Posted on 12/13/2014 5:00:31 AM PST by Hostage
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at reviewjournal.com ...
God bless your witness; prayers for your great suffering.
The story is one of Louis Zamperini as told in a 2010 book by Laura Hillenbrand. It is a story of Louis being brought to Christ, and he did not come easily. It took several attempts by his wife and others before he finally submitted. He was filled with hatred for his Japanese torturers and wanted nothing more than to return to Japan and murder his torturer. The story is therefore one of redemption. Can’t wait to see the film opening in the USA on Christmas day.
Thank you for your service, twice over.
Just like the United States. If Big Brother doesn’t teach it, it never happened:
http://www.tofugu.com/2012/03/22/japanese-textbook-controversy/
My great Uncle died the Bataaan Death March. Ditto.
I just hope Jolie is true to the book. (a very emotionally difficult book for me, yet inspiring).
Too, there is the (parallel) story of Bud Day. That should be made into a movie as well.
What are the Japs gonna do? Start a war?
They should be THANKFUL we used the a-bombs on them.
Those two bombs SAVED the lives of TENS OF MILLIONS of Japanese.
Here’s an account of what an invasion of Japan would likely have looked like:
http://www.webwizpro.com/1945InvasionofJapan.html
If this movie didn’t piss off the Japs, then it would not be an accurate account of the way they treated our soldiers. The Japs deserved to be bombed into the 17tg century and nuked into oblivion.
Read the book. You’ll be celebrating the incineration of Hiroshima.
But the book is a story of redemption and forgiveness. I only hope the movie is 10% as good as the book. I don’t think it’s possible. I don’t think they could have made a movie that would accurately portray just how evil the Japs were.
Dana Perino was talking about the book and movie yesterday on The Five, and said the book was the best she has read in several years.
I was just getting ready to post the same thing when I saw yours.
Some of the stuff in that book really shocked me. I was aware that the Japanese were quite brutal but reading it in first person accounts was very sobering. I would agree with the post above that what made it to the big screen is probably mild compared to what actually occurred.
That is a great book for anyone interested in the history WW 2. I would highly recommend it to all Freepers.
Fascinating and chilling read.
My father won a Silver Star and two Bronze Stars fighting in the Philippines. He wrote a memoir that describes dreadful atrocities, and he did not include the most gruesome things he saw. I agree: the Japanese can go to hell with their stupid complaints about this movie.
Most of them didn't. But dictatorships empower psychopaths - indeed, rely on them to do the ugly work most of the "cultured" leadership would never admit to needing done. The darkest actors in Hitler's death camps no doubt enjoyed their work. Had Hitler not given them a government-approved outlet for their rage, they would have carried out smaller scale serial killings and torture on their own.
It was reported by Louis’ daughter that Jolie and Louis when he was alive were in spiritual love of each other with her treating him as a father figure and that she did his bidding.
Louis was also reported to have been on the sets and in the field when the film was shot and he is the one that persuaded Jolie and others to pray for a miracle on the last shooting day when a storm nearly made it impossible to complete the film.
And it is reported there was indeed a miracle in response to that prayer, and Jolie had prayed.
Pray for Angelina Jolie to brave the leftist Hollywood and media onslaught that is surely coming her way with her as their target and to continue her journey in life towards Christ.
Remember - that’s what Little Boy and Fat Man prevented.
I’ve seen a Japanese lady crying at the Marine Corp Museum in Springfield VA of I-95 when she discovered the truth about WWII. She was ashamed that she was never taught the truth. My mother who was with me at the time, God bless her, tried to comfort her.
I call BS on just about any article that claims “outrage”
Amen!
Yep.
I bet they’d really be upset if someone made a movie about Unit 731 then.
https://www.mtholyoke.edu/~kann20c/classweb/dw2/page1.html
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