Forum - View topicBennett The Sage,"Barefoot Gen,"And The History That Shouldn't Be Forgotten
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Snomaster1
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Recently,we just had the seventy-fifth anniversary of the end of World War II. In a normal year,this probably would have been covered more in the news. But,it isn't a normal year and with everything that was going on,these anniversaries didn't get the attention that they truly deserved. Well,someone surprising didn't forget and made us remember in one of the most sobering ways possible,and that person was anime reviewer Bennett The Sage.
A couple of weeks ago,on August 6,he did a review of the anime versions of "Barefoot Gen,"in honor of the first atomic bomb drop on Hiroshima,followed a few days later by Nagasaki. A few days later,Japan surrendered to the Allies. Now,what surprised me about this review was,he didn't use a dubbed version of the movie like he usually does. He used a subbed version of the movie. But,it doesn't really matter,because these movies are tough to watch,either subbed or dubbed. Now,both films were based on a manga by Keiji Nakazawa. It was loosely based on his experiences as a kid both before and after what happened after the bomb was dropped. He did an earlier manga simply called "I Saw It" also based on his memories of what happened. To be fair,both the anime films and the manga were very critical of the war and the excessive patriotism that had been a part of it. Gen's father was also very critical of what was going on and he and his family weren't exactly held in high regard because of it. From what the review said,the plot is pretty threadbare,just going through the lives of Gen and his family before what happened on August 6th. And,when it finally happens,they don't leave a lot to the imagination about what happened. It can get pretty graphic in that area. I don't want to go into too much detail about it because it's too awful to describe. On the whole,Bennett's been pretty respectful here. There's none of his usual snark or jokes or anything like that but that's no surprise. "Barefoot Gen" isn't exactly the type of thing that be handled by a funny punch line. He even had some video that he took when he was in Japan getting footage for this and some other reviews. This review was serious,often verging on the somber. Well,when it's on a topic like this,it's not hard to be anything but. If you're Japanese,it's a huge tragedy. It involves a horrendous loss of life and the humbling of a nation that had for a long time had known nothing but victory. If you're American,the bombings represent a debate. There are those who feel that it wasn't necessary to do or it may have been overkill. The Japanese were quite possibly going to surrender but didn't know if they should,due to the demand for unconditional surrender. To many,the bombings were likely done due to their race or something like that. The other side of the debate feels that the bombings were a tragic necessity. There was nothing coming from the Japanese side that would have ever hinted at surrender. They would have fought on as long as possible,with the Battle of Okinawa a prime example of this. They deployed things like kamikaze squads and things like that. It was a horrific battle and an invasion of Japan,even with the other Allies,would have meant a huge bloodbath from one end of the country to the other,so something had to be done so that it wouldn't be necessary. The atomic bombs were one way to do that. But,if you think that there was a celebration aboard the "Enola Gay,"there really wasn't. From what I heard,when they saw the mushroom cloud,they were stunned into silence. They couldn't believe what had happened. One of the crew members wrote in the plane's journal just one thing,"My god,what have we done?" There has been much made about this,but there have been those who've largely been absent from the debate. If you're Korean,Chinese,or anyone else who suffered under Japanese rule,the atom bombs meant something else,liberation. For a long time,the Japanese military had a reputation for brutality as the citizens of places like Nanking,Shanghai,Manila,and elsewhere can attest. The horrors that were committed by the Japanese during the 1930's and 40's were equivalent to and in some cases,exceeded the cruelties the Nazis did. That would leave a legacy of hatred towards the Japanese that has flared up off and on to this day. They would feel the atomic bombs were a just punishment after all the terrible things that the Japanese had done throughout Southeast Asia and there are probably those who felt it was deserved. These people would probably feel that after they surrendered to the Americans,they helped rebuild their country,giving them a kindness they didn't really deserve. In recent months,we in this country have seen the tearing down of monuments and things like that. In Chicago,there has even been a proposal to stop the teaching of history. I think that would be a bad idea. Like Santayana once said,"Those who don't remember the past are doomed to repeat it." We should remember the past but not be a slave to it. We should learn it's lessons and learn them well to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past and also learn what worked before. That way,those like Kenji Nakazawa and those like him who had to go through what he did,including his creations can rest well,knowing that we can be a little wiser about how we can handle things and there doesn't have to be another Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Last edited by Snomaster1 on Wed Oct 07, 2020 4:49 am; edited 3 times in total |
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Errinundra
Moderator
 Posts: 6524 Location: Melbourne, Oz |
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There's something about the use of atomic or nuclear bombs that is an affront to our moral compasses. According to Wikipedia the death toll from the bombing of Hiroshima is estimated to be between 90,000 and 146,000; for Nagasaki between 39,000 and 80,000. Compare that with fire bombing of Tokyo on the night of 9/10 March 1945, which killed between 80,000 and 130,000. Because that raid didn't involve atomic bombs it doesn't have the same resonance in the Western public consciousness.
I think the question is broader than the asking whether dropping the atomic bombs was justified. We should ask ourselves whether strategic bombing (by whatever means) is justifiable if it involves the mass slaughter of civilians. Here's three quotes from historian Frederick Taylor's Dresden Tuesday, 13 February 1945, who addresses much the same questions for a bombing raid on the other side of the globe where an estimated 25,000 people were killed in one night. You could substitute any one of Tokyo, Hiroshima or Nagasaki for Dresden.
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Snomaster1
Subscriber Posts: 2796 |
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Well thanks,Errinundra. I appreciate that you responded to this but here's the thing you need to know. As terrible as what happened to Dresden,this sort of thing wasn't started by the Allies. What you need to know is the context as to why they thought it was necessary to do this. It didn't come out of nowhere. Both before and during World War II,Nazi Germany,Fascist Italy,and Imperial Japan would show the world how ruthless they were in how they fought their wars.
When Benito Mussolini invaded Ethiopia,his air force basically bombed Ethiopian towns and villages at will. They didn't have an air force so they were unable to do anything against them. Mussolini had even gone as far as to use chemical weapons against the Ethiopians. It was no surprise that they ultimately surrendered. They didn't have the means to adequately fight back. Something similar happened when Hitler was assisting Francisco Franco in the Spanish Civil War. Ever see the famous painting "Guernica" by Picasso? Well,it was inspired by a bombing of that town in 1937. To make a long story short,Hitler's Luftwaffe bombed it in order to help Franco in his war with the Spanish Nationalists. They basically blasted the city into rubble. This was a shocking event in the late 1930's but,it wouldn't be the last event like this. A few years before that,in 1932,the Japanese bombed Shanghai,China for many weeks. Eventually,a ceasefire would be brokered between Japan and China by the League of Nations,but a few years after that,it would be bombed again. And,this time,it would be much worse. The entire city was leveled. The most iconic image of that event was of a burned and injured baby in the bombed out ruins of a train station that was destroyed in Japanese bombing. This would cause outrage around the world,particularly in America. Even during the war,aerial bombing of places like Warsaw by Hitler's forces when they conquered much of Europe. The most famous aerial bombing of the war was the Blitz in which London and other major cities in England were bombed by the Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain. The British stood firm and unwavering during these bombings and would inspire much sympathy for them throughout much of the world,including America. Inevitably,it would be events like this that would cause the sort of retaliation bombings by the Allies on the cities of the Axis powers. In many ways,the Allies felt that after all the sorts of bombing I described previously above would have many of them thinking that they should receive some of the same medicine that they'd been giving to so many others. Now,I'm not saying this to justify what happened in places like Dresden and Tokyo,but I am giving you the reasons why many would feel that such actions by the Allies would be justified. Oh,before I forget,I need to tell you something,Errinundra. Something you might want to consider. For over a year,from 1942-43,the Japanese would bomb some cities in your country. Darwin would be bombed in February 1942,with a much less serious attack in May 1943. In March 1942,they'd attack the town of Broome in Western Australia. Sometime after that,they'd attack the Queensland towns of Mossman and Townsville in July of that same year. I hope you think about this. While what happened in Dresden,Tokyo,Hiroshima,and Nagasaki was sad,they didn't happen in a vacuum. They happened because of what the Axis Powers did much earlier so,it was no big surprise that the Allied leaders would feel that attacks on Axis cities would be proper payback for what happened before. |
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