The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer (1961) on Netflix

Plot summary

A conscripted soldier and a pacifist, Kaji makes his way across Manchuria with a few comrades, hoping to elude the Soviets and find what is left of the Kwantung army. He wants only to reach his wife Michiko and his old life. Other Japanese survivors join the group as it crosses enemy lines, and they must get past Chinese militias and Soviet troops. Sick of fighting, Kaji abandons any plan of rejoining the army and takes charge of a column of fellow soldiers and civilians that keeps growing as it moves away from the front. Lost in a forest, the group begins to infight and hunger sets in.