author!non's notes
anonymous
August 13 2011, 09:24:05 UTC
- Greece and Japan first established diplomatic relations in 1899, and since then they have enjoyed a close and beneficial relationship, the only hiccup being during WWII.
- Driven by his envy of Hitler's conquests and feeling the need to re-assert Italy's military prowess, Mussolini launched an attack on Greece in October 1940. The Hellenic Army fought back however, and Italy was forced to retreat, and eventually needed Germany to step in to help invade Greece.
- "Freedom or death" or "Elef̱thería í̱ thánatos" is Greece's motto. To Mussolini's ultimatum demanding the occupation of Greek territory, Greece's reply was "Ochi", a firm "No" in Greek.
- "...does Japan himself know?" Japan has always had self-identity issues, from the time of Meiji Restoration and throughout the period of their modernisation up to the two world wars. After the atomic bombings, the Greek embassy donated a peace bell to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. The bell is inscribed in Greek (along with Japanese and Sanskrit) with the quote "Know thyself."
- Dr Takashi Nagai and his wife Midori are real people who lived in Nagasaki during WWII. The scene is based off his accounts of the bombing. He survived the blast and although he suffered from leukemia due to radiation exposure, he continued to care for his patients. He wrote books on spiritual healing and forgiveness, and gives his on real-life account of the Nagasaki bombing in his book The Bells of Nagasaki, which is where the title of this fill comes from. He is affectionately known by many to as the "saint of Urakami".
- This was written fairly late into the night, so if it seems rather like jumbled up thoughts and incoherent, I apologize. I'm not quite sure I managed to articulate what I felt exactly while writing, and I feel I could have done better but didn't. Well, I tried my best, and hope it's not complete fail... And writing this style makes my brain hurt OTL
Re: author!non's notes
anonymous
August 13 2011, 15:49:46 UTC
While I did spot some typos here and there, this was overall very poetic and moving. I loved the unique style you used in this one; it was dreamy and made it feel as if they were truly living in each of these moments, one at a time, if that makes sense. And I think you were right about how smut would have broken the flow of the narrative, so don't sweat it; you were at least able to do a nice exploration of Greece and Japan's relationship over the years.
Plus, I didn't know about Greece's gift of a peace bell (awww) or Dr. Takashi Nagai, so I learned some new things from this fill. :3
Re: author!non's notes
anonymous
August 14 2011, 03:01:43 UTC
It wasn't complete fail, don't worry! I do wish that you could have inserted an event somewhere in between 1945 and 2009 to give us more of an idea of how Japan and Greece reconciled after the war, but this is fairly good for something you wrote fairly late into the night, as I can attest to as a fellow writer who tends to be whacked upside the head with plot ideas late in the night.
author!non here
anonymous
August 14 2011, 05:38:50 UTC
Aha, yes I did kinda thought, rather belatedly, that it needed another scene (between 1945 and 2009) and that would probably make it a little more complete in that sense. I will probably do some editing to this and add a little more... if I ever de-anon this, lol
I glad though that people didn't think it was terribly fail. Thank you! :)
Re: author!non's notes
anonymous
August 14 2011, 06:37:45 UTC
This was really pretty, anon ♥ I really liked the prose, insight to their characters and little aspects about their culture I'd never learned before. Nice ♥
- Driven by his envy of Hitler's conquests and feeling the need to re-assert Italy's military prowess, Mussolini launched an attack on Greece in October 1940. The Hellenic Army fought back however, and Italy was forced to retreat, and eventually needed Germany to step in to help invade Greece.
- "Freedom or death" or "Elef̱thería í̱ thánatos" is Greece's motto. To Mussolini's ultimatum demanding the occupation of Greek territory, Greece's reply was "Ochi", a firm "No" in Greek.
- "...does Japan himself know?" Japan has always had self-identity issues, from the time of Meiji Restoration and throughout the period of their modernisation up to the two world wars. After the atomic bombings, the Greek embassy donated a peace bell to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. The bell is inscribed in Greek (along with Japanese and Sanskrit) with the quote "Know thyself."
- Dr Takashi Nagai and his wife Midori are real people who lived in Nagasaki during WWII. The scene is based off his accounts of the bombing. He survived the blast and although he suffered from leukemia due to radiation exposure, he continued to care for his patients. He wrote books on spiritual healing and forgiveness, and gives his on real-life account of the Nagasaki bombing in his book The Bells of Nagasaki, which is where the title of this fill comes from. He is affectionately known by many to as the "saint of Urakami".
- Also, some music to go with the fill: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWm8-jlddaw
- This was written fairly late into the night, so if it seems rather like jumbled up thoughts and incoherent, I apologize. I'm not quite sure I managed to articulate what I felt exactly while writing, and I feel I could have done better but didn't. Well, I tried my best, and hope it's not complete fail... And writing this style makes my brain hurt OTL
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Plus, I didn't know about Greece's gift of a peace bell (awww) or Dr. Takashi Nagai, so I learned some new things from this fill. :3
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I glad though that people didn't think it was terribly fail. Thank you! :)
...reCaptcha says "romp THEIR"
...ok smut, I geddit captcha...
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