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INTEREST: Hayao Miyazaki Acknowledges Japan's Wartime Conduct at Magsaysay Awards

Whatever you think of Hayao Miyazaki,his condemnation of Japan's World War II conduct is a very gutsy move. From what I've heard,it's kinda frowned upon there to do that. What happened during that time is a great stain on that country,one that will probably never really go away until there is an honest reckoning with what happened during that time there. The atrocities of the Japanese military during World War II is well-known in this country,while very little about it is known in Japan proper.
If any sort of honest discussion about Japan's cruelty during World War II is to come there,then Miyazaki should be thanked for at least attempting to start some sort of acknowledgement of what happened then,like what happened in Germany under the Nazis. It's a small beginning,but one nonetheless.

I hope his health doesn't get in the way of his next project.

Miyazaki has said similar things before (like during the heated debate around changing the constitution a decade ago) and on a smaller scale as early as last century, but stating it so directly and especially when speaking to a country that actually was occupied by Japan during the war carries a different kind of weight.

This is the side of Miyazaki that, sadly, will probably be largely forgotten when he eventually passes away. I have no doubt that he'll be remembered by most as a talented director and animation storyteller, and that his critics will remember him as a grumpy, cynical old man who criticized his own son, but the Miyazaki in the between - the intelligent, contemplative, self-contradictory, complex human being, whose writing is full of melancholy but also cautious hope - is the most interesting one to me.