Letters from Iwo Jima

I watched a movie "Letters from Iwo Jima" by Clint Eastwood.
Many of you know that the movie is famous for describing the Pacific War from Japanese side.
However, it doesn't mean that the movie was made by the Japanese point of view of the war.

I mean,
if the movie is made by those both, the movie would be different.

In this movie, main characters are all Japanese, such as Ken Watanabe, Kazunari Ninomiya, and Tsuyoshi Ihara. maybe you don't know those actors....(some might know only Ken Watanabe who played for the Last Samurai with Tom Cruise)
Japanese soldiers fought for their country and family.
In many scenes, they remember words of their mother and the time with their family.
Therefore, Americans are enemies for them.

However, one of commanders saved an American soldier's live.
Also, Saigo was saved his live by American soldiers, though they might have wanted to use him as a troop in this case.
Anyways, they were both saved their lives.

I think......
the filmmaker didn't want to decide which is bad or right in this movie.
This is really a hard topic in making a film because they both have an enemy. US is an big enemy for Japan and also Japan is an enemy for US.
This is written from Japanese side, and I haven't watched a movie "Flags of Our Fathers" yet, but I think those two movies which are opposed to the other want us to see the war from the both side and have the idea for that.

You know, I'm Japanese.
My grandfather fought for the war in the time.
He was, I think, 18 years old, and he worked for navy.
He said he lost some of his friends in the war. So, I'm not totally a ignorant to the war.
But, I don't justify the war. I try to be neutral in this matter.
Therefore, I don't want you to misunderstand the meaning of what I wrote above.
I wrote that the filmmaker didn't want to decide which is bad or right in this movie.
I mean the filmmaker wouldn't conclude which is totally bad in this fight.

After the war is over, we are cooled down and can think which was bad in the war.
But, this is too broad. We can only think about the war as a country (countries) v.s. a country (countries.)
In the war, they all were full of stress with thinking when they would be killed.
Also, they fought not for themselves, such as the Emperor, country, and family.
We can blame countries which led to the wrong way, but we can never blame people who worked there.
I think this movie all emphasized on this part: soldiers who worked.


Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and the Pacific War began since that.
This is true and nobody cannot deny this.
However, no one could stop the war after it started.
The Japanese government manipulated people and they fought for the country.
At the time, they believed they are right and they had to fight for the Emperor, the country, and their family, otherwise Americans would invade them.
So, they had to fight.

A guy, Saigo, was not loyal as much as other Japanese soldiers. He had to follow the rules, so he played to be loyal when he faces commanders.
Saigo and Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe) showed us especially an important thing.

They are skeptical to the Japanese discipline of the war.
Saigo hopes to come back home with alive more than others.
Kuribayashi thinks it's wasteful to die by suicide, so he didn't admit his members to kill themselves.
At this time, many people killed themselves when they realized that they would be killed by Americans. They thought it's shameful to be killed by Americans.
Moreover, they gave three cheers every time for the Emperor before they kill themselves.

Now, people say the North Korean government is gone crazy, and they can't understand their behavior.
The government controls people and all information.
However, I think we should admit we had the same period which was only 65 years ago in Japan.
Japan is the second richest country by National GDP in the world now, and everybody has right to express their idea.
Only 65 years ago, however, we had none of them.
So the society rapidly changed.
The important thing is we should not think that we are different from people in countries having strict discipline that we can't even understand, such as that of North Korea and even China.

We should thank what we have achieved, and should think seriously about the problems of other countries.
We don't need to change the system of the countries which have strong rules in society. It needs a lot of efforts and also it's impossible only for us to change the country.
But, we can think back about the past and think seriously about the matter.
Once we acts like that, we won't say it's not our problem.

Feel the messages from cities

I explain the meaning of the title.

First, my boss at work told me that. He read a book and he was interested in a word in the book, and he explained that to me.

It's very interesting even for me.

Take an example of US.
If you are ready to sacrifice your life and want to make money, you should go to New York, not Boston or Silicon Valley.
If you are a high school student and are to start choosing a college, you should go to Boston.
If you want to doing something interesting, you should live in Silicon Valley. Instead, you can expect to get high salary.
You shouldn't live in Boston with thinking to make a lot of money.
You shouldn't live in New York with thinking to invent something new or interesting.

I think it's exactly true.
We need to choose places which match our lifestyle.
We should change the place when our priorities change.

What is the best place for you?

iPod classic

I bought iPod classic!!
I spent a part of my salary I got in the internship.

I came back home yesterday.
I have spent so much time with my iPod and computer yesterday and today.

I bought iPod classic and I will need huge space in my computer.
So, it was a good time to clear my computer.
I'm going to put a lot of movies on iTunes, so I moved all music data to my external storage.
And, I changed the main storage from C Drive to D Drive.
Also, I deleted some data.

Now, my computer works faster!

The Result

I took an English test the last month, and I got the result just a couple of minutes ago.
My score was 870 out of 990.

Honestly, I'm relieved when I saw my test score.
It is because I don't need to take the test again for a while, maybe while I'm a college student.
Usually, almost all college students take the test for job hunting in Japan.
Of course, I need to turn in the test score when I apply for companies.
I decided to move to and work in Silicon Valley by the age of 30.
To fulfill my goal, I need to find a place where I can have a lot of foreign experience, and I hope the company provides me the opportunities to work aboard or connect with foreign countries.
With this test score, I can prove my ability now. It will work good for me.

Actually, it was my second time to take the test.
The first one was when I was a freshman at college, so almost 3 years ago.
I don't remember the exact score, but I think it was 505 or 510.
So, I could raise nearly 400 points in three years.
Actually, I could improve my English a lot when I was in US.
So, that means I could pull my score up a lot within a year.
I spent a great year with my friends at William and Mary, and also I could improve my English a lot.
So, I'm glad that I could do both in US.

a little bit sick...

As the title tells, I'm sick a little bit.
I felt I have a cold, so I saw a doctor today.
A doctor gave me some medicines.

Now, I feel a lot better compared to yesterday.
I was not good shape especially yesterday.
I had a discussion event in my company and we stayed at a hotel on Thursday and Friday.
Honestly, I didn't feel good even in the Thursday morning.
Then, it bacame much worse on Friday.

I attended all discussion things for two days.
I was in the meetings but I couldn't do almost anything on Friday because of my bad health.

Actually, I had a company's meeting today, but I came back my home the last night and didn't go there today.

I'm feeling much better now as I wrote above.


By the way, I signed up for Twitter.
I wanted to know how it works and if it's fun enough.
I left some messages on Twitter.
However, I don't know whether I keep using.
I don't know how I enjoy with it so far.

my status truely got back to a student

Do you understand the meaning of the title?
Maybe, only I know that.

That means college students finished the spring semester by July and they are now in summer break.
That's why I wrote that I got back to a college student.
Acutally, I am a junior and have been a college student.
However, I went to US and Indonesia (only a few days.. ), and came back to Japan in the late May.
The school seasons are different between US and Japan.
In US, there are fall semester and spring semester.
Fall semester starts in the late August, and is over by mid December. Then spring semester begins from mid-January.
By contrast, we have spring semester and fall semester in this order in Japan.
The spring semester starts first in April and it's almost for 4 months. Next, fall semester starts in October.

I came back to Japan almost two months ago.
Also, I didn't need to attend spring semester. I can start going to school again in October.
So, I have had 4 months summer break.
Therefore, I was not a college student for the previous two months.
My official status is still not a college student, but I can confidently say that I'm a college student from today.


Anyway, I'm working an internship.
I have been a head intern at the company, but I thought to quit the company two weeks ago.
However, I didn't quit and decided to work until the end of September.
I now think it was a good choice.

Now, I act with president of my company sometimes.
I went to one of the most important custmores for our companies now with president.
The president could truely trust me, and I had a presentation in front fo them. It was a success, and the company started to think seriously to buy our product after that.
I had a big pleasure yesterday.
I had a lot of responsibilities and pressure, but I think I could make it.
Now, the work is getting more interesting.
I'm working a lot, but now I can find a satisfaction and pleasure from the work.
I'm going to focus on the work until the school starts on October first.

The Internship

As you know, I started an internship almost two weeks ago.
I'm doing pretty well so far.

I'm basically a sales stuff, but I have a lot of other tasks at the same time.
Actually, I cannot write down all the things that I'm doing because I have so many tasks and projects.

I'm working for a company selling a groupware which enables companies to work efficiently.
People use a groupware for making a schedule, putting files and reports, showing files to other employees, and other purposes.
Our product is SaaS type. Have you heard this before?
Generally, there are two types in groupware.
Briefly, that is a groupware needs server or not.
A package type needs a server in their company, so it costs a lot.
But, ours don't needs a server in company at all. All information are sent on the internet, not intranet.
So, we own servers and provide space for each company. Customers can use it on the internet without paying for servers in their companies.
That is SaaS type.
Did you understand?

However, the major trend is still using a package type though it costs a lot.
Of course, there seem to be problems in security in SaaS type.
But, I can say it's less dangerous to trust a company which specialize in internet business and put them in its strage than to keep all information in their companies without having a technical stuff.
So, I believe many companies are choosing a very inefficient way.


By the way, about my work.
As I said, I'm doing pretty well so far.
Other workers trust my ability and give me a lot of projects.
Honestly, I don't know if it is good or not... haha because I have to work a lot...
Also, I'm teaching other interns who have worked longer than me. I join the ordition process for choosing new interns with a leader of our project from next time... It's very weird that an internship, I, choose new intern.


Anyway, I drunk with my boss the last night and came back my home this morning.
Now, I'm relaxing in my home.
I'm going to spend time with watching movies from now.