History that we should learn and never make same mistake; War

Two homelands by Toyoko Yamazaki

Two homelands (二つの祖国)... It is about three brothers during the years surrounding World War II. The story is from the attack on Pearl Harbor to the Pacific War, concentration camps, the atomic bombing to Japan, and the Tokyo war crimes trials. California-born sons of Japanese immigrants, Kenji, Tadashi and Isamu lived the time searching for their identity, fight for the country with patriotism and be betrayed by both. Tadashi was studying in school in Japan when war breaks out, is drafted into the Japanese army and renounces his U.S. citizenship. Isamu has volunteered to join U.S. military, and Kenji has also volunteered to go to the battle fields after teaching Japanese to Japanese Americans at the US Army's intensive Japanese language school and later find themselves at the field in Philippines as opponents. Kenji, the eldest son is later to be an English translator at the Tokyo war crimes trials and be ordered to claim the sentence to the war criminals. 

I acknowledged the existence of the 442nd regimental combat team that fought for the United States against Japan, camps in the US, but the series shows more about underneath of the sacrifice, confusion, patriotism, identity crisis, discrimination and betrayal that many Japanese Americans faced around the war and post-war time. Some lived as an American, betrayed by both countries and died for atomic bomb, some lived as a Japanese, lost home in the US and discriminated and killed by own Japanese people. They lived, died and survived in the between of two countries. 

People in this series never ended with happy ending except Isamu with little bit of happiness, who later to be married to his old friend, an Japanese american lady in Japan. Tadashi was sent to one of the hardest battle fields in Europe at the time, Kenij had to suffer in a position to translate the trial from the US side and claim the sentence to the war criminals; Prime Minister, Vice Prime Minister, Generals and other members. He was a proud American with Japanese spirits. For him, his motherland was the United States which he has never betrayed but Japan was his fatherland. As a man with love to both countries, he went through a lot of thoughts and later tragedy happened to him. 

I generally enjoy watching war movies, it is a history; not so long ago yet it feels very far away from our peaceful modern life. Soon after I finished watching two homelands, I was tempted to ask my parents and grandmother about what exactly happened to my grand parents' generation and what it was like to them as survivors.

My family 

I found out that my great grandfather who only had elementary school certificate was a captain in Navy, and it was the highest rank that he could ever climbed with his educational background. He went to Pearl Haber and then Canada by Mutsu battleship as well as Bougainville war in Papua New Guinea. My grandmother was a kid at the time when my great grandfather left Japan in September 1941 to Hawaii. She felt something very intense while listening to her parents were talking behind the thin door before his departure. She told me that she didn't talk much about the war with her father after his return as he was a captain and there were things that they were not allowed to talk about and of course from the stress and trauma that he had by facing to so many deaths. But my father somehow was very close to him and they seem to have had a lot to talk. Since he was in Navy and joined WWI and WWII, it seems like there were more battles than those two that he had to go. It is very shocking for me to know that the history we learnt from books and movies were actually so close to us. He later returned from the war and lived till 98 when I was around 2. Life after the war was never easy for him. He was purged from engaging in any public services because of his military rank like other veterans and only allowed to work as a part-timer. He worked as a cleaner and other hard labor jobs and supported his family.  

Another grandfather from my family also went to war like other young men, he was a normal citizen not a military man. But once war broke out, he was ordered to serve for the country and went to Suzhou and Shanghai in China. After the war ended there was still no way to go home and he was there in Shanghai and worked for a cigarette company for a while. Later came back to Japan, he joined a steel company (JFE) and was one of the workers to build ships.

I still want to hear from my dad about great grandfather's paths. It is the only way for me to know about real story from a person other than movies and books. There are too many war happened surrounding that time, which Japan has involved or invaded and as a colonizer country, things that we learn is somehow very convenient for us. I would say there was no lie on my textbooks but more like we didn't learn a lot. We only learnt China-Japan war and Pacific war. I'm not desperate to search for ugly truths but I would just love to understand the history from their perspective.

Normally I write posts in Japanese, but I thought it would be a good chance to share my findings from the movie and about my family in English. If you have stories from your grandparents and great grandparents, I would love to hear your thoughts too.