Message from jyamazaki

[Anonymous]

Greetings,

The film I chose to review is GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES. This Japanese anime film is an adaptaion of a semi autobiagraphical novel Hotaru No Haka written by Akiyuki Nosaka. This film depicts some of the struggles that Japanese civilians experienced during the firebombings of WW II through the lives of two young siblings, an older teenage brother and his little sister. The film shows the struggles the siblings face in finding shelter, food, and water in Japanese country side. This film has vivid images and it is filled with emotionally moving scenes. Since its release in 1988, some critics have labeled this film as an anti-war movie or a movie that depicts the Japan as a victim of WWII because it fails to address Japan's agressive role in the war. Though these arguements may have some merit I do not agree with them because I do not beleive that that was the intent of the film. I beleive this film gives us great insight on how life was like in rural Japan during the war. Most of Japan's cities were bombed out thus forcing its civilians to flee to the country side. I beleive this film captures the humanity and the struggle Japanese civilian population experienced. I believe this is a very important perspective to examine and to teach students. In a World History lesson I would use Clips of this film to give students insight on the struggles face by both sides in the Pacific. I beleive as students see both perspetives of the war they will better understand WWII and that people on both sides of the war suffered.

John Yamazaki