Former prisoners of war have welcomed plans by a Glasgow cinema to hold the UK premiere of a documentary in which former Japanese soldiers confess to wartime atrocities.

The Scottish Far East Prisoners of War Association (SFEPOWA) said that Riben Guizi - or Japanese Devils - could play a useful role in educating young people about how the captured were treated.

Atrocities

Glasgow University’s Gilmorehill12 cinema has applied to Glasgow City Council for a licence to screen the controversial documentary. The film is one of the first in which the Japanese acknowledge atrocities.

Stanley Gimson, the chairman of SFEPOWA , said: "If it is a factual account of what the Japanese soldiers did, then it seems to me that there is nothing to be said against letting the public see how the situation appeared to the Japanese who were involved in it at the time.

"A great many people are quite unaware of the severity of the conduct of the Japanese towards the people they took captive."

Confessions

Riben Guizi is the work of the Japanese director Matsui Minoru, and features 14 veterans of the Imperial army confessing to acts they committed during Japan’s 15-year war against China from 1931-1945.

Its title is a reference the sobriquet "devil soldiers from Japan" which the Chinese bestowed on their enemy.

In one of the scenes, a soldier admits: "I had completely lost control of myself, and I derived pleasure from killing. The more I killed the better I felt."

Minoru, who won an award at the International Documentary Film Festival in Munich earlier this year, said: "This film is about the true face of history, of human behaviour.

Cogs Of War

"In order to protect the future, we must learn about what really happened in that war, about the madness and weakness of the people who were cogs in the machinery that implemented that war."

The cinema has applied to the council for a licence to screen the film with an 18 certificate on 20, 21 and 27 October.

Dimensions Of Cruelty

Margaret-Anne O’Donnell, the general manager of the Gilmorehill12, told councillors: "The shocking confessions of the former soldiers of the Imperial army deliver us a deep insight into the blackest depths of the human soul and reveal the dimensions of cruelty that man is capable of."

Glasgow City Council licensing committee will consider whether to allow Gilmorehill12 to show the film.

A spokeswoman for the council said: " The duty of the committee is to decide whether an 18 certificate is suitable.

"It is up to the people planning to show the film whether they think it is suitable or not for the public to see."

A spokeswoman for Tsutomu Hiraoka, the Japanese Consul in Edinburgh said that the office was unable to comment on the licence application because he had not seen the film.