Deeper Hayao Miyazaki interview about The wind rises [eng sub]

I shall be brief. I like to draw as a hobby a comic in a magazine. The men look like pigs and the women are normal. It's a bizarre comic. At that moment, a producer who read it suggested to me to make an animation film about it. At that moment I didn't accept. How should I say it... I hesitated a lot, and in the end I decided to try it. That comic wasn't meant for children. Therefore I was reluctant about the idea to make a film which wouldn't really be for children.

Jiro Horikoshi and Tatsuo Hori lived in the thirties and are my preferred Japanese of this era. They had talent, were brave, and had a good state of mind. For that I admire them.

Well, their dreams. For the reason that at the end of the war, at 42 years old, Jiro saw his career as an engineer end suddenly. And Tatsuo Hori didn't live much beyond 48. At age 48, he dies of tuberculosis. Many people saw their lives fall to pieces. Despite the setback in their lives, I like them a lot.

He must have known that his plane would be a weapon of war but hadn't imagined such devastating consequences. Actually, because of electricity, one needs nuclear energy. The consequences caused by the exploitation of these power plants don't always evoke the interest of the people. Even those who are interested continue to use its electricity. Jiro was in that situation. It's easy to accuse people decades after the facts. But I think that to deny their acts, including their mistakes and the way in which they acted despite themselves, risks to glance over something important. He had been a pilot of L'Aéropostale named Mermoz, well known in France. He was reported missing after a mission in the Atlantic. One can ask what is the value of risking one's life to transport trivial receipts or bills? Saint-Exupéry despised those who posed that question. He saw another meaning in the flights of L'Aéropostale than that of only transporting mail. Saint-Exupéry died in 1944 but not in a mission for L'Aéropostale. He had been killed in flight, like some of his friends. All these stories evoke an interest for me in the thirties.

I don't have the age anymore to make a feature-length film! I have other projects. I would want to do some other projects. Do comics as a hobby! Make short films for the Ghibli Museum. Design for temporary expositions of our museum. And I would want to have time to do long walks.

No, nothing changed. I started doing comics, which means a lot of work. I'm embarrassed. After this interview, I have to go upstairs to correct the drawings of yesterday. I don't see the end of it. Now since I am retired, I am free of the constraints of profitability. I can stay on a drawing as much as I like. I'm finally there. I cannot count upon that to live. I have to use the advantage of this freedom to create. So I shall suffer a lot! Jiro and Tatsuo Hori lived in an era where nobody foresaw the future. I think that we must live proud like they did. In a poem of Paul Valéry, there is the verse: 'The wind is rising!... We must try to live!' These words are always valuable.