sorensen uses as an example the scene early in the film in which noriko and her father's assistant hattori are bicycling towards the beach. they pass a diamond-shaped coca-cola sign and another sign, in english, warning that the weight capacity of a bridge over which they are riding is 30 tons: quite irrelevant information for this young couple, but perfectly appropriate for american military vehicles that might pass along that road. (neither the coke sign nor the road warning are referred to in the script approved by the censors.) sorensen argues that these objects are "obvious reference(s) to the presence of the occupying army."