Angelina Jolie’s new movie ‘Unbroken’ provokes Japanese outrage

TOKYO — Angelina Jolie’s new movie “Unbroken” has not been released in Japan yet, but it has already struck a nerve in a country still wrestling over its wartime past.

The buzz on social networks and in online chatter is decidedly negative over the film, which depicts a U.S. Olympic runner who endures torture at a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp during World War II.

Some people are calling for a boycott of the movie, although there is no release date in Japan yet. It hits theaters in the U.S. on Dec. 25.

Others want the ban extended to Jolie, the director — unusual in a nation enamored with Hollywood, and especially Jolie and her husband Brad Pitt, who have reputations as Japan lovers.

The movie follows the real-life story of Louis Zamperini as told in a 2010 book by Laura Hillenbrand. The book has not been translated into Japanese, but online trailers have provoked outrage. Zamperini, played by Jack O’Connell, survived in a raft for 47 days with two other crewmen after their B-24 bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean, only to be captured by the Japanese and sent to a prisoner-of-war camp.

Especially provocative is a passage in the book that accuses the Japanese of engaging in cannibalism of POWs. It is not clear how much of that will be in the movie, but in Japan that is too much for some.

“There was absolutely no cannibalism,” said Mutsuhiro Takeuchi, a nationalist-leaning educator and a priest in the traditional Shinto religion. “That is not our custom.”

Takeuchi acknowledged Jolie is free to make whatever movie she wants, stressing that Shinto believes in forgive-and-forget.

But he urged Jolie to study history, saying executed war criminals were charged with political crimes, not torture.

You mean "West Germany", East Germany hid a lot of facts from their people about what the Nazis did other than the fact they killed Ernst Thaelmann for being a Communist.

Of course it was West Germany. 1)West Germany considered itself the legal heir and continuation of previous German governments. 2)East Germany of course claimed to be a total break with the past and (most importantly) as Communists claimed to be the number one targets of Nazism. Therefore they couldn't possibly held responsible for the atrocities of "typical anti-Communists." [/sarcasm]

Ironically, many ex-Nazis went on to work for East Germany just as many went to work for the West (you never hear about this though). Also, while West Germany paid reparations to Israel (a move actually opposed vehemently by the right wing in Israel) former Nazis went on to play a role in the anti-Zionism of Communist East Germany.

It’s not just the American schools that rewrite history.

I had a millennial girl staying with me who commented on how the "cruel" Americans A-bombed Hiroshima. When I retorted with the barbarity of the Japanese, she was surprised. It is very scary what is being taught.

My parents, who served in WWII, had no sympathy for them. On the subject of the Japanese-Americans who were interred during the war, my mother said it was a security measure. As painful the experience might have been for them, it was nowhere as harrowing as the experiences of those who fought or suffered in the Pacific campaign.

From Homer J Simpson's post for 12/14/1944:

On Palawan Island, 150 American POWs are incarcerated in a POW enclosure situated on top of the cliffs overlooking the Bay of Puerto Princesa.

While working on the construction of an airfield they are made to dig three trenches 150-feet (46 meters) long and 4.5-feet (1,4 meters) deep within the camp. They are told that the trenches are air-raid shelters and practice drills are carried out. The shelters are small and cramped, the prisoners sitting bunched up with their knees under their chins.

When a USN convoy is sighted heading for Mindoro Island, an air-raid alarm is sounded. The Japanese guards, thinking the island is about to be invaded, herd the prisoners into the covered trenches and then proceed to pour buckets of gasoline (petrol) into the entrances followed by a match to ignite the fuel. As the prisoners storm the exits, their clothes on fire, they are mowed down by light machine-gun fire or bayoneted, shot or clubbed. Dozens manage to get through the barbed wire and tumble down the 50-foot (15 meter) high cliff to the waters edge only to be shot at by a Japanese manned landing barge which is patrolling the shore. Only five survive by swimming across the bay and reaching the safety of a Filipino guerrilla camp.

One prisoner, who tries to swim the bay, is recaptured and brought back to the beach. There, he suffers the agony of having gasoline poured on his foot and set alight. His screams delight the guards who then deliberately set fire to his other foot while at the same time prodding and stabbing his body with bayonets until he collapses. His body is then doused with gasoline and cremated. His remains, and the bodies of the other dead on the beach, are then buried in the sand. U.S. Forces capture Puerto Princesa on 25 February 1945, and weeks later discover 79 skeletons within the enclosure and they are given a proper burial. In all, 145 Americans are killed.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.