Conflict of Values

Rating: Null/10 (3 February 2002)

I was talking with a friend of mine (we both share an appreciation of anime) and he suggested that I watch "Grave of the Fireflies". I went over to Amazon and put the DVD in my cart, me being pretty sure that I was going to buy it (if one of my best friends liked it, I surely would too). But I went into town and I remembered that there was a video/DVD rental store that specialized in anime. I saw it there, picked it up, rented it, went home.

As I started watching the movie, a couple of things were clear to me. This isn't just a film about World War II, it's about the human condition during war times. The context surrounding the movie is Japan during and just after the war. It's quite powerful, breathtakingly honest and emotionally brutal. I'll even admit that I shed a few tears. It was hard watching Setsuko, Seita's very young sister, slowly die from malnutrition. And knowing she dies from the almost the very beginning of the movie doesn't make viewing any less harder. Most of the film revolved around Seita's drive to help and spare his sister any more pain than necessary. It is heartbreaking, and one of most tragic movies I have ever seen.
While I was watching the film though, I was deeply conflicted. I am Korean American. I will not and cannot feel sympathy for the Japanese during that era. It literally makes me sick for me to feel sorry the Japanese, considering the horrors they caused and perpetuated for people like my grandfather, my father, my family, the people of my ancestry. This movie is supposedly on Roger Ebert's "10 greatest films of all time", and while I can understand why that is so, I'll have to think long and hard before I go Amazon and purchase the movie.
The Japanese today are a great and prosperous people. But this movie tries to glorify and sympathize the sentiments of the Japanese during the war. They would like for the rest of the world to forget that they had hand in genocide (just like the Nazis in the European war). They're history books generously omit the fact they caused as much suffering as portrayed in the film to the two children. I bring light to the Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi who (despite huge protest from the Korean and Chinese) visited the Japanese war heroes grave late last year, paying tribute to the generals and officers who committed crimes against humanity. This is who the Japanese are, and even in today's age they would like us to forget what truly happened, to feel sympathy to their civilian casualties. Remember, more American lives were lost in the Pacific war than in the European war.

Setting aside this argument, Hotaru no haka (Grave of the Fireflies) is worth watching. On the basest level, this movie is (like I said before) truly powerful, breathtakingly honest (to the human condition) and emotionally brutal.
I would recommend this film, but I would warn to viewers to not forget the context in which the film is portrayed.