The 50,000 Honorable Dead and Injured on the Iwojima in July 1944
When they released that absurd movie "Pearl Harbor" in the summer of 2001 despite the February's tragedy of the Ehimemaru, a Japanese fisheries high-school's training ship that was sunk near Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, by a USS submarine with guests from Texas on board, no one remembered the passage of the book “Moby Dick” written by Herman Melville just before the Civil War:
"Grand Contested Election for the Presidency of the United States",
"WHALING VOYAGE BY ONE ISHMAEL",
"BLOODY BATTLE IN AFFGHANISTAN",
which should be read as:
"In 2000, Grand Contested Election for the Presidency of the United States",
"In early 2001, WAILING VOYAGE BY THE EHIMEMARU ",
"In late 2001, BLOODY BATTLE IN AFFGHANISTAN",
and no one could even catch a glimpse of a foretelling shadow of the tragedies at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Now, they are releasing two new movies on the Iwojima island in the Pacific Ocean, while battles in Iraq and Afghanistan have been intensified.
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In July 1944, serious battles were fought on the Iwojima between the U.S. Navy and Imperial Japan's Army, which resulted in 28,686 dead and injured on the U.S. side and 20,129 dead and injured on the Imperial Japan's side.
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The picture presenting several U.S. marines trying to hoist a flag of the Stars and Stripes tied to a slender water pipe on a hill in a battle field of the Iwojima (literally meaning an island of sulfur) was well known as a symbolic figure of U.S. patriotic spirit.
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I am highly concerned with the series of the Iwojima films now being released in the U.S. and Japan.
They might be telling something to us as a kind of oracles.
However, there are too many that are dying in Iraq and thus cannot enjoy the movies.
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The Pacific stage of WWII began after negotiations had failed between the Empire of Japan and the U.S.
Are they carrying negotiations in Iraq and Afghanistan? If not, they should start it and make it successful.
Just a success in negotiations could have parties avoid war at very low costs.
They may further avoid terror and war on terror.
For example, if you today pass by a Shiite Muslim or a Sunni Muslim on a street of New York City, you would not even mind it, though if you pass by an Imperial Japan's soldier from the Iwojima, a thing might be different.
"I WILL NEVER FORGET YOU"