Grave Of The Fireflies Analysis
In the film Grave of the Fireflies, the director tugs at people’s heartstrings and forces them to look at World War II in a different light – too often, we forgot that the civilian casualty numbers are real, live people, and we tend to just look at them as a figure. In addition, a good part of this film takes place after the war has ended, which is a period that goes vastly un-talked about. People like to think that after the war officially ended, it was a time of joy for everyone, but sadly this just isn’t the truth for so many around the world, including many Japanese people, who lost their entire livelihoods.
In America, from a very young age kids are imprinted with nationalism through their history classes, leading them to
believe their country has always been the good guy. In the end, yes, we’ve usually had the world’s best interest in mind, but America has definitely caused damage to many countries around the world, which is portrayed very well in Grave of the Fireflies. In the film, the director makes sure to let the audience bond with Setsuko through her voice and actions – let’s all admit it, at some time throughout the film, Setsuko reminded you of a child you know. This was an intentional choice, because after the viewer became invested in Setsuko, it would make her death that much harder. This connection would lead viewers to thinking of the thousands upon thousands of children who died in manners similar to Setsuko, many at the hands of the US. By forcing the audience to think about these figures, the director accomplished his intention of making Americans think long and hard about the individual lives of the innocent victims of WWII. In addition, in a scene in the movie, Seita is in the post office when he overhears that the war has ended and Japan has surrendered unconditionally. This is extremely upsetting to Seita because the propaganda in Japan had led him to believe that Japan was the biggest and strongest of any army in the world, and they would surely win the war. By cleverly slipping this scene into the movie in a seamless way, the director made the viewers around the world think twice about blindly following propaganda not just for their country, but for almost anything – heated topics, political candidates… We are completely surrounded by propaganda.
While this film has some very valid points and is a good aid for learning about WWII, it definitely has its limitations. This film obviously focuses solely on Japan and their view of the war, but there are so many angles and positions on this war that simply learning about it from one country’s perspective is not enough to consider yourself properly educated in the issue. This film shows the tragedies suffered by the Japanese people, but it doesn’t show the politics of it all – what the Japanese did to provoke this extreme response from the US, the US’s justification for their actions, and so many more things are not mentioned. In order to properly educate viewers on this topic, the director would need to encapsulate all sides of things issue – something that is extremely hard to do in a non-documentary style film.
All in all, this movie provides an insight into Japanese culture that many wouldn’t be exposed to otherwise, which is something that should be greatly valued. However, this movie is simply not enough to offer it’s audience a complex understanding of World War II, but what it does cover, is covered thoroughly and in a very effective manner.
In America, from a very young age kids are imprinted with nationalism through their history classes, leading them to
believe their country has always been the good guy. In the end, yes, we’ve usually had the world’s best interest in mind, but America has definitely caused damage to many countries around the world, which is portrayed very well in Grave of the Fireflies. In the film, the director makes sure to let the audience bond with Setsuko through her voice and actions – let’s all admit it, at some time throughout the film, Setsuko reminded you of a child you know. This was an intentional choice, because after the viewer became invested in Setsuko, it would make her death that much harder. This connection would lead viewers to thinking of the thousands upon thousands of children who died in manners similar to Setsuko, many at the hands of the US. By forcing the audience to think about these figures, the director accomplished his intention of making Americans think long and hard about the individual lives of the innocent victims of WWII. In addition, in a scene in the movie, Seita is in the post office when he overhears that the war has ended and Japan has surrendered unconditionally. This is extremely upsetting to Seita because the propaganda in Japan had led him to believe that Japan was the biggest and strongest of any army in the world, and they would surely win the war. By cleverly slipping this scene into the movie in a seamless way, the director made the viewers around the world think twice about blindly following propaganda not just for their country, but for almost anything – heated topics, political candidates… We are completely surrounded by propaganda.
While this film has some very valid points and is a good aid for learning about WWII, it definitely has its limitations. This film obviously focuses solely on Japan and their view of the war, but there are so many angles and positions on this war that simply learning about it from one country’s perspective is not enough to consider yourself properly educated in the issue. This film shows the tragedies suffered by the Japanese people, but it doesn’t show the politics of it all – what the Japanese did to provoke this extreme response from the US, the US’s justification for their actions, and so many more things are not mentioned. In order to properly educate viewers on this topic, the director would need to encapsulate all sides of things issue – something that is extremely hard to do in a non-documentary style film.
All in all, this movie provides an insight into Japanese culture that many wouldn’t be exposed to otherwise, which is something that should be greatly valued. However, this movie is simply not enough to offer it’s audience a complex understanding of World War II, but what it does cover, is covered thoroughly and in a very effective manner.