Day 3: Murder or Mercy?(Kiran)

The Railway Man is a subversion of the events we learn in the History textbook. The events about how the Japanese treated the British soldiers so cruelly in WW2 right here in this continent. The events that transpired with brutal and fatal consequences on the British personnels. One could expect the British personnel to live on for revenge and never forgive the Japanese for the monstrosities that happened to them. Yet, it subverts the expectations of the audience when Eric Lomax readily forgives Nagase after all these years, despite the fact that he could have just stabbed him and gave him the same pain he once got 40 years back during the war. It was huge shock to the audience, but yet, a life lesson worth noting. Forgiveness does not equate to forgotten. For all they have been through, they will definitely not forget the torture and the pain and the suffering they have gone through, and I do not expect them to. But forgiveness really means the courage to face the trauma or the person that caused the trauma and being able to reconcile with that person even after everything that has happened. The degree of intensity of the torture shown in this film was ridiculously high, therefore the forgiveness that comes with it was quite a shock and an unexpected turn to the movie. To be able to continue and be friends with the person who made you wish you were dead is something that requires patience and mercy. Eric Lomax decided to follow his heart to forgive rather than his mind to kill, even when he was living in an endless cycle of darkness, trauma and loss of hope 40 years after the war. That bring me to the question: Murder or Mercy? Whatever the Japanese did in fighting the war with their enemies is something that every country will do to save their own country and protect the sanctity of its name. To them, whatever they did was justifies. Nagase thought that too. He thought he was just doing his job as a translater for the Kempetai, but what really happened was that he was the translator of death for most of the officials. To protect their honor, they went beyond the lines of morality and did many immoral and monstrous things to their enemies, even though at the end of the day, they were all humans.Hence, their attempt to save their country and the expanse of human lives, is something that should not be given glory and honoured for. However, it takes a lot of courage for Nagase to say I’m sorry to Lomax, knowing very well it was not in his nature to ‘surrender’ to the opposing party. Nagase chose the way of morality, instead of the way of justice and glory for Japan, because he knew this justice and glory came at a cost and so much guilt engulfed him, to the point he started heavily breathing and couldnt look into the eye of Lomax when he recognised him, the same state Lomax was in 40 years ago. He chose the moral way and realised that sometimes you just got to go against patriotism to be moral. Nagase understood this 40 years later, when the damage was done, but he was given a chance to resolve everything when Lomax was alive. If Lomax was Finlay, he would have gone with him because of the amount of guilt he had bottled inside him for 40 over years. His courage is commendable after 40 years for owning up, and hence, he was worthy of Lomax’s forgiveness, despite whatever that happened. Hatred is not always the way to get justice and peace, sometimes you got to understand to be compassionate to the one who caused you trauma and is sincerely apologising for it.