Ok, here's the deal. Clint Eastwood is directing a two part film based on a book of the same name about the Raising of the U.S. Flag at Iwo Jima. The interesting part is the way the film is divided. The 1st and 2nd parts aren't split along chronological lines. Instead, the first part is told from the American viewpoint and the second from the Japanese. Personally, I can't think of another major American film told from Japanese viewpoint, though there have been several from the German view, and I definately can't think of any other story on such an emotionally charged subject told from different views.
I loved the way Neil Stephenson flipped back and forth between the Japanese and the US in Cryptonomicon ~ so IMHO it's great Clint is doing this and giving perspective from both sides. Certainly Clint Eastwood has the green light to do whatever the hell he wants anyway.
Well, every single one of the Japanese soldiers on the island died in that battle, so it might be somewhat of an anticlimactic ending.
The Japs thought they were fighting for a noble cause, and they didn't want to seem sympathetic to the enemy.
Anything put on Hollywood will be contorted and mutilated for box office glory. If Clint tries to humanize the Japanese Army for Oscar contention, he's going to hear a mouthful from the Chinese government....
You are aware that calling someone Japanese a "Jap" is about on par with calling someone black "Ni^^er"
Maybe I should be more offended if someone calls me a Kraut? Somebody needs to send me a scale on offensive terms. I've been told now that Japs, Orientals and Asians are all offensive. What's left? Indigenous people of the islands of Japan? Although to me in historical reference Jap is to the Japanese army as Nazi is to the German army. I wouldn't call today's Japanese citizens Japs anymore then I'd call today's German citizens Nazis. But that is what they were to my elders when they were fighting WWII.
There were Anti-Jap posters during the war while Japanese Americans were being hauled away to internment camps. It went right along with the Yellow Plague paranoia (Kraut-Americans didn't have it that bad compared to Japanese Americans...) Most of the Jap-American citizens had their property unConstitutionally siezed from them and a majority died without any compensation from the government. So Japanese Americans might find the term derrogatory while Japanese might not....
