Grave Of The Fireflies Chapter 8 Themes

The eleven different themes from this course are the major events that happen in the world. Each of them represents a memorable symbol that important to human history. In my opinion, one event that changes everything was World War 2 (1938 – 1945). In all wars that we have covered in the class, World War 2 was the bloodiest war in the human history, involving more than 30 countries and the death of 50 – 80 million. It also the birth of the Nazi, a party that ruled Germany through horrible dictatorship and totalitarian. Japan Empire also was so powerful at that time, looking for expansion of its territory to all Asian countries. In the John Dower reading, Japan colonized China, Korea, Burma, and Indonesia with a brutality, arrogance, and racial
pretensions of the Japanese militarists in Asia (War without Mercy, pg. 46) One of Nazi’s movement was the mass murder of six million Jews. This holocaust was the highest death toll of every existed genocide movement, left a traumatic memory and awful death. The powerful countries were rising and every people got the impact in economic, politic, and social life. We could see the brutal reality of war in Japan on a movie Grave of the Fireflies.
The U.S used firebombs with airplanes to destroy Japanese neighborhoods, causing lots of innocent citizens died and destruction of buildings, homes, and properties. Through this animation, we can see the casualty and how hard the life through the eyes of two young siblings. Seita and Seiko were one of the innocent victims of the war. They lost their parents, home, and forced to survive with no shelter and food. This anti-war movie made audience tried hard to hold back tears watching those two main characters died tragically in the war. In 1945, the U.S. Air Force dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese city of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, caused the entire city perished and hundreds of thousands civilians died. After a few days, Japan surrendered and ended the World War
2. After World War 2, there were surely lots of effects that imprint forever in the world. Firstly, all countries were devastated. The losing country lost some territories, the economy worsened, and human losses. Even France still had to protect the rest of its territory. In the Battle of Algiers and the Quiet American, France kept having war with Vietnam and Algeria for few years. This symbolizes that people were braver to demand a human right and a national independence for its country. Secondly, two superpower countries were born. The U.S economy was greatly stimulated by the war and dominated the world. The U.S. had also become the leading military power. The U.S became the most important country in the world, and this fact made people immigrate to the U.S. El Norte was one of the examples of people’s dream to gain a peaceful life in the U.S. Enrique and Rosa flee from their home village in Guatemala to the promising land. On the contrary, hard work and diligence were not enough to get a steady life because they were illegal immigrants. The rival of the U.S is Russia.
Russia also had a large and powerful army, which occupied most of the Europe land after the war. Both countries also became competitive in the science and technology. The first launch of the atomic bomb in Japan was incredibly success and opening all eyes that human now has power to create such a destruction. The development of the nuclear weapon emerged in Europe and America to anticipate potential future wars or weapon of defense. This intense competition led into a cold war. Increasing population also one of the effect after the World War 2 ended. Simple answer why this happens: after great depression and World War 2, soldiers finally got to go home and enjoyed a little peace. They could finally build a family, thus baby boomers generation was
born. Lastly, Lots of agreements were also made to prevent a similar situation happened again. United Nations was built to maintain peace and security between countries. People were also fought about the civil right. Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was adopted by United Nations, showing recognition of the dignity and of the equality of all members. It also mentioned the human right is the foundation of freedom, justice, and peace in the world. World War 2 as the most widespread and deadliest war in history and effectively ended the era of European colonialism. However, the casualty was too big to imagine, eradicate 4% of the population in the world and the creation of atomic bomb became the most dangerous nuclear weapon for humanity, and every powerful country tried to build one. Still, after World War 2 happened, there is still a war going on up to this minute. However, no one wanted to recreate a war that involved the whole countries. For better or worse, World War 2 was a lesson to learn that this horrific war would just bring a destruction and disadvantage to everyone