My absurd experiences in North America over the years

After resolving issues related to actors, script, and funding, Gibson no longer refused to film Hacksaw Ridge, and the project quickly progressed.

MGM is working on three projects simultaneously: two S+ level and one A+ level, which is equivalent to the company operating at full capacity.

Li Fu gave them the green light in terms of funding, allowing the production team and director to shoot with confidence. If the budget was insufficient, he would continue to inject funds.

The entire company seemed to have returned to its peak, full of energy.

On the first weekend of April, the documentary "The Painful Memories of the Pacific," produced by the Tribune, premiered on West Coast Television Network.

The documentary was produced as originally planned, in two parts, each 90 minutes long.

The film opens with a Hawaiian hospital filled with burned soldiers after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the camera lingering on the young faces wrapped in bandages.

Then came the battlefields of Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Peleliu, and other places—place names that most American viewers had only seen once in a history textbook—which were recreated frame by frame on film as bloodshed, mud, and death.

Some authentic videos and historical materials, rarely seen on television screens, are breathtakingly real.

The premiere didn't get very high ratings, with about 320 million viewers. However, the topic quickly gained traction after the show was rebroadcast on other television stations under the Tribune Group in the following week.

On Twitter, discussion began to climb slowly from late Sunday night, peaking on Monday morning.

The hashtag #TheTragicMemoriesOfThePacificRace has climbed into the top 20 of the North American trending list. Although it's not at the top, it's enough to attract the attention of major media outlets on a weekday without any major breaking news.

"My grandfather fought in Okinawa. He never told me the details, but now I think I know why. It was just too brutal."

This is a tweet that has been retweeted over 20,000 times.

"The school's history classes only told us that the Pacific War was fierce, but they never said that the coral reefs of Peleliu were red. What you see in those photos is not coral at all; it's the blood of our ancestors."

Another user's tweet also received a large number of retweets.

"I used to think Japan was a friendly country, but after watching this film, I don't know what to think anymore."

This tweet sparked a heated debate, with some criticizing the need to hate modern people because of history, while others replied that we should respect the present-day Japan.

But after watching this film, many people said they began to understand that the father and grandfather could never forgive the fascists.

Many people who have received a happy public education are unaware that the United States and Japan had such a brutal war in history.

History texts are dry and are not valued in a country with a history of only two hundred years.

But film and television are vibrant and can authentically present history, so their audience is wider and the visual impact is more direct.

Social media platforms and media dissemination have further amplified this effect, and people's tendency to follow the crowd in daily life has caused this public opinion to continue to heat up.

The New York Times also joined this movement, with a columnist in its culture section publishing a commentary on Tuesday titled "The Forgotten Battlefield, the Silent Truth."

The article does not directly criticize the Japanese government, but it carefully states: "The Pacific War has long been neglected in the shadow of the European theater. The value of this documentary lies in its reminder that what happened in that sea should also be considered part of the great victory of World War II."

The Washington Post took a more conservative approach, stating in its Thursday editorial: "At a time when the U.S.-Japan alliance is facing challenges, a re-examination of history needs to be done with caution. The truth should not be forgotten, but it should not be used as a tool against foreign policy."

Meanwhile, Japan's counterattack from the right flank came faster than expected.

On Wednesday, an organization called the Pacific Commission on Historical Truth published a full-page article in the Wall Street Journal titled "One-sided accounts cannot constitute history."

GG accused Tribune of selectively presenting historical facts in its documentary, ignoring casualties on both sides of the war, and stated that true peace is built on mutual understanding, not unilateral condemnation.

Yes, you read that right. In this day and age, if you can't bribe an editor to publish your opinion, you can do so through Google Ads (GG). It's just that GG fees are higher, with this particular GG costing hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Some members of Congress, speaking on condition of anonymity, expressed the view that the media should provide balanced reporting.

The implication is simply that the documentary was too direct.

More importantly, during a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, someone brought up the topic of this documentary.

Virginia Democratic Senator Jim Webber told the media, "Japan is our most important Asian ally, and at a time of heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula, a documentary that incites anti-Japanese sentiment is not in our national interest."

He later added to his statement, saying that the public should remember the soldiers who sacrificed their lives in the Pacific War, but we need to be wary of any remarks that could undermine the stability of the US-Japan alliance.

The media immediately interpreted this statement as "the Senate's veiled criticism of the documentary."

When Li Fu saw this report, he was in his MGM office reviewing documents. He closed the webpage, did not reply to any messages, and did not arrange any public relations response.

He had already planned that he would not respond if any legislator intervened.

The questioning by lawmakers is, to some extent, a form of propaganda.

But not responding doesn't mean doing nothing.

He instructed the Tribune to adjust the frequency of rebroadcasts of "The Tragic Memories of the Pacific" in the following week's programming schedule, reducing the number of times it was broadcast.

This is a strategic retreat to advance, avoiding the enemy's sharpest attack.

Since public opinion has already taken hold, rebroadcasting it wouldn't make much difference.

Over the weekend, the winds began to shift on Twitter.

One widely circulated tweet read: "The senator said this documentary is detrimental to the US-Japan alliance. I want to ask, when did the truth become detrimental to the alliance? Are veterans who fought and bled in battle detrimental to the US-Japan alliance?"

A veterans' organization also posted a rebuttal, saying, "Where were our senators when our fathers and uncles were bleeding and dying in the Pacific? Now they're standing up and spouting nice words."

Public opinion has gradually shifted from what the documentary is about to why some people don't want you to see it.

And that's exactly what Li Fu wanted.

He sat in his study, scrolling through the discussions on Twitter, clearly realizing he had won the first round.

However, the right-wing activists' remarks and the statements made by lawmakers may just be probing attacks.

The real large-scale counterattack may be yet to come.

But he's not in a hurry. Both funds are operating, the first batch of veterans receiving assistance will speak out, and the professors and scholars eager to get research funding will also present their academic achievements.

Public opinion needs time to ferment, and public sentiment needs time to accumulate. What he needs to do now is not to rush in and engage in a war of words.

Instead, let the bullets fly a little longer.

It's time for the book "The Nanjing Massacre" to be published and sold through the Forum Press.