Required reading, lest we forget:
Posted on 09/02/2010 2:25:45 PM PDT by Saint X
Any Japanese film concerning WWII is going to be closely scrutinized by Japanese and international audiences alike. Most Japanese films produced in the first few decades following the war focus on human tragedy while keeping away from anything that could be construed as glorifying combat or defending Japan’s military adventurism. To avoid possible offense, American and Allied Forces in Japanese productions have usually been faceless, instead being represented by their machines of war (as opposed to contemporary Hollywood productions that often include rather negative stereotypes of Japanese soldiers). Americans and the Allied Forces are also rarely even named, usually referred to simply as the “enemy".
However, Japanese films generally fail to explain the cause of the war, which has led to a spate of recent movies that cast Japan in a more sympathetic light. With bigger budgets and slicker production values than the stark and repenting post-war movies, these films portray a more romantic view of the fight against the West where Japan is a victim, not the aggressor. As Japanese films become more revisionist, great concern has already be expressed about the next generation of movies such as the forthcoming The Truth about Nanjing which will boldy dismiss war atrocities as Chinese propaganda. The film's director has stated that the Japanese leaders executed for war crimes are martyrs like Jesus Christ.
(Excerpt) Read more at usni.org ...
Some great war films were made during WWII about Japanese treachery and imperialism.
PURPLE HEART
THE FLYING TIGERS
BATAAN
WING AND A PRAYER
GUADALCANAL DIARY
BLOOD ON THE SUN
Why they lost? US Navy. The same Navy who screwed up at Pearl Harbor because FDR was a devious commie rat who held back intel.
We also had a little luck at Midway. Midway was the tipping point of the Pacific War.
I would add They Were Expendable to the list. I like Destination Tokyo but you have to suspend a lot of disbelief to handle Cary Grant as an Oklahoman.
They should be riding horses and living in the 15th century for their actions during world war two.
Required reading, lest we forget:
And it was Signals Intelligence that came up with that tipping point at Midway.
Nice post. They lost because they had no chance of winning but thought they had a hand up due to the German propaganda when times were good for them in Europe.
It all came down to your basic battle between good and evil.
I sincerely believe they should be required viewing in history classes and although I haven’t seen any, they should be included in the curriculum.
- Traveler
Out civilian and government leadership has certainly endangered us on the manufacturing issue.
Actually, I read that one of the purposes of "spreading the wealth" about the world is to reduce the war-making capacity of the nations. The NWO seems to be a real concept, and They really gored the US.
Here is the biggest problem that today's Japanese have if they put too much belief in that particular line of thinking. Much of Asia saw it as a battle against Japan, not "the west".
But, to look at it all with SOME (a little) Japanese perspective, place yourself as a young Japanese looking out at your neighborhood in Asia in 1900. What do you see? You know that China is a giant but you also see she is very weak, with Europeans carving up rights to her best trading ports, at will. You see Britain sits astride the Asian subcontinent (in what becomes India and Pakistan), Afghanistan, Burma, Singapore, Malaysia, and New Zealand in addition to its prime port of Hong Kong. You see the French rule in Indochina. You see the Dutch and Portugese rule over islands that we now call the nation of Indonesia. And even the Americans have their colony in the Philippines. You see an Asia dominated by non-Asians. And, unlike the rest of Asia YOU are modernizing and YOU do not feel weak.
Am I excusing the Japanese for starting WWII? No. But the world, particular the world of Asia was not viewed by the young Japanese of 1900 with the same perspective as it was by "the west" and the Japanese view was not entirely "wrong" in their perspective.
If only the history of Japan and the history of Asia could have found a way to the Asian economic cooperation and development of the last 30 years, in the early decades of the 1900s, and before WWI and WWII. I don't think the European empires were prepared to let them and I don't think the Japanese were resolved to try.
When Japan signed the treaty with Nazi Germany, their fate was sealed.
Suprise!
Slightly true. The academics and Nationalists that run Japanese education do portray Japan as the victim in textbooks, but since last year English is required teaching in all schools, and everyone with two yen to throw at the temple knows that there is no institutional racism in Japan. Its at the governmental and intellectual and “Japanese Redneck” level that you see covert racism, but its a non-issue. I’d rather be here than back in the States. The Japanese are the friendliest people I’ve met next to the Indonesians and Filipinos, but their culture makes them a bit subdued in expressing gratitude or sympathy, so it takes some getting used to if you are new to Japan. There is no hate here. I had a great conversation with an old man last night about how his family was raised during the Edo restoration and how his father was an intellectual imprisoned by the emperor during the war due to his pacifism. I’m looking forward to continuing our talk tonight.
Didn’t Signals Intel also know about Pearl Harbor but higher ups like that commie FDR hushed it up.
Some of the daring and bravery of the US Navy in the Pacific was pretty amazing including Task Force Taffy.
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