Controversial Movie Unbroken

I am not sure if I want to watch this movie, “Unbroken”, which is directed by Angelina Jolie. I watched her previous war movie and that made me sick for weeks.

Her new movie has stirred so much controversy, and we don’t know if Japan will release this movie. The movie follows the story of Olympic athlete Louis Zamperini, who passed away in 2014. Zamperini revealed the brutal treatment he was subjected to when he was held as a prisoner of war by Japanese captors.

Zamperini was one of the greatest track and field Olympians of the United States, and his life is inspiring. He was severely beaten and tortured by the Japanese captor, named “Watanabe” and wanted to return to Japan to take revenge after the war but decided not to after meeting with preacher Billy Graham and Zamperini became a Christian and forgave his Japanese captors.

To my surprise, Zamperini actually wanted to meet with Watanabe and his family but his son refused to have a meeting so this never happened.

Wasn’t Watanabe also a victim of war to an extent? Because everybody had to follow the orders from their superiors and it was a war after all..but in his 60 Minutes interview with Bob Simon, Watanabe told him that he didn’t receive any orders and he did what he did out of personal feelings because Americans were Japan’s enemies at that time.

Did Watanabe apologize or feel any remorse for what he did to prisoners of war? I am not sure. He allegedly blamed everything on the war. If he did truly feel guilty, he might have committed suicide just like any other war criminals who were captured. His subordinates were executed as war criminals but Watanabe managed to escape.

Some Japanese people are furious with how their ancestors were portrayed in this movie. Secretary general of the Society for the Dissemination of Historical Fact condemned Angelina Jolie for making an inaccurate movie.

I can’t say comment on this movie because I haven’t seen it yet but many Japanese still deny any wrongdoings committed by the ancestors during the war and they see themselves as victims of war. This is a very complicated issue because the civilians of Japan were indeed victims of war at that time and Japan is the only country that suffered two atomic bombs. But the government should still take a difference approach to reconciling with China and South Korea that are still bitter about the history.