All,
This week please watch the classic 1988 Japanese anime feature film, "Grave of the Fireflies" by director Isao Takahata. Watch the English dub version on Youtube -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpeHc7h7CaE
As Gail mentioned, this film depicts a tragedy. I watched it with my middle school Life Skills students while they were learning about WWII in their Social Studies and English classes (the school did not offer history). Because it's an animated film, the students expected a Disney plot. However, it is not a Disney production. The students were therefore shocked. However, they appreciated the unsugar-coated quality of the film and the fact that a teacher thought they could handle it. After this film we watched more by the same director and several by Hayao Miyazaki, Takahata's famous student.
Here are some questions we can answer or discuss after viewing "Grave of the Fireflies."
- How might this film help American students who are learning about WWII consider issues, problems or possibilities that are outside the standard (state and federally-mandated) curriculum?
- How might you use this film as the basis of an art project? How might this art project help students think critically about history and the way histories are written?
- Another topic of your choice.
As always, I look forward to hearing your ideas and reading your responses!
carolyn
All,
ReplyDeleteI just finished watching the film (my third viewing in 8 years) and I must say, this time hit the hardest. In fact, I can hardly believe that this was the first time I cried. The film is absolutely heartbreaking.
Let me explain how I used this film in my middle school teaching. I had never heard of it until a student in one of my 'Life Skills/Critical Thinking' classes told me about it. I instantly realized its potential for exploring different perspectives - and avenues for critical thinking - on the topic of war and WWII in particular.
The timing was right, as students at my school were reading the Diary of Anne Frank in their Languages Arts classes and learning the basics of WWII in Social Studies. A few Language Arts (English) teachers had coordinated an odd pseudo-Nazi event in which students were sorted into groups based on eye color and assigned different fates depending on their group. The point, of course, was to help students understand the tragic randomness of genocidal campaigns.
Even so, some teachers objected to my students viewing "Grave of the Fireflies." Personally, I felt it was appropriate for several reasons. First, the students were learning about war from a U.S. perspective. While I reject the idea that genocide, war or even "justified" violence is acceptable depending on context or point of view, I do believe in the importance of teaching multiple viewpoints on the same topic.
Second, Bush's War on Terror was in full swing at the time. On-campus military recruitment events were being held on a regular basis. Even though middle schoolers are too young to enlist, the war was still going on 5 years later. Primed for combat, some may have enlisted. I do not object to their decision, but as stated above I am a pacifist.
Third, the military recruiters on campus exposed students to a multi-million dollar video war game with extraordinary appeal to young men. The video game was only available on the U.S. Army website. This venture into popular culture and mass media made, in my view, the topic of war fair game for media literacy and analysis. "Grave of the Fireflies" fit the bill.
Fourth, students loved it. If we think certain topics are too tragic or violent for young people to handle, then why have them read the Diary of Anne Frank. The only difference is that Takahata's film comes from a non-U.S. perspective. Yet it can hardly be labeled pro-Japanese. It's a human film about humanity, inhumanity, and the innocent victims of war on both sides.
Finally, some teachers brought the film to the school principal's attention. The principal, who also happened to be an active duty officer in the army, watched the film to decide for himself. He approved it for the reasons stated above. He also commented that the human tragedy of war is too important to be left out of our teaching.
In the end, I always ask myself if our students are sheltered from violence, bloodshed and war in popular media. The answer is no. The statistics on how many shootings, on average, children see on American network TV by the age of 3 are staggering. Popular media rarely shows human suffering for more than a few seconds. But real tragedy does not go away in a few seconds, minutes, or even a lifetime. Children don't know this, but we do.
The film has strong aesthetic qualities, which makes it useful for art educators. Its perspective on war makes it useful for critical art educators. These were my reasons for using it with middle schoolers and for sharing it with you. I hope you will find it relevant and useful!
This beautiful little film shows the tragedy of all war. It is not only the oppressors and the enemy who suffer the consequences of a war. The weak and the innocent are always those who suffer most. There are many truths left out of history books that should be addressed, Pain is rarely one of the factual points included in the narrative of war. Following the capitulation of the Japanese military regime in September of 1945, it is documentable fact that the United States supplied a ration of 2000 calories per person to Japanese civilians and surviving military personnel on the islands of Japan (Daws). And of course there were those who were unable to access it! Although the bombing of Japanese cities and the associated horror is difficult to accept in hindsight, students of military history estimate that 465,000 Allied soldiers and civilians would have died of starvation in camps in Japan, Manchuko, China and Korea, had the Japanese not surrendered. It has also been estimated that at least one million Allies (Americans, British Commonwealth, and Soviets) would have died in the invasion of Japan, had it been necessary. Among them would have been both mine and my husband’s fathers. Their photographs tell stories I would rather not know, but we must know. My father in law was one of the liberators of Buchenwald. Of all the nations of the 20th century, it is a fact that the US has shown the most compassion and offered the most financial and humanitarian aid to not only victims of civil wars and wars between nations on other continents, but we have also offered billions of dollars in humanitarian aid to nations who made war against us: Japan, Germany, Italy, France, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Egypt, Afghanistan and on and on. These facts also should also be taught in a history class alongside of a movie like the Grave of the Fireflies.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the point of this film is the horror suffered by children in Japan, there are many other truths just as touching, which are also left out of history books. The same type of film could have been made about the innocent children of the Channel Islands who suffered death and starvation at the hands of the Germans. Their parents were arrested and sent to concentration camps in Germany never to return for harvesting vegetables and animals from their own gardens. Ships of children being sent to England to live out the war in safety were bombed and sunk before their parents’ eyes. Millions of Jewish children were murdered at the hands of the Germans, a fact our government chose to ignore for a very long time. War hurts people – it has unthinkable consequences….Students need to think about those consequences. We had better be communicating what the freedom guaranteed by our nation’s Constitution is worth, as well as the hard facts of war, because the time will come again when our soldiers and citizens must choose what principles they are willing to die to preserve and what consequences they are willing to live with.
Art Project
I found so much beauty in the symbolism in this film, the candy box, the water, the goldfish, the mother’s clothing, the father’s photograph, the doll
Symbolism – Identify examples of symbolism in the film. Create a work of art of your choice using an object as a symbol rich with meaning.
Create a work of art about an object that holds special meaning for you or your family.
I think the film would absolutely open students eyes to the suffering inflicted on civilian populations during war time. Since we are at war right now in Afghanistan, and de-facto in Pakistan, this is relevant to current events as well. Now I think showing this would produce some backlash as it can be interpreted as anti-American, but as long as you prefaced it with the point that war affects large reaches of a population and not just soldiers in the combat zone. Aesthetically I enjoyed the film, beautifully produced and animated. I wasn’t moved emotionally as much as I anticipated to be honest simply because it was animated. Even still the topics and issues one could bring up from showing this in class have broad implications.
ReplyDeleteI think I would show the film and ask students to come up with as many antagonists as they can. Who is responsible for the children’s plight, and how might it relate to that of civilians suffering in other parts of the world during WW2? Furthermore how might it relate to civilians suffering in areas stricken with political violence now? At what, if any point is war and violence justified? How can international politics affect these various factors?
As for an Art project I love Jennifer’s idea! I will give it a go, but if I was ever to show this I would in all likely hood use hers.
Examine how perspective can be manipulated to serve political justification in war time posters. Redesign vintage war posters from around the world and from different time periods to depict the true nature of war and its effect on innocent civilians. Possible as a print making project to explore lino-cuts and type/ font styles as a studio objective.
I just spend an hour replying to your posting, Daniel, and then suddenly it disappeared. So I'll get back to you tomorrow. My abundant apologies - argh!!!
DeleteDaniel, Here I am again, ready to give it another go. First of all, I'm pleased that you found the film meaningful and relevant to our practice as art educators who wish to promote critical thinking skills. Your art lesson ideas are very exciting. Given your interest in working with art museums, it's possible that you could propose to organize an exhibition of political posters/graphic arts with an educational component. For example, you could propose to lead a workshop for teachers who wish to bring this material into their classrooms. Many art museums do offer teacher workshops. The benefit for the museum is that the teachers bring their students in to view the exhibit. Children who are taught to appreciate museums are much, much more likely to continue visiting museums in adulthood!
DeleteAnother idea you could propose is an animated film series accompanied by teacher workshops. The Louise Underwood Center might be interested in hosting an event like this, as long as they understand that by "animated films" you don't mean Disney feature films or cartoons. There are plenty of animated films out there with meat on their bones. They are a great teaching resource for educators across the curriculum.
It's interesting to me that you asked the question of who is responsible for the children's plight. Students in one of my undergraduate classes watched the film and were quick to blame Seita for his sister's death. I reminded them that the film was based on a semi-autobiographical novel of a man who lost his own sister to malnutrition. This man lived his entire life, and went to his grave, burdened by what must have been an unbearable sense of guilt. But was he at fault? I suggested to my students that it might be too simple, too convenient, to blame the individual and think no more about it. Blaming the individual makes it easy to sidestep the messy complexities of social life and the social responsibilities we have to one another.
I strongly support your idea of connecting the film to contemporary conflicts in Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan. It might help students see the bigger picture if the events in the film are related to human tragedies occurring in present-day war zones. For example, the Pakistani girl, Malala Yousufzi, who was shot by Taliban forces for insisting on her right to attend school. Should we blame Malala's mother for allowing her daughter to walk to school when she knew the danger? If we blame the mother, are we dealing with problem of girls access to education in extremely conservative Islamic societies? If our students say "no," our next question might be, "okay, so what is the real problem? Malala put herself in harm's way for a greater cause. Can you think of someone else who did this? Would you put your life on the line so that others might have rights, privileges or benefits that you've been denied?"
This line of questioning helps students make connections between seemingly dissimilar events. Connection-making is an essential part of critical thinking. It is also an act of the imagination! As art teachers, we are in a great position to promote new ways of thinking and perceiving the world around us. The lesson ideas you came up with show that you understand this completely. Great response! Thanks Daniel!
Daniel - Carolyn has another great idea for a museum exhibit! ANd with Underwoods interest in film, that might really work there! I really like the idea of reading about Malala because it is current and many are surely aware of it. This is a good follow up to what we read about Muslim women.
DeleteWHen I was last in Munich, I went to the concentration camp outside the city - I think it is Bergen Belsen. There was an exhibit of anti Jewish propaganda posters from the 30's in Germany. They were stunning in more than one way! I just couldnt believe what I was reading! And yet the art and the type was so on target. It is a great study of the use of type style and color. I wonder if such posters exist from the integration era in the US - I never saw any but it would be interesting to find out. What I a finding in this class is a wealth of ideas to enrich my teaching!
I too thought of our conversation about Muslim women when the Malala news story emerged. What struck me was Malala's willingness to risk her life for her right, and the right of all conservative Islamic girls and women, to an education. This squares with what I'm learning about Islamic feminism with my doctoral student from Saudi Arabia. Girls and women in the Middle East are fighting back.
DeleteThe Auschwitz museum in Poland is also stunning. It was also so haunting that my traveling companion, who was Polish American, had vivid dreams about it for years after. Poland has worked hard to memorialize the victims of WWII but it's a very poor country. Germany has done a remarkable job coming to terms with its past. A friend of mine who is Jewish studied in Berlin for one year. She was hesitant about going there, but at the end of the year she made an interesting observation. The Germans, she said, have worked harder and progressed further in facing their history than we (the Americans) have in facing our legacy of slavery and the genocide of native peoples. I thought this was interesting.
Thanks for sharing!
Jennifer,
ReplyDeleteThanks for pointing out the film's skillful and poetic use of symbolism. Visual symbols are the language of art, so this aspect of the film would translate well into our art teaching. The film also has many frames of stunning visual beauty that would be useful for teaching artistic concepts such as contrast, perspective and line. I am thinking of two scenes when Sita gradually opens his hands and the light of the fireflies glows brilliantly in the dark. The ocean scene is very beautiful - you can probably think of many more.
You are absolutely correct about the hopeless situation at the end of the war. The Allies were forced into making a terrible decision - drop The Bomb or let the carnage continue on the Japanese mainland. The troops were exhausted. Yet Hirohito ordered every civilian man, woman and child to fight to the death if Allied soldiers invaded. These people were incredible fighters - you must give them credit for that. But the war had to end somehow. So it did, at great human cost for all.
I did not know about the children of the Channel islands. The Germans went mad with bloodlust, it seems. Only madness could account for such horrors.
The people who liberated the concentration camps like Buchenwald were absolutely stunned by what they saw. In Ken Burns' documentary, The War, it tells of Allied soldiers making the German villagers who either worked in their camps or looked the other way (despite the stench of death which, according to the documentary, could be smelled 10 miles away) bury the corpses of starved, tortured Jews, at least those found in the camps stacked up like cord wood.
The whole thing is almost inexplicable. However, it made people realize that barbarism could occur even in the "enlightened" West. This prompted researchers like Stanley Milgram at Harvard University to explore the psychology of obedience to authority. How far would humans go to appease perceived authorities such as military officers, doctors, scientists and police? Milgram's famous shock experiment prompted more studies exploring why, under certain circumstances, ordinary people inflict harm, torture and even death on vulnerable subjects. The Stanford Prison Experiment, conducted in 1971 by psychology professor Philip Zimbardo and funded by the US Office of Navel Research, involved students in a mock prison setting. The abuse became so severe that the 2-week project had to be shut down after only 6 days. Researchers look to this experiment to explain the behavior at Abu Graib.
Another interesting experiment was conducted by an Iowa schoolteacher in 1968, one day after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. It is the subject of a PBS documentary titled "A Class Divided," which can be viewed in its entirety at
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/divided/etc/view.html
I highly recommend it for anyone interested in education!
Thank you for your input, Jennifer. Great response to a rather difficult assignment.
Ana, Steven and Gail, where are you? We're missing your voices!
ReplyDeleteI've been following this blog from my phone (which doesn't let me publish anything) and I have to say I agree with what everyone has been talking about so far. I feel that it is very important to take all sides of the story into account. Learning about the good and bad of any event in history...whether it deals directly with the United States or not. I'm not really sure exactly what section of the book this was in, but I can recall a little something about Christopher Columbus. Our state/federal mandated books don't take into account the eradication of the Natives that already inhabited the land that he discovered. Lessons like these (to me) might aid the younger generation to not only think about themselves in certain situations, but to also consider how their decision will effect the outcome of another individual. As a high school teacher, I am finding myself teaching this lesson almost everyday!
ReplyDeleteAs far as incorporating this movie into an art lesson plan, I really love the idea of using it to help reinforce the idea of symbolism. I am a big fan of pushing my students to use symbolism (I guess because I'm a big Dali fan), but it can also be a very tough topic to cover. I find myself having a hard time transitioning from RED = LOVE/HATE HEART = LOVE to getting the students to feel comfortable enough to think out of the box. I've used lessons with music lyrics to stories that include a surplus of figurative language and symbolism...but let's face it: sometimes students respond better to visuals than literature.
Ana, You are so correct! As the scope of state-mandated curricula in Social Studies and History narrows around the old familiar cluster of topics and edges out inconvenient truths about race, class and gender disparities in America (and the great strides we have made toward achieving social justice), it's left to critical educators in the arts and other "elective" subjects to fill in the gap. I just don't understand why we (Americans) aren't more proud of our unceasing effort to right historical wrongs when this is the greatest strength of our nation! We can and we have amended the Constitution in an effort to right the most egregious wrongs such as slavery. This doesn't mean racism has been erased - it means we are a work in progress!
DeleteI just wish more art educators were willing (and able) to take on serious issues that for one reason or another, are avoided or hastily mentioned in their other classes. The arts have a long track record of addressing socially and politically loaded issues in this country and around the world. Yet most art educators (and, it seems, most educators) are so afraid of appearing "anti-American" that they can't even present an accurate picture of history, let alone contemporary life. Art teachers can address issues through the language of symbolism and by studying the work of artists in a manner that is faithful to the social context in which they were working. This may take research, but no one ever said art was an easy subject (if they did, they were wrong!). By pushing our students to think imaginatively, as you do, we can better prepare them to question authority and think critically about everything from their textbooks to video games.
Hi all! After watching the film I was somber all day. I grew up in a "ghetto" of eastern European Jewish immigrants in Baltimore, who had come to this country running from oppression and war. My great grandparents came to this country from Russia. They escaped from the "pagroms" which were the rounding up of jews for massacre by the czar when he was fighting the communists before WWI. Many in my community came to this country pre and post WWII, running from the death camps and massacres in Poland, Germany and Russsia. I was read the Anne Frank story before I could read. I was indoctrinated with the fear that this could happen to me, my friends, my loved ones, anyone could be a victim. It made me stronger, but a bit paranoid as well. My family blamed those who "stood by." Winston Churchill's quote is always fitting when it comes to war. He said, "All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to stand by and do nothing." (OK, that was more of a paraphrase.)
ReplyDeleteThe point of this rambling is that I feel that many in my generation have sheltered their children from the horrors of war. By doing this it has made many children feel that war is something that could never happen to them, thus separating them from the event. This separateness can lead to a kind of callousness, a lack of compassion, and a glorification of violence. I think that films like this, that expose kids to the realities of war, serve to develop those same kids into kinder, more compassionate souls, who hopefully will not stand by and allow history to repeat itself. I guess it's just wishful thinking on my part.
When I was a child, we did an art unit on the book "I Never Saw Another Firefly". Here's the blurb on the book. "Fifteen thousand children under the age of fifteen passed through the Terezin Concentration Camp. Fewer than 100 survived. In these poems and pictures drawn by the young inmates, we see the daily misery of these uprooted children, as well as their hopes and fears, their courage and optimism." I don't really remember the artwork we did....but I remember the book and the impact it had on me.
Truthfully, I have sheltered my son too much from this stuff. I think we need to watch this movie together.
Gail, Thank you for reminding us of Churchill's great words - words that continue to haunt us in this ever-violent world. This idea of good men standing by and doing nothing was at the heart of Milgram's experiment. But what your ancestors went through in Russia was no experiment. This is hard for people who have never experienced the trauma of war to understand. In fact, I think it's impossible to grasp, in the same way it's impossible for a white person to know what it's like to be black. But this doesn't mean we shouldn't try. It is difficult.
DeleteI am not a mother, so I haven't never had to face the decision of how much to tell my child. I know that when I first learned about the Holocaust of WWII, I lay in bed and stared at the ceiling for what seemed like weeks. I couldn't stop thinking about it - wondering how grown-ups could have created such a world and then go about their lives as if all was well. I couldn't stop thinking about the people who suffered and died because "good men stood by and did nothing." The whole thing was inconceivable. So - knowing what I went through - it would be a hard choice to make as a mother. Yet the kids are going to find out anyway. And then they're going to wonder, "Why didn't I know about this before?"
Thank you for sharing with us your history and the history of your community. This is what is called difficult knowledge. Some of us have the luxury of growing up without it, and others do not have a choice. I think children should know this as soon as possible, but then again - as I said - I'm not a mom.
First I know this is long overdue, and I have no excuse but that it has just slipped my mind. But it still requires and deserves an answer. I loved the film and just watched it again catching a little more the second time. I feel like this would be a great teaching tool for younger students. I feel like our society, at least for me, portrayed WWII with a particular bias. It seemed so simple. We (U.S.) fight, and we almost always win. Who ever said “history is written by victors” seems to be the idea there and with no other perspective. Books like ‘All Quiet on Western Front’ opened my mind a little to the horrors of war, but not WWII. The portrayal of what war looks like on the receiving end, and what toll it takes on the people of that country. In that sense I believe it would open students mind more by placing them in others shoes. Near similar age students wonder how would they live by themselves and be a caretaker for another? How do you survive in a situation?
ReplyDeleteOne theme throughout the film has to do with a tin of fruit candies. This little token, a symbol of hope, and happy memories is beautiful. When we have nothing the simplest pleasures in life are cherished. Or something that saves you when you have no energy an are starving. I felt so overwhelmed with what I take for granted when watching the movie. So in designing an art project, I want to consider this token. Create a token based off what is a joy in your life, or one thing that takes you to serene place where nothing bothers you. This could be candy, photo, smell, something imagined even. Also a container or tin that relates together with what you cherish. This I feel like this make students open up just a little and possibly allow more critical thinking about their own lives.