Personal Experience I first discovered this beautiful melody while watching Christian Bale salute a squadron of Japanese Kamikaze pilots of the Zero-sen in Spielberg's 1987 cinematic masterpiece, Empire of the Sun . Spielberg adapted this WWII story with such beauty and sadness, it was incomparable to anything else I have ever seen. Bale's performance brought me to tears. I had never witnessed anyone his age give a truer performance. For me, Bale's singing of this song was the central moment of this entire 2.5 hour, coming-of-age film. It perfectly captured the juxtaposition of boyhood innocence, and the horrors of war depicted throughout the flim. In a prison camp—infused with the hate of the Allies for their captors, sedated by Bales's youthful view of humanity, and countered by the extreme honor felt by the Japanese Zeros—Bale's character, Jim, exhibited great reverence and empathy for his fellow human beings, despite them being his enemies. After view...
Self growth is tender; it's holy ground. There's no higher investment.