(Person) Percentage - Sabanci University Research Database

The Asian Media & Mass Communication Conference 2010 Osaka, Japan
“the fear of skies” for the pilots unit and sentences like “if all American pilots are like this,
may god help those fighting against America” are used to show the power of American pilots.
However, in the same film a Japan commander responding to a soldier who says that he is
very clever, “clever men find a way not to fight” and saying “ we did nothing more than
awakening up a sleeping giant” seems to have accepted America’s power. Thus, Germany and
Japan who were allies during World War II are shown to be enemies of America and other
nations in the world and all mentions of them and implications are negative. For the United
States of America, the enemy is Germany advancing speedily in Europe and Japan wanting to
dominate the Pacific Ocean.
In Rhapsody in August talks are mostly about the effect of American bombardment on
people lives. While children are wandering in Nagasaki to get information abut the
bombardment explain the oblivion by saying “today bombs are a thing of past for people as
years past people tend to forget”. The little child who cannot see America’s monument among
the monuments sent by other nations after bombardment is disappointed to hear the
explanation that “America dropped the bomb”. Years after the bomb was dropped, Japanese
American nephew Clark writes a letter to grandmother in Japanese to invite her to America.
This gesture of Clark is approved in the family by saying “ It is important that he speaks
Japanese”, the children -who discerns that their grandmother won’t go to America and start to
justify her attitude- react to it by saying “we just as our parents do not know anything about
war, we had some information about the bomb but it only sounded like a terrible story, we can
never understand the feelings of its victims, we never thought about it, our parents are excited
about our rich relatives in Hawaii. Eventually, when the grandmother decided to go to
America in spite of everything, she says that she will go after commemoration ceremony for
those who died-including her husband- in the bombardment. She scolds her children who
reacts to her mention of bombardment by saying “it was them who dropped the bomb, are
they offended when it is mentioned?” and explains that she no longer question anybody bu
saying that “The times when I was angry with America are now in the past. I have no bad
feelings for America now, they were all because of war, it was war to be blamed, many
Japanese died in the war but many Americans died, too”. Clark who does not know his uncle
died in the bombardment and learns it from the telegraph comes to visit his aunt and gets very
sad about what happened and expresses his sorrow saying“ we all cried”. Upon his elder
brother’s death Kane remembers the stormy night on which the bomb was dropped and covers
her grandchildren with white sheets. She says that “On that day only those who wore white
survived”, which shows that she could not get rid of the effects of war and silently
accumulated them inside her for years. Rhapsody in August, unlike Pearl Harbor, does have
concerns like showing the justified side of the war by giving political messages and proving
that America is the great power in the world. Rhapsody in August mentions irreparable
wounds war opened in people’s life. It does not blame people or countries, it only blames war.
The idea that war cannot prevent relations between people is treated throughout the film.
6.Conclusion
The first scenes in Pearl Harbor are full of happiness. When one watches it, he does
not have the feeling that he is watching a war film. But everything changes with Japanese war
ships’ coming. At the end of the film, we see that American soldiers in uniforms take their
medals and stand in homage for those who died in the war. After that, a happy family portrait
is seen. Evelyn and Rafe get married and Evelyn gives birth to her child. Rafe takes little on
his lap and plays with him, Evelyn embraces David. The couple gets away from the camera
and the film ends. Thus, the film turns back to where it starts: world of peace. Rhapsody in
August starts with smoke clouds and finishes with grandmother’s turning back to the time of
294