Film director Oliver
Stone, left, and Peter Kuznick, associate professor
of
History Department at
American University in Boston, outside the Atomic
Dome, a landmark of the
aftermath of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
Oliver Stone Tells Japan: 'Admit Wrongs; Stand Up to U.S.'
(Mainichi Shimbun, Japan)
"The truth is difficult in both countries, but history must
be remembered ... Japan should apologize to China for what it did ... We need
people to stand up to the United States as a regional power balance. ... Japan
has lost its way. I don't know what you stand for."
Director Oliver Stone, in Japan to promote his documentary series The Untold History of the United States, admonished Japanese to reckon with the truth, make amends to those it harmed during and before WWII, and to question U.S. directives more forcefully.
On
Aug. 12, U.S. filmmaker Oliver Stone, speaking at the Foreign Correspondents
Club in Tokyo, called on both the U.S. and Japan, rather than avoid painful
truths, to admit to the unsavory aspects of their own histories. He also urged
Japan to be more outspoken with the United States.
Stone,
whose films are known for hard-hitting critiques of his country's foreign
policies, had just returned from visiting Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where he
attended atomic bombing remembrance ceremonies and met with hibakusha (atomic bomb
survivors). He is now touring Japan with U.S. history professor Peter Kuznick, his co-collaborator on the 2012 television
documentary The Untold History of the
United States - currently airing on NHK
- which undertakes a critical historical review of U.S. aggression and
invasions.
He
said the predominant view in the United States - which holds that the atomic bombings
were necessary to end WWII and to save lives, and characterizes Japanese as
fanatics who would have otherwise resisted surrender - are "all
lies."
"In
the atomic bombings, we find everything that is wrong with the United States:
the lying, the official denial, the censorship," Stone said.
Stone
told the press conference that he grew up in a conservative Republican
household in New York City, and later served in the Vietnam War - coming home
an "alienated, numbed-out survivor" before he began studying
filmmaking.
He
explained how "deeply affected" he was by the U.S. Watergate scandal, as well as by
revelations of government spying and information collection on citizens that
came to light during the subsequent Church Committee hearings.
Stone
went on to utilize his wartime experience and the critical reasoning that led
him to cover territory few other filmmakers had explored, fathering an
impressive lineup of films on issues like U.S. foreign policy in South America
(Salvador, South of the Border), the inside story behind several U.S.
presidents (JFK, Nixon, W.), and a trilogy
of award-winning films on the Vietnam War (Platoon,
Born on the Fourth of July, and Heaven and Earth).
Kuznick said during the press conference that,
"Japan should be leading the fight to get rid of nuclear weapons." He
added that he hoped to see the country play a leading role in conflict
resolution that "shows the vision of Japan with its peace constitution -
and its commitment to non-nuclear resolution, rather than to the U.S. nuclear
umbrella."
Every
summer since 1995, with the assistance of the Vancouver-based Peace Philosophy
Centre, Kuznick has brought U.S. students to Japan to
visit the two atom-bombed cities. He said that students consistently
"respond purely, emotionally and viscerally" to the experience of
visiting the cities and meeting with hibakusha, which they describe as "life-changing
experiences."
Most
students in the U.S., however, are not afforded such a perspective of the
atomic bombings.
"The
problem with U.S. history, in my opinion, is that it is sanitized. It's like a
Disney movie," Stone commented. "There is no questioning of the moral
imagination in the United States; of what was lacking in Truman."
Stone
also explained that the reception to the documentary in the United States has
largely been a chilly one.
"Although
we did get great progressive press coverage, the mainstream press in the United
States was not kind to us," Stone said. "They ignored us. It's really
sad."
Stone
and Kuznick also spoke on Aug. 11, at a discussion
sponsored by the New Diplomacy Initiative, a think tank that is being launched
in order to propose policies related to Japan-U.S. relations by bringing a
diverse array of voices into the political arena.
Stone
observed during the event that historical forgetfulness was not only a U.S.
problem, noting that he was similarly disturbed to find that Japan had not
engaged in a proper reckoning of history by admitting to its wartime colonial
brutality against other Asian countries.
"The
truth is difficult in both countries, but history must be remembered," he
said. "Japan should apologize to China for what it did," he added,
saying that Japan could achieve greatness and respect by disassociating itself
from the United States and moving closer to China.
Posted By Worldmeets.US
Kuznick agreed, pointing out that one war has
led to the next as history has failed to be properly addressed.
"Our
goal is to inspire a movement in the United States, Japan, China, Russia, Latin
America, and all over the world, for people to understand their real history
rather than the history of empire, which is always a lie," he said.
"We don't learn the lessons, we repeat the mistakes - and the planet is
not going to survive if this is the way we deal with problems."
Stone
and Kuznick are now in Okinawa, where they are
meeting with citizens who are opposed to the heavy presence of U.S. military
bases in the prefecture.
"The
anti-base movement in Okinawa is absolutely essential for combating U.S.
empire," Kuznick emphasized, referring to the
global U.S. empire of bases as lily pads used "to control the land, sea,
air, space, outer space, and cyberspace." He also noted that the arrangement
in Okinawa is weighted to the benefit of the United States, which angers the
locals.
"I
want to see Japan stand up for its own interests," he said.
Stone
expressed similar views. "We need people to stand up to the United States
as a regional power balance," he emphasized, noting Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's tendencies toward nationalism and historical
forgetfulness.
"Japan
has lost its way," he said. "I don't know what you stand for."
