This World War II propaganda drama has many great things about it, but subtlety is not one of them. If I had a nickel for every time some Japanese villain said "please", I'd be rich. the fact that most of the Japanese characters are played by non-japanese or even other Asian actors is extremely noticable, as obvious as all of the English signs in Tokyo settings. This starts long before the attack on Pearl Harbor, focusing on an idealistic young Japanese man (the very American looking Tom Neal) who returns after graduating from Cornell University and quickly finds himself pulled into the war with China, completely changing his liberal, democratic ways of thinking as imperialistic Japan prepares to strike American soil. This focuses on his growing love for the gehtle Margo, a young Japanese girl who longs to go to America. There's also American foreign correspondent Donald Douglas who is in love with reporter Gloria Holden, taken prisoner upon the strike on Pearl Harbor, and American boxer Robert Ryan who goes toe to toe with judp expert Mike Mazurki, one of the silliest castings in history, but fortunately, the very American Mazurki never gets to speak.
While some of this is very shocking (abuses of children, off screen rapes, insinuations of murderous torture), it's often overdone as an attack on the lifestyle of the imperialistic Japanese government and military, although there are subtle portrayals of regular Japanese citizens who are as much victims of the ruthlessness as the foreigners are. This is technically an excellent film, with superb art direction, a great musical score and outstanding photography. But the script is often high-handed and one-dimensional, and there really seems to be no conclusion presented since the conflict was still going on at the time. The final speech by a Japanese imperialist about to commit hari carey seems to be a desperate measure to bring this to a conclusion, but seemingly all it accomplishes is to create anger in a way that doesn't aid in what the war was being fought about.
While some of this is very shocking (abuses of children, off screen rapes, insinuations of murderous torture), it's often overdone as an attack on the lifestyle of the imperialistic Japanese government and military, although there are subtle portrayals of regular Japanese citizens who are as much victims of the ruthlessness as the foreigners are. This is technically an excellent film, with superb art direction, a great musical score and outstanding photography. But the script is often high-handed and one-dimensional, and there really seems to be no conclusion presented since the conflict was still going on at the time. The final speech by a Japanese imperialist about to commit hari carey seems to be a desperate measure to bring this to a conclusion, but seemingly all it accomplishes is to create anger in a way that doesn't aid in what the war was being fought about.