Thread: As a historian, the most interesting thing about the new WW2 film Midway was the director's decision to dedicate the film to: "the Americans and Japanese who fought at Midway. The sea claims its own".
A poignant dedication, but nevertheless one that left me conflicted 1/
A poignant dedication, but nevertheless one that left me conflicted 1/
On one hand, the sympathetic depiction of the Japanese as honourable, courageous, professional sailors simply fulfilling their patriotic duty & sacrificing themselves for a cause they believed was just & honourable, is no doubt accurate, & an important belated recognition of 2/
the innate humanity of even our enemies. In that sense, it's a way of redressing the balance of previous depictions of the Japanese as inhuman, barbaric and with frequently racist stereotypes. For example, during the war, there was a serious problem with US servicemen 3/
mutilating the Japanese war dead. Teeth, skulls, ears and bones would regularly be taken as grisly souvenirs. US president Roosevelt was famously even gifted a letter-opener made from a Japanese soldier's arm bone by a US congressman. 4/
This image was Life Magazine's Picture of the Week on 22 May, 1944 and showed "Arizona war worker writes her Navy boyfriend a thank-you-note for the Jap skull he sent her". So it isn't unreasonable to try restore some semblance of humanity to the dehumanized Japanese soldiers 5/
Indeed, the recent discovery of the sunken wrecks of the Japanese carriers Akagi and Kaga, which are destroyed in the movie, is surely a humbling reminder and testament to the unforgiving sea as a common mass grave for casualties on both sides 6/ gu.com/p/chhdp/stw
On the other hand, I imagine many will see this as somehow glossing the awful Japanese record of wartime atrocities. I can see their point - I remember once reading through harrowing testimony of the Rape of Nanjing, & I had to stop for a week before I could even return to it 7/
No doubt, communities directly affected by these atrocities will find it much harder to accept this portrayal, particularly when denial of some of these war crimes is still prevalent in some parts of Japanese society e.g. govt. culpability towards 'comfort women'. 8/
Anecdotally, I once showed a class of students in China one of my favourite WW2 films, Studio Ghibli's Grave of the Fireflies. It's a highly rated film (8.5 on @IMDb imdb.com/title/tt009532…) and almost everyone I know who has seen this film is reduced to tears by the end, so 9/
I was surprised to discover that not only was my class not emotionally affected by it, but were actually angry at the film. When I asked why, they felt it was emotionally manipulative & trying to paint the Japanese as victims rather than, from their perspective, oppressors 10/
I guess my point is that writing history is not easy. Historical representation can be fraught with all sorts of dangers, particularly when memories are so contested, and when justice and reconcilliation are still deemed to be incomplete. 11/
To venture even a well-meaning recognition of the common humanity of your enemy to 'redress' the balance of previously inhuman, & often racist, depictions is not always as value-neutral as we might assume.
