Seita Yokokawa. View source. History Talk 0. I will never I'll never ever leave you again. Never ever. I promise. Seita searching the ruins of their family home in Kobe. Seita and Setsuko Yokokawa taking a bath together.
Mistreatment of American POWs and other atrocities, such as the Bataan Death March, also impact the amount of sympathy some students feel for the plight of Japanese civilians during the war. This provides a good chance for a classroom discussion on how American and Japanese collective memories of World War II differ.
By recognizing that the film is intended for Japanese young people, US students may better understand why it is so popular in Japan. A discussion of such issues as why many teachers, writers, film makers, and other intellectuals feel so strongly that the young should know about the horrors of provides a good chance to discuss Nosaka and the historical context in which the events depicted in the story took place. Other aspects of the novel, such as the nuances of its title, may be pointed out to the students.
Although the English title, Grave of the Fireflies is an accurate translation of the Japanese, Hotaru no Haka , hotaru means fireflies; haka means grave , it does not fully convey the meanings implied to a native reader. By exploring the different meanings of the title and the images used in the film, American students can begin to better conceptualize the story from a Japanese perspective.
It is important to broaden the discussion and ask American students how they think other Asian populations victimized by the Japanese during World War II might view the story. The shrine is dedicated to members of the Japanese military who died in wars during the imperial period — Why do many Japanese choose to see themselves as victims and why are they so determined to focus almost exclusively on the events of ? Most Japanese people had never experienced the type of dramatic and horrific events that they endured in late and Indeed, the movie implies that the Japanese people were victims of a government who demanded their service and sacrifice.
The children in the story are victims on many levels; they lost their mother in an air raid and their father in a naval battle; they lived in an environment of constant fear; they were denied an education and lacked the basic necessities of life. They had their innocence and their lives stolen from them. American students can compare their own lives to those of Seita and Setsuko, making it possible for them to relate to the experiences of the characters. Some argue that by depicting inaction of bystanders in the train station and adults surrounding Seita and Setsuko, the film director is subtly criticizing the Japanese people for allowing children to die.
As stated earlier, a major objective of this movie, and the larger genre, is to teach Japanese young people to hate war and the political orders that seemingly facilitate it. In this story, the innocence of Seita and Setsuko showcases hope for humanity. Setsuko runs and plays while being surrounded in destruction, too young and naive to understand the world in which she lives.
Seita operates the way he feels he should as a brother, as a person, and as the son of a soldier. But even though he is significantly older than his sister, he is still just a kid without guidance or assistance. Seita loves his little sister, and he is her world. The driving force behind his actions is his desire to keep her happy, safe and healthy, but good intentions are not enough to guarantee success.
If not for his pride and lack of understanding of the world, he might have seen more options. Setsuko trusts Seita absolutely, and is besides too young to make any choices for both of them. Its DVD and Blu-Ray releases are of dubious quality, and it has been subjected to two different English language dubs despite the fact that, as a movie for adults, watching it in a language other than Japanese is as ridiculous as watching a dubbed Kurosawa or Ozu film.
Subtitles better preserve the original characterizations and meanings. But the most substantial distinctions between Fireflies and the rest of the Ghibli canon are its pessimistic message and its morally-compromised characters. Not so with Fireflies. Its protagonists, a boy named Seita and his young sister Setsuko, are almost true-to-life.
This is particularly true of Seita. As the older sibling, he is responsible for the care of his sister when their mother dies in a firebombing raid that destroys their house and their father is killed in battle. At first he does well. This woman embodies the attitude that, in wartime, everyone must make sacrifices for the good of the nation.
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