Letters from the Past: Sacrifice and Appreciating What You Have

Another international flight and then another movie. I enjoy the opportunity to watch non mainstream and foreign films on the plane. I was missing Japan so much and found this movie called “Till We Meet Again on Lily Hill”, a sad and historical fantasy drama that takes place in both modern day and 1945 Japan.

Yuri is an angry, moody 18 year old girl who feels down because her impoverished and hard working single mother is raising her after her father loses his life when he heroically saves a child. Yuri, feeling sad, angry and abandoned, hides in an old bunker and ends up in 1945 during the last days of World War 2. She ends up working in an army bistro & meets a group of young men called the “hungry bunch”, training to be special kamikaze pilots about to leave on their final mission to fly into enemy ships. A suicide mission. 

She gets to know the pilots, especially Akira who is around her own age. And as a modern person, she does not understand war, honor or the sacrifice these men are embarking on. The pilots, knowing it’s their last days, enjoy every moment of their time. Each meal they have. Eating sweet ice dessert. Or playing baseball together at the base. Sharing their dreams with each other. Sitting in a field full of lilies. Drinking sake and singing together on their last night. 

Yet they are eager to do what they think is their duty even if it’s their end. “To acquire a new life of eternal righteousness.” The immense waste and tragedy of it all especially when we know the outcome of the war (for non-history people, Japan loses very badly). 

Even when they talk about their colleagues, using euphemisms like there is “room for more new soldiers”, meaning pilots who have left on their kamikaze missions.. How the pilots talk about “protecting my wife and child with my own life.” Yuri is horrified and cannot fathom why they would do this when she hears this. 

The veneration of the villagers toward the special pilots is touching though. The kindness they show to the pilots. Especially as they believe they will become spirits. And the immense  loss of family members of every person from the war. The horror of American firebombing attacks on the village. 

That deep sadness of knowing it is a few days till the pilots set off on their last mission, especially as Yuri knows the war is almost over. Saying goodbye forever on their last dinner at the bistro before their mission the next morning. That was a solemn and heart wrenching scene. 

There was also one where the Japanese civilian crowds were sending them off waving flags at the airfield as the pilots flew off. (Something sadly my Israeli, American and Ukrainian friends are still experiencing). 

But this experience wakes her up to how horribly she treated her mom, she also discovers how sacrifice is heroism, finally appreciating what her father did. And she learns to be happy with what she has. Living in the present, finding joy and appreciation in small things. We can all learn from this hopefully without experiencing war. To go live a good life and make the most of your time. “All I want is your happiness. Live your life with all your heart. That is my only wish.”