Fence

In 1941, the Japanese government seized an area of three million square meters near the city of Zushi, where an ammunition storage facility was built for the Japanese Navy during World War II. After the war, while some hoped the land would be given back to the property owners, the territory was instead taken over by the United States Military, and over sixty years later this land remains under American control, used primarily as a compound for U.S. servicemen station in Japan and their families. While relations between the United States and Japan have normalized over the years, America's possession of the Zushi territory is still a sore point with many in Japan, especially given accusations of environmental abuse by Japanese ecology groups and a lack of transparency on the part of the Americans. Filmmaker Toshi Fujiwara explores this controversy in the documentary Fence, which chronicles a little known battle that is still being waged sixty years after the end of World War II. Fence was an official selection at the 2008 Sheffield International Documentary Festival.