"Unbroken"

Admitting that your nation did evil things in the past is difficult.  In the U.S. we seem to do better than most countries.  I believe that most American students learn about the incarceration of the Japanese in World War II, and most history courses discuss the evils of slavery, the Trail of Tears, and the Red Scare of the Fifties.  

We do seem to have some trouble accepting responsibility for the C.I.A. torture tactics, but I’m hoping that a consensus will emerge that condemns those actions, in spite of what former Vice President Cheney might say.

On the other hand, some nations are reluctant to admit to past crimes.  Turkey still will not admit to the massacre of Armenians, nor are Ukrainians eager to acknowledge responsibility for the murder of Jews during World War II.  

One country that has great difficulty with its past crimes is Japan.  Rightists in Japan are still denying the use of Korean “comfort women,” and they still dispute the “rape of Nanking.”  Nine out of ten American prisoners who died in World War II did so at the hands of the Japanese, but many Japanese refuse to acknowledge the mistreatment.

Japanese rightists have called “Unbroken” a fabrication.  The film might not even be released in Japan.  It should be.  

American attitudes toward the Japanese during WWII weren’t much better.  The Congressman from my district, Francis E. Walters, sent President Roosevelt an arm bone from a Japanese soldier to use as a letter opener.  President Roosevelt was disgusted and ordered the bone be buried.  We named an Army Corps of Engineers dam project for Congressman Walters.