men, handling menstrual cases among the women.

  Kaji : The women?

  Kuroki Shochô : We have comfort quarters for our men. Okishima will show you. There are about 60 Manchu women. Starting today, you're they're boss. I'm relieved you're not a bachelor. Go home now and do your duty by your wife -- but don't overdo it, eh?

• Kuroki Shochô : What is a man? Not poetry or morality. He's a mass of lust and greed that absorbs and excretes.

• Kaji : I'll ask their leader's opinion.

  Kuroki Shochô : Who gives you orders? POWs or me?

• Kuroki Shochô : Can we exchange a good, hard-working Japanese man for the life of one mere prisoner?

  Kaji : That's not the point.

• Kuroki Shochô : Personally I don't approve, but the head office says to leave it to the Kenpeitai.

  Kaji : Why?

  Kuroki Shochô : Must there be a reason?

• Kaji : If this is ignored, supervision will be impossible! I'll charge Okazaki with manslaughter.

  Kuroki Shochô : Come now! Relax! It wasn't wise to use force, but he was only following orders to increase production. So he actually acted out of patriotism. Listen here. Okazaki may be a brute, but his brutality lets him run that large pit. We need him just like we need you and Okishima to keep our 10,000 men in line. Understand? We're at war. To achieve the greater goal, we must overlook the small mistakes.

  Kaji : Small mistakes? A human being was murdered!

• Okazaki : I, Okazaki, vow that Pit No. 1 will achieve the new goal. I'm sure you'll permit me to use any means necessary.

  Kuroki Shochô : Use all means available. Increased production is the main thing.

• Okishima : Sir, will you see that this never happens again? How should we report it?

  Kuroki Shochô : As an accidental death. Say he fell off a ledge. It does happen, you know.

• Kaji : The special laborers are unfit for work. Please give them a month's rest. They're half dead.

  Kuroki Shochô : These anti-Japanese elements should be fed without working?

  Kaji : If you'd witnessed the scene, I'm sure you'd agree, sir. Twelve of them were allowed to bake to death. If you want to kill them, stuff them with raw beans. They'll die for sure!

• Kuroki Shochô : We're at war, Okazaki. We must expect such shortages. You can't do your work unless all conditions are perfect?