Japanese nationalists have labelled Angelina Jolie a racist and there have been calls for her to be banned from the country for directing the movie "Unbroken".
The film, which is scheduled to be released in the United States on Christmas Day, is based on the nonfiction book by Laura Hillenbrand about the life of Olympic athlete Louis Zamperini, who died in July. "Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption" was published in 2010, with Japanese objections primarily focused on the experiences of Mr Zamperini at the hands of prison guards after his capture in the Pacific.
Eight of the 11 crew aboard The Green Hornet, a B-24 Liberator, were killed when the aircraft crashed on a search-and-rescue mission south of Hawaii in May 1943. Only Zamperini and the pilot, Russel Phillips, were alive when they were taken aboard a Japanese warship off the Marshall Islands 47 days later.
Zamperini was severely beaten and mistreated until the end of the war, in August 1945, with Mutsuhiro Watanabe – whom the POWs nicknamed "The Bird" – singling him out for particularly harsh treatment. Watanabe once forced the malnourished and weak Zamperini to hold a heavy length of wood over his head for 37 minutes before punching him in the stomach. Japan's nationalists are particularly incensed at descriptions in the book of POWs being "beaten, burned, stabbed or clubbed to death, shot, beheaded, killed during medical experiments or eaten alive in ritual acts of cannibalism".
"It's pure fabrication," Hiromichi Moteki, secretary general of the Society for the Dissemination of Historical Fact, a nationalist pressure group, told The Telegraph.
"If there is no verification of the things he said, then anyone can make such claims," he added. "This movie has no credibility and is immoral." In comments on social media, posters have accused director Angelina Jolie of "racial discrimination" and of defaming Japan, while others are calling for her to be denied entry to Japan in the future and for protests at cinemas that decide to show the film.
A petition on Change.org has attracted more than 8,000 signatures and demands that Ms Jolie – whom it describes as a "demon" – halt distribution of the film on the grounds that it is "contradictory to the facts." However, activists attempting to encourage Japan to face up to its brutal imperial past say criticising "Unbroken" is taking "denier-history to a new level".
"It is one thing to question the memories of illiterate women who were forced into sexual slavery for the Japanese military," said Mindy Kotler, director of Asia Policy Point. "It is quite another to question the memory of a white male Olympian who was a disciple of Billy Graham. "Further, there is plenty of documentation on the abuse and tortures inflicted upon POWs," she told The Telegraph. "There is also plenty of eyewitness and forensic evidence of Japanese cannibalism of prisoners as well of fellow soldiers. "With the majority of war crimes trials and much of the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal focused on atrocities against POWs, discrediting POW testimony is an important step toward discrediting the war crimes trials," she added. "This is the objective of it all.
"It is outrageous and reprehensible to deny what happened to Louis Zamperini. "It will not be something that the US government will be able to ignore," she added. "Both the San Francisco Peace Treaty, which is predicated on acceptance of the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, and the honour of American veterans need to be defended."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/11280115/Japans-nationalists-attack-Angelina-Jolie-war-film.html
I can't say I care much for the way she expresses herself here:
"It is one thing to question the memories of illiterate women who were forced into sexual slavery for the Japanese military," said Mindy Kotler, director of Asia Policy Point. "It is quite another to question the memory of a white male Olympian who was a disciple of Billy Graham. "Further, there is plenty of documentation on the abuse and tortures inflicted upon POWs," she told The Telegraph. "There is also plenty of eyewitness and forensic evidence of Japanese cannibalism of prisoners as well of fellow soldiers.
But I suppose you have to admit that in terms of real politik this time the Nats are picking a fight with absolutely the wrong people as well as being full of falsehood. Can you imagine revisionist German Nationalists carrying on like this over the many films made about the Nazi Germany's behaviour? If anyone is damaging Japan it is the people who will not stop denying Imperial Japan's actions - All that hard work done to make amends and move on is being undone. And the more denials there are, the more people look to the evidence and are reminded again and again of what was done by the Japanese Imperial Army.
Just say it was intensely regrettable, many people including Japanese people suffered terribly, we are truly very sorry it happened and it won't ever happen again with us as the cause. And leave it to slowly slip away from the public consciousness. If someone decides to make a film about it, then just nod and carry on. Do not attempt to censor it or, on false premises, attack the people who made it.
I was thinking it was a slight against the 2020s. Good work. 
That ain't no Mork's Mindy, nosiree.
). so the supervising japanese soldiers starved to death in the same way, too.