Dear People of the World (formerly Dear Americans)

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.

A true story of German woman who lived through in Russian occupied Berlin, 1945.

Women in Berlin were raped by Russian soldiers. But they have to go through that because they were defeated.

Not only that, their nation was in fact aggressor of the war, which killed many Russian civilians.  

The main character took note of that horrible days. As time passes by, they felt normal in their situation.  

 

Well, I guess the same is true in Japan after the war. Japan was defeated nation, too.

Although more than 60 years have passed, we still feel occupied by the U.S.

Recently there was a dispute between the two countries over military base on Okinawa island.

See the articles on Okinawa tag to know the detail.

After months of turmoil, Japan seemed to give in. Many felt very humiliated by the outcome, that resulted in resignation of prime minister.

However, there is a difference, we do not get used to the defeat any more.

I think because of this, more Japanese have become hostile towards the U.S. rather than accepting the defeat.

I am one of them. So I will not accept the outcome but work hard to change the course.  

In fact, Japan is not very dependent on the U.S. any more. Japan lends so much money to the U.S.

So this gave a great chance to make a distance from the U.S.

 

I recently feel so close to German. The both countries started aggression and invaded neighboring nations. The both countries were allied during the world war II. They both are defeated and then occupied by the former enemy states and lived through humilation after the war.

Stupidly I can even feel close to Hitler.

Well, every nation has a story of survival. I am studying German recently.

Ich liebe Deutschland. Danke. The below photo is Reichstag in Berlin, where I visited in July, 2008.

 

Deutschland uber alles in der Welt fur me!

 

 

 

 

A story of British queen who established the Golden Age of British Empire in 16th century.

The film described how she managed the country, how she unified the nation when it comes to the war with Spain.  

It is not easy to unify big population, that is why a country needs a symbol of unification like queen, king, or president.

Sometimes the leader had to be cruel to maintain leadership and charisma.

 

I am recently relearning how past leaders of my country established this unified state such as Tokugawa Shogunate and young warriers who established modern type of government in late 19th century. They used Emperor as symbol of unification. 

Unity or Anachism, that is critical point of every society.

If not united, people are torn apart, kill, rob each other and easily invaded by other nations.

Well, Japan was lucky in that sense because it was island nation and had good leaders like Britain.  

In early 20th century Japan experienced similar situation of Queen Elizabeth's Britain did.

The war with Russian empire, countering unbeatable fleet sailing from Russia on the Sea of Japan.

Thanks to British made warships and financial help from Britain, Japan imperial navy could beat the fleet and saved our nation.

The below is exhibited former imperial navy's flagship, Mikasa located Yokosuka, Japan.

Well, real pacifists know how to manage the nation and win the war.