Japanese nationalists have branded Angelina Jolie a 'demon' and called for her to be banned from travelling to the country over her so-called 'immoral' depiction of Japanese Second World War prison guards in her directorial debut 'Unbroken'.

The Hollywood star's new movie, released on Boxing Day in the UK, is based on Laura Hillenbrand's book telling the heroic true life story of U.S. solider turned Olympian Louis Zamperini.

The 2010 biography left Japanese patriots furious at depictions of American prisoners of war being 'beaten, burned, stabbed or clubbed to death, shot, beheaded, killed during medical experiments or eaten alive in ritual acts of cannibalism'.

Now the same groups are turning their attention to protesting Jolie's big screen adaptation, branding it a work of 'pure fabrication', insisting it has 'no credibility', and accusing the star of racism.

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Father figure: Angelina Jolie's directorial debut is based on Laura Hillenbrand's book telling the heroic true life story of U.S. soldier turned Olympic athlete Louis Zamperini (pictured alongside the Hollywood star)

Unbroken tells the life story of American Olympic athlete Louis Zamperini, who died in July aged 97.

In May 1943 he was a member of the 11-man crew flying on U.S. warplane The Green Hornet when it crashed into the Pacific Ocean during a search and rescue mission south of Hawaii.

Eight members of the crew were killed on impact and by the time soldiers on a Japanese warship spotted the debris floating off the coast of the Marshall Islands 47 days later, only Zamperini and pilot Russel Alllen Phillips were still alive.

While a prisoner of war, Zamperini was regularly beaten and tortured by his captors - in particular by a harsh disciplinarian named Mutsuhiro Watanabe, who captives nicknamed 'The Bird'.

In one account of his time at the camp - which lasted until August 1945, when the Second World War effectively came to an end with VJ Day - Zamperini told how he was once forced to hold a plank above his head for a full 37 minutes under threat of violence.

When the weak and severely malnourished Zamperini could no longer do so, Watanabe set about punching him repeatedly in the stomach.

Debate: Angelina Jolie poses with Japanese singer Miyavi, who plays a sadistic WWII prison camp sergeant

Hard at work: Angelina Jolie is seen in the editing suite during the making of Unbroken

Japanese nationalists have now come forward to complain about the book in the hope it will discredit Jolie's soon to be released movie.

'It's pure fabrication,' Hiromichi Moteki, secretary general of the Society for the Dissemination of Historical Fact, a nationalist pressure group, told The Telegraph.

'If there is no verification of the things he said, then anyone can make such claims. This movie has no credibility and is immoral,' he added.

A number of social media campaigns have been launched ahead of the film's release, with Jolie accused of 'racial discrimination' against Japanese people, and of 'defaming Japan' as a nation. Others called for her to be barred from visiting the country at any point in the future.

Attack: Japanese nationalists are turning their attention to protesting Jolie's big screen adaptation, branding it a work of 'pure fabrication', insisting it has 'no credibility', and accusing the star of racism

Horrific existence: A prisoner of war is photographed in Japan's Okinawa camp in June 1945

Joy: Dozens of Allied prisoners celebrate being freed from a Japanese POW camp in August 1945

A petition on the Change.org website went as far as to brand Jolie a 'demon' and attracted 8,000 signatures backing a halt distribution of the film on the grounds that is 'contradictory to the facts.'

The reaction to Unbroken has sparked outrage, with activists furious that Japan appears unwilling to take responsible for acts that are backed by a great deal of eyewitness and forensic evidence.

Mindy Kotler, director of Asia Policy Point, told the newspaper that there is 'plenty of eyewitness and forensic evidence of Japanese cannibalism of prisoners as well of fellow soldiers.'