:25:00
Even after her death,
the sister retains her spiritual predominance.
:25:04
At dawn the Americans withdrew.
:25:06
Fighting went on for over a month before the island surrendered,
and toppled into the modern world.
:25:11
Twenty-seven years of American occupation,
the re-establishment of a controversial Japanese sovereignty:
:25:16
two miles from the bowling alleys and the gas stations
the noro continues her dialogue with the gods.
:25:21
When she is gone the dialogue will end.
:25:25
Brothers will no longer know that their dead sister
is watching over them.
:26:36
When filming this ceremony I knew I was present
at the end of something.
:26:39
Magical cultures that disappear leave traces
to those who succeed them.
:26:44
This one will leave none;
the break in history has been too violent.
:26:48
I touched that break at the summit of the hill,
as I had touched it at the edge of the ditch
:26:55
where two hundred girls had used grenades to commit suicide in 1945
rather than fall alive into the hands of the Americans.