#映画が好き　7月4日に生まれて　(英語版) (English version)

Born on the Fourth of July — Patriotism, Memory, and the Wounds We Carry

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I am not particularly fond of war films.
They often depict violence, manipulation, and the exploitation of innocence.

Yet I was drawn to Born on the Fourth of July.
Perhaps because I was born in July,
and I knew July 4th is America’s Independence Day.

Ron Kovic begins as an ordinary boy, inspired by President Kennedy’s call to serve the nation.
Driven by patriotism, he joins the Marines despite his family’s concerns.

In Vietnam, he accidentally kills civilians and a fellow soldier.
Soon after, he is shot and suffers a spinal injury, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down.

Back home, he finds not honor, but neglect and cold stares.
The country he believed in feels distant.

Gradually, he begins to speak out against the war.
Not out of hatred for his country,
but out of the need to testify to what he witnessed.

The film always reminds me of my uncle in Japan,
who survived an air raid during World War II and suffered severe facial burns.
He later became a passionate anti-war voice.

When I developed facial paralysis years later,
he wrote to me:
“Even for a man, facial burns were painful. For you, as a woman, it must be even harder.”

War leaves marks on bodies,
but also on memory.

As the generation who experienced war disappears,
we are left with questions.

What is patriotism?
When does love for one’s country become a tool?
And how do we carry wounds without letting them define us?

This film reminds me that true courage may lie not in fighting,
but in speaking.

#BornOnTheFourthOfJuly
#FilmReview
#WarAndMemory
#Patriotism
#AntiWar
#FamilyHistory
#Peace
#CinemaReflection