Halfway through this one-hour documentary about the once-a-year flights of Americans to join their former foes from Japan on this island which is in the Tokyo Prefecture and is considered part of the Japanese homeland, the occasional tears came a flood as tales of tortured heroism are recounted by American Marines and one P-51 Army Air Corps pilot evoke such stunning awe and pride, and yet the coming-into-focus the stories of the few remaining sons of Nippon who served there made the tears a waterfall, the tale of the gravely wounded soldier who said if the reverse were true a Japanese soldier probably never would have attended him and saved his life and his gracious thanks to America and its special kind of warriors – ones who give mercy as a matter of course – brought out the nasal addition to the lacrimal output.
This film may be the last of its kind as the warriors from both sides approach their latter days – some stretching into the mid-90s. The Marine who began the arduous effort to get the Japanese government to allow this once-yearly gathering of former combatants and now comrades says the 2015 gathering – at which several Japanese and American former foes who had never been to such a reunion – was his last. The entire island is considered sacred to the Japanese people; it is after all a tomb for many, many of its sons who joined an almost equal number of Marines in death over the more-than-a-month of constant war (planners originally thought five days would suffice). With but a thousand Japanese survivors, the dwindling of the ranks will close out this unique piece of the history of human warfare.
This is perhaps the first and only time during which former foes have met in peace and harmony on the very battlefield over which they struggled so mightily more than seventy years ago. Both sides in the film, but especially the Japanese prayed their sacrifices there continue to bring both our nations and our peoples closer together. That Army Air Corps fighter pilot, named Jerry Yellin, the author of four books so far who champions meditative techniques to counter the ravages of Post Traumatic Stress, once said he hated all things and all people Japanese. And then his son married a Japanese woman and he dotes on this grandchildren. Such is change and such is what may come from war should we choose that path.
Watch, if you can, this poignant piece of American, Japanese and World history and glean if you will the messages this tired old broke-dick Marine of another era heard and saw and felt for that one precious hour.
richwrapper 