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In Reply to: My Pearl Harbor redux 2 posted by Troy on May 29, 2001 at 17:32:15:
>>I can't imagine why a Japanese American (or a Japanese Japanese) would be offended or angered by this film.<<Frankly, this has me puzzled as well. I am more concerned that this film honor the dead and the survivors of this event by being historically faithful and not turning this battle into an 'amusement park ride' or 'entertaining video game'.
But I spoke with my mother over the weekend and I can only speak for the Japanese American point-of-view of my interned nisei parents. The West Coast internment, triggered by Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, lead to events which both deeply hurt and shamed my parents' families, to the extent that they did not openly talk to me about their experiences until the early-1980's.
My father's family was interned in Poston, Arizona. His father had died a few years before and so he was left to care for his mother and younger brother in that camp. His brother became very despondent and depressed by the internment and one morning he hung himself with his bedsheet in the camp hospital. My father had to cut him down from the rafter and the suicide was regarded by the Japanese community as a dishonorable death and created much shame for my father and his mother. So much so that he never told me about it. I was 28 and visiting my parents when a Time Magazine reporter came by to interview my father for an article concerning the incident. My father refused to elaborate on the story, but the shameful secret was finally out. He died four years ago without speaking about it any further, but he lived to receive his redress.
My mother's family was sent to Crystal City, Texas. This was not a conventional internment camp, but a concentration camp housing people who were considered especially dangerous to the U.S. These included schoolteachers, religious and cultural community leaders (my grandfather). It also included Italians and Germans (diplomats and loyalists), though housed in a separate region of the camp. Thus, Crystal City was the place where the "bad people" were sent and it has this stigma among the Japanese internees of the other camps and the Japanese American community to this day (it was difficult to get a Crystal City exhibit approved by the community and presented at the Japanese American National Museum--my mother is a volunteer docent there). My grandfather, surprisingly, was still a patriotic American who defied the religious leaders and Japanese loyalists in the camp, telling them that Japan only thought of itself and would never be fit to be 'world leaders'. After release from Crystal City, imagine his surprise that his family bore shame from other Japanese internees for being sent to Crystal City, as well as being persona non grata with Japanese loyalists, and being treated as an enemy by most of the rest of the post-War Americans. Both of his sons, too young to fight in WWII, later joined the U.S. Armed Forces. But I think the disgrace and shame killed him slowly. Sometimes there are things worse than death.
I hope this helps provide some understanding of these sentiments. I think films about these painful events should still be made, but I don't think people with deep wounds should see them; they will not heal or relieve their pain.
P.S.--I saw how disgracefully Ben Affleck acted on a British TV interview this weekend and I say: "you're history, bud!" You would think that a person would act with proper respect and decorum during the opening weekend of his biggest movie. Either Affleck has little respect for the subject matter of the film, or the whole film crew was like that (a damn shame either way).
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Follow Ups
- Maybe this will add some insight. - TAFKA Steve 19:50:05 05/29/01 (1)
- Every once in a while, a pearl washes up on the beach - Bruce from DC 11:35:28 05/30/01 (0)
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