Empire of the Sun

Many people take pride in their country and heritage. In the movie Empire of the Sun it is hard for the viewer to tell who and what that main character Jim is loyal to. Throughout the movie Jim shows pride in being British, being an American adoptee and the Japanese winning the war against Chine the country he lives in.
Jim is a young boy that is raised in British China. All the houses in his neighborhood are British. All the luxuries of Europe are in his small town in China. Even though he was born and raised in China he had the upbringing of a well to do British Family. Jim doesn’t really have anything to do with the Chinese culture. So it would be reasonable that he would take pride in being British.
As the movie progresses Jim meets an American man named Basie. They are both thrown into a Japanese prison camp and Jim stays with the British and Basie stays with the Americans. Jim likes his American friends and he doesn’t want to live with the British anymore. So he does some dangerous things to get the respect of the Americans. He takes pride in his accomplishments and is proud that the Americans actually like him.
As surprising as it would seem, Jim even befriends and supports the Japanese, the same people that took everything that he had and separated him from his family. Hi sings a fair well song to the Kamikaze pilot s and cheers on their fighter planes when they fly by. It even seems like he wouldn’t mind if they won the war.
So who is Jim loyal to? He finds it hard to let go of his British life, he would rather live with the Americans than the British, and he supports the Japanese in their fight against the British and Americans. I think that Jim isn’t loyal to just the British or the Americans, or the Japanese. Jim is loyal to the people that surround him; the people that he lives with, the people that reach out to him, the people that he relates to are the people that he supports.