<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><div>Hi folks:</div><div><br></div><div>This is John Junkerman, documentary filmmaker/translator based in Tokyo and Falmouth, Massachusetts. Recent films include "Power and Terror: Noam Chomsky in Our Times" and "Eiga Nihon-koku Kempo" (Japan's Peace Constitution). I also did the English subtitles for "Yasukuni."</div><div><br></div><div>Just got back from a press conference at the Diet to protest the political pressure on "Yasukuni" (organized by filmmaker Watai Takeharu ["Little Birds"], producer Yasuoka Takaharu, and video journalist Doi Toshikuni). It was quite the scene. Some 200 press there. Director Li Ying, just back from China, spoke, and some 15 journalists (the most prominent being Tahara Soichiro, and ailing Chikushi Tetsuya sent a hand-written letter of support) and several filmmakers (including Koreeda Hirokazu) spoke in support.</div><div><br></div><div>Li Ying's remarks focused on his various visits to the sword smith featured in the film, Kariya Naoji, after the film was finished. He made several trips to Kochi to show him the film and publicity material and get his approval/understanding, and said that, while his wife was initially put off by the film, he managed to alleviate her concerns and Kariya gave him his blessing. This is now becoming an issue, because LDP dietmember Arimura Haruko got in touch with Kariya and announced that he told her he wanted his scenes deleted from the film. Other media have done follow-up interviews and reported that Kariya feels he was deceived, that Li misrepresented the nature of his film. This looks like it might be the next point of attack on the film.</div><div><br></div><div>It does seem rather remarkable that members of the Diet would pay this much attention to a film that hasn't been released yet, which was the thrust of many of the comments of the journalists who spoke in support. Some 20 theaters have stepped forward to screen the film, which will undoubtedly get a much bigger audience now that such a fuss has been made over it. The controversy has sparked an examination of the methods of the Japanese media (while they simultaneously bandwagon and problematize Kariya's portrayal in the film) and issues of freedom of expression and government interference. </div><div><br></div><div>After the press conference, I asked Li about the rumor at the Nippon Connection screening that the scene in the film with the American flag-waving supporter of Koizumi had been set up. He responded with a hearty laugh, and said all he had to do was turn on his camera and scenes like that appeared one after another. He had no pre-knowledge of any of the events documented during the 8/15 ceremonies at Yasukuni (including the protesters during the singing of Kimigayo or the man who worships at the shrine with his sword at night). </div><div><br></div><div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">All of those scenes suggest that Yasukuni itself is a provocative place, and not just because the Chinese and Koreans make an issue out of it. Certainly Li has a political perspective, but the point of the film is to explore why Yasukuni is so provocative, to get beyond the formulaic "Class-A war criminals/PM visits/foreign governments protest." As the film makes clear, Yasukuni is at the spiritual heart of the effort to deny Japan's war crimes, justify Japanese aggression, and glorify militarism. All you need to do to discover that is to go film there, as Li did. Since Inada is closely associated with all of these efforts, her challenge of the film as "politically biased" is deeply suspect.</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">One last thing I learned at the press conference is that the Tokyo Lawyers Association is holding a public screening and symposium on the film later this month (I think it's the 23rd). The Yasukuni scholar Takahashi Tetsuya, who so far has remained silent on the film, is the featured speaker. There will also be a press conference organized by the nationalist group Issuikai, whose founder Suzuki Kunio appeared at today's press conference and apologized for right-wing attacks on the film). </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">All this leaves me wondering if the film is going to be talked to death before anyone has a chance to see it.</div></div><div><br class="khtml-block-placeholder"></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></span></span> </div><br></body></html>