Dear People of the World (formerly Dear Americans)

The life in boot camp for new recruits of U.S. Marine Co. in South Carolina.

I watched this film in peace event in Okinawa which has US marine facilities, only marine bases outside the U.S. People see it because they want to know how their neighbors are trained before they come to the island.   

The documentary film was directed by peace activist film director, Yukihisa Fujimoto. But the film was overall neutral stance, just showing how young recruits become marines who show no mercy when it comes to killing enemies.

 

The first thing they do is dial their parents that they join training so they cannot get in touch with their parents for months. They have to say just as instructed.

 

They call themselves “this recruit”, not “I”. In first 48 hours they are not allowed to sleep. Boys have to have their hair very short cut. They’ve been yellowed by their instructors whenever they make mistakes. But they just follow the orders, and have no doubts. That is how they are trained to be. They shout “One shot, one kill” many times in the training in order to brainwash themselves to give up hesitance to kill people.

 

Attendees were mostly peace activists and lefty. They protest military and war. They say this shouldn’t be done. But I have a different view. Even though it is such a dirty job, someone has to carry on, if not, your life may be in danger. You, your families, and properties cannot be saved. You have to rely on the military.

 

The problem is those who join the marines come from poor families. It is like poverty draft. The same thing is happening in Japan, too. The recruiters usually hunt new recruits in poor families or areas. Some say conscription has to be revived in order to avoid such unfairness.

 

The war is human nature. As long as we humans survive, we continue to fight each other. What we have to do is think how to minimize casualties and tragedies. You cannot make it zero.

 

As for the marines in Okinawa, I would say to them “Please leave, you are not welcome there. It is for you.” Okinawa is no longer best place for the U.S. Marines.

 

Japan is sovereign nation. We are not occupied by the U.S. any more. Unlike the cold war era, there is no strategic necessity of the U.S. military presence for the both countries. Not just Marines, Air force, navy, ground force have to leave as well.

 

We appreciate the U.S. military’s deterrence, the U.S. government’s financial aid and generous open market policy for Japanese goods. But the times was changed. The U.S. military no longer functions as it did in the past. More of us learned that. The presence might deteriorate the relationship between the two nations.

 

Why not we just keep having good relationship by your leaving Japan? Of course we are friends and close allies, that will never be changed. We can corporate each other whenever necessary, just when mutual interest exist.

The below is preview of the film. Of course, the film is all English version.

Nazis' propaganda film directed by female director, Leni Riefenstahl. It means "Triumph of the will."

The footage was recording of Nazi's party convention in September 1934. I bought a book on Hilter, that came with DVD of the old film.

It was in fact, fascinating and well-done. The film contains modern technique of propaganda.

Not just focusing on Hitler and his subordinates but young party members who attended the convention.

It looked like all the people in the convention were unified under the same spirit.

Of course, I should never say it was a great movie. Nazis were wrong.

However when it was first released in public, no one would never predict hollocaust would happen by them.

 

The important thing is how we defend ourselves from such brainwashing.

We have to watch out not to happen again.

The below is me at Auschwitz 2 years ago. The other one is chimney pipe of the 1st gas chamber.

Directed by Spike Lee. A story of Black soldiers fighting against Nazis in Italy during WW II.

Although the film wasn't well-edited but I could learn so much about WW II history in Europe, especially Italy's position in the war.

I also could learn how Black soldiers are treated in the war. They were never treated equally. Their white superior never trusted his Black comrades. Back home, they were not allowed to dine in the restaurant while enemy German POW were. They were actually treated better in the enemy line, Italy than in their home country.

Their motive of joining the war was not patriotism. They did it to better their people's social status in their home country.

The story portrays the war between Nazis and partisans in Italy. Italians were loyal to Mussolini's Fascist party which was allied with German Nazis but at the same time there was resistant movement like Partisans.

The reason that I get interested in this film is because I recently learned Italy shares the similar issue with our country in relation to the U.S. military base presence. Both of Italy and Japan are defeated nations in the war. In the city of Vicenza, Italy there is expansion plan of the U.S. military base which localies oppose just like Okinawa island in Japan. If you want to know the detail of what is happening in Okinawa, please read these articles.

The below is trailer of recently release documentary film "Standing army." Description of the article is here.

 

Standing Army documentary (2010) english trailer from enricox7 on Vimeo.

 

The story took place in Highs School in Germany. One high school teacher taught students what the dictatorship (Autokratie) is.

Students never understood what it was and believed things like Third Reich would never happen again.

Then the teacher decided to do psychological experiment in his class and the students' attitude gradually changed in scary way.

The story was not well-done, not convincing althought it was based on a true story.

However, I understand fear of charisma featured in the film because I recently experienced something like that by the man in the below photo.

 

 

 

 

He has become public icon since fall of 2008 after being dismissed as Japanese Air force chief due to his publicly released essay which justified Japan's past invasion. Details are described in this article. He has published several books since then. I bought one of them.

He is in fact charismatic and neo-fascist-like but at the same time very realistic because of his knowledge gained in his career.

No one wants to be isolated in the society. So people want some kind of symbol to strengthen the unity.

Yes, it can revive as described in the film. Especially those who are not smart, and youngsters can be easily manipulated.  

Being attracted to it sometimes makes you feel great like drugs.

We need to be cool about what a learder says in order to avoid tragedy.