See the movie trailer: Click here Please find our petition here
Update UNBROKEN Petition: We are far from broken! (scrol naar beneden voor de Nederlandse versie)
Thank you! With 1000+ signatures you have given us a mandate, so where do we go from here?
We will continue to collect signatures as long as Angelina Jolie’s movie is shown in theaters around the world and present these to the Japanese embassy as long as the movie is not shown in Japanese theaters. This petition hopes to trigger a larger debate in which Japan takes more responsibility in acknowledging its war record and sharing it with the next generations.
We want to encourage every one to organize meetups in their locations to go and see the movie with family and friends. At the Holland Festival in Los Angeles we may revisit the movie and facilitate discussions with the community about the movie and the war.
The only way we can make sure that we are being heard and the suffering in WWII does not get written off as a fabrication, is by documenting our stories. The Indo Project has a Digital Archive where stories can be stored and preserved at no cost. You can submit them here: stories@theindoproject.org
We are committed to speaking up for millions of victims who died during WWII in Asia every time Japan or others belittle, trivialize or attempt to revise the facts. We can no longer be indifferent to this issue. Silence may be golden but not when it boils down to accepting a form of historical revisionism that in the 69th year of the ending of the war, might become the only version of WWII in Japan.
Our goal is to hit 2,000 signatures before Christmas. Help us make it happen!
Inez Hollander Lake, Ph.D.
On behalf of The Indo Project
Please sign our petition here
UNBROKEN-petitie update
Dank u wel! Met meer dan 1000 handtekeningen hebben we een missie te volbrengen, dus wat kunt u van ons verwachten?
We blijven handtekeningen verzamelen zolang de film van Angelina Jolie te zien is in bioscopen in de hele wereld en deze aan de Japanse ambassade te presenteren zolang Unbroken niet wordt aangeboden in de Japanse bioscopen. De bedoeling van deze petitie is om een groter debat aan te zwengelen waarin Japan meer verantwoordelijkheid op zich neemt in het erkennen van Japans oorlogsverleden en dat ook met de volgende generatie deelt.
We willen iedereen aanmoedigen lokale meetups te organiseren om de film te gaan zien met familie en vrienden. Op het Holland Festival in Los Angeles kunnen we terugkomen op de film en discussies binnen de gemeenschap over de film en de oorlog faciliteren.
De enige manier om er zeker van te zijn dat we gehoord worden en dat het lijden tijdens de oorlog niet wordt afgedaan als een leugen is om onze verhalen te vast te leggen. The Indo Project heeft een digitaal archief waar verhalen (gratis) worden opgeslagen en bewaard. U kunt deze verhalen hier indienen: stories@theindoproject.org.
Iedere keer dat Japan of anderen de feiten bagatelliseren of verdraaien, beloven we een stem te zijn voor de miljoenen mensen die tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog in Azië om het leven zijn gekomen. We kunnen niet langer onverschillig zijn ten aanzien van deze kwestie. Zwijgen is goud maar niet als het neerkomt op het accepteren van een geschiedenisvervalsing die in het 69e jaar van het einde van de oorlog nu de enige officiële versie van de Tweede Wereldoorlog in Japan aan het worden is.
Ons doel is om 2000 handtekeningen te bereiken voor de kerst. Kunt u ons daarmee helpen?
Inez Hollander Lake, Ph.D.
namens The Indo Project
Vindt u onze petitie hier
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Here is our open letter to filmmaker Angelina Jolie in which we, The Indo Project (www.theindoproject.org) initiate a counter petition as an answer to the petition started in Japan, to ban Angelina Jolie’s movie UNBROKEN. We encourage people to sign to stop the continued effort of Japan to deny and censor its war record and crimes.
Open Letter to Angelina Jolie,
Prior to the release of your movie Unbroken which depicts, among other things, the circumstances of a Japanese POW camp, the news broke that your movie might be banned from being distributed and screened in Japan. Japanese nationalists have already collected 8,000 signatures in a petition to ban the movie, and Hiromichi Moteki of the Society for the Dissemination of Historical Fact has questioned the movie’s credibility and called the film immoral, racist and demonic.
We at The Indo Project (www.theindoproject.org) question Mr. Moteki’s sources and hope he’s aware of the list of the many war crimes the Japanese committed in the period 1937-1945. Has he ever read up on the Nanking Massacre and other massacres, the building of the Burma railway line or the Bataan Death March? Official Japanese war crimes include torture (including water boarding), use of chemical weapons, forced prostitution (comfort women) and forced labor (romusha). WWII statistics of casualties are tricky and controversial but if we have to mention one number, Mr Moteki can check the US Navy Department Library for himself. While the total number of American service men (93,941) in German POW camps experienced a 1% death rate, US service men (27,465) interned in Japan and Southeast Asia, had a 38-40% mortality rate.
We at The Indo Project all had relatives in Japanese internment camps and life was exceedingly harsh: starvation, excruciatingly long train rides in box cars without water or food, withholding of food and medication in the camps, torture, death marches— we have heard it all in our families. A denial of the war crimes represented in the movie is a denial of the atrocities perpetrated against our family members who rest in war cemeteries and mass graves all over Indonesia, killed, directly or indirectly, by the Japanese army.
The war in Asia has been underrepresented in movies and books, and sadly, generations of Japanese schoolchildren still may not know what their grandfathers did in the war as Japan’s role in WWII has been denied and pushed under the rug for generations. This denial has now been compounded by name calling, which, in our view, is compelling testimony of how nervous some Japanese factions are about being found out in a movie that shows the excessive cruelty of some Japanese officers. By banning the movie in Japan, the Japanese miss yet another opportunity of educating their children about the Japanese war record.
We applaud you, Mrs. Jolie, for pointing your cameras at the war experience in Asia. By doing so, you honor our grandparents and fathers and mothers who perished in Japanese internment camps and prisons. Your hero in the movie, Louis Zamperini, survived to tell his tale to Laura Hillenbrand and you, and in the telling of his story, it has become our story too.
We want to endorse your movie by starting a counter petition, signed by the survivors (POW’s and civilian internees of the Japanese camps) descendants and other family members or friends of those who could not sign for themselves because they died under the Japanese regime. We petition Japan to stop all forms of censorship and show the movie, and we commit to supporting the movie by taking family and friends to see it together.
Please sign our petition here
Inez Hollander Lake, Ph.D.
on behalf of The Indo Project
inezhollander@theindoproject.
EXPOSURE IN DUTCH NEWSPAPERS:
I’m an American of Japanese descent with close ties to my heritage and it’s incredibly important to me that this film is released in Japan. I want Japan to be the best country it can be and I know it’s capable of that. But I also know it won’t be able to do that until it stops this censorship. The war crimes of WWII were horrific and it’s important that they are acknowledged and taught so that history will never repeat itself and to maintain strong relations between Japan and other nations. I wouldn’t care if this was the worst film of 2014. It needs to be released in Japan.
I strongly and diplomatically support lifting the ban of Unbroken. It is a historical film that traces one man’s history. The movie shows how Louise Zamperini–set about making amends on a chapter of his life–demonstrates forgiveness. Having seen it with 2 others of Japanese descent, who were also uplifted by the movie, I hope the Japanese will let go of past hurts and allow this legendary movie to play in Japan. It doesn’t speak badly of Japan; it shares a man’s journey and shows the bond between the Americans and Japanese. This leads the way to peace and understanding.
I hope you will consider the valuable, inspirational, and peaceful message in Unbroken. Please allow peace and understanding lead the way to build bridges and heal past wounds–as Unbroken sets out to do. On a personal note, I am aware that Angelina Jolie bears no ill feelings towards the Japanese, and wishes for a peaceful resolution to this current situation with compassion and peace, for all.
With Love and Peace,
Deanna E. Miron
Toronto, Canada
Willem ten Wolde,
Thank you for honoring your mother’s memory by signing the petition. The world needs to know the suffering and courage of our family members during WWII. You have helped make the petition stronger by signing! Please pass it on so others can add their voice like you have done.
By the way, I have signed on behalf of my father and uncles who were imprisoned and killed by the Japanese during WWII,
Thank you!
I do it for my mam who took care of me and my brother all those years in many Japanese prison camps, my dad in Birma with my uncle, and my best friend who lost his father (torture!) and two teen age sisters. And over 26 direct family members and many many close friends and their parents. At least one female cousin that I know sexually abused.
It’s ugly, ugly. They are cowards. The Japanese children and grand children are not allowed what their parents and grand parent and the holy emperor did, because they then cannot pray for those “heros” anymore .
Already over 500 signatures in less than 2 days! It feels so good to have my vote count! Being the voice for my papa, uncle, both opas, my mom, aunts, both omas fills me with a sense of purpose. And yet, it humbles me too because it is such a small thing I do while they suffered so tremendously.
Ingrid (Elmensdorp) McCleary