Posted on 12/09/2006 9:31:30 AM PST by Zakeet
TOKYO - Hiromasa Murakami went to see Clint Eastwood's "Letters from Iwo Jima" to find out if an American could tell the Japanese side of a battle that became a symbol of U.S. patriotism, but for Japan was a bitter memory of defeat.
After viewing the film on Saturday when it opened it Tokyo, Murakami thinks Eastwood got it right.
"It was marvelous," the 50-year-old carpenter said as he emerged from the theater. "How should I express it? It was the same for both sides, for them and us. Everyone was a victim."
[Snip]
For many Japanese, the battle that killed 6,800 U.S. Marines and 21,000 Japanese has long been a tragedy best forgotten.
"Iwo Jima was a defeat. It was miserable and no Japanese movie company wanted to try to show it," said Eichi Tsukada, a 71-year-old retiree whose father died in World War Two.
Six decades after its defeat, Japan is still trying to come to grips with the Pacific War and who was to blame.
[Snip]
Few young Japanese these days know much about the battle for the tiny, tear-shaped island 700 miles south of Tokyo.
But after watching the film on Saturday, 17-year-old high school student Satoshi Koyama said he had learned something.
"American and Japanese soldiers were fighting with the same emotion. Both wanted to return to their homelands," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Unfortunately, even fewer know about the Rape of Nanking, the Bataan Death March, Unit 731, the Burma Railway, and so many other atrocities, a few of which are listed here.
Maybe if the Japanese were to ever hear the truth, they would quit making stupid remarks like American and Japanese soldiers were fighting with the same emotion. Both wanted to return to their homelands.
Good job Zakeet.
Not quite. The Japanese were butchers. We weren't.
Semper fi.
Yep, moral equivalence is alive and well.
I think Clint should make a film about members the Waffen SS who only wanted to save Europe from the Communists and then return home to their loved ones.
I simply do not understand how any of the Vets can forgive them. I would never own a Japanese made car.
Japanese soldiers were trained to kill without emotion and destroy without remorse.
Big time Jap denial in their role during WW2... the hate for them is still there in China and both Korea's.
I wonder how much flak Aeschylus got when he wrote the Persians.
I read a book a few years back (for the life of me I can't remember the name of it) that was written by a WWII German soldier. I found it fascinating as hell.
True, but there was more to the emotions on our side than just the one emotion of returning home.
They initiated attack -- we defended freedom.
If the movie glosses that over, then it isn't worth seeing.
That is one island that should have NEVER been given back to the Japanese. It cost us too much in blood.
I have been to Asia, even lived there a while.
I have been to Europe and lived there awhile as well.
Whether because of the war, or because of their reflections on the defeat from the war, the people of the current generations living in Japan and Germany today are not the people of Japan and Germany from WWII.
It may be hard for victims to forget or even forgive, but I do believe the sins of the father cannot be placed on the son and the nations, and national psyche, of both Japan and Germany today are not the nations we went to war against.
And, in full disclosure, I own a Toyota.
We needed them in the fight against Communism and US leaders did their job in cutting off lingering bitterness for the sake of progress.
Another US success story.
Saw the movie. Liked the first half. The second half devolved into some kind of blurry message...still don't know what it is.
I never go to a movie theater, so am anxiously awaiting the release of the DVD.
That is the point. They were trained up into an evil system and many of them did evil things, and they were endorsed. Vastly fewer American soldiers and marines did evil things. But some did, and they were often punished. My dad fought in the Pacific War and I grew up in a home that hated "the Japs." He told me of his real experiences. Sixty years later, it is not so terrible that these former enemies speak about equivalent "emotions" and glance over their actions. We are a just nation and most of our wars have been just. Still, we are prouder of some than others. I am glad that the Japanese are beginning to look at this at all.
Sounds interesting!
Also, don't forget "All Quiet on the Western Front".
In the course of the Ionian Revolt of the 490s B.C., the Persians recaptured the city of Miletus, killing or enslaving most of the population (the rest were resettled in a town on the Persian Gulf). An Athenian playwright, Phrynichus, wrote a play about the capture of Miletus. When it was performed, the audience burst into tears; Phrynichus was fined 1,000 drachmas and it was made illegal ever to produce that play again.
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