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 7R23B00

WONG# FUGENE F R A N K L I N
ON V I S U A L WEDI A R a C 1 5 m! ASI ANS IN THE
A ME R I C A N MOT I ON P I C T U R E S .

UNIVERSITY UF DENVER# pH,D,# 1^78

University
Microfilms
International 300 n zieb road, ann arbor, mi ^sioe

© 1978

T H E ARN O P R E S S , IN C.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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 ON VISUAL MEDIA RACISM: ASIANS IN THE AMERICAN MOTION PICTURES

A Dissertation

Presented to

The Faculty of the Graduate School of International Studies

University of Denver

In Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree

Doctor of Philosophy

by

Eugene Franklin Wong

December, 1977

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 THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

of

THE UNIVERSITY OF DENVER

Upon the recommendation of the professor in charge

of the dissertation and of the Dean of the GRADUATE
SCHOOL OF INTERNATIONAL STUDIES Lhis dissertation
is hereby accepted in partial fulfillment of the
requirements of the degree of

Doctor of Philosophy

V(U' /If
Professor!in charge of dissertation

Dean of t International Studies

M arch 31, 1978

Date

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................... xxix

LIST OF TABLES ..................................... XXX

CHAPTER I : INTRODUCTION .......................... 1

CHAPTER II: THE EARLY YEARS: ASIANS IN THE AMERICAN

FILMS PRIOR TO WORLD WAR I I ............. 56

CHAPTER III: THE MATURE YEARS: ASIANS IN THE

AMERICAN FILMS FROM THE SECOND WORLD
WAR TO VIETNAM.......................... 120

CHAPTER IV: TABULATION OF THE SAMPLE AMERICAN

MOTION PICTURES.......................... 188

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION: INTERVIEWS WITH ASIAN

AMERICAN ACTORS AND ACTRESSES............ 247

APPENDICES .......................................... 277

BIBLIOGRAPHY .... 298

ABSTRACT ............................. 321

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 PREFACE

The portrayal of Asians in the American feature films

reflects and influences white American perceptions of Asians and

Asian Americans. Although the film industry has treated of Asians

from a predominantly fictional perspective, much of the material

produced by the industry has had a non-fictional base. That base,

given America's white racist tradition, has been situated on a

plane of abnormal and unequal race relations between Asians and

whites. A considerable part of white America's non-cinematic

relations with Asians has been the product of racist myth and

assumption. In that respect, the American motion picture in­

dustry's portrayal of Asians has by way of the larger society’s

input and its own creative output been reflective of and influ­

ential on the white racist phenomenon, while the presence and

persistence of that white racism against Asians has for the

most part been ignored.

While the film industry has, as a component of the m o d ­

ern communications network, added another image-making dimension

to white perceptions of Asians, the underpinnings of America's

anti-Asiatic racism can be found prior to the development of the

motion picture medium. As an anchor point, the belief that the

Chinese, having been the first of the Asian groups to emigrate

to America, were welcomed and their right to emigrate honored'1'

^Reverend Ira M. Condit, D.D., The Chinaman as We See

Him (New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1900), p. 17.

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 is especially misleading. Prior to the emigration of the Chinese

to the United States, white Americans of nativist and immigrant

backgrounds, and of both political parties, had already developed

2
and refxned the ideology of white racism. Almost immediately,

particularly on the West Coast, ^he Chinese became the latest,

albeit not the last, in a line of victimized minorities, some

of whom were guick to vent their own frustrations on the newest

3
and the lowest m the racial pecking order. Although the only

competitive resource the Chinese immigrants had was the strength

of their labor, it was that labor which both briefly forestalled

the onset of racial discrimination and served as the prime factor

leading to their racial persecution.

When the Chinese arrived, California was in need of

labor. The state's labor gap was filled by the Chinese. In

4
many areas, Chinese labor was seen as a "veritable god-send"

by whites. However, as the demand for labor diminished, the

attitude of the whites toward the Chinese soured considerably.

2
Alexander Saxton, The Indispensable Enemy, Labor and
the Anti-Chinese Movement in California (California: University
of California Press, 1971), pp. 19-45.
^Carlo M. DeFerrari makes note of the violence directed
against the Chinese by Anglo-Saxons as well as by both Hispanic
Americans and Native Americans. He presents the hopelessness of
the Chinese and the origin of the expression "Chinaman's Chance.’
See: "Tuolumne County" section in The Book Club of California
1972 Keepsake Series, Cathay in Eldorado: The Chinese in Calif­
ornia (San Francisco: Clifford Burke-Cranium Press, 1972), pp.
1- 2 .
4
Elmer Clarence Sandmeyer, The Anti-Chinese Movement
in California (Illinois: University of Illinois Press, Urb a n a ,
1939), p. 14.
ii

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 Chinese labor competition was concentrated in the mining in­

dustry. It became both more difficult and contradictory for

the white workingmen to adhere to the idea that the Chinese

were racial inferiors. By 1852, only four years after they

had begun to emigrate to the United States, the Chinese had

assumed a disproportionate share of gold mining in the state.

As a significant indication to that effect, the Foreign M i n ­

e r s ’ License Tax, initiated before 1850 in an effort to dis­

courage competition from foreign miners, was paid almost en­

tirely by the Chinese miners by 18 53.5

In a move to halt Chinese competition, Governor John

Bigler, of California, made the first official, authoritative

and public pronouncement on assumed Chinese evils in 1852.6

Bigler's accusations represented the wishes of an increasing

number of whites in California. In the process, the Governor

laid the foundations of imagery and exclusion. He argued that

Mary Roberts Collidge reports that the Chinese paid

nearly five million dollars in Miners’ taxes, and chat after
they had been forced cut of the industry, many white communities
acknowledged their debt to the Chinese trade and labor. See:
Chinese Immigration (New York: Arno Press and the New York
Tim e s , 1969), p. 36.
^’’The Chinese Question," Special Message of the Gov­
ernor, and, in Reply Thereto, Two Letters of the Chinamen; and
a Memorial of the Citizens of S^n Francisco. Executive Depart­
ment, Sacramento City, April 23, 1852: Printed at the Office
of the San Francisco Herald, Montgomery Street, 1852, pp. 1-5.
Although Governor Bigle r ’s pronoucements came shortly before
an election, in which he was in fact rc-elected, there is "no
tenable evidence... to show whether or not his immigration
stand influenced his victory." See: Rodman W. Paul, "The
Origins of the Chinese Issue in California," The Mississippi
Valley Historical Revie w , Volume XXV, No. 2, September, 1938,
pp. 190-191.
iii

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 the Chinese were only interested in gold, that they had no

desire to become citizens of the United States, that they

would not renounce their allegiance to a foreign government,

and that they were a class of persons known as coolies who

were in the United States under illegal coolie contracts. The

Chinese did not allow the Governor's remarks to go unchallenged.

They went systematically about the task of publishing and arguing

against the Governor's pronouncements, particularly on the main

articles of class and coolie contracts.^ Efforts at clarifi­

cation of terminology were made in order to discourage the

use of the term coolie.^ All things considered, the Chinese

presented a courageous albeit as later history was to prove

an essentially ineffective stand on their own behalf.

Ibid., "Letter of the Chinamen to His Excellency,

Governor Bigler," San Francisco, April 29, 1852. Here the
Chinese argued, pp. 5-6: "'Cooly' is not a Chinese word: it
has been imported into China from foreign parts, as it has
been into this country. What its original signification
was, we do not know; but with us it means a common laborer,
and nothing more. We have never known it used among us as a
designation of class, such as you have in view — persons
bound to labor under contracts which they can be forcibly
compelled to comply with.'" Coolidge also states that "nobody
has ever produced in evidence such a labor contract in the
State." See: Chinese Immigration, o p . cit., p. 48.
^Lai Chun-chuen, "Remarks of the Chinese Merchants
of San Francisco upon Governor Bigl e r ’s Message, and Some
Common Objections, with Some Explanations of the Character
of the Chinese Companies and the Laboring Class in California,"
San Francisco: Printed at the Office of the "Oriental," by
Whitton, Towne and Co., No. 151 Clay Street, below Montgomery,
1855, p. 15: "The British traders in Canton attached Indian
appellations to many articles of solely Chinese produce and
use. The Hindustani word 'coo-lie' was by them inflicted
upon the Chinese, in whose language it has no equivalent,
and who have no caste or class whom it represents."
iv

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 The continued diversification of the Chinese labor

force and majority reaction to the Chinese culturally and

racially created long-lasting antagonisms. As the mines

played out during the mid-Sixties, the Chinese ex-miners

gradually moved into railroad work. The Seventies' dep­

ression reinforced American labor's growing hatred of the

Chinese. To summarize Chinese diversity, Henryk Sienkiewicz,

the Polish novelist and author of Quo Vadis? wrote of the

Chinese: "'Let u s ...look at the kind of work the Chinese

perform in California,"’ after which he mentioned the single

9
word "'Everything.'" While many whites openly accused the

Chinese of "'monopolizing'" certain industries, it was the

expanding anti-Chinese movement itself which by forcing mass

discharges of Chinese workers accounted for the increase in

Chinese-owned businesses. The whites could not or would not

compete with the Chinese because of low wages and low profit

margins, much to the chagrin of white labor and others. Thus

...the Chinese served as a convenient personification

for the obscure forces which caused the business and
employment situation to be different from expectation.
The Chinese became a suitable target in lieu of im­
personal forces of depression. Furthermore, there was
a cultural and racial solidarity among the whxL.es.10

Q
"Eldorado: The Chinese m California, o p . c i t ., p. 1.
10Ping Chiu, Chinese Labor in California, 1850-1880: An
Economic Study (Ann Arbor, Michigan: Edwards Brothers, Inc.,
1963), p. 138.
v

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 More directly important to the study is the imagery,

which was later to be in variant form extended to other Asians,

associated with the early Chinese in the minds of many white

Americans. Culturally biased perceptions of the Chinese as

uniquely non-Western in dress, language, religion, customs,

and eating habits determined that the Chinese were inferior.11

White cultural racism was buttressed by a general ignorance of

the Chinese. Consequently, from olden times to the recent

past, the Chinese were largely viewed as human oddities in

the minds of whites.12 Racist fantasies, many of which were

encapsulated in mystery,1" were affixed to the Chinese im­

11Saxton, op. c i t ., p. 19.

12
Rodman W. Paul, "The Origins of the Chinese Issue
in California," op. c i t ., p. 184. Also, Hubert Howe Bancroft
reflected: "At first it was regarded as a novelty, and most
amusing to the curious Californians, the coming of the Asiatic."
"...the fresh-imported and cleanly scraped Chinaman, with his
haIf-shaven head, his long braided queue, his oblique almond
eyes, his catgut voice, his plain blue frock:, or, if a man of
consequence, arrayed in a flashy silk tunic...." "They stand
before me now, a mixture of the child, the slave, and the
sphinx." See: Bancroft's Essays and Miscellany, "Mongolianism
in America." (San Francisco: The History Company Publishers,
1890), pp. 309-310 and 315-320. Mark Twain, too, noted the
plight of the Chinese as the victims of cultural isolation and
racism: "As I passed along by one of those monster American
tea stores in New York, I found a Chinaman sitting before it
acting in the capacity of a sign. Everybody that passed by
gave him a steady stare as long as their heads would twist
over their shoulders without dislocating their necks, and a
group had stopped to stare deliberately." "I pitied the
friendless Mongol. I wondered what was passing behind his
sad face, and what distant scene his vacant eye was dreaming
of.” See: Sketches New and O l d , "John Chinaman in New York"
(Harper and Brothers Publishers, 1904), pp. 304-305.
13
Eldorado: The Chinese m California, 4th Keepsake
Series, op. cit., "San Francisco" by Gunther Barth, p. 3.

vi

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 migrants. The assumed unassimilability of the Chinese was att­

ributed to their racial and cultural characteristics, with scant

attention paid to the fact that few whites encouraged them to

assimilate, while many actively discouraged their assimilation

by legal and illegal means. It was likewise held that by virtue

of an otherwise inexplicable bio-cultural peculiarity the Chinese

could work, eat and live while taking significantly lower wages

than the whites, thereby degrading white labor and engaging in

unfair competition. One of the more damaging assumptions was

14
that which argued that the Chinese were completely immoral.

Whites generally accepted the idea, for instance, that Chinese

women in the United States were "of the vilest and most degraded

class of abandoned women."1^ The strumpets, it was believed,

were so debased as to offer their services, at discounted rates,

to white schoolboys, imparting in the process a foreign and a

presumably exotic strain of venereal disease. The Chinese women

in the United States were considered to be a danger to both the

health and morals of America. Yet the fact was lost that such

women were often in America "at the instigation, and for the

gratification of white m e n ."

14
Paul M. DeFalla, "Lantern m the Western Sky," The
Historical Society of Southern California Quarterly, Volume
XLI I , No. 1, October, 1960, pp. 63-64.
15 ■ •
Chinese Immigration. The Social, Moral and Political
Effect of Chinese Immigration. Policy and Means of Exclusion;
Memorial of the Senate of California to the Congress of the
United States, and an Address to the People of the United States,
Sacramento, State Printing Office, 1877, p. 5.
~^To His Excellency U.S. Grant, President of the United
States. A Memorial from Representative Chinamen in America (n.d.),
UCLA Special Collections, pp. 6-7.
vii

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 Opium smoking, and to a less pernicious extent gambling,

was considered a vice among the majority of Chinese males. That

some of the Chinese smoked opium was undeniably accurate. Also

true was the unpublished fact that opium-smokers among the Chin­

ese were a decided minority. Even the more culturally biased

critics of the Chinese, notably Hubert Howe Bancroft, were in

moments of comparison far more concerned with and offended by

the demoralizing effects of alcohol addiction among white men.

Nevertheless, the American public mind was invariably turned

toward the visions of malodorous opium dens, often times hidden

underground, and stupified Chinese catatonic-like in their every

aspect. In the process of creating the opium-man image of the

Chinese, only infrequently, and not among the general public,

was sight caught of the fact that it was the English who, having

imported the drug from India, "implanted the curse of opium

smoking”17 in China. With some irony, fewer Americans realized

that the incident in Boston Harbor, in 1773, involved the same

East India Company which then was carrying nothing more harmful

to America than Chinese tea. Fewer yet, even among those white

Americans who were critical of England's opium policy in China,

knew that American citizens, too, were part of the illicit opium

trade1^ in China, despite repeated Chinese government protest.

17Alexander Mcneod, Pigtails and Gold Dust (Caldwell,

Idaho: The Caxton Printers, Ltd., 1947), p. 154.
^ T y l e r Dennett, Americans in Eastern Asia (New York:
Barnes and Noble, Inc., 1922), p. 158.

viii

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 Socially conscious whites noted the frequency with

which the Chinese became, as did most minorities, easy tar-

19
gets of violence. Yet the Chinese were believed to be of

a peculiar race which, in the midst of violence, seldom def-

20
ended themselves. Thus whether attacked by "the sober and

thoughtful laboring man" or by the "hoodlums and ne'er-do-

21 .
wells," it was generally assumed that the Chinese response

would be one of passivi-cy and cowardice. As much out of

sympathy as concern, some whites were not averse to expressing

their shock and disgust that the Government of the United States
22
failed to protect the Chinese. Likewise, such contrived

articles of harassment as the Cue Cutting and Cubic Air Ordin-

23 . . .
ances were not only classified as racist but also protested by

S. Wells Williams, L.L.D., Chinese Immigration, A

Paper Read before the Social Science Association at Saratoga,
September 10, 1879 (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1879),
p. 33.
20
On the matter of self-defense, Arnold Genthe said:
"A Chinese pursued by a mob never fights back. He lies down
and takes his beating with his lips closed. If he is able to
walk when it is done, he moves away with a fine, gentlemanly
scorn for his tormentors." see: Old Chinatown (New York: Mitchell
Kennedy, 1908), p. 113. On the other hand, L . D . Farrar, in
Eldorado: The Chinese in California, the 6th Keepsake Series,
"Central Pacific," 0 £. c i t ., p. 2, says: "An unfeeling white
foreman could have his hands more than full with a Chinese
gang that got fed up with real or imagined unfair treatment.
On occasion he would end up being assaulted, something dem­
anding instant dismissal of the not so docile 'sons of heaven.'"
21 . . .
Charles Caldwell Dobie, San Francisco's Chinatown
(New York: D. Appleton-Century Company, 1936), p. 106.
22
B.S. Brooks, Counsellor at Law, Brief of the Leg­
islation and Adjudication Touching the Chinese Question, R e ­
ferred to the Joint Commission of Both Houses of Congress (San
Francisco: Women's Co-operative Printing Union, 1877), p, 9.
23
The Friends of International Right and Justice, "How
the U.S. Treaty with China is Observed in California — for
Consideration of the American People and Government," San
Francisco: September 13, 1877, pp. 4-6.
ix

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 whites and Chinese alike. Ultimately, however, the ideology

of white racism relegated economic competition and cultural

24
differences secondary to, although heavy reinforcements of,

race. Race and racism became the main issues.25 In consolid­

ating the forces of Chinese exclusion, the precedent of which

would become applicable to all Asians, the question was not

one of cultural-economic misunderstandings, but rather the

"desirability of having Chinese at all"28 in America.

The enfeebled Chinese government in its efforts to

protect its nationals in the United States, and to solicit

fair treatment for those Chinese not citizens of China, was

most outstandingly ineffective. By 1882, the first Exclusion

Law, the first discriminatory legislation on immigration

27
passed by the American Congress, closed America's doors on

the Chinese.28 Twenty-six years later one Chinese remarked

24
Memorial of the Legislature of the State of Cal­
ifornia to Congress, on The Dangers of Chinese Immigration
(San Francisco: Benj. P. Avery, State Printer, 1862), p. 5.
25 . .
Victor G. and Brett deBary Nee, Longtime Californ'
(New York: Pantheon Books, a Division of Random House, 1973),
p. 32. also see: Norris Hundley, Jr. (ed.), The Asian American:
The Historical Experience for Shih-Shan H. Ts'ai's "Chinese Im­
migration through Communist Chinese Eyes: An Introduction to
the Historiography," (Santa Barbara, California: CLIO Books,
Pacific Historical Review Series, 1976), pp. 55-64, for the
Communist Chinese reduction of race struggle to class struggle
analysis.
28James D. Phelan, Mayor of San Francisco, "Why the
Chinese Should be Excluded," North American R e v i e w , Volume
173, July-Decemher, 1901, p. 674.
27 .
Roger Daniels and Spencer C. 0 1 m , Jr., Racism In
California (New York: The MacMillan Company, 1972), p. 55.
28Joseph C.G. Kennedy, "The Chinaman as a Laborer,"
Washington, D.C., February 27, 1882. Kennedy laments the
exclusion of the Chinese and tells of their worth to America,
x

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 that the United States'

Exclusion La- has been carried out with such vigor

that it has almost become an extermination law. The
Chinese population in the United States has been
reduced from 105,000 in 1880 to 65,000 at the pre-
29
sent time.

The precedent had been set not only by the state of Cali­

fornia, but also more importantly, against the wishes of

30
the President, by the United States Congress. White racism

toward the Chinese would continue to color American feelings,

with slight variations in imagery, toward all Asians in the

. . 31
future. Moralizing had become obsolete, the die cast.

Ng Poon Chew (ed. Chung Sai Yat Po), The Treatment

of the Exempt Classes of Chinese in the United States: A State­
ment from the Chinese in America (San Francisco, California,
1908), p. 4.
^ S e e : "Message from the President of the United States,
returning the bill (S. 71) entitled 'An act to execute certain
treaty stipulations relating to Chinese,' with his objections
thereto," 47th Congress, 1st Session, Senate, Ex. Doc., No. 148.
31
Hwang Chang L i n g ’s "Why Should the Chinese Go? A
Pertinent Inquiry from a Mandarin High in Authority," (San
Francisco: Bruce's Booh and Job Printing House, 1878) was per­
haps the most succinct and aggressive defense of the Chinese in
America, as well as a brief of Sino-American and Sino-European
relations. In it he said, among other things: "You desire to
possess every conceivable privilege of trade, residence, rel­
igion, etc., for Americans in China, whilst you would deny all
of them to Chinamen in America." "Let it be fully understood
at the outset that we Chinese have never sought to obtain leave
for our people to live in your countries, except as a counter­
poise to a similar permission first sought on your part. Nearly
two thousand years before a Chinaman ever settled in Europe,
Europeans settled in China." "It was you always that sought
permission to dwell with us, whilst we never came to you." "Thus
it appears that the United States maintains precisely the same
position in respect to China that the other European nations do."
"They (the Chinese) did not seek Western intercourse; they did
not ask for the Burlingame treaty; but now that both have been
thrust upon them they are determined that both should be res­
pected," pp. 7-14.
xi

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 The United States1 decision to use immigration exclusion as

the final solution to the Chinese problem, and for the Asian

problem as a whole, pulled into sharp focus the disruptive

impact the United States and the European powers had wrought

on East Asia. Whether China, Japan, or Korea, the East Asian

nations’ policies on emigration and international intercourse

would not by traditional practice have given rise to problems

32
of immigration for any of the Western societies. However,

once the East Asian nations had been penetrated by the white

nations of the West, Japan alone was able to respond to the

intrusion with appreciated strength, resolve and haste.

32 . . . .
Prior to 1868, there was perhaps minimal emigration
among the Japanese, and then almost solely to China and Korea.
With rare exceptions: "It is certain...that under the rule of
Tokugawa dynasty, emigration from Japan was prohibited under
pain of death...." see: Yamato Ichihashi, Japanese Immigration,
Its Status in California (San Francisco: The Japanese Association
of America, 1913), p. 3. In "Chinese Secret Societies in America:
A Historical Survey," Asian Profile, Volume 1, No. 1, August,
1971, Yung-Deh Richard Chu says: "According to the basic Con-
fucian ethical principle— filial piety, no Chinese should settle
in a foreign land and neglect his duty to serve living parents
and deceased ancestors at home. Politically, anyone going
abroad without official approval was considered a possible
associate of piratical groups and would be subject to severe
legal punishment." The Koreans were perhaps the least ac­
cessible to contact or emigration. Not until as late as 1882
did Korea sign a treaty with a Western nation. Ironically, the
first treaty Korea did sign was with the United States, in the
same year that country passed the exclusion law. Prior to the
Korean-American treaty of 1882, the Koreans resisted contact
with Western nations. In graphic terms, for instance, in 1866
the American schooner the General Sherman, secretly on a mis­
sion "to plunder the tombs at Ping-yang,""was grounded on the
Taedong River by the Koreans and the crew and their captain
murdered." see: F .A . McKenzie, The Tragedy of Korea (London:
Hodder and Stoughton, MCMVII), p. 6 and Soo Bock Choi, "Korea's
Response to America and France in the Decade of the Taewonqun,
1864-1873," in Yung-Hwan Jo (ed.), K orea’s Response to the
West (Kalamazoo, Michigan, 1971), p. VII*116 respectively,
xii

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 Unlike either China or Korea, Japan adjusted compar­

atively smoothly and efficiently to the Western impact. While

the reasons for Japan's adjustment have yet to be explained

33
fully, the insular and military nature of Japanese society

played an important role. Also the fear of being plundered,

as had China, enhanced a desire to modernize the Japanese

military. Without the heavy burden of Confucianism, the

social and political thought of Japan were more flexible

than those of China and Korea. Furthermore, the Japanese

practice of borrowing from other people's cultures, esp-

34
ecially extensively from the Chinese and Koreans, became

a thoroughly expeditious national trait at a time when the

transition from a traditional to a modern society was es­

sential to Japan's relations with the West. The Japanese

themselves saw their ability to adopt and modify foreign

cultural elements to fit Japan's needs as a virtue. Thus

they were not averse to stating: "Let us be more frank and

. . 35
admit that the Japanese are imitators."

33John K. Fairbank, The United States and China (New

York: The Viking Press, 1962), p. 10.
34 . . . . .
In "The Weight of Tradition, Preliminary Observations
on Korea's Intellectual Response," Korea's Response to the W e s t ,
o p . cit., pp. I*10-I*-ll, Hugh D. Walker says: "It is common
error (even amongst Asian specialists) to overlook the fact
that, for many centuries, Korea was culturally and techno­
logically superior to Japan, despite the common knowledge that
Japan received from Korea: Chinese writing, Buddhism, printing,
and artistic influences ranging from the Kudara Kannon to Korean
potters taken captive to Japan, 1592-98." So, too, "Korean
ingenuity produced contributions of world-wide significance,
such as metal movable-type printing, radiant heating, iron­
clad vessels, and the earliest recorded measurements of rain­
fall," p. 1*1.
35Kiyoshi K. Kawakami, Asia at the Door: A Study of
the Japanese Question in Continental United States, Hawaii
and Canada (New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1914), p. 64.
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 Japanese emigration and the United States' perception

of it were largely affected by Japan's ability to Westernize.

Because of her growing industrial status, attended by an

emphasis upon a modern military establishment, Japan was

viewed by the United States, and the European nations, as

more progressive than the other states of Asia. With her

defeat of China in 1895, Japan served notice to the nations

of the world that she could behave as a Western power. Given

Japan's budding nationalism and international image, by the

turn of the century not only had the Japanese revised their

opinions on emigration, but Japanese nationals were often

encouraged to emigrate "under the supervision of their gov­

ernment."^ Japanese nationalism, excited by continued in­

dustrial and military growth, was responsible for the belief

37
that Japan's international prestige and status were suf­

ficient defenses against immigration problems such as those

that befell the Chinese. Likewise, there was the distinct

impression that the Japanese government would, as in keeping

with the Western practice, take steps to protect its nationals

from harm and humiliation. From the American perspective,

then, "immigration troubles with Japan were of much more

serious political consequence."38

38William Petersen, Japanese Americans: Oppression

and Success (New fork: Random House, 1971), p. 9.
3^Yamato Ichihashi, Japanese in the United States: A
Critical Study of the Problems of the Japanese Immigrants and
Their Children (Stanford, California: Stanford University
Press, 1932), p. 238.
38A. Whitney Griswold, The Far Eastern Policy of the
United States (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1964), p. 124.
xiv

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 While the United States' image of Japan was that of

a nation outstanding among the Asian states for its Western-

oriented proclivities albeit one of potentially dangerous mil­

itary proportions, the Japanese attempted to set themselves

apart from other Asians. Sino-American immigration problems,

and the repeated and often times violent indignities that

China's nationals had been subjected to in the United States,

had not gone unnoticed among the Japanese. The cause of the

Chinese problem in the United States, as well as in the in­

ternational sphere, the Japanese believed to be China's nat­

ional weakness and the resulting disrespect it solicited

from Americans. To the Japanese w a y of thinking, if the

39
Americans depicted the Chinese as "grotesque m the extreme"

and held them up as articles of ridicule, then the Chinese

had no one to blame but the weakness of the home government

and the foolhardiness of their own ethnocentrism. In her own

battle for survival against the West, Japan had developed a

low tolerance for weakness of any kind. The Chinese appeared

regrettably weak. Consequently, there was an admixture of

animosity and disgust among the Japanese for the Chinese.

At the same time, the virtues and shortcomings of the "white

40
world's culture and standards" could be argued among the

39
Stuart W. Hyde, "The Chinese Stereotype in American
Melodrama," California Historical Society Quarterly, Volume
XXXIV, 1955, p. 358.
40
Paul Jacobs and Saul Landau, with Eve Pell, To Serve
the Devil, Volume II; Colonials and Sojourners (New York: Random
House, 1971), p. 222.
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 Japanese who had the luxury of a powerful and concerned

government behind them. Their choice lay heavily on the

side of the white world. As a significant gesture to that

effect, the Japanese endeavored to portray themselves "as

different from Chinese, Koreans, and other members of the

41 .
Mongolian race." Ironically, even during times of ma n ­

ifest anti-Japanese feelings, there were Japanese who tried

to convince America that Japan was in essence Western:

Japan clearly realizes the impossibility of casting

her lot with the huge, inert mass of humanity that
inhabits the Asian continent. She believes that her
interest is more closely interwoven with that of the
Occident than with that of the Oriental races, that
in temperment and inclination she has much more in
common with the Western peoples than with those of
Asia.42

The forces of white racism, however, turned a deaf ear to

the Japanese and proceeded to deal with them in a fashion

similar to that applied to the Chinese. Still reluctant,

perhaps, to reckon with the dilemma of America's racism,

the Japanese interpreted anti-Japanese sentiment in the

context of nationality not race. The honor of Japan as a

41 . . .
Akira I n y e , Pacific Estrangement: Japanese and
American Expansion, 1897-1911 (Cambridge, Massachusetts:
Harvard University Press, 1972), p. 142.
42
Kawakami, Asia at the D o o r , o p . c i t ., p. 39. Alice
J. Scott also suggests: "The Japanese regard themselves as the
equals of any other people on earth. They believe themselves
to be superior intellectually, morally and in every other way
to the Chinese. Anything that tends to place them on a level
with the Chinese before the world is degrading and humiliating
to them, and they will resent it." see: "The Alien Land Law of
1913 and Its Relation to Japanese Immigration," (M.A. Thesis,
Columbia University, 1929), pp. 26-27.
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 nation-state was of primary concern to the Japanese. When

the United States objected to Japanese emigration, Japan's

national honor remained intact by way of the Gentlemen's

Agreement, whereby it appeared as though Japan, not the United

States, was responsible for the regulation of Japanese im­

migration. Rather than challenging the racist implications

of the American immigration policy, the Japanese took issue

with the apparent unequal applicability of the policy on the

basis of nationality, suggesting that as an international

power, Japan should be treated as an equal:

That the restriction of immigration is one of the

sovereign rights of a nation does not mean that it
may adopt arbitrary rules freely admitting immigrants
from one country and rigorously excluding those from
another. If a nation finds it necessary to adopt an
exclusion law, such a law should be made applicable
to all nations, or at any rate to those nations
43
admitted to the family of advanced Powers.

The exclusionists, however, in their push to continue the

43 .
Kiyoshi K. Kawakami, The Real Japanese Question
(New York: The MacMillan Company, 1921), p. 211. It should be
pointed out that the Gentlemen's Agreement was not entirely
satisfactory to exclusionists. It was argued that the Agreement
was ineffectual in limiting the emigration from Japan. "The real
basis for the ineffectiveness of the Gentlemen's Agreement in
restricting Japanese immigrant labor lies in the fact that when
the Gentlemen’s Agreement was adopted, the United States surren­
dered to Japan her sovereign right to determine in each case what
immigrants should be admitted to Cthej continental United States
and what immigrants should be rejected. Under the Gentlemen's
Agreement this determination rests entirely with Japan." See:
California and the Oriental, "Report of State Board of California
to Governor William D. Stephens, June 19, 1920, Revised to Jan­
uary 1, 1922," (San Francisco: R & E Research Associates, 1970),
p. 175 and pp. 177 and 197.
xvii

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 exclusion of the Chinese, opposed the Japanese on the basis

of race, regardless of Japan's international prestige. Theirs

was to argue that the same laws governing the exclusion of

Chinese should be extended and "be made to apply to all other

Asiatic peoples who are open to the same objections that are
44 . .
urged against the Chinese." For domestic consumption, with

American labor as the defending mass, the Japanese were dep-

45
icted as a more aggressive form of Chinese. Generally speaking,

the common denominators between Chinese and Japanese were the

. . . 46
beliefs that they were racially unassimilable and foreign,

followed by their ability to subsist or exist on very low

47
wa g e s .

44
J.T. Morgan, The Chinese Question.... Arguments
Against Exclusion Answered and Arguments in Favor of Ex ­
clusion Presented (Portland: Multnomah Printing Co., 1901), p . 6.
45 . .
Spencer C. 0 1 m , Jr., says m his "European Immigrant
and Oriental Alien: Acceptance and Rejection by the California
Legislature of 1913," Pacific Historical R eview, Volume XXXV,
Number 3, August, 1966, p. 309: "So long as the Japanese re­
mained wage laborers, agitation against them came largely from
nonfarm groups which feared competition from 'cheap labor.'
Farm-employers, on the other hand, welcomed this source of
mobile, cheap labor." After the Japanese population began to
shift from urban to rural areas, however, the "Japanese began
to acquire land and to employ as workers members of their own
race exclusively, thereby reducing the farm labor jp-3Ml." "The
Japanese were no longer merely a convenient source of manpower,
but had gradually become active competitors for farm labor, farm
land, and agricultural markets."
46
Roger Daniels, "Westerners from the East: Oriental
Immigrants Reappraised," Pacific Historical Revi e w , Volume
XXV, Number 4, November, 1966, p. 376.
47 . .
At the "Pacific Coast Convention of the Anti-Jap
Laundry League," (San Francisco: May 9, 1909), p. 13, it was
argued: "...Oriental standards of living are such as to enable
the Jap to exist upon a wage that no home-loving American could
justifiably accept."
xviii

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 Domestic images of Chinese and Japanese essentially

blended together to form a single anti-Asiatic perception

among white Americans. Regardless of Japanese efforts to

distinguish themselves from the Chinese, exclusionists ep­

itomized their views of the Japanese in the saying: "oil and

48
water do not mix." International images, however, were
49
another matter m the minds of the Americans. That the

Chinese had been ineffectual in their relations with foreigners

both the Americans and Japanese were quick to point out. Yet

even outspoken exponents of Japanese exclusion, while showing

disdain for the Japanese as immigrants in the United States,

were also enthusiastic admirers of Japan's willingness to

Westernize:

The whole world is well-nigh united in its admiration

of the energy, the intelligence and the skill with
which Japan has thrown off the stagnation of centuries
and the splendor of her appearance in the conclave of
nations. America has expressed this admiration in no
measured or stinted terms, and that expression has been
50
hearty and sincere.

Some Americans may have felt satisfied with Japan's Western-

oriented activities, and the role the United States played

in Japan's overall modernization. Internationally, Japan

was the opposite of China, which was seen as stagnant and

48
The Japanese Invasion: The Movement against the
Dominant Influence of the Little Brown Men in American Trades
(The Francis-Valentine Co., Printing), (c. 1905-06), p. 5.
49
Daniels, "Westerners from the East," op. cit., pp.
374-375.
50
The Japanese Invasion, o p . c i t ., p . 5.
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 anti-foreign. Nonetheless, underlying the admiration and

respect expressed for Japan by the United States, and many

of the European nations, there was the realization that Japan

had also assumed the big-power expectations of the Western

nations. The combination of the traditionally militant

character of Japanese society, increased industrialization,

and the creation of a modern military would provide Japan

the means and the inclination with which to realize her

international expectations. As early as her defeat of

Russia in 1905, Japan began to replace China as the Asiatic

.- 51
peril.

Thus it was largely through Japan's maximization of

the growing American fear of Japan as a Pacific power and

one of possible danger to American possessions that the

Japanese problem in America differed from the Chinese pro­

blem. Although there was a limit to which the Japanese might

resort against persecution of Japanese nationals in America,

the Japanese government's willingness to protest strongly

52
any demonstration of anti-Japanese behavior or sentiment

was seriously acknowledged by American officials. The 1905

Robert McClellan, The Heathen Chinee: A Study of

American Attitudes toward China, 1890-1905 (Ohio: Ohio State
University Press, 1971), p. 234.
52
Wen-Hsien Chen, m her "Chinese Under Both Exclusion
and Immigration Laws," (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Univ­
ersity of Chicago, 1940), pp. 3-4, states: "In relation to
Japanese exclusion, however, the government of the United States
has taken a very different attitude; the government did not deal
with the Japanese by legislative enactment as it did with the
Chinese. The President of the United States at the time the
agreement was pending explicitly warned the labor unions not
xx

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 school segregation incident in San Francisco, for instance,

became a manifest demonstration of the Japanese government’s

concern for its nationals and the United States Government's

response. Although Chinese and Korean children had been

ordered segregated to an Oriental school first, notice was

not taken of their plight. However, when Japanese children,

especially older boys, were classified as Orientals and then

ordered to join the Chinese and Koreans, Japan protested so

53
heatedly that President Roosevelt intervened on their behalf.

to ill treat the Japanese since this action might create grounds
for the mutual exclusion from both countries of the laborers of
each country." Of American fear of Japan, Chen quotes Samuel
Gompers: "Roosevelt remarked that we must approach the question
of Japanese immigration in an entirely different manner from the
method used in regard to the Chinese. The Japanese had shown
themselves to be greater fighters and sailors, and if they were
angry the United States would find itself in a serious situation
as we were not prepared for aggressive warfare and also would
find it necessary to protect the Philippines and the Hawaiian
Islands," p. 152. In broad terms, then, the "substantial dif­
ferences between the Chinese Exclusion Treaty and the 'gentlemen's
agreement' are three: (1) China agreed that the United States
might limit immigration of Chinese laborers, while Japan was
given the right to say how many and who should come into the
United States. (2) Parents, wives, and children of all classes
of Japanese domiciled in the United States were admissible to
the United States. This privilege was denied to all Chinese
residents who were not Section 6 certificate holders...members
of the exempt class, such as government officials and merchants,
might bring in their wives and children, but their parents were
not admissible. (3) The agreement between the United States,
while the Chinese Exclusion Acts apply to all territories under
the jurisdiction of the United States, such as Hawaii and the
Philippine Islands, p. 4.
53
Theodore Roosevelt threatened to use civil and mil­
itary forces to protect the Japanese both in person and property,
see: Japanese in the City of San Francisco, California, Message
from the President of the United States, transmitting The Final
Report of Secretary Metcalf on the Situation Affecting the
Japanese in the City of San Francisco, California, 59th Congress,
2nd Session, Senate, Document No. 147, p. 2.
xxi

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 Through diligence and involvement, the government of Japan

was able to assure somewhat better treatment for Japanese

in the United States. Portentously, however, one observer

remarked on the incident:

It is neither the first, nor will it probably be the last

sign, of the struggle for equality of the yellow with the
white man, which may subsequently be emphasized in a more
tangible, if not abrupt manner, resulting in a clash between
the two races: the one, trying to insure the equality, the
. . . . 54
other, striving to maintain the supremacy.

Ironically, Japan’s practice of assisting its nationals would

be used by anti-Japanese forces to create the image that the

overseas Japanese were "spies and secret agents of the homeland

55 . . . .
government."' The industrial-military power which led Japan

to believe that she, unlike any other Asian nation, would be

accepted as a great power by the United States and the Euro­

pean countries became the single outstanding indictment against

her among those countries whose recognition and respect she had

so long coveted. Not unrelatedly, although by 1924 all Asians

would be barred from America, it was Japan's aggression, not

American racism, that was in turn responsible for the exclusion

of Koreans from the United States. In its quest to achieve

equal status with the white powers, Japan began in earnest its

policy of treating fellow Asians as inferiors.

54
Theodore P. Ion, C.C.L., "The Japanese School Incident
at San Francisco from the Point of View of International and
Constitutional Law," Michigan Law Review, Volume V, No. 5, March,
1907, pp. 326-327.
55Richard 0. Curry and Thomas M. Brown (e d s .), Con­
spiracy: The Fear of Subversion in American History (New York:
Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1971), p. 190.
xxii

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 The Koreans might have been the third significant

group of Asians to emigrate to the United States. However,

a general take-over of Korea by Japan in 1904, followed in

1910 by complete annexation, and the subsequent restriction

of Korean emigration by Japan pre-empted American exclusion.

In 1882, Korea concluded the Shufeldt Treaty with the United

States, the first of its kind with a Western nation.56 Korea's

insular tradition was so thorough-going, nonetheless, that

Korean nationals were not permitted by their government to

57
begin to emigrate for another twenty years. The first of

the Korean emigrants were urged to come to American territory

by Hawaiian sugar planters who viewed them as a cheap and

reliable source of labor. Yet within two years after the

initial emigration began, Korean nationals were faced with

a unique dilemma. Unlike the Chinese and Japanese whose

primary emigration difficulties arose from anti-Asiatic

attitudes in the United States, the Koreans had to contend

with the nightmare that Japan's militarist and colonialist

capture of Asia was beginning on the Korean peninsula. All

overseas Koreans "found themselves in danger of losing their

ethnic identity to the Japanese."56

As early as 1876 Japan, acting like a Western nation,

forced Korea into a commercial treaty. Thus before the turn of
the century, Japan had begun "Perryizing" its Asian neighbors,
see: William L. Neumann, America Encounters Japan from Perry to
MacArthur (New York: Harper & Row, 1963), p. 99.
5^Warren Y. Kim, Koreans in America (Seoul, Korea: Po
Chin Chai Publishing Co., Ltd., 1971), p. 9.
56see: Han Yung Rim, Ed.D., "Japanese Totalitarian
Education in Korea, 1910-1945," Korean Quarterly, Volume 2, No. 1,
Seoul, Korea, Spring, 1960, pp. 85-91.
xxiii

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 Korea was traditionally positioned as the Poland of

the East, being "submerged between the grandeur of China and

59
the glory of Japan." Partly through culture and partly by

sheer size, China had acted as suzerain over Korea in the

long-established tributary states system. China's suzerainty

was destroyed in 1876 when the Japanese militarist Kiyotaka

Kuroda, in emulating the white powers, forced the Koreans to

sign a commercial treaty, thereby establishing the nominal

independence of Korea. Following the Sino-Japanese War of

1895, the Treaty of Shimonoseki was responsible for Korea's

being passed from the Chinese to the Japanese sphere, despite

Korean desires for complete independence from both China and

Japan. That Japan, in publicly championing Korean independence,

wanted a free hand in Korea both as a stepping stone to contin­

ental power in Asia and as a stabilizing political device at

home became obvious to most observers Although the Koreans

looked to the United States for the exercize of its good of­

fices according to Article I of the Shufeldt Treaty in est­

ablishing the actual independence of the Korean state, the

Cleveland Administration's fear of a confrontation with Japan

prompted it to turn "its back on Korean affairs."^1

59
Hugh D. Walker, Korea's Response to the W e s t , o p .
c i t ., p. 1*1.
^ J e f f e r y M. Dorwart, "The Independent Minister: John
M.B. Sill and the Struggle against Japanese Expansion in Korea,
1894-1897," Pacific Historical R e view, Volume XLIV, No. 4, Nov­
ember, 1975: Gozo Tateno, Japanese Minister in the U.S. told
U.S. Secretary of State Gresham that the Japanese home situation
could be stabilized by war. "Tateno's frank admission that Japan
would violate its treaties with Korea and upset the peace in East
Asia in order to stabilize its own government shocked the highly
legalistic Secretary of State," p. 493.
61Ibid., p. 497.
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 The Cleveland Administration's unwillingness to assist

Korea for fear of Japan's reaction was instrumental in setting

the United States' long-range policy toward Korea and perception

of Japan. By 1904 the Japanese were at war with Russia in an

attempt to offset Russian presence in Manchuria. Japan's vic­

tory not only secured for her a definitive foothold on the

Asian continent, but also established Japan as an Asian power.

Sensing her victory, Japan in 1904 was successful in forcing

the Korean government to sign over the course of its external

affairs, and with it much of the internal function of state,

to Japan. Thousands of Korean nationals fled the country

through Siberia, Manchuria and Hawaii. One of the strongest

overseas Korean nationalist organizations, the Tae-Hanin Kunq-

minhae or the Korean National Association of North America, had

its headquarters in San Francisco, with branches in Manchuria,

Hawaii, and Siberia. Once again the Koreans sought the assist­

ance of the United States and its good offices in keeping with

the Korean-American treaty. Min Yeung-Tchan,52 Special Envoy

Without Credentials, in explaining the Korean situation to the

U.S. Department of State, Papers Relating to the

Foreign Relations of the United States, with the Annual Message
of the President Transmitted to Congress. December 5, 1905,
Washington, Government Printing Office, 1906: Min Yeung-Tchan
argued that the treaty of November 17, 1905, which put Korea's
foreign affairs in the hands of the Japanese, "was procured from
the Emperor of Korea by duress and should therefore be ignored."
The American response was: "...official communications from the
Japanese Government agree with the official communications from
the Korean Government, and are quite inconsistent with your in­
formation." Thus the U.S. Secretary of State, Elihu Root, stated
to Mr. Min: "I feel bound to advise you that the Government of
the United States does not consider that any good purpose would
be subserved by taking notice of your statements," pp. 629-630.
xxv

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 United States was given short shrift. In effect, the United

States turned aside the first Article of the Shufeldt Treaty

and in the process recognized Japan's aggression in Korea as

being legitimate and proper.

The United States' decision not to interfere in

Japan's aggression against Korea reflected a peculiar mix­

ture of fatalistic admiration for Ja p a n ’s expansion anri

growing fear of that country’s military potential among

American officials. The United States’ Far Eastern expert

for the Department of State, W.W. Rockhill believed that

Japan's annexation of Korea was not only correct but also

inevitable, given Japan's ambitions. More importantly, in

line with Cleveland's apprehension of Japan, President Theo­

dore Roosevelt had already decided not to oppose Japan's

expansion. Consequently, it was under Roosevelt:

that the course became more straight... down the road

which would Jead, by 1910, to recognition of the pro­
tectorate, of the abdication of the Korean Emperor,
and ultimately of the annexation of Korea by Japan. ^

Finally, when an American educator in Korea visited the United

States to plead Korea's case to American Senators, he was for

his trouble asked two questions in turn: "What do you expect us

to do? Do you really believe that America ought to go to war

64
with Japan over Korea?" There were no acceptable answers.

53John Espy Merrill, "American Official Reactions to

the Domestic Policies of Japan in Korea, 1905-1910," (Ph.D.
dissertation, Stanford University, 1954), p. 28.
64
McKenzie, The Tragedy of Ko r e a , o p . c i t ., p. 131.
xxvi

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 In the minds of American exclusionists, after the

conquest of Korea by Japan the Koreans were included within

the general anti-Japanese movement. Despite sometimes ex­

treme attempts to state the Korean case and to emphasize

Korean desire for independence,66 the Koreans technically

became part of ■ ,ie Japanese immigration problem. In Japan,

however, the overseas Korean nationalist movement was con­

sidered so strong that Japanese authorities felt that further

Korean emigration would be "a threat to their newly established

political control over Korea."66 In the United States, because

of American official recognition of Japanese expansion, the

overseas Koreans literally lost their national identity, for

"diplomatic matters in relation to Korea would henceforth be

conducted through either the Japanese Legation at Washington

or the American Legation at Tokyo."67 When the Congress of

the United States passed an amendment to the Immigration Act

of 1907, stating that it "would not recognize Korean passports,

In-Whan Jang, a member of the Dai-Dong Association

of the overseas Korean nationalist movement, shot Durham White
Stevens to death over the issue of Japanese aggression in Korea.
Stevens, an American in the Japanese diplomatic service, publicly
supported Japan, stating that the Korean people were benefiting
from Japanese annexation. Jang was sentenced to 25 years in San
Quentin prison. However, he was paroled in 10 years and died a
Korean national hero.
Lee Houchins and Chang-su Houchins, "The Korean E x ­
perience in America, 1903-1924," in The Asian American; The
Historical Experience, Norris Hundley, Jr. (ed.), (Santa Barbara,
California: CLIO Books, Pacific Historical Review Series, 1976),
p. 135.
67Merrill, 0 £. c i t ., p. 81.
xxvii

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 only passports issued by the Japanese Foreign Office,"88 the

Japanese in order to stop Korean emigration simply did not

issue passports to Korean nationals. Thus while the Japanese

fought to defend their right to emigrate to the United States,

they simultaneously and systematically prohibited Korea's

nationals from emigrating to the United States or to any

other country.

In conclusion, it should be noted that in 1922 the

Supreme Court of the United States upheld the popular American

demand that Koreans, Chinese, and Japanese be ineligible for

American citizenship, and that the ruling was then extended

69 .
to include "all orientals." In final form, the Immigration

Law of 1924 excluded all Asians from becoming United States

citizens:

This law applied to Asiatics, for under the law governing

citizenship in the United States, 'white men and Africans
are eligible for citizenship but Mongolians are not
j .7 0
mentioned.

Thus a brief survey of Asian racial and immigration problems,

and the imagery that resulted from contact between Americans

and Asians, can serve as a background against which the motion

picture industry's perception and portrayal, as well as policy

toward, Asians can be better understood.

68The Houchins, op. c i t ., p. 136.

69
Griswold, op. pit., p. 369.
70Rubin Francis Weston, Racism in U.S. Imperialism: The
Influence of Racial Assumptions on American Foreign Policy, 1893-
1946 (Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina
Press, 1972), p. 33.
xxviii

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 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Appreciation is given to the following libraries for

the use of their collections: The Charles K. Feldman Library,
The American Film Institute; The Library of Congress; Doheny
Library, Department of Special Collections, The University of
Southern California; The Margaret Herrick Library, The Academy
of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; The Penrose Library, The
University of Denver; and The Theater Arts Library and Film
Archives, University of California, Los Angeles.

Gratitude is given to the members of the Asian American

acting community of the Southern California area who gave freely
of their time and experience and who, as primary sources, proved
the united spirit and growing consciousness of the Asian/Pacific
peoples of America. They are, in alphabetical order: Philip Ahn:
Momo Yashima Brannen; Ralph Brannen; Mike Chan; Benson Fong; James
Hong; Sumi Haru; Jim Ishida; Leigh Kim; Clyde Kusatsu; Sachiko
Penny Lee; William Lee; Pat Li; Keye Luke; Dorn Magwili; Mako;
Betty Muramoto; J. Marseras Pepito; Beulah Quo; Yuki Shimoda;
Kim Yumiko Yamane; and Keone Young.

Lastly, eternal thanks, appreciation and gratitude

are given to my wife, Susan, for her encouragement, support,
determination and council during the entire research and writing
of the dissertation. Without her assistance and maturity neither
the study nor I would have survived.

E.F.W.
December 25, 1977
Los Angeles, California

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 LIST OF TABLES

Table Page
1. Number and Percentage of Films by D e cade....... 190

2. Number and Percentage of Films of War Genre by

Decade .......................................... 190

3. Film Genres ....................................... 197

4. Genres by Decade .................................. 198

5. Occupations by Dec a d e ............................ 202

6. Film List of Asian American, Foreign Asian, and

Other Themes by D ecade........................ 205

7. Film List of Prime Groups by Decade............. 221

8. Interracial Sex by D e cade........................ 227

9. Eurasian Characters by Decade, Descent Lines.

Sex, and Race of Actor/Actress............... 231

10. Major/Minor Roles of Asians and Cosmetized

Whites by D ecad e ............................... 234

11. War Genre Kill Ratio of Asian to White by

Decade.......................................... 243

12. Non-War Genre Death Theme of Asian Male and

Female by Decad e............................... 243

-xxx-

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 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Purpose of the S t u d y :

The purpose in undertaking this study was to begin

an investigation of racism against Asians in the American

feature films. However, as other minorities have discovered,

defining racism in the context of motion pictures, and then

operationalizing those variables that would best measure the

degree and extent of racism, is especially difficult. Yet the

71 .
film industry, even m light of its growing diffuseness, is

at least a partial reflection of the society in which it o p ­

erates and therefore has as part of its operation particular

modes that, albeit modified in specificity, parallel those

social structures and belief systems which permit the industry

to prosper as an industry and to reciprocate filrnically the

beliefs and expectations of society. That the success or

failure to fulfill the latter bears upon the former is, as

most film-makers are aware, undeniable. For if the product

does not satisfy the audience, the audience does not support

the industry. Without audience support, there is no industry.

"^Independent film-makers will be discussed later.

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 -2-

Because Americans sought out Asians as subjects

for movies as early as 1 8 9 6 , and because some of the first

motion picture footage taken of foreign countries and peoples

included Asia,7^ it was decided that analysis of films over

time, in this instance 1930-1975, would give an accurate in­

dication of the portrayal of Asians and Asian themes, noting

shifts and changes as well as persistency in racism against

Asians, in the American feature films. It was assumed that

if racism in the motion picture industry actually reflected

the wider social phenomenon called white racism, then there

should be motion picture, that is, filmic, equivalencies in

the industry which would provide definitional substance aid­

ing in the analysis of the films. Thus the definitions of

terms that deal with racism in the films are largely the pro­

ducts of definitions established concerning white racism in

American society as a whole. At the same time, however, the

particularities of the film industry were taken into consid­

eration, some of which by definition did not have direct or

comparable parallels in the non-movie sector of society.

72
Dorothy B. Jones, The Portrayal of China and India
on the American Screen, 1896-1955: The Evolution of Chinese
and Indian Themes, Locals, and Characters as Portrayed on
the American Screen (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Center for
International Studies, M.I.T., October, 1955), p. 13.
7^Dorothy B. Jones, "Hollywood's International
Relations," Quarterly of Film, Radio, and Television, Fall-
Summer, No. 11, 1956-1957, p. 362.

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 -3-

Definitions;

White Racism. - The term "white racism" refers to

the belief that because there are superficial differences

among groups of peoples, generally classified as races,

those superficialities, such as differences in eye shape,

skin color, hair texture, stature and so on, signify a set

of inherent and innate differences that stratify the races

of mankind on two levels, the one genetically superior and

the others genetically inferior. White racism, thus, in

its most basic definition "is the belief that white people
74
are inherently superior" to non-white peoples, and that

on the basis of the superior-inferior dichotomy, members

of the white race are destined, by white racist ideology,

to remain superior and above members of the non-white races

in all matters pertaining to human intercourse individually

and collectively.

White racism does not suggest or imply that there

is one system of racism only, or that white people only

are capable of being racist. On the contrary, members of

non-white races are equally as capable of being or becoming

racist toward whites or other non-whites. However, in the

context of the American example, there is no indication

74
Norman R. Yetman and C. Hoy Steele (eds.), Majority
and Minority: The Dynamics of Racial and Ethnic Relations
(Boston, Massachusetts-: Allyn and Bacon, Inc., 1971), see the
Howard Schuman article: "Free Will and Determinism m Public
Beliefs about Race," p. 383.

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 -4-

that any non-white group has been in a position to create

and maintain a system of non-white racism against whites

comparable to the white racist system established in the

United States since the arrival of the first Europeans. Con­

sequently, it is suggested that, despite the recognition of

the possibility that non-white peoples are equally as capable

as whites of being or becoming racist, there has been only one

actual and substantive system of racism in the United States,

namely, that of white racism.

In addition, white racism should not be confused with

ethnocentrism. While racism in general has a biological, a gen-

75
etic foundation, ethnocentrism has a cultural foundation. Thus

although it may be possible for racist cultures to contain ethno­

centric overtones vis-a-vis a "superior genetic pool,"7b the

reverse may not be true. While ethnocentrism appears to be

universally present and durable over time, "[white] racism is

77 . . .
a product of the modern world." White racism, specifically

American white racism, is the example with which this study is

concerned. Throughout the text the term racism will be synon­

ymous with white American racism, unless otherwise noted.

7^Pierre L. van den Berghe, Race and Racism; A Com­

parative Perspective (New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1967),
p. 12.
7bIbid., p. 12.
77Roger Daniels and Harry H.L. Kitano, American Racism:
Exploration of the Nature of Prejudice (Englewood Cliffs, New
Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1970), p. 2.

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 -5-

White Racial Prejudice. - White racial prejudice is

the incorporated and unquestioned acceptance of the white rac­

ist ideology. It is the unfavorable and hostile prejudgment of

a non-white racial group and of its individual members, with a

total disregard of the invalidity of the tenets of the pre­

judgment.78 Ultimately, prejudice is the emotional and the

psychological condition which justifies, legitimizes and ra­

tionalizes the ideology of white racism. To all intents and

purposes, racial prejudice is the everyday mental mechanics

of white racism.

White Racial Discrimination. - White racial discrim­

ination is the physical and demonstrative expression of racial

prejudice. In order to effect as well as to enforce white raci

racial prejudice is translated into social action, whereby the

human and legal rights and freedoms of non-whites in many sectors

of society are either negated completely or are extensively com­

promised so as to reinforce the assumed superior status and p o s ­

ition of the white race both individually and collectively. The

practice of white racial discrimination prohibits the fair and

equal treatment of non-whites in society. Despite its increas­

ingly subtle practice, racial discrimination remains the most

tangible and observable manifestation of white racism.

Graham C . Kinloch, The Dynamics of Race Relations:

A Sociological Analysis (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company,
1974), pp. 54-55.
79
Herman Santa Cruz, Special Rapporteur on Racial
Discrimination, Racial Discrimination (New York: United Nations,
1971), p. 15.

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 -6-

Individual Racism. - Individual racism is the per­

sonal implementation of white racism. A man or woman who in

belief of the white racist ideology practices racial discrim­

ination against non-whites as part of his or her daily com­

mitment to the ideology is an individual racist, practicing

individual white racism.88 For the most part, this study

will not concentrate upon individual racism, but rather upon

institutional racism.

Cultural Racism . - Cultural racism can be either in­

dividual or collective. Its main attribute is a coupling and

equating of assumed genetic inferiority of non-whites to that

of presumed cultural backwardness, especially technological

backwardness. Because cultural racism is as diverse as cul­

ture itself, it is one of the more pervasive components of

white racism in American society.81 At the same time, it has

been suggested that the United States* culturalism, doubtless

intensified when applied to non-Western peoples, "denotes the

intent to rule the world by the imposition of her values, safe­

guarding them when necessary by military occupation and colo-

nialization." Csee: Leigh and Richard Kagan, "Oh Say, Can You

See? American Cultural Blinders on China," in Edward Friedman

and Mark Seldeii (eds.), A merica’s Asia; Dissenting Essays on

Asian-American Relations (New York: Pantheon Books, 1971), p.3lj

88James M. Jones, Prejudice and Racism (Reading, Mass­

achusetts: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1972), p. 5.
81Ibid., p. 5.

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 -7-

Institutional R a c i s m . - Institutional racism or

institutionalized racism is of prime importance to this

study, for although the motion picture industry's racism

against Asians has its definitive individual and cultural

components, it is the institutionalized nature of that

industry's racism with which the study is primarily con­

cerned. Because the United States is a society with many

well-developed institutions, and because white racism was

and is an integral reality of American life, to suggest

that institutional racism "is the very foundation upon

which this society was built"82 seems appropriate. At its

crudest level, institutional racism, especially in the more

well-known persons of the courts, schools, hospitals and the

like, carries on "the exclusion of people of color from equal

participation in the society's institutions."88 If one ac­

cepts the assertion that the United States' institutions have

been and continue to be functions and creations of white

racism, then institutional racism is as old and as durable

as the institutions themselves. Since many institutions

were created to serve the public directly or at least in­

directly, then the practice of racial discrimination against

82Ibi d ., p. 146.
88Robert Blauner, Racial Oppression in America (New
York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1972), p. 185.

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 non-white persons is widespread and routinized to the point

of being standard operating procedure.

In a sense, it is the built-in, literally the in­

stitutionalized, characteristic of institutional racism that

may be its redeemer in force, for it is entirely possible that

individual members of the institutions may not themselves be

84
racially prejudiced, although it should be added that a large

number of Americans in and out of institutional settings are

in fact racially prejudiced and practice racial discrimination.

Nonetheless, the tradition of the institution determines racist

attitudes and policies and consequently reacts and responds dif­

ferentially to the non-whites through its individuals who p e r ­

sonify the institution, and who as living parts or extensions

of the institution internalize and then adhere to racist a s ­

sumptions and expectations. It is the diffuseness, moreover,

of institutional racism that continually blurs responsibility

for racism in the institution itself, which in turn makes the

process of finding out "who is at f a u l t " ^ problematical at

best. Although it cannot be denied that institutional racism

was begun by individuals, i.e., that ideologues of racism

initially programed the institution to be racist, the study

84
Robert K. Lin, Race, Creed, Color, or National
Origin; A Reader on Racial and Ethnic Identities in American
Society (Itasca, Illinois; F.E. Peacock Publishers, Inc.,
1973), p . x v i i .
^ L o u i s L. Knowles and Kenneth Prewitt (eds.) Insti­
tutional Racism in America (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey;
Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1969), p. 6.

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 -9-

of institutional white racism, rather than attempting to place

the blame on particular individuals, deals with a general view

of the white racist institution as a whole. It is in that

regard that this study aims to handle the American motion p i c ­

ture industry.

American institutional systems are diverse and pe r ­

form many tasks. In gradational specificity, the American film

industry is a subset of the social institutions of mass communi­

cations, the purposes of which are to store and to transmit in­

formation, and whose control constitutes "an obvious component

of power."86 However defined, power in the United States is in

the hands of members of the white race. In respect of who holds

power, it can be said that mass communications are subsumed

under the broad heading of socialization,87 while serving a

multitude of other functions, and that if the socialization

process itself is racist, then much of the media output will

reflect that racism. Because the mass media still today are

largely "...the only source of many [white] people's images of

minority groups,"88 racism in the mass media in general is in

effect heavily accountable for perpetuating racism in society.

Karl W. Deutsch, The Nerves of Government, Models

of Political Communication and Control (New York: The Free
Press, 1966), p. 203.
87Kinloch, op. c i t ., p. 214.
88Charles Y. Glock and Ellen Siegelman (eds.), Pr e ­
judice U.S.A. (New York: Frederick A. Praeger Publishers,
1969), p. 99.

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 -10-

The socialization system is the major institutional

heading under which social norms and perceptions are created,

disseminated, implemented, coordinated and maintained. Of the

subparts of the American socialization system, including the

educational and family systems, as well as the religious, the

media or mass communications system has a particular subset

called the motion picture industry. Although the motion pic­

ture industry has its own characteristics, it has one primary

function in common with all parts of the socialization system:

it socializes the American public at large, that is, it defines

social norms and transmits group as well as intergroup percep­

tions over time. Consequently, as one subset of a subpart of

the general institutional socialization system, the American

. . . 89
motion picture industry acts as a conditioning process whose

depiction of minorities, and their interpersonal relations with

90
the majority, is a "reinforcing" agent of major consequence.

For the American viewing audience to be exposed to a product

that reflects and reintroduces white racism is one significant

way of maintaining white racism. By literally socializing white

racism into the audience, the film industry plays an important

role in supporting the forces of white racism in America. In

many instances, the motion picture industry has failed to note

changes in the status of minority groups and instead has con­

89
Daniels and Kitano, op. c i t ., p. 109.
90
Charles F. Marden and Gladys Meyer, Minorities in
American Society (New York: Van Nostrand Company, 1968), p. 33.

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 -11-

tinued to base its standard operating procedure along a trad­

itionally racist structure, with both intentional and unin­

tentional overtones.

Although the institutionalized racism of the motion

picture industry is manifested in divers ways, this study is

concerned with testing particular propositions having to do

with the more obvious and blatant ways in which the industry

has instituted racism against Asians. In preparing the ground­

work for the propositions, reference is made to the basic

theoretical and institutional characteristics of white racism

against Asians as extant in the American motion picture in­

dustry. On the horizontal level, the concepts of segregation

or boundary maintenance constitute a cordon sanitaire which

when coupled with role, that is, "the part a person plays in
91
an institutional structure," account for the filmic pro­

perty of role segregation. Role segregation in its broadest

terms maintains a system whereby Asian actors and actresses,

because they are Asians, cannot secure certain kinds of roles

in the American feature films. Those roles which Asians are

prohibited from securing, furthermore, are part of the racial

domain of white actors and actresses. In the film industry

there is a race-specific consciousness which segregates roles

per se into those for whites, on the one side, and those for

91
I.C. Jarvie, Movies and Society (New York: Basic
Books, Inc., Publishers, 1970"), p. 62.

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 -12-

Asians, on the other side. Institutionalized rigidity, by

rule, does not allow Asians to cross into those roles that

are by the industry's definition designated as w h i t e . At

the same time, whites can move horizontally and cross into

roles otherwise designated by the industry as A s i a n , while

being secure in the knowledge that there is an industry

guarantee that white roles will not be violated by Asians.

In a peculiar filmic context, white actors and actresses

have, at the discretion of the industry, role freedom. The

cinematic right of whites to portray Asians is paralleled

by the industry's prohibition against Asians' portrayal of

whites. Occasionally, in line with the United States' con­

struction of a two-category racial system, i.e., the general

segregation of the races into the white and the non-white,

Asians may portray other non-whites, and vice versa. All

non-whites may not portray whites. Hence role segregation,

as symbolic of the presence or absence of horizontal movement,

can be flexible as applied to whites but not so to Asians. The

differential treatment of Asians along horizontal lines by way

of role segregation is one manifestation of the film industry’s

racism against Asians. Whites are allowed to fulfill certain

capacities in the industry that Asians are not allowed to fulfill.

In a similar fashion, major/minor role stratification

is the vertical counterpart to role segregation: the practice

of vertical discrimination against Asians in favor of whites.

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 -13-

The system of major/minor role stratification resembles and

reinforces role segregation. As in most institutional set­

tings in America, the uppermost positions are held by whites,

the lowest by non-whites. Because the lowermost of the in­

dustry’s actors are the "extras,” among whom Asians and others
92 ■
have been represented and known as '"racials, it is for the

purpose of this study to suggest that, like the barriers that

are inherent in role segregation, Asians have been vertically

stratified below whites in terms of role importance. In that

respect, major roles or characters have been reserved for the

whites and minor roles or characters often open to, but not

necessarily reserved for, the Asian actors. Role stratification

is the vertical embodiment of racial discrimination against

Asian actors and actresses. More often than not, if there

is a horizontal cross over by a white actor or actress, i.e.,

if a white takes advantage of the role freedom allowed him

or her by the industry, it is in conjunction with moving up

vertically to a major role of an Asian character in a film,

a process whereby an Asian actor or actress is successfully

displaced as a potential candidate for the major role. In

general terms, although whites may portray Asians, they do

so more often if the role is of major proportions. Some whites

have portrayed secondary Asian characters, but the majority

of cross-overs has taken place when the Asian role is major.

92 . . . .
Murray Ross, Stars and Strikes, Unionization of
Hollywood (New York: Columbia University Press, 1941), p. 69.

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 -14-

If the role of an Asian character is major, despite the

system of role segregation which keeps Asians in Asian

roles only or minimally in non-white roles, there is no

guarantee that an Asian will secure the role because the

system of major/minor role stratification can at any time

serve' to displace the Asian with a white actor or actress.

Not even Asian roles, then, are assured Asians in the film

industry. Likewise, the role of a major white character

cannot be filled by an Asian, as role segregation assures

that not only major white roles are off limits to Asians,

but also even the most minor roles. The extreme inequality

is demonstrated in the institutionalized reality that whites

can displace Asians on the highest levels, while Asians are

not allowed to displace whites on even the most lowly levels.

Thus role segregation and major/minor role stratification

work in combination to constrain Asians in the motion pic­

ture industry along racist lines. The racist and institutional

characteristics of the segregation and stratification systems

are to prevent Asians from both horizontal and vertical move­

ment in the motion pictures.

Operating within both the systems of role segregation

and major/minor role stratification is a further institutional

constraint that serves to solidify racism against Asians in

the motion picture industry. On the whole, whites have been

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 -15-

depicted as representing the entire spectrum of social and

human types. Asians, contrarily, have been depicted in

much more limited terms. Stereotypical delimitations, which

have been created, established and maintained by whites in

the motion picture industry, present a property that is not

only responsible for retaining a finite set of character de­

pictions, as opposed to the unlimited potential for whites,

but also accountable for the institutionalizing of racist

stereotypes. That the Asians presented to the American film

audience are largely a patchwork of traditionally inaccurate

images and cliches, totally the products of white society, is

generally in no way conveyed to the audience. As in the two

above-mentioned systems of role segregation and major/minor

role stratification, which constrain movement of Asians both

horizontally and vertically, the system of stereotypical de­

limitations successfully prevents dimensional development

and aesthetic continuity in the creation of Asian characters.

The narrowness of the delimitative process is intensified by

its stereotypical characteristics. Thus while Asians cannot

be assured of Asian roles, especially if the characters are of

major proportions, those roles which Asians do secure often

call for stylized and patterned displays, requiring less in

the way of acting than a series of directed Oriental affect­

ations, which satisfy the institutional demands of the industry.

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 -16-

However, it is not suggested in this study that

stereotypes, which in their more predatory form can delimit

both the professional horizons of an entire race and type­

cast the particular individual, must be intrinsically racist

or pejorative. On the most practical and innocuous level,

stereotypes are an economical way of summarizing persons or

social situations which are far too complex to be appreciated

fully, given a defined relationship to the stereotype or

within a specified period of time. Moreover, for film-makers

to view and develop every character or situation freshly and

anew would prove to be a burden to time, finance and creativity,

without the benefit of even a relative guarantee that the end

product would enjoy a substantive improvement in its quality.

In the context of the utilitarian importance of using the

stereotype, especially in a visual medium, it is at least

understandable that film-makers have and will continue to make

every attempt to short-circuit those aspects of film-making

which are not completely essential to the artistic and fin­

ancial success of a film. Consequently, the industry's point

of view can be recognized:

If the complaints from members of religious, pro­

fessional, racial and national groups were all
heeded, it would be impossible for Hollywood to
93
make any picture with a villain m it.

93
Hcrtense Powdermaker, Hollywood: The Dream Factory,
An Anthropologist Looks at the Movie-Makers (Boston, Massachusetts:
Little, Brown, 1950), p. 71.

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 -17-

Yet despite the utilitarian necessity of film-makers'

use of stereotypes in their art, equal attention should be

brought to the misuse of stereotypical imagery and its de­

limiting and social impact. Repetitiveness of stereotypes

can literally maintain unfavorable images across generations,

■whereby the consistency and authority of the stereotypes are

94
assumed to be "almost like a biological fact." The hand-

me-down potential of stereotypes, especially negative ones,

can be activated by the presentation of motion pictures that

95
were made many years earlier, and an entirely new generation

of stereotypes created after the fact. The new generation

can in turn, having been conditioned, expect or at the very

least accept continuation of racist stereotyping in its own

motion picture experience. So long as there is the conditioned

audience, film-makers have no perceptual, moral or marketable

reason to alter their racism in any substantive fashion, for

only when audiences "demonstrate an unwillingness to buy

demeaning stereotypes, will film producers be willing to

96 . . . . .
innovate change." Not unrelatedly, racist immigration policy

94Walter Lippmann, Public Opinion (New York: The

MacMillan Company, 1950), p. 93.
95
In Daniels and Kitano, o ]d . c i t ., for example,when
children in Georgia were asked their opinions about Japanese,
the "majority who had never seen a Japanese before used the
adjective 'sneaky,' no doubt strongly influenced by old Holly­
wood movies recently shown on TV about World War II," p. 108.
96 . . . .
Patricia Erens, "Images of Minority and Foreign
Groups in American Films: 1958-73," Jump C u t , No. 7, May-July,
1975, p. 20.

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 -18-

continues to affect the Asian minorities in the United States.

Because initially Asians were met with racial discrimination

in response to their emigrating to America, and were subsequently

prevented by the anti-Asiatic Exclusion Laws from developing a

sizeable population, they are today doubly discriminated against

97 .
directly as a result of the small size of their population m

the United States. As a racial, cultural and especially as a

numerical minority, Asians and Asian communities do not have the

resources with which to present counter-stereotypes or auto­

stereotypes to the majority society. The probability of the

white Americans' internalizing the negative stereotypes of Asians

is enhanced by the fact that race contact between Asians and the

whites is still limited, given the a) small size of the Asian

population and b) the actual demographic distribution, that is,

the demographically limited distribution, of Asian American com-

98 . . . .
munities. Thus, unlike those racial minorities whose pop­

ulation size and distribution increase the majority-minority

According to the 1970 census of population, Chinese

(431,583), Japanese (588,324), and Filipinos "(336,731) and Koreans
(70,000) constituted the bulk of the Asian population in the United
States. The first three groups marked a total of 1,356,638 or only
0.67% of the total American population. Even with the fast-growing
Korean population added, Asians still constitute less than 1% of
the total United States population. see: Final Report PC(L)-B1,
U.S. Summary, U.S.G.P.G., 1972. The effects of exclusion con­
tinue to limit Asians, as no economic, political, social or even
vocal power is possible without people. In that sense, Asians
were discriminated against because they supposedly came to America
in too great numbers, yet today they are discriminated against
because they did not come in great enough n u m bers.
98 . . . . .
Asians are concentrated m California, Illinois, New
York, Washington, and the Eastern Seaboard. In most states they
are practically non-existent. Outside the areas of concentration,
interracial contact is minimal, save media exposure.

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 -19-

contact, allowing for possible chances however minimal of

creating minority group counter-stereotypes through interracial

association, Asian images are for many Americans largely the

end products of the visual media in general and the motion

pictures and television in particular. While contact between

races does not necessarily produce interracial harmony or even

understanding, and in some instances may actually effect inter­

racial friction, it is especially likely that the relative iso­

lation between Asians and whites intensifies the negative stereo­

typical imagery of Asians, producing further anti-Asiatic p e r ­

ceptions among the whites, which in turn serve as auto-reinforcing

prejudices.

Stereotypes by definition are beliefs, which can be

either negative or positive in nature, held to be applicable

to at least the majority of the members of a racial or ethnic

group. Although on an individual, case-specific level there

may be a grain or kernel of truth at the root of the stereo­

type,100 the application, the blanketing of the belief, of

the case-specific origin to the majority of the target people

carries with it serious, even dangerous, implications when a

99
Positive stereotypes are egually, although not so
obviously, as potentially harmful as the negative. Often times
positive stereotypes are created in the media to mask social
injustices, as well as to propagandize the false belief of racial
equality, and so on. In that sense, positive stereotypes are
negative stereotypes in reverse.
10°E,T. Prothro and L. Mellikian, "Studies in Stereo­
types," Journal of Social Psychology, No. 41, 1955, pp. 21-30.

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 -20-

minority group is the object. In a race-conscious society

such as the United States, the application of stereotypes

to racial minorities, more so than to ethnic, has dynamic,

far-reaching, and often tragic consequences. Thus in res­

pect of the motion picture industry and its stereotypical

delimitations of Asians it -will be important in this study

in taking note of the consensual function of stereotypes

per se1^1 to determine to what extent the film industry has

produced change and variety in its portrayal of Asians and

Asian Americans. Accepting stereotypes as a fact of filmic

life, the presence of a particular stereotype is not evidence

of racism as such. It is the persistence and durability of

stereotypes over time which will determine to what degree

there has been progress. Similarly, a change of one set of

stereotypes for another set would not signify favorable change

for the Asians as actors and actresses or as people in society.

From the theoretical perspective, stereotypical delimitations

are instrumental in the film medium's institutional racism.

Anthony Gary Dworkin states, in his "Prejudice,

Discrimination, and Intergroup Perceptions: Exploratory Res­
earch into the Correlates of Stereotypy," (Ph.D. dissertation,
Northwestern University, 1970), p. 31: "In general researchers
have agreed that stereotypes perform three primary functions:
(1) they provide justification or rationalizations for con­
duct toward the ethnic targets, thereby reducing cognitive
dissonance, affective ambivalence, and incongruity by pro­
viding cognitive symmetry and balance often thereby main­
taining the status quo; (2) they provide cognitive economy
or order to the stereotyper's universe; and (3) they have the
function of group relatedness in providing symbolic identi­
fication with the in-group."

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 -21-

The motion picture industry's use of racial stereo-

102
types, not sociotypes, is the source of the institutional

system of stereotypical delimitations. Stereotypical delimit­

ations work in combination with role segregation and major/

minor role stratification to form constructural definition

of the industry's institutionalized racism against Asians.

However, while stereotypical delimitations fulfill the more

general task of preventing, certainly discouraging, the

multi-dimensional development and aesthetic continuity of

Asian characters--especially those portrayed by actual

Asian actors and actresses— a complemental system further

refines the racist intent of all systems by segregating the

Asians by gender and defining the kinds of interracial sex­

ual relationships permissible in the motion picture industry.

The industry's system of double standardized m is­

cegenation is to a large extent based upon traditional racist

assumptions about and fears of the consequences of interracial

sex and marriage. Generally speaking, the foundation of white

racism is laid upon biological, that is, genetic, grounds. Thus

because genetic intermixing or interchanging takes place by

102
Emory S. Bogardus, in "Stereotypes versus Socio-
types," Sociology and Social Research, No. 34, 1950, says
that sociotypes are "based on empirical methods and involving
Esicj adequate sampling and reliable generalizing on the sam­
ples," p. 287. It is suggested that Bogardus' sociotypes have
not been employed by the American motion picture industry, par­
ticularly in the Asian case.

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 -22-

way of sexual intercourse, the maintenance of the so-called

purity of the white race is contingent upon a prohibition

against interracial sex and marriage. Indeed, patterns of

dominance by whites of non-whites have demonstrated with

marked consistency over time that although the purity of

the white race, that is, its genetic integrity, is the first

commandment of white racism, and miscegenation prohibitions

to maintain that purity are the second, there has been a

particularly intense process of sexual exploitation of n o n ­

whites by whites, paralleling the more traditionally noted

economic, political, cultural and overall social exploitative

103
practices by white peoples over non-white peoples.

Put into the specific context of white racism in

the United States, sexual intermixing of whites with no n ­

whites was seen by whites as the single greatest threat to

the existence of the white race. Interracial marriage and

sexual intercourse have been the most fearsome elements in

the white Americans' relations with their non-white American

104 . .
brothers. In the ideology of white racism, the genetic

pollution of the white race is the root of all evil in the

103Santa Cruz, op. c i t ., p. 20.

104GunnerMyrdal, An American Dilemma (New York: Harper
& Brothers, 1944), pp. 60-61. It should be noted that although
interracial sex and marriage are mentioned separately, marriage
connotes sex. Miscegenation laws, then, were set as a legal
social prohibition against interracial sex. Thus, in spite of
the fact that interracial sex could not be stopped, racists
would not at least recognize it socially.

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 -23-

struggle to retain and to maintain white racial purity. Social

measures, both formal and informal, were taken to assure the

avoidance of interracial genetic exchange. Hence the enactments

of miscegenation laws instituted the substantive "sexualization

of racism"105 in the United States.

The motion picture industry's double standardized

miscegenation system has both the strengths and weaknesses

of America's traditional aversion to interracial marriage

and sex. It has the strength of law, that is, the institu­

tional prohibition against the filming of interracial sex or

marital scenes and themes. It has the weakness of humanity,

namely, the American white man's sexual vulnerability. In ­

herent in the film industry's perception of the greater soc­

iety lies the realization that the most consistent and often

deliberate lawbreakers of the sexual taboo have been white

males. Despite the fact that the maintenance of racial p ur­

ity was intended to be the responsibility of white males as

well as white females, male-domination of white females p ro­

vided an escape clause whereby white males have been able to

transgress interracial sexual prohibitions, while demanding

white females adhere rigidly to the prohibitions.106 White

105Calvin C. Hernton, Sex and Racism (New York:

Doubleday and Company, Inc., Garden City, 1965), p. 7.
10°Robert J. Sickels, Race, Marriage, and the Law
(Albuquerque, New Mexico: University of New Mexico Press,
1972), p. 11.

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 -24-

males have as the dominating force in American society built

into the practice of white racism the contradictory regulation

that they have the right of free sexual license with women of

color. Compensating for the awareness of their own history of

sexual misadventure with non-white women, white males have been

confronted with a psychological and libidinal ambivalence which

is, in Santa Cruz's analysis, a "morbid fear of miscegenation

and great emotional fear of rape— a strange combination of beliefs

in light of the fact that virtually all sexual contact has been

initiated by white men." White males' guilt and shame are pre­

sumably expunged by the projection onto non-white males the

hideous and aggressive characteristics of sexual animality:

Having ignored their own standards regarding the use of

violence and the control of the sex impulse, the . ..whites
find the strains on their consciences too heavy to bear.
They attempt to reduce the tension by projecting the traits
of violence and sexuality onto the native group...this
attempt to reduce strain may not work, for it may be acc­
ompanied by a sense of guilt, which leads to further anx-
107
lety, more hostility, the need for even more projection.

Non-white males thus serve the dual roles of acting as surrogates

for white males' sexual indiscriminateness and as would-be pol­

luters of the white race. In theory, non-white males have been

positioned as threats to the complete sexual dominance of white

men over women of any color. In practice, because of the sub­

servience to white male social power, non-white males have been

credited with non-masculine, effeminate characteristics when com-

107Santa Cruz, op. c i t ., p. 20.

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 -25-

pared to white males. The image of non-white males as sexual

threats, rooted in white men's own sexual freedom, acts as the

legitimizing force in maintaining extensive social control by

whites.

In like fashion, the motion picture industry has been

astute in its treatment of Asian males through the dichotomized

extremes of sexual projection. The industry has not been averse

to depicting the animality of Asian males, generally developed

in a sexually threatening portrayal of the "'Yellow Man' for

the 'White Woman.'"108 However, the industry has been con­

sistent and deliberate in its projected image of the licen­

tious and aggressive Asian male not to use an actual Asian male

actor in scenes treating of explicit sexuality with white women.

While the filmic practice is tempered by the larger society's

taboos, the effect of evincing the beastly and perverse nature

of Asian males for white women is successfully completed. The

sexually animalistic character of Asian males is shown in the

context of an attack upon otherwise helpless white women: there

can be rape, but there cannot be romance. Furthermore, the

Jones, The Portrayal of China and India on the American

Screen, 1896-1955, o p . c i t ., p. 17. Sexually, it was assumed that
Asian males could not come into contact with white women without
having in mind the thought to "debauch and ravage" them. See, for
instance, Stewart Creighton Miller, The Unwelcome Immigrant: The
Image of the Chinese, 1785-1882 (California: University of C al­
ifornia Press, 1969), p. 185. Also, white women who broke sexual
or marital prohibitions were punished by white males and white
male institutions. The Cable Act of 1922 actually revoked the
American citizenship of white women who married Asian males. The
victimized white women could regain their citizenship only if
they divorced their Asian husbands. See: Yamato, Japanese in the
United States, o p . cit., p. 324.

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 -26-

ideology of white racism as incorporated into the film in­

dustry places the burden of proof on the white woman who,

even in face of danger to herself, must remain sexually and

racially pure, resisting and not succumbing to the sexual

attack of the Asian male. For more dramatic effect, a white

male character might intervene and defend the integrity of

white womanhood.

In another associated direction, the industry can

utilize the socio-filmic castration of Asian males as a method

of intensifying the superior sexual status of white males with

Asian females. Since the sexual prohibition will not allow the

culmination of Asian male-white female sexual relations, the

reverse process of depicting Asian males as eunuch-like rivals

of white males serves to emphasize the masculine qualities of

white males and the feminine— more accurately the neuter-like—

109
characteristics of Asian males. Because Asian males cannot

sexually engage white women, and when juxtaposed with white

men cannot engage Asian women, Asian male-white female ro-

109
May Y m g C h e n ’s "Teaching a Course on Asian
American Women," Counterpoint; Perspectives on Asian Am ­
ericans (California: Asian American Studies Center, Resource
and Development Publication, University of California, Los
Angeles, 1976), Emma Gee (ed.), p. 235, points out that Asian
Americans are beginning to develop a high degree of sensitivity
to the medium’s portrayal of A s i a n s ’ sexual roles. Asians are
aware that in order to maintain the idea of white m a l e s ’ free
sexual license with Asian women, Asian women have been depicted
as "sexy," and available, while Asian males have been portrayed
as "sexless."

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 -27-

mances are cinematically closed. As sexual rivals of whites,

Asian males are neutralized, whether or not their potential

sexual partners are white or Asian females. Filmically the

white male is permitted to demonstrate and maintain his sex­

ual dominance over white and non-white women. In romantic

potential Asian males are essentially character eunuchs. In

sexual potential they are depicted as primarily character rap­

ists. In either capacity, Asian males are by the institutional

racism of the film industry destined to acknowledge the sexual

superiority of the white male and the untouchability of the

white female, Asian females, in turn, are provided no alt­

ernative on the matter of sex. If the industry calls for

interracial sexuality, then that sexuality will occur between

a white male and an Asian female. Unlike the racist image of

the threatening Asian rapist, white males are generally pro­

vided the necessary romantic conditions and masculine attri­

butes with which to attract the Asian females' passion. Asian

females are allowed to culminate their love of the white males

in explicit sexual activity on the screen. In effect, the in­

dustry literally puts the racist implications of differential

sexual role-playing before the American viewing audience, thereby

perpetuating the sexual principles of the ideology of white racism.

Motion pictures, by granting white males sexual freedom on the

screen, emphasize the fact that white males have been and con­

tinue to be the lawmakers and lawbreakers of the sexualization

of white racism.

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 -28-

Hence the system tradition of double standardized miscegenation

permits of three gender relationships on the portrayal of inter­

racial sex between Asiatics and whites: The first standard may

allow interracial sex if the partners, both as actors and screen

characters, are a white male and an Asian female. The second

standard a) prohibits the depiction of interracial sex between

an actual Asian male actor and a white female actress, and b)

permits the simulation effect of interracial sex to be shown on

screen so long as the Asian male character is in fact a white

man in cosmetics. The fundamental consideration ultimately

resident in the motion picture industry's handling of inter­

racial sex between whites and Asians is that of the depicted

freedom of white males' sexual license.

In alignment with the film industry's presentation of

sexual relationships between whites and Asians is its race-,

culture-, and gender-conscious establishment of the death theme.

Interracial sex and death, as noted above, have been allegorically

associated with genetic intermixture and equated with race pol­

lution, that is, the death of racial purity according to the

ideology of white racism. Jones earlier observed and noted

the relationship between suicide, death, sex and the overall

ambivalence with which the film industry has treated of Asians.110

The assumed expendability of Asian life both on and off

110Jones, The Portrayal of China and India on the A m ­

erican Screen, 1896-1955, o p . c i t ., p. 17.

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 -29-

the motion picture screen is substantively a function of white

cultural and institutional racism against Asians. In general

terms, the ideology of white racism has devalued non-white

peoples' lives. More specifically, the devaluation of Asian

life in particular has become such a deep-seated belief by

whites that is has developed into an important element in the

United States' cultural and institutional racism against Asians.

The commonplace American belief that Asians do not care about

life, their own included, as much as do white persons is a

racist justification for white devaluation of Asian life. At

the same time, the assertion that "Asian life is cheap"^^^ is

complemented by the belief that white persons' lives are in­

valuable. From the early days of white-Asian contact in the

United States, the murder of Asians by whites was overlooked

by the ma jority of white Americans and the legal institutions

that were designed to protect the lives and properties of all

persons. Thinking whites remarked:

In 18 57 The Shasta Republican declared that 'hundreds of

Chinamen have been slaughtered in cold blood during the
last five years by desperadoes that infest our state. The
murder of Chinamen was of almost daily occurrence ye t . . .we
have heard of but two or three instances where the guilty
112
parties have been brought to justice.

1:L1Richard Sorich, "A Discussion of the Asian Image in

American Schools and Public Media," Bridge, Volume 1, No. 4,
March/April, 1973, p. 11.
112
Jacobus ten Broek, Edward N. Barnhart, and Floyd W.
Matson, Prejudice, War and the Constitution (Berkeley and Los
Angeles, California: University of California Press, 1954), p. 15.

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 -30-

Through the years, the American motion picture industry

has socially internalized and cinematically institutionalized the

devaluation of Asian life as an American belief. Although most

Americans have not had an opportunity to meet Asians on a sub­

stantive social level, give^ the size of the Asian population

and its restricted distribution, the majority of white Americans

have been intimately introduced to Asians in the context of war

and violence on the motion picture and television screens. Three

generations of war in Asia, which have been carried across the

generations by motion picture re-runs, have conditioned the white

American pulbic to accept the deaths of Asians as natural occur­

rences in East-West relations. That Asians are often depicted

as the enemy of whites adds intense personal and patriotic depth

to the acceptability of Asian deaths, and limited white-Asian

social interaction reinforces anti-Asiatic racial and cultural11"^

biases among whites, which in turn produces ” 'difficulty' in dis-

114
tinguishing one Asiatic from another" as well as in disting­

uishing Asian Americans from foreign Asians. The end product

makes the deaths of Asians in the films and on the battlefields

more bearable than if they were the deaths of whites. The film

industry has in consequence created the cinematic vehicle through

which the Asian death theme is transmitted: the War genre.

"Report to the Governor on Discrimination Against

Asians," Daniel J. Evans, Governor, Public Hearing Conducted on
March 3, 1973, Seattle, Washington, State of Washington, Asian-
American Advisory Council, June 30, 1973, p. 30.
114
Amos Vogel, Film as Subversive Art (New York: Random
House, 1974), p. 266.

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 -31-

The war film, about which more will be said in Chapter

III, has been a definitive instrument of racial and cultural

contact between whites and Asians. Albeit of a generally dis­

torted variety, many Americans have a greater identification of

foreign Asians than they do of the Asian American minorities. On

the one hand, the limited and often racist association and per­

ception of Asian Americans by whites are used to classify the

foreign Asians in the white racist schema. On the other hand,

cultural and racial biases against foreign Asians by whites are

re-directed against £sian Americans. Foreign and domestic anti-

Asiatic racism work in combination and continually reinforce each

other. Domestic racism against Asian Americans is intensified by

organized military violence against foreign Asians. Racism aga­

inst foreign Asians is not only fed by the violent nature of the

white-Asian contact, but also by the domestic brand of anti-Asian

racism. Civilian and military anti-Asiatic racism form a cycle:

..., the military doesn't propagate, necessarily, the

racism. The racism starts right back here in the United
States and it is magnified when you enter the service.
It has a great effect on the Asian community in the United
States. It's obvious that military men have the attitude
that a gook is a gook [whether foreign or domestic]....

L/Cpl. Scott Shimabukuro, (E-3), "C" Battery, 3rd

Marine Division," Liberation: Testimony from Winter Soldier
Investigation, Volume 15, No. 11 - Volume 16, Nos. 1 & 2, Feb-
ruary-March-April, 1971, p. 47.

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 -32-

That the motion picture industry has produced so many

films of the war genre treating of Asians, coupled with an ap­

parent determination to sustain the racial overtones of the

American view of foreign Asians and Asian Americans, bears a

special import of the extent to which white racism in the films

is a re-entry of white racism in American society as a whole.

If only in the context of Americanism, white racism as an ant.i-

Asiatic fact of life can come to its single outstanding, violent

and socially acceptable manifestation, war. White racism against

Asians in the name of war is bound to two unshakable pillars of

the American nation-state, namely, nationalism and patriotism.

While racism against other racial minorities can be rationalized

by the ideology of white racism alone, anti-Asiatic racism can

be dignified and deifyied in the name of the American State. As

an example, thus, it is possible for a white American Army Gen­

eral to blend the elements of anti-Asiatic racism and national-

patriotism on film. In Hearts and M i n d s :

General Westmoreland comments matter-of-factly on the

differences between Western [white] and Oriental [Asian]
attitudes toward human life. To the latter, he says, it's
'cheap'."116 (Italics added.)

Motion Picture Product Dig e s t , Volume 2, No. 20, March

12, 1975, p. 78. It should also be noted that Shimabukuro, op. cit.,
p. 47, argues that there are no political bounds to white racism
against Asians. "It's not just against the South Vietnamese or the
North Vietnamese. It's against the Asians, as a people, all over
the w o r l d . This is proved anywhere the Americans have gone in Asia."
(Italics added.)

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 -33-

Indeed, the death theme as applied to Asians has been a def­

initive and powerful component of American thought, especially

military thought, over time. As further examples, in one of

America's least-known military adventures, the Philippines at

the turn of the century, the devaluation of Asian life by white

Americans epitomized and bore a linkage to later Asian escapades:

'I'd sooner see a hundred "niggers" [Filipinos] killed

than one of my men endangered,' wrote one infantry
117
officer.

A half century later, following the Philippines statement and

prefacing Westmoreland's Vietnam statement, another American

General, Mark Clark, delivered:

'The difference between us and them [Asians] is our firmer

belief in the sacredness of life — they're willing to
die readily, as all Orientals are ... I wouldn't trade one
dead American for 50 dead Chinamen.'11^

The individual, institutional and cultural racism intrinsic

to white Americans' devaluation of Asian life speaks to the

longitudinal and social depth of the death theme. As a per­

verse culmination to the devaluation of Asian life, largely

reflecting the white racist fear of superior Asian numbers, is

the desire not only to kill Asians, but to kill large numbers
119
of Asians: to "get a big kill ratio...a big kill count."

117 . . . . .
Richard E. Welch, Jr., "American Atrocities m the
Philippines: The Indictment and the Response," Pacific Hist­
orical Review, Volume XLIII, Number 2, May, 1974, p. 253.
11^Asians for a Fair Media, "Asian Images— A Message
to the Media," Bridge, Volume 3, Number 2, April, 1974, pp. 27-28.
319 . . .
Julian Smith, Looking Away: Hollywood and Vietnam
(New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1975), p. 65 [william Calley
speaking].

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 -34-

The motion picture industry's preoccupation with

the death of Asians is not only an old filmic tradition,

with the themes of death and violence only more recently

. . . . 120
gaming m general popularity, but also to a large ex­

tent a gender-conscious emphasis upon Asian males. It seems

reasonable to assume that in a white, male-dominated society

such as the United States, Asian males would be considered

the primary threat both from within and without, in much

121
the same fashion that they are seen as a sexual threat.

Similar to the white racist sexual ambivalence toward Asian

males as violent, would-be rapists of white women on the one

hand, and effeminate eunuchs on the other, the industry's

concentration of the death theme on the Asian male is bif­

urcated into the image of an aggressive enemy of major pro­

portions on the one side, and a militarily inept, albeit ex­

ceptionally brutal, loser on the other side. Especially in

films of war, or even civilian violence, Asian males however

advantageous their initial position, seldom can overcome the

superior white males. In opposing lines, Asian males not only

cannot win by fair means against whites, but they are often

frustrated in their foul means with the punishment of death.

120 .
Richard G. Dumont and Dennis C. Foss, The American
View of Death; Acceptance or Denial? (Cambridge, Massachusetts:
Schenkman Publishing Company, Inc., 1972), pp. 54-55.
121
Irene Fujitomi and Diane Wong, "The New Asian-American
Woman," in Stanley Sue and Nathaniel Wagner (eds..) Asian-Americans:
Psychological Perspectives (Palo Alto, California: Science & Behav­
ior Books, Inc., 1973), pp. 259-260.

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 -35-

Las tly, the industry, although supportive of the United

States' war efforts, has been particularly cautious on the matter

of depicting the deaths of Asian civilians, especially those of

women and children, by white, American soldiers. The institutional

assumption is that the destruction of women and children is an

immoral act of which only Asians are capable. However, recent,

frank and open discussion suggests that Americans have not been

averse to killing Asians, gender, age, or sex notwithstanding:

... all Vietnamese stooping in the rice fields are pic­

tured as the enemy, sub-humans without emotions and for
whom life is less valuable than for us.
During the Calley trial, we were told about 'MGR,'
the 'Mere Gook Rule' which was the underlying basis for
Calley's assertion that the slaughter of women and children,
our prisoners of war, was 'no big thing.'
The 'Mere Gook Rule' says that life is less important,
less valuable to an Oriental. Laws that protect other
122
human beings do not apply to 'Gooks'....

The devaluation of Asian life, that is, the industry’s death theme,

while applying to all Asians, is mainly focused on Asian males,

with Asian females [young females] reserved for sexual purposes.

It has been least applicable filmically to women and children,

save instances when there is a moral-military justification. The

instances, however, are rare.

122 . . . . .
Editorial, "Election 1972: Major Political Figures
Give Their Views on Asian-Americans," Bridge, September/October,
Volume 2, No. 1, 1972, p. 5. [The Honorable Patsy Mink quoted.]

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 -36-

Racial Slu r s . - Racial slurs, or name-calling, have

been used as verbal reinforcements of racism against Asians

in the American motion pictures. Generally speaking, the

usage of slurs is a universal phenomenon which has ’’played

123
a tremendously powerful role m the history of the world."

In the specific instance of this study, however, the following

terms, in either the singular or the plural forms, will be

classified as racial slurs against Asians when used in the

films: Charlie, Chinaman, Chink, Heathen, Jap, Moose, Monkey,

Monkey-Chaser, Nip, Gook, Slant-Eye, Slit-Eye, Slits, Slope-

Head., Slopie, and Wog.

Because racism against Asians in the motion picture

industry is institutional, often times the use of racial

slurs is conducted under the heading of standard operating

procedure. Likewise, the restricted contact between whites

and Asians in American society as a whole does not provide a

sufficient opportunity to edify whites to the effect that

racial slurs are racially insulting to members of the target

group both individually and collectively. Many persons who

refer to Chinese as 'Chinks’ or ’Chinamen,’ for example, do not

realize that the slurs "sting [.Chinese] race consciousness."1 ^

123
Alfred McClung Lee and Elizabeth Riant Lee (eds.),
The Fine Art of Propaganda (New York: Harcourt, Brace and
Company, Inc., 1938), p. 26.
124 . . . . . .
. Pearl Ng, Writings on the Chinese m California
(California: University of California, January, 1939), p. 44.

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 -37-

The term "Jap," additionally, has prompted immediate and even

125
violent reaction to whites who use it by American Japanese.

And the reference to Korean females as " 'Mooses'"126by American

soldiers in South Korea epitomizes the white racist tradition

of degrading Asian womanhood while eagerly taking advantage of

it. Every racial slur against Asians, then, is reflective of

the ideology of white racism.

In broad terms, racial slurs are designed to serve

three substantive ends: 1) They have been instrumental in

dehumanizing Asians. 2) They are racist reminders that whites

have been in a superior position socially to Asians, that is,

they are verbal symbols of race status and constant emblems

of racial humiliation. 3) They actually teach the language of

white racism across generations, distorting and stigmatizing

the names and the identities of Asians among the whites. On

balance, the power of racial slurs arises from the fact that

non-whites in general have been subjected to racial disgrace

and embarrassment by white peoples. No matter degrees of real

social progress made by non-whites, the use of a single racial

slur is a symbolic vitiation and reversal, that is, retrogression,

of race relationships in the United States. The use of racial

slurs is a succinct way of putting non-whites in their place.

125
Orville C. Shirey, Americans: The Story of the 442nd
Combat Team (Washington: Washington Infantry Journal Press, 1945),
p. 20.
12^Korean American Writings, Selected Materials from
Insight, Korean-American Bi-Monthly, 1975, p. 57.

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 -38-

Disclaimer. - A disclaimer is a filmic method of in­

structing the viewing audience that although certain terms

may be used, or negative characterizations or situations con­

structed, no deliberate attempt has been made to malign a par­

ticular racial or ethnic group, and that the audience should

not apply the negative terms, characterizations or situations

to real-life members of the ethnic or racial group portrayed.

There are essentially two ways in which the industry can posit

a disclaimer. First, there can be a built-in cinematic reaction

to the negative element. For example, in the film The Steel

Helmet, a white American soldier said to a young Korean boy

whom he had befriended earlier: "You talk more like a dogface

than a gook." Immediately the boy responded: "I am no gook!

I am a Korean I " The white soldier quickly acknowledged his own

racist error: "All right, all right, all right — so yGu're not
127
a gook." Thus although a racial slur was used against Koreans,

there was a corresponding correction in the scene by the Korean

character. Likewise, the audience was immediately alerted to

the anger and insult drawn from the use of the slur "Gook." In

that respect, the audience could associate the negative social

consequences of using racial slurs, yet filmically the scene

was neither broken nor torn, but rather highly effective in

demonstrating one dimension to racial misunderstanding.

1 77
The Steel Helmet (1951), Lippert Brothers, Producer
and Director Samuel Fuller. [Sergeant Zack and "Short Round"
speaking.]

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 -39-

Second, the industry can present either a written or

a narrated disclaimer at the beginning of the film. The dis­

claimer would provide a general statement from the producers of

the film to the viewing audience in which it would be explained

that although certain racist terms would be used, or racist

characterizations presented for effect, such racist terms or

characterizations are not intended to represent actual members

of the depicted racial group, whether living or dead. Of the

two types of disclaimers, the first would be the more filmically

balanced as there would be a visual and audible character built

into the motion picture itself, thereby providing a constant

and immediate opportunity to react to the use of racial slurs

or to offset negative characterizations with positive ones. In

either case, the disclaimer would be a conspicuous attempt by

the makers of the film to demonstrate that if racist terms or

characterizations are to be used, then there is a recognized

obligation on the part of the industry to alert the audience

that such terms or characterizations are offensive and dis­

torted elements to members of the depicted or themed racial

group. As a traditionally self-regulating institution, the

industry has proffered disclaimers on articles of controversy

to the greater American society. The burden of cinematic proof

rests upon the industry's shoulders. Hence in this study the

presence or the absence of disclaimers of any kind has been noted

in the analysis of the films.

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 -40-

Racist Cosmetology. - Although people have used cos­

metics since time immemorial, especially in organized perfor­

mances designed to entertain, racist cosmetology constitutes a

special sub-category of makeup. Unlike racial cosmetology which

would allow all performers— regardless of race— to simulate all

racial groups, the use of racist cosmetology is limited to white

performers only. The industry's use of racist cosmetics is im­

portant in discussing institutional racism against Asians for

three reasons: 1) The film industry has demonstrated its racist

propensities by concentrating upon external racial differences,

in this case the epicanthic fold. 2) The use of racist cosmetics

has been instrumental in the establishment of race freedom for

white actors in the systems of role segregation and major/minor

role stratification. 3) Racist cosmetology has been utilized

as a means of justifying the continued displacement of actual

Asian actors in the industry as a whole, particularly on the

major role level, thereby preventing them from developing pro­

fessionally within the industry.

In the first instance, of all the racial minorities in

motion pictures, none has received so great cosmetic concern as

have the Asian characters. In fact, the film industry's fascin­

ation with racial differences seems to have achieved a catharsis

as represented in Asian eye makeup. Emphasis upon slanted eyes

is racially primary in the industry’s cosmetic treatment, of Asians,

with skin color, hair texture, and so on, being largely secondary.

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 -41-

There is a consensus among makeup artists within the industry

that the so-called slanted eye, not skin color, is the most

significant component of racist cosmetology as applicable to

Asians:

The eyefold, or epicanthic fold, of the Mongolian race

is one of the basic facial differences which must be
created with make-up when a Caucasian type is to look
Mongolian.
129
"Since Oriental eyes require very special treatment," the

industry's makeup personnel have provided descriptions of the

Asian eye and the various techniques that can and have been

used in preparing whites to appear to be Asians:

One of the most striking characteristics of the Oriental

eyes is the flatness of the orbital area. Since the eye
itself is prominent and the bridge of the nose is not
built up, the dip between the two ... is likely to be
very slight.... It is here particularly that the makeup
must counteract the normal conformation of the Caucasian
130
eye.

The actual techniques employed in simulating the epicanthic

fold can vary from a rather simple application of paint and

shadow highlights, crescent-shaped from the tear ducts, that

give the illusion of the epicanthic fold and are effective

Vincent J-R Kehoe, S.M.A., The Technique of Film

and Television Make-up for Color and Black and White (New
York: Communications Arts Books, Hastings House Publishers,
1969), p. 131.
129 .
Richard Corson, Stage Makeup (Englewood Cliffs,
New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1975), p. 103.
130Ibid., p. 103.

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 -42-

in long shots especially on the theatrical stage, to more

advanced attempts. For close-up shots in motion pictures

and television, pieces of adhesive tape are cut and fitted

to the eyes. Spirit gum is then spread on the inside edges

of the pieces, after which they are placed over the white

actor's or actress's own eyelids. In order to smooth down

the adhesive tape, small quantities of latex are smeared

around the outside edges of the tape and a creme or grease

makeup applied over the latex to sustain an appropriate

color base. In almost every instance of eye makeup the

secondary components are added to complete the effect of

Asianizing or Orientalizing whites. Generally speaking, a

131
"slick black" wig and a s k m - d a r k e n i n g base finalize the

process, although other affectations, which do not directly

come under the heading of cosmetology, may be added such as

stylized body movements, pidgin English, high-pitched voice

[in the case of an Asian male], and traditional Asian dress.

One of the most sophisticated techniques developed

by the industry is a product of the famed Westmore family

of cosmotologists. Philip Ahn, the well-known Korean

American actor, sat as a model for Wally Westmore who poured

131 . . .
Herman Buchman, Film and Television M a k e u p , with
demonstration photographs by Susan E. Meyer (New York: Watson-
Guptill Publications, 1973), p. 198.

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 -43-

a jelly substance into Ahn's eyes. The resultant jelly mold

was then transferred to clay and finally to rubber, after which

the pieces were used to Orientalize Akim Tamiroff in The General

Died at Da w n . What would appear, indeed, to be the most advanced

effort thus far was performed by Westmore for Shirley Maclaine

in the film My Geisha, the description of which deserves to be

quoted in its entirety:

The technicians mixed a batch of dental plaster— a highly

refined and smooth type of plaster of Paris— and poured it
into the wax impression [of Shirley's eyes]]. When that
hardened, we removed the wax and had a perfect reproduction
of the top half of the familiar Maclaine face. It was on
this model thatwe then proceeded to work with modeling
clay, curving the eye to the desired Oriental shape. Through
another series of wax impressions and dental-plaster castings,
we were finally able to bake rubber eyepieces fashioned from
the clay additions we had sculpted onto the plaster repro­
duction of her upper face.
These complicated procedures took four days, at the end
of which time [Wallyj summoned Shirley back to the lab. [He]]
glued on the eye-pieces with spirit gum, and to give the
eyes a further slant [he]] glued an invisible flesh-colored
plastic tab to the skin near each of her temples. Rubber
bands, attached to the tabs and hooked together at the top
of her head, under a concealing wig, pulled up the corners
of her eyes. With brown contact lenses obscuring her bright
blue eyes, Shirley looked as Oriental as the Japanese Emp-

132
Frank Westmore and Muriel Davidson, The Westmores of
Hollywood (New York: J.B. Lippincott Co., 1976), pp. 208-209.

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 -44-

Through the use of racist cosmetology, whether pre­

ferring the old technique of sticking "fish skin and glue"1^

across a white actor's eyes in order to simulate the epicanthic

fold or duplicating the sophistication of the Westmore process,

the motion picture industry has established the right of whites

to break the barriers of role segregation, while simultaneously

maintaining the prohibition against Asians' portrayal of whites.

As one observer remarked:

We saw an oriental on the screen and if he were a menial

and his part a non-starring one, he was a real Chinese
or a real Japanese.
We saw an oriental on the screen and if he were a fine,
colorful character and his part a leading one, he most
likely was Charles Boyer, or Paul Muni, or Walter Huston.
The same with the girls.
The old habit of casting occidentals as orientals will
doubtless continue as far as starring performers are con-
^ 134
cerned.

Additonally, the industry's system of major/minor role stratifi­

cation dictates which Asian character roles will be usurped by

white actors. The more important Asian character roles generally

go to whites, although even minor roles, too, may be given to the

whites. Regardless of hew minor a white role, Asians are not

The Tidings, Friday, July 28, 1944, The Motion Pic­

ture Academy of Arts and Sciences, Margaret Herrick Library, the
"Oriental" clipping file, hereinafter to be referred to as the
MPAS Collection.
134 .
William H. Mooring, "The Sound Track," The Tidings,
March 24, 1944, MPAS Collection.

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 -45-

permitted by the industry, with or without comparable cosmetic

attempts, to portray white characters. In combining the two

systems of role segregation and major/minor role stratification,

the industry's use of racist cosmetology, or makeup, has assisted

in establishing the overall policy of racist restrictions against

Asians. On the one hand, the horizontal system of role segrega­

tion forces Asians into Asian roles o n l y , while in turn allowing

white actors to cross over into Asian roles. On the other hand,

within the confines of horizontal movement, vertical mobility

for Asian actors is limited vis-^-vis the crossing over process,

for major Asian character parts may be taken by whites, leaving

minor Asian character roles to Asians, who again may be displaced

by white actors on even the lower levels =

As a highly developed, visual and artistic endeavor, the

film industry's tradition of utilizing cosmetics, specially as it

relates to the racial displacement of Asians, has accounted for

not only the past policy of preventing Asians from rising in the

industry, but also for the present-day practice, whereby the so-

called "Orientals...are still sloughed off by studios."1"^ D es­

pite the fact that some racial minorities have made progress in

the industry concerning racist makeup,1^5 the Asians have been and

Nobel "Kid" Chissell, "Oriental Actors Have C on­

tributed," Los Feliz Hills N e w s , Thursday, November 7, 1974,
MPAS Collection.
“*'^^As early as 1909, with the production of Uncle Tom's
Cabin, "the practice of using burnt-corked whites to play Negro
roles gradually fell into disuse." See: Peter Noble, The Negro
in Films (New York: Arno Press and the New York Ti m e s , 1970) p. 31.

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 -46-

continue to be professionally circumscribed. Moreover, the ex­

panded use of racist cosmetology has broadened the exclusion of

Asians from the acting profession as a whole. Asians have, most

recently, been doubly discriminated against by a policy of cast­

ing other non-white minorities in Asian roles, thereby presumably

filling non-white (but non-Asian) quotas while successfully con­

tinuing the policy of ignoring the talents and professional at­

tributes of Asian actors and actresses. Hence, while on the one

hand "no one in this country would dare to put on 'black face'

anymore," offending Black racial sensibilities and employment

opportunities in the process, white "producers do not hesitate

to allow non-Asians to use 'yellow face' (racist cosmetology).

Asian roles "are now being given to members of other minority

groups.Professionally, then, Asians face a double dilemma:

1) They are excluded from opportunities that arise when Asian

roles are dissolved by "an all-white cast with yellow make-up."1"^

2) They are excluded, and misrepresented as a racial minority,

139
when Asian roles are "played by whites and blacks." As a

minimal expectation among Asian actors, given a diverse in­

dustry which classifies Asian actors and actresses by race first,

137
Oriental Actors of America to Actors Equity Asso­
ciation of New York, "Asian Roles for Asian Actors," Bridge,
Volume 3, No. 3, June, 1974, p. 4.
■^^"Yellow Paint Does Not an Asian Make," Gidra, Volume
II, Number 8, September, 1970, p. 17.
139 . . . .
Oriental Actors of America, Bridge, o p . c i t ., p. 4.

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 -47-

Asian roles should be directed to Asian actors and actresses.

A maximal expectation, and one fundamental to Asians' professional

growth, is the termination of the film industry's institutionally

racist counter-expectation, namely, that Asian artists are cap­

able of filling Asian roles only. From the Asian perspective,

the question arises: "'Where is the law, the regulation, the code

that restricts us [Asian actors and actresses] from functioning

140
fully as actors?'" Save exceptional cases, Asians view roles

as artistically non-racial. For Asian artists to transcend the

industry's race-conscious counter-expectations, "the unwritten

practice of casting Japanese, Chinese or Korean actors only in

141
Japanese, Chinese or Korean roles must be abolished."

In practice, then, the continued use of racist cosmetology

is a symbolic and institutional instrumentality of the traditional

policy which has provided that "all major sympathetic Oriental

roles of any intelligence, prominence and esteem, which would

142
result in the g a m i n g of fame, fortune, heroism and pride"

be given to white— not Asian— actors and actresses. For the in­

dustry's use of cosmetics to be non-racist, it would have to be

non-dichotomous, that is, all actors, regardless of race, would

be allowed to portray all races. However, it is the non-reciprocal

140
"Actors Protest Asian Typecasts," Los A.ngeles T i m e s ,
December 30, 1976, [quoting Mako], MPAS Collection.
141ibid.
142
Lang Yun, "A Chinaman's Chance Beyond the Lost
Horizon," Screen A c t o r , April, 1973, pp. 10-11.

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 that is, the displacement of Asian actors by white actors through

the use of racist cosmetics without a corresponding effort by the

industry to negate the racist implications by allowing Asians to

displace whites, character of cosmetic policy that evinces its

racist function. More importantly, the fact that the industry's

displacement or exclusion of minority actors and actresses by

140
cosmetized whites can be and has been changed, providing that

enough social pressure can be brought to bear upon both the film

industry and the individual artists within the industry, makes

the sustained use of slant-eyed makeup especially serious and

retrogressive in the midst of an era of undeniable progress for

minorities, particularly for racial minorities, in general. In

addition, and closely aligned with the racist belief that Asians
141 .
are not even competent enough to "portray themselves" m films,

140 ■ . . .
By way of comparison, it is interesting to look at
a particular case. Anthony Quinn, the actor, has portrayed Asians
on more than one occasion. However, during a T.V. discussion with
Dick Cavett: ,.Quinn spoke of plans to produce and star in a film
about Henri Christophe, the legendary black Haitian emperor. The
film, entitled Black Maje s t y , long had been one of Quinn's pro­
jected enterprises, but the casual mention on the Cavett show p rom­
pted a probably-not-unexpected backlash which began with a Variety
article headlined 'Filming in Haiti: Quinn Blacks Up' and contin­
ued in a lengthy New York Times Sunday piece by writer Ellen Holly.
Her article was in the form of a letter to the actor and run under
the headline 'Black History Does Not Need Anthony Quinn.' She
maintained that it is 'unthinkable to countenance Anthony Quinn
in the role of Christophe' and that 'all one asks is that you
^Quinnj show a decent regard for the sensibilities and emotional
needs of the black community and relinquish the title role to a
black actor.’ See: Alvian H. Marill, The Films of Anthony Quinn
(Secaucus, New Jersey: The Citadel Press, 1975), pp. 33-34. Quinn
neither made the movie nor displaced a Black actor.
141
Steve Tatsukawa, "Charlie Chan — Take Two, G i d r a ,
Volume III, No. 4, April, 1974, p. 12.

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 the industry's preemptive judgment that Asians have neither the

experience nor the qualifications with which successfully to com­

pete as artists further diminishes employment potential for the

Asian minority. While the industry has denied job opportunities

to Asians on the basis of race, self-fulfilling its own institu­

tional directive to minimize the hiring of Asians, it has in its

142
wake created a "never-ending cycle" which is designed to dis­

place Asians through the use of cosmetized whites. The industry's

standard response that it cannot locate an Asian "suitable for"

any particular role has become, in Asian acting circles, a time-

143
worn "cliche," the basis of which has little substance in fact.

To all intents and purposes, given today's plethora of Asian

. . 144
actors and actresses who are both "available and qualified,"

the motion picture industry's continued use of racist cosmetics

and the consequent exclusion effect produced against Asians is

tantamount to a medium anachronism. The superficiality of the

industry’s justification is emphasized by the fact that, notwith­

standing qualifications and experience, Asians have not been

allowed with the assistance of cosmetics to take white roles on

the lowest levels, while white actors have been permitted to take

Asian roles on the highest levels. A more accurate perspective

would suggest that the issue is not the experience and qualifi-

142
Asians for a Fair Media, op. cit., p. 29.
143
"East/West Players," J a d e , Volume One, Number 4, 1974,
p. 28. [Mako speaking.]
144
"Jobs for Orientals Pushed by N.Y. AFTRA m Letter to
Field," Variety, February 14, 1973, MPAS Collection.

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 -50-

cations of Asian actors per s e , but rather the institutional­

ization of racist cosmetology in the motion picture industry.

Asians. - The Asians in this study are largely def­

ined by the American motion picture industry. Four factors have

influenced the definition: 1) the particular style of racist cosm­

etology, that is, the focusing on epicanthic Asians; 2) imaginal

conditioning: the product of historical contact and conflict with

Asians in the United States, incorporating immigration and inter­

racial problems; 3) the representative size of the Asians in the

United States, still heavily Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, and

Korean; and 4) three generations of war against Asian peoples,

namely, the Pacific theater of the Second World War, the Korean

Conflict, and the Vietnam Conflict. Hence this study will con­

centrate on the following groups, circumscribed by the industry,

in descending order: Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Korean, and

Vietnamese. However, it is suggested that other Asian groups

have undergone essentially the same filmic treatment as have

the above-mentioned peoples. In that respect, while they may

not be cited specifically by name, it can be readily assumed

that any and all Asians fit into the design of this piece, and

that all concepts and findings apply equally to them as well.

Visual Medium. - The American visual media in their

broadest definition encompass all pictures, whether they are

still or moving, and visual activities that might possibly in­

clude Asians. Conceivably, pictures in magazines, cartoons, news­

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 -51-

papers, textbooks (children's and adult), the theater, as well

as motion pictures and television tapes, constitute the uni­

verse from which the study might draw its actual samples. S pe­

cifically, however, the study will concentrate upon the American

motion pictures, that is, the feature films, excluding documen­

taries and official Government products and productions. Likewise,

all written and verbal materials that accompany or augment those

feature American films will be utilized for the purpose of the

films' analysis.

Major Character/Major R o l e . - A major character is a

person around whom a significant portion of the film revolves.

A major role is the casting of an actor or actress in the per­

son of a major character. Generally speaking, feature films

produce two major characters or roles, the one male and the

other female. There are many instances, however, when more

than two major characters are included.

Minor Character/Minor R o l e . - A minor character is a

person of secondary importance to the film as a whole. A minor

role is the casting of an actor or actress in the person of a

minor character. Minor characters may have small to fairly ex­

tensive speaking parts.

Ex tras■ - An extra, in almost every instance, does not

have a speaking part in the film. Extras function primarily as

background fillers and cinematic atmosphere. Extras are not

usually identified to the viewing audience by name.

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 -52-

Explicit S e x . - Explicit sex is classified as any

physically romantic touching or contact between members of the

opposite sex. The degree of explicit sex is gradated along a

scale from low to medium to high. Hand-holding, hugging, and

so on, particularly in public would be low. Fondling and in­

cipient sexual foreplay, especially in private scenes in the

context of a purposefully romantic interlude would be medium.

And kissing, other than friendly, and other manifest sexual

activity, particularly in private, in a purposefully romantic

scene would be high.

Implicit S e x . - Implicit sex is classified as any

non-touching, contextual romance between members of different

sexes. Generally speaking, implicit sex may be romantic eye-

contact to imaginary sexuality. For the purpose of this study,

the fundamental difference between implicit and explicit, sex is

that there is actual physical contact between members of the

opposite sex in the latter, degree of contact notwithstanding,

and no physical contact between members of the opposite sex in

the former.

Eurasians. - Eurasians are considered to be the off­

spring of a white-Asian union. Either of the parents may be

white or one of the Asian groups mentioned above. The only

absolute criterion necessary in identifying a Eurasian is that

one parent be white and the other Asian, making the offspring

half European and half Asian. No other stipulation is made.

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 -53-

A ctual. - The term "actual" is used as a means of

differentiating between characters portrayed and real persons

as actors and actresses. A character, contrariwise, would be

a filmic creation portrayed by an "actual" actor or actress.

Genre. - A genre is a general heading under which

films of similar content may be classified. For instance,

Westerns, Comedy, War, Detective, Science Fiction, and so on,

constitute film genres. Although some of the newer films are

not so easily classifiable according to traditional genres, the

study will provide as near precise identification and classifi­

cation as is possible.

Finally, in analyzing institutional racism against

Asians in the American motion pictures, three propositions

will be examined in order to determine to what extent racism

as defined has increased, decreased, or remained constant over

time. The first proposition suggests that given the industry's

institutional incorporation of the sexualization of white racism,

coupled with the policy of double standardized miscegenation, the

greater the level of explicit sex between white and Asian charac­

ters on the screen, the greater the likelihood that the male will

be an "actual" white actor and the female an "actual" Asian act­

ress. That is, there will be a white male/Asian female emphasis.

Noting a corresponding decrease in the likelihood that explicit

interracial sex will be shown between Asian male characters and

white female characters per s e , it is further proposed that in

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 -54-

those instances in which such explicit sex scenes do arise,

there will be a greater likelihood that the Asian male char­

acter will be portrayed by an "actual" white actor in racist

cosmetics, with the female character being an "actual" white

actress, in order to ensure that an "actual" Asian actor not

engage in explicit sex with an "actual" white female actress

on the screen.

The second proposition suggests that given the in­

dustry's system of role segregation and major/minor role strat­

ification, that is, opportunities for horizontal and vertical

race movement for white actors utilizing racist cosmetics, the

greater the development of an Asian character part, the greater

the likelihood that the Asian character will be portrayed by a

white actor in racist cosmetics. The corresponding assumption

is that the lesser the development of an Asian character part,

that is, the lesser or more minor the role of an Asian character,

the greater the likelihood that the minor role will be filled by

an "actual" Asian actor. An attending assertion suggests that

Asian actresses may rise in role importance in the specific con­

text of interracial sex with white actors, that is, "actual" Asian

actresses will be decreasingly displaced by "actual" white act­

resses in racist cosmetics.

The third proposition states that the American motion

picture industy's assimilation of the traditional white racist

belief that life in Asia is cheap, and that Asians individually

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 -55-

and collectively do not care for, that is, value, human life as

much as do white peoples, will demonstrate that the greater the

level of interracial violence between whites and Asians, the

greater the likelihood that Asians will die disproportionately

when compared to whites. Although it can be presupposed that

the war genre will prove notably applicable, the death theme

would suggest similar ends in non-war genres, albeit less fre­

quently, when interracial violence is depicted. Moreover, it

is proposed that while the death theme is generally focused on

Asians as a group, the motion picture industry has concentrated

its depiction of Asian deaths on Asian males, with a corres­

ponding sexual emphasis on Asian females.

In order to develop a deeper appreciation of the motion

picture industry's treatment of Asians and Asian themes, a his­

torical background presentation, including an attempt to examine

certain unique facets of white-Asian relations, will be helpful

in assisting the investigation and the analysis of racism against

Asians in the American feature films. It is to that end that

Chapter II of this study is directed.

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 CHAPTER II

THE EARLY YEARS: ASIANS IN THE AMERICAN FILMS

PRIOR TO WORLD WAR II

The Silent Films:

Asians and Asian themes, mostly Chinese, found their

way into the American films as early as the latter part of the

19th century. By the beginning of the 20th century, in keeping

with American immigration contact and conflict with the Chinese,

the cinematic treatment of Asians spanned documentary and semi­

documentary vignettes of life in Asia to curiosity pieces of the

Asian American sub-culture. Heathen Chinese and the Sunday

School Teachers (1904) released by the American Mutoscope &

Biograph Company was inspired by Bret Harte’s literary and

cultural biases and served as a transition stage across media,

145
whereby traditional written prejudices against the Chinese

145
A defense of Harte's cultural and racial biases
against the Chinese speaks to the durability of his impact
upon white thinking of the Chinese. For example, one student
of Harte's works argues that Harte was not anti-Sinitic, but
rather liberal in his treatment of the Chinese. As evidence,
she states that Harte depicted the Chinese as patient and kind,
with their outstanding virtue being a demonstrative "loyalty
to white children." See: Margaret Laton Keim, "The Chinese as
Portrayed in the Works of Bret Harte: A Study of Race Relations,"
Sociology and Social Research, Volume XXV, Number 5, May-June,
1941, pp. 442 and 450.

-56-

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 -57-

were translated and interwoven filmically into the newer motion

picture medium. In 1903, The Chinese Rubbernecks presented a

lengthy chase with pigtailed Chinese laundrymen, while the

Chinese Laundry; At Work (1904), which was released by the

same Biograph company, introduced white Americans more intim­

ately to the daily labors of the local Chinese laundryman as

a long-standing but definitively misunderstood segment of

Americana. The 1908 production of The Yellow P e r i l , "in which

a Chinese servant disrupts a household, is thrown from a window,

146
beaten by a policeman, and set on fire," provided an oblique

indication of increasingly serious immigration and racial p r o ­

blems between the United States and the rising Empire of Japan,

with the Chinese thematically filling the role of scapegoat.

There was a certain irony in the fact that although

the original Yellow P er : 1 as perceived by white Americans and

Europeans alike had been the Chinese, and the film industry’s

development of the "oriental villain" as "characteristically

147 . .
Chinese," with "virtually no use of Japanese types m sil-
148
ent films," save the rarest exception, it was the Japanese

who in fact were more intensely involved with challenging the

146
Thomas W. Bohn and Richard L. Stromgren, Light and
Shadows (Port Washington, New York: Alfred Publishing Company,
Inc., 1975), pp. 192-193.
147 .
Raymond Durgnat, "The ’Yellow P e r i l ’ Rides Again,"
Film Society Review, Volume 5, Number 2, October, 1969, p. 36.
148
Bohn and Stromgren, op. c i t . , pp. 192-193.

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 -58-

United States' racist policies against Asians, particularly as

directed against the Japanese, and the West's presence on the

Asian continent. From the beginning, Japan's insular position

. , 149
coupled with a decided emphasis on the military, unlike Korea

and China, equipped the Japanese with a propensity for modern­

ization and industrialization along military lines, i.e., with

the end view being international power and prestige in the eyes

of the Western nations. At the same time, having witnessed the

West's aggression against China, the Japanese quickly developed

a serious concern with the possibility that Japan might become

an occupied Asian nation. The concern became fundamental to

the future of the Japanese nation itself. The Japanese felt

increasingly threatened by the West's continued movement into

Asia, a movement it was believed was surely destined to col­

lapse Japan under the weight of Western imperialism unless

counterbalanced and "checked by Japanese expansion."

Although Japan's initial expansionist impulse was

stimulated primarily by the European nations' example, the

United States' activities in particular added contradictory

incentive and frustration. The Japanese saw the main thrust

of their expansionist plans directed southward into the Pacific

and Southeast Asia. Contemporaneously, however, the United

149
John K. Fairbank, The United States and China, o p .
cit., pp. 10-11.
Akira Iriye, Pacific Estrangement: Japanese and
American Expansion..., o p . c i t ., p. 35.

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 -59-

States had begun its own imperial expansion into an area that

was viewed by many Americans as the United States' Far West:

notably, the Pacific and East Asia. With ominous implications

for Japan's ambitions, the United States had joined Europe as a

full-fledged expansionist and imperialist nation by the turn of

the century. While the Europeans and Americans spoke of the

Yellow Peril, and the American film industry began its imagery

of villainous Asian hordes determined to conquer the Western

world, the United States exploded onto the international scene:

Even if one dates American imperialism by the taking of

the Philippines and the enunciation of the Open Door Notes
(1898-1901) ... American leaders can hardly be termed in­
different or inefficient expansionists. They moved firmly
and irrevocably into Samoa in 1878, helped Europeans con­
trol Morocco in 1880, opened Korea by themselves in 1882,
maneuvered for open access to a free market place in the
Congo in 1883-1884, claimed rights to Pearl Harbor in 1887,
finished the job in Hawaii in 1893, intervened in Venez­
uela and Brazil between 1893 and 1896, established effective
control of Cuba and the Philippines by 1899, and dispatched
more than 5,000 troops to China in 1900 as part of claiming
fair shares throughout that vast nation. Surely that per­
formance qualifies for passing marks as an imperial achieve-
ment over ■twenty
u years. 151
Within the overall context of the West's imperialist drive, with

the white nations pressing the non-white nations of the world into

William Appleman Williams, The Roots of the Modern

American Empire: A Study of the Growth and Shaping of Social
Consciousness in a Marketplace Society (New York: Random House,
1969), pp. 246-247.

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 -60-

sources of raw materials and cheap labor, as well as dumping

grounds for surplus products, the Japanese sought to offset the

Western imperial combine in Asia by military means, creating for

themselves a guarantee against Western domination of Japan.

As was mentioned earlier (see: text, p. xxiv), Japan's

aggression against China in 1894-95 was openly admitted as a

tactic designed to unify political and social forces in Japan

and to ready the nation for expansion into Asia and the Pacific:

There...was a clear-cut contest between the oligarchy

which had governed the country since the Restoration
[1868] and a more popular form of government in which
the lower house of the Diet was seeking control of the
purse strings. Only a foreign war, it seemed, could
stop this contest, the issue of which was so greatly
152
to be dreaded by the oligarchy.

Moreover, the defeat of China offered the Japanese military the

opportunity to challenge China's suzerainty over Korea. From a

strategic point of view, the Japanese perceived Korea to be a

dagger pointing at the throat of Japan, especially if the pen­

insular nation were in the hands of the West. So, too, Korea

marked a coveted foothold on the Asian mainland and a base of

operations from which Japan could exploit the substantial re­

sources that the island nation lacked. Additionally, Japan's

control of Korea minimally, and China maximally, would serve as

152 . •
Tyler Dennett, Americans m Eastern A s i a , o p . c i t .,
pp. 487-488.

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 -61-

a buffer zone against the inroads of the West.

In light of the first Sino-Japanese War, the Americans

stood idly by while Japan took what was to be the first step on

the road to Pearl Harbor. The United States' intense anti-Sinitic

racism, and the contradictions inherent in racial exclusion leg­

islation, was largely responsible for a conspicuous silence by

the United States as Japan assaulted China with impunity:

...the American Government, after all its embarrassments

in dealing with China on the immigration question, was not
in any mood at the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War to
become in any marked degree a partisan of China.

More importantly, however, the United States vis-a-vis its stand-

by-and-do-nothing policy violated American treaty commitments to

Korea. With Korea helplessly torn between Ch i n a ’s decrepit suz­

erainty and Japan's military aggression, the Shufeldt Treaty

turned out to be little more than "a paper promise, and, so far

as America was concerned, not worth the paper it was written

154
on." Because the Unxted States failed to use its so-called

good offices on Korea's behalf, the peninsular nation's status

remained tenuous and undefined. Given Korea's status, coupled

with China's defeat, the Japanese continued their quest for the

domination of the smaller nation, fully prepared to confront the

last barrier to their success, Russia. Underestimating Japan's

military power and political resolve, the Russians were encour­

aged to extend their interests in Manchuria and Korea, an ex­

153Dennett, 0£ s cit., p. 549.

■^"SdcKenzie, ojd. cit., p. 23.

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 -62-

tension of interests that led to the Russo-Japanese War of 1905.

Ironically, the Russian-Japanese confrontation would win for

Japan membership in the Yellow Peril club not only politcally155

but also, in time, filmically.

In order to consolidate its position on the mainland

of Asia, Japan within a decade of her defeat of China militarily

challenged Russia, and "unassisted and single-handed[ly]," def­

eated that nation, "but at a cost of 100,000 lives and a billion

dollars."1^6 The Japanese militarists proudly argued that their

defeat of Russia had put into practice the theory of the United

States' Open Door Notes, that is, that Japan had literally saved

China from dismemberment by the foreign powers. In addition to

having secured a foothold in Manchuria by defeating China and

Russia, Japan had gained a free hand with Korea. Despite rep­

eated declarations to the United States that Japan supported

Korean independence, the Japanese completely annexed Korea in

less than five years. By defeating Russia, augmenting Japan's

157
sphere of influence, the "plucky little Japs," as German

Kaiser Wilhelm, originator of the Yellow Peril thesis, referred

to the Japanese, had proved to the world that white nations were

not invincible, and that an industrialized Asian nation could

in fact defeat a white nation. Initially, Japan's victory was

1 55
McClellan, op. cit., p. 234.
1^^Kiyoshi K. Kawakami, Japan Speaks on the Sino-Japanese
Crisis (New York: The MacMillan Company, 1932), p. 10.
1~^John E. Schrecker, Imperialism and Chinese Nationalism:
Germany in Shantung (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University
Press, 1971), p. 24.

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 -63-

seen as a peculiarity albeit one of value to the balance of power

in the East. As formalized in the revised Anglo-Japanese Alliance

of August 12, 1905, the victory brought temporary relief to the

English who had been apprehensive of Russia's presence in the

East. So, too, the Treaty of Portsmouth marked more than the

conclusion of hostilities between Japan and Russia. It was the

instrument that gained England's and Russia's recognition of

Japan's predominance in Korea. However, the United States'

attitude, while providing the Japanese indication that the

Americans were not anxious to interfere in Japan's movements

in Asia, made clear that mutual understandings and accommo­

dations should be reached for mutual benefit.

On the one hand, the United States' imperial thrust into

the Pacific constituted a blockage to Japan's expansionist plan

in general. The annexation of the Philippines by the United

States, in particular, traumatized the Japanese, although at

the time Japan was not in a position to counteract the American

movement. Both nations, however politely, recognized the pot­

entially conflictive implications of control of the Philippines

by either side. In an attempt to defuse that potentiality, the

United States and Japan concluded a compromise on the issue by

the signing of the Taft-Katsura agreement, whereby the United

States "became an 'unsigned member' of the Anglo-Japanese

A l lian ce. " In the agreement, Secretary of State William

Harold Hak-won Sunoo, Korea; A Political History in

Modern Times (Columbia, Missouri: Korean-American Cultural
Foundation, n.d.), p. 197.

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 -64-

Taft and Prime Minister, Count Katsura provided in effect that

a) the United States would not interfere in Japan’s seizure of

Korea, if b) Japan would indicate that she had no designs on

the United States’ newly acquired territory of the Philippines.

Consequently, Korea and the Philippines were used as territorial

pawns in the much larc_r political game of simultaneous expansion

of the United States and Japan.

On the other hand, of equally dynamic consequences, the

racist immigration policies of the United States against Asians

brought angry reaction both from the Chinese and the Japanese.
159
By 1905, the Chinese had begun an "anti-American" boycott,

the first boycott in Chinese history, in answer to American im­

migration exclusion and especially to the racial humiliation

suffered by the Chinese in America. Although largely symbolic,

being tacitly backed by the Manchus, the boycott nonetheless

alerted Americans to the growing nationalism among the Chinese,

as well as to their increasing resentment of white racism in the

United States. Chinese newspapers printed cartoons which:

pictured in detail the Chinese being driven into the

'water house’ i.e., the detention shed, compelled to
bathe, measured naked by the Eertillon system and sub­
jected to violence and insult in the street.150

Despite their position of national weakness, the Chinese were

159
Foster Rhea Dulles, American Policy Toward Communist
China, 1949-1969 (New York: Thomas Y. Crowel Company, 1972),
pp. 14-15.
15° C .F . Remer, A Study of Chinese Boycotts (New York:
The Johns Hopkins Press, 1933), p. 29.

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 -65-

internationally successful in putting the issue of human rights

before the United States. It was the Japanese, however, who

constituted the more serious problem for the Americans.

Because of Japan's national and international power

the San Francisco School Segregation Incident (see: text, p. xxi),

most notably, precipitated the "gravest diplomatic crisis"161 in

Theodore Roosevelt's presidential career. For the first time,

the prospect of Japan's power, and the realistic implications

of Russia's defeat, being directly turned toward the Americans

was faced. The general dilemma for the President was two-fold:

1) to keep the Japanese out of the United States, that is, halt

Japanese emigration to the United States by applying immigration

restrictions, while 2) appearing not to insult Japan's national

honor and importance as well as her international prestige. On

the question of immigration and race contact President Roosevelt

was definitive:

...the settlement in mass by individuals of either nation

within the limits of the other nation [would cause serious
racial trouble]. Such immigration is the only thing that
can ever cause trouble between these two peoplesj and if
permitted it is absolutely certain that the trouble will
j
be caused. 162
To pacify the Japanese and lessen the embarrassment of America's

161Griswold, o]d. cit., p. 350.

16^Theodore Roosevelt, America and the World War (New
York: Charles Scribner’s S o n s , 1916), p. 478. It was also well
known that Roosevelt was afraid that Japan might cause trouble
in the Philippines if she were too deeply insulted. See: the
remarks of "Exclusion of Japanese Coolies and Laborers," Remarks
of Hon. Charles A. Culberson, of Texas, in the Senate of the
United States, February 16, 1907, Washington, 1907.

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 -66-

anti-Asiatic immigration policies, Roosevelt determined to allow

the Japanese a free hand in the East, so long as American interests

were not directly threatened. The take-over of Korea was a prime

example of the United States' unwillingness to confront Japan.

Hence, while the President was not averse to rationalizing the

domination of Korea by Japan as "inevitable," and patronizing

the Japanese nation as an "advanced and civilized a power as the

United States or any power in E u r o p e , t h e r e lay behind the

abandonment of Korea and flattery of Japan the substantive goal

of keeping the Japanese out of the United States. Notwithstanding

publicly voiced admiration and support of Japan,

this admiration and respect is accompanied by the firm

conviction that it is not for the advantage of either
people that emigrants from either country should settle
in mass in the other country.

Thus as unwelcome guests in Korea's house, the Japanese were

applauded by Roosevelt, for he was set and secure in his own

assumption that by being permitted to expand onto the continent

of Asia, the Japanese would not simultaneously insist upon an

invitation to America.

However, Roosevelt's attempts to smooth over the school

segregation incident could not repair the double humiliation

163I b i d ., p. 476.
164
Roosevelt Memorial Association, The Works of Theodore
Roosevelt, Memorial Edition, Volume XVIII: by Theodore Roosevelt,
American Problems (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, MCMXXV),
p. 382.

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 -67-

dealt to the Japanese by the proponents of Asiatic exlusion.

On the one hand, the Japanese had assumed that the

development of an industrialized society would automatically

alter social relations among nations, notably Japan's racial

relationship with the West. Believing that the white nations

were more than superficially impressed with Japan's progress,

that is, Japan's becoming the white man of Asia, the Japanese

looked forward not only to a place of power and prestige among

the Western nations, but also to a position of racial eguality.

Ironically, China and Korea were viewed as inferiors by Japan,

as they were by the Western nations, and when the Chinese and

Koreans in America were forced into segregated schools, the

Japanese assumed the racial order appropriate. The 1906 incident,

however, included the Japanese as well. It was difficult enough

for the Japanese to come to grips with the realization that they

were not good enough to associate with whites, "but to be branded

as Mongolians and relegated to the company of Chinese and Koreans

165
was a heavy cross to bear." Japanese denials that they were

of the Mongolian race (see: text, p. x v i ), and the attending in­

nuendo that they were racially closer to whites and culturally

affined to the Europeans, fell on deaf white racist ears, to the

chagrin of the Japanese. Whether or not they liked the idea, the

Japanese were considered Asiatics by Americans and Europeans alike.

^Thomas A. Bailey, Theodore Roosevelt and the Japanese-

American Crisis (Gloucester, Massachusetts: Peter Smith, 1964),
p. 66.

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 -68-

On the other hand, as the Japanese gradually began

to comprehend the inherent naivety in the assumption that,

unlike the Chinese and Koreans, the "Japanese were well liked

by the whites,"166 or that the Japanese were racially linked

to the whites, their sense of national insult and racial humil­

iation heightened. Their attempt to step out of Asia, that is,

their efforts not only to develop Japan along Western lines but

to present themselves as the superiors of other Asians and as

presumed equals of the whites, faultered on the fundamental

definitiveness of the fact that "despite all the progress Japan

had made, the West was still not accepting the country as an

equal."167 Nor, likewise, did the West accept the Japanese

as racial equals. With controlled outrage and disillusionment,

the Japanese initiated a treaty-related program for defending

themselves on the school issue,166 while laboring to find a

way of saving Japan's face in the eyes of the international

community. In the process, they were not averse to playing

upon Roosevelt's conspicuous apprehension of hostilities in

the Pacific. By maximizing the image of a powerful and in­

dignant Japan, and capitalizing upon Roosevelt's genuine con­

166.,. . •,
Iriye, op. c i t . , p. 22.
167Ibid., p. 105.
168"The Japanese School Segregation Case," No. 4754,
In the Supreme Court of the State of California, Keikichi A o k i ,
by Michitsuga Aoki, his Guardian ad litem, Petitioner, vs. M .A .
Deane, Principal of Redding Primary School, San Francisco, Res­
pondent, Respondent's Brief, (c. 1906), p. 2.

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 -6 9 -

cern for the Pacific area in general and his particular dread
. . . . . . 169
of a military confrontation with Japan m East Asia, the

Japanese were able to negotiate the Gentlemen's Agreement.

Despite the fact that the Agreement failed to satisfy Asian

exclusionists (see: text, p. x v i i ) , it did allow Japan some

degree of discretion and face-saving over emigration, with the

major constraint being that Japanese emigration not violate

the United States' immigration stipulations. Thus because of

her power, Japan avoided the direct indignity China had suf­

fered in legislative exclusion. Ironically, in the midst of

of their own racial problems with America, the Japanese con­

tinued to assume that China's fate was a function of China's

national and racial inferiority, not only to white nations and

peoples but also to Japan and the Japanese. So, too, in order

to assure that Korea be classified with China as weak and in­

ferior, heavily influenced by the fear that overseas Koreans

would muster substantial resistance to Japan's aggression in

East Asia, the Japanese would not allow the Koreans the right

to emigrate to the United States. The denial of passports to

Korean nationals by Japan was an exercise in complete dominion

169
Theodore Roosevelt, unlike most Americans, believed
the United States’ future to be inextricably bound to the East.
He said: "I believe that our future history will be more det­
ermined by our position on the Pacific facing China, than by
our position on the Atlantic facing Europe." See: Tyler Dennett,
Roosevelt and the Russo-Japanese War (Gloucester, Massachusetts:
Peter Smith, 1959), p . Ti Also, Roosevelt's dread of Japan was
a belief that the U.S. was unprepared for war. However, in 1907-
OS, the U.S. sailed her "Great White Fleet" around the world in
a show of strength.

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 -70-

calculated to demonstrate Japanese superiority to the Koreans.1^

Ultimately, however, whatever gains Japan may have made at the

cost to other Asians, those gains were predestined to become

liabilities in the American motion picture industry.

Although Japan would await a more propitious time

to repay the United States for immigration and racial problems,

nurturing the grudge through 1924 and the passage of the Alien

Land Law and into the attack on Pearl Harbor, the motion pic­

ture industry gradually began to incorporate the Japanese into

cinematic villainhood while continuing to develop more fully

the image of hostile, threatening and savage Asiatics based

largely upon the Chinese. Indeed, the Yellow Peril thesis as

a myth had been circulating throughout Europe for several years

before it took root in the United States. For the Europeans,

the Peril was an awakening China into a new Tartardom. For the

Americans, however, it was the spectre of Asian immigration.

Given the Japanese defeat of Russia, coupled with increased

anti-Asiatic feelings in the United States over an Asian pre­

sence, the Yellow Peril myth appeared to be an actual verity.

Rumors of a Japanese invasion of the United States circulated

Han Yung Rim, op. c i t ., states that after the take­

over of Korea by Japan, the Japanese supplanted the Korean ed­
ucational system. As Japanese policy, Korean students were
"taught their own inferiority as against the superiority of the
Japanese," p. 89. Moreover, whatever advantages offered Korea,
mostly to facilitate Japanese domination, "they were more than
offset by the disadvantages," p. 91. So, too, the Japanese forced
the Koreans to change their monosyllabic surnames to polysyllabic
Japanese surnames in an attempt to destroy Korean identity down
to its national, cultural and ethnic roots.

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 -71-

widely, accompanied by other "scare literature."1^1 In 1909,

Homer Lea, the diminutive hunchback with a proclivity for

military adventure, penned the first edition of The Valor

of Ignorance. Underestimated by historians, Lea possessed

one of the fine intellects of his time. Nonetheless, as a

subscriber to the Yellow Peril thesis he wrote:

We know not for how many years the Occident has been
muttering to itself of a peril that it has called
yellow. In the penumbra of its dreams it has seen
indistinct shadows lightened, or rather made pallid,
with uncertain consciousness, in which, sickled over
with fear, phantoms have rioted. These chimeras in
the fear and dreaming of Western nations are what
might be called probabilities, monstrous, terrifying,
but for all that only phantoms, having their origin
in truth, but transferred by that strange somnolence
172
— the public mind— to the shadowiest of realms.

Unlike many of his contemporaries, Lea understood well the

connection between America's white racism and its inter­

national implications, particularly with respect to Japan.

He warned that the Japanese were not Chinese, and that the

shifting of anti-Asiatic racism to the Japanese would, by

virtue of the Japanese national character, produce not with-

drawl but rather violent, military reaction in the future.

Daniels and Olin, op>. c i t ., p. vii.

172
Homer Lea, The Valor of Ignorance (New York: Harper &
Brothers Publishers, 1941 Edition), pp. 142-143.

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 -72-

White Americans, he argued, were "strangely oblivious to the

militant character of the Japanese."173 Furthermore, as the

original edition of The Valor of Ignorance came equipped with

maps and attack plans, drawn by Lea, for a Japanese assault on

the East and the United States and its territories, it went

through twenty-four editions in one month in Japan. Over thirty

years later, the Empire of Japan's attack on East Asia and Pearl

Harbor bore remarkable similarities to Lea's original conception.

It was not without reason that Tokyo's Hakubukwan Publishers

stated that Lea's Valor was "'excellent reading matter for all
174
Oriental men with red blood m their veins.’" Nor was it

without good reason that the book became mandatory reading for

Japanese officers in all branches of the service.

Invasion rumors, consequently, "furnished early film­

makers with an irresistible formula."173 In the same year as

L e a ’s publication of V a l o r , the industry produced the fii\

The Japanese Invasion. The motion picture was one of the

first of the spy genre. An American Army officer's Japanese

valet was one of the characters depicted in Invasion. The valet

was anti-American and "seen to steal vital military secrets

making possible an attack on the Pacific Coast."173 The film

173Ibid., p. 126.
174_.
Ibid., p . x x x i .
173ten Broek, Barnhart, and Matson, ojd. c i t . p. 30.
176Ibid., p. 30.

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 -73-

was especially portentous of the United States' preoccupation

with a fear of a fifth-column among American Japanese during

the Second World War. Hence the industry had, early in the

century, prepped the American public and military to the poss­

ibility of having Japanese spies within the United States, as

well as to the supposed danger to and weakness of the West

Coast. That most Asians, including the Japanese, were con­

centrated on the West Coast made the fear more real as time

and problems with Japan wore on.

Although it is not suggested that all the Hollywood

products which treated of Asians were racist [for example, That

Chink at Golden Gulch (1910) portrayed a Chinese laundryman as

something short of being a hero], American anti-Asiatic racism

continually overpowered otherwise non-racist treatment of Asians.

By the middle to late Teens, the racially antagonistic depiction

of Asians had, to all intents and purposes, become an institu­

tional reality. M r . Foo (1914), in which the Chinese were seen

as lustful, vicious and immoral, brought formal protests from

the Chinese government. Contemporaneously, the film industry

had begun its institutional practice of casting Asians of dif­

ferent national backgrounds for the purpose of portraying one

another unflatteringly, a still fashionable practice. In its

racist portrayal of the Chinese, the industry gave the Japanese

177
actor Sessue Hayakawa "the start of a film career." Forced

■^^Bohn and Stromgren, op. c i t ., p. 193.

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 -74-

to contend with the white-dominated industry, Hayakawa was one

of the first Asian actors to protest against anti-Asiatic racism

in the American motion pictures. In the 1915 production of The

Cheat, Hayakawa portrayed a Japanese, which perhaps gave him a

greater incentive to protest than if the character had been a

Chinese, who wanted a white woman to become his mistress. When

the woman, after first accepting, changed her mind, the Japanese

character designed to demonstrate the sadism of the Asiatic was

seen ”brand[ing] her on the shoulder."178 For his treachery,

the Japanese character was lynched. In addition to the threat

of perverted interracial sex in the production, the entirety of

Japanese character and cultural values were distorted. Referring

to his role and the impact upon white Americans, Hayakawa stated:

Such roles are not true to our Japanese nature.... They

are fake and give people the wrong idea of us. I wish to
make a characterization which shall reveal us [Japanese]
179
as we really are....

Nonetheless, while Hayakawa would portray both Japanese and

Chinese characters in distorted forms, the film industry found

"nothing was quicker or more profitable to produce"180 than the

anti-Asiatic film.

178Maurice Bardeche and Robert Brasillach, The History of

Motion Pictures (New York: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc., 1938),
p. 107.
179
Grace Kingsley, "That Splash of Saffron," Photoplay
Magazine, Volume IX, No. 4, March, 1916, p. 139.
18°Richard O'Connor, Pacific Destiny: An Informal History
of the U.S. in the Far East, 1776-1968 (Boston: Little Brown and
Company, 1969), p. 207.

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 -75-

Although the film industry's imagination and attention

were for a brief time captured by the First World War and the

Russian Revolution, Asians and Asian themes continued to be

rewarding and durable staples of the industry's success as a

medium. One of the most profitable and long-lasting project

systems created by the industry was that of the serial or the

multi-part film. The serial phenomenon was diverse as to sub­

ject matter. However, had it not been for anti-Asianism as a

dynamic of American society, the serials might not have fared

so well, particularly initially, for not only did the earliest

serials have "an oriental villain"181 as a recurrent scapegoat

against whom millions of Americans could vent their frustrations

and even realize their racial fears, the nature of the serial

structure was emotively accommodative to anti-Asianism:

Because the serial structure demanded current and

often sensational material and in short climactic
segments, the issues in these stories were clear-
cut with easily identifiable villains and heroes.
The 'yellow peril' theme especially fit the purpose
of* the
^ ■ ,
serials. 182

With the coming of the Twenties, the industry began to max­

imize the Asian theme for profit, as well as to establish the

system of using cosmetized whites as a means of getting Asian

181Jones, The Portrayal of China and India on the American

Screen, 1896-1955, o p . c i t ., p. 13.
182Timothy J. Lyons, "Hollywood and World War I, 1914-
1918," Journal of Popular Film, Volume 1, No. 1, Winter. 1972.
p. 20.

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 -76-

characters to conform more readily to white racist perceptions

and characterizations of Asians. Furthermore, the incipient

star system was being constructed around white performers, not

Asian, who could with the assistance of the industry assume

any character identity.

The 1919 production of D.W. Griffith’s Broken Blossoms

was an important development in Hollywood's depiction of Asians.

It was one of the first full-length motion pictures in which a

white man in racist cosmetics portrayed a Chinese. It was also

one of the first films in which the issue of Asian-white misce­

genation, or more accurately interracial sexuality, was brought

to the American viewing audience. The story involved the love

and sympathy of a young Chinese male for a white female, with

Richard Barthelmess in the role of the Chink [the original title

of the story was The Chink and the Child! and Lillian Gish as

the white girl. Complete with Asian affectations that would

become standard, the character of the Chink epitomized the eunuch­

like Asian male who was "sensitive and fragile, slender and pale,

with his tilted head, his withdrawn, curved body, and his dreamy

countenance."^^ The film, thus, "contained elements of racism."'*'^

1^ L e w i s Jacobs, The Rise of the American Film (New York:

Teachers College Press, Columbia University, 1969), p. 388.
184
Rodger Larson, "'An Innocence, An Originality, A Clear
E y e ’: A Retrospective Look at the Films of D.W. Griffith and Andy
Warhol," The Film Journal, Volume I, Numbers 3-4, Fall-Winter,
1972, p. 85. In noting the social, .castration of Asian males and
the eunuch-like image, Larson says: "Griffith didn't give the
Chink any balls," p. 85.

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 -77-

Griff ith himself, as Producer and Director, was not a conscious

racist. On the contrary, regardless of the nature of the in­

dustry in which he worked and the social context of the time,

Griffith's films were less demonstrative of white racism than

most. Indeed, entering the second decade of the twentieth cen­

tury, with the United States engaged in the Versailles Treaty

and prepared for the Paris Peace Conference, Griffith was quoted

with Broken Blossoms in mind:

Now I believe that so long as we Americans speak out with

shallow contempt of Italians as 'wops,' of Frenchmen as
'frogeaters,' and of Chinese as 'Chinks,' so long as we
imagine that we [nativist Americans] alone represent all
the heroism and beauty and ideals of the world first, so
long will the efforts of such idealistic leaders as Pres­
ident Wilson [fail].185

Thus Broken Blossoms, its institutionally racist sentiments

notwithstanding, was minimally anti-Chinese in filmic intent.

If Blossoms depicted the Chinese sympathetically, yet racially,

the production of the serial Patria, which was begun in 1917

and first shown in 1919, would shortly malign the Japanese and

embarrass the United States at the specially crucial period in

which the Versailles Treaty and Paris negotiations were in pro­

gress .

As stated earlier, the Yellow Peril to the United States

185Arthur Lenning, "D.W. Griffith and the Making of An

Unconventional Masterpiece," The Film Journal, Volume I, Numbers
3-4, Fall-Winter, 1972, p. 2.

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 -78-

was Chinese immigration in particular and Asian immigration in

general. With the exclusion of the Chinese, the white American

fear of an Asian deluge waned temporarily, only to be caught up

again in the emigration from Japan to the United States. Unlike

China, whose national and international weaknesses had for years

rendered the bogey of an aggressive Asian giant ludicrous, Japan's

national pride and military prowess added significant definition

and weight to the spectre of an Asian peril. Yet particularly

frustrating for the Japanese was the fact that they were exposed

to the same fundamental anti-Asiatic barriers as were the other

Asian groups, to whom the Japanese felt superior, when dealing

with the whites on their home territories, so to speak, while

simultaneously achieving near-white status among those non-whites

whom Japan had assisted the white powers in subjugating. On the

one hand, Japan:

had been granted equality with Europeans in sharing extra­

territorial privileges in China. The government of the Nether­
lands Indies counted her [Japan'sj people as Europeans. In
British India the Japanese like the whites were 'Sahib' to
the natives, and the Anglo-Japanese Alliance recognized
186
Japan's place among the powers.

On the other hand, none of vne white powers— particularly the

United States— would accept the Japanese as equals socially in

their national territories.

President Woodrow Wilson was plagued by the continued

■^^Roy Watson Curry, Woodrow Wilson and Far Eastern

Policy, 1913-1921 (New York: Octagon Books, 1968), p. 45.

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 -79-

Janus-faced problem with the Japanese as had former Presidents

Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft.18^ Wilson's attitude

toward Japan's policy of aggressive military intent in China was

similar to President Roosevelt's attitude toward Japan's earlier

aggression in Korea. With respect to the latter, given America's

power status in the Pacific, President Roosevelt justified the

United States' abandonment of Korea to Japan by his personal

belief that the Korean government was filled with "corruption,"188

and his endorsement of the Taft-Katsura understanding which "ex­

changed Japanese disavowals of aggressive purposes in the Phil­

ippines in return for American recognition of a Japanese regency

in Korea."189 Consequently, by guarding the United States' back

Roosevelt succinctly stated the Japanese problem: "Our

vital interest is to keep the Japanese out of our country, and at
the same time preserve the good will of Japan. The vital in­
terest of the Japanese, on the other hand, is in Manchuria and
Korea. It is therefore...our interest not to take any steps...
which will give the Japanese cause to feel...that we are ho s ­
tile to them, or a menace to their interests." See: Elting E.
Morison (ed.), The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, Volume III
(Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1954),
Roosevelt to William Howard Taft, December 22, 1910, pp. 189-
190. President Taft, too, encountered immigration and racial
problems with the Japanese in 1913 over the passage of the alien
land law in California. The Japanese argued, a year afterward:
"Justice demands that America shall treat the Japanese on equal
terms with European immigrants," and warned that if the United
States failed to treat the Japanese as equals, "the day will
come when our friendship toward her [the United States]] shall
cease." It was likewise recalled that during the 1906 school
segregation incident, "for the sake of peace, we [Japanese]]
showed a great power of self-control," that is, that Japan might
have considered war with the United States. See: Shigeo Suyehiro,
"To the American Nation," in Naoichi Masaoka (ed.), Japan's Me s ­
sage to America: A Symposium by Representative Japanese on Japan
and American-Japanese Relations (Tokyo, 1914), pp. 69 and 66.
188Merrill, op. c i t ., p. 28.
189
Curry, op. cit., pp. 46-47.

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 -80-

door by the containment of Japan away from the United States'

possessions in the Pacific vis-a-vis the sacrifice of Korea to

Japan, Roosevelt secured the front door, however awkwardly, by

concluding the Gentlemen's Agreement with Japan, whereby the

emigration from Japan to the United States was severely limited.

For President Wilson, the problem of appeasing the

Japanese internationally as a means of fending them off dom­

estically was exemplified during the Paris Peace Conference

and the establishment of the League of Nations (1919-1920).

Largely as a result of the United States' racist immigration

policy toward Asians, especially toward the Japanese, Japan at

the end of the First World War began to realize that her status

as a big power would not outweigh her status as an Asian and a

190
non-white power. Having tried to achieve full status as

190 . . . .
The United States' anti-Japanese position was not the
only element in Japan's racial awakening. Japan's entrance into
the First World War was colored by feelings of racial persecution
by the European powers. After Japan's defeat of China in 1895, for
which she assumed she would be applauded by the Europeans, Russia,
Germany and France, the so-called Three Powers, directly inter­
vened in the Sino-Japanese settlement, strongly advising Japan
that the return of the Liaotung Peninsula to China was necessary,
among other things, if the peace of Asia were to be maintained,
that is, if Japan were not going to have to fight the Powers.
Although the Japanese could at least grudgingly comprehend the
Russian decision, for which the Russians were repaid with a
vengeance in 1904-05, they could not comprehend Germany's dec­
ision, for "she [Germany] had no reason whatsoever for being
at enmity with Japan, and she had no obligation whatsoever in
Europe to oblige her to support Russia, as was the case with
France." See: A.M. Pooley (ed.), The Secret Memoirs of Count
Tadasu Hayashi (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1915), p. 81. On
the one hand, the Anglo-Japanese Alliance (1905) was a factor
in the Japanese decision to enter the War. On the other hand,
"revenge upon Germany for her part in the three-power intervention
after the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895" constituted a more sub­

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 -81-

racial equals, the Japanese evinced a volt-face in personal as

well as international image and perception. Japan began to see

herself, in response to white racism, as the leader of the yellow

race.191 While accepting her non-white identity, however, she

would maintain an obvious position of superiority over the other

192
peoples of Asia. Consequently, the Japanese strategy became

stantive part of the decision to enter the war. What particularly

disturbed the Japanese was the fact that "within three years after
the conclusion of the war and the retrocession of [the] Liaotung
Peninsula 'for the peace of the Orient,' European powers, headed
by Russia, were engaged in a general 'scramble' for leases, con­
cessions, and 'spheres of interest or influence' [in China]."
Consequently, "this series of European encroachments upon China
and expansion of their footholds in the Orient were looked upon
in Japan with general dismay." See: Tatsuji T a keuchi, War and
Diplomacy in the Japanese Empire (Garden City, New York: Double­
day, Doran & Company, Inc., 1935), pp. 170 and 121 respectively.
The European powers, in Japanese eyes, were not concerned for
China, Japan, Korea, or any other Asian nation, but were rather
set upon their own ambitions. Even as an aggressor, then, Japan
was forced to assume a secondary role among the white powers. See:
Walter V. Scholes and Marie V. Scholes, The Foreign Policies of
the Taft Administration (Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri
Press, 1970), pp. 110-111 for a fuller account of the territorial
claims of the Europeans nations and Japan in C h i n a .
191
U.S. Department of State, Papers Relating to the
Foreign Relations of the United States, 1919. The Paris Peace
Conference, Volume I , Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing
Office, 1942. (American Ambassador to Japan, Ronald S. Morris,
to the U.S. Secretary of State). "The conviction is general that
Japan has much at stake in the deliberations of the Peace Con­
ference. ... It is argued that Japan must take a leading part
in the problems that affect the Far East, particularly in view
of the fact, as the Kokumin points out, that the fate of the
Yellow Race depends upon the attitude of Japan." p. 492. The
Marquis Okuma stated that a permanent peace could not be achieved
"without first solving the question of the equality of treatment
of races." p. 493. Likewise, Prince Konoye insisted that the
"discriminatory treatment accorded to the yellow race in America
and British colonies be removed." p. 494.
192 . ,
Otto D. Tolischus, Tokyo Record (New York: Reynal &
Hitchcock, 1943). Tolischus says that Japan intended to be the
'elder brother1 to the other nations of Asia, and that "Japan
would rule and all others would obey." p. 17.

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 -82-

two-fold: 1) to assure a deeper penetration of Japanese influence

on the continent of Asia, and to humiliate the Germans for their

action a quarter of a century earlier, the Japanese intended to

demand the transferal of German colonial rights in Shantung to

193
Japan. 2) to challenge the United States and the other Anglo-

Saxon nations on the issue of racist immigration policies and

mistreatment of Japanese minorities, the Japanese were prepared

to insist upon the inclusion of a racial equality clause in the

Covenant of the League of Nations Charter. The Japanese situation

. . . . . . 194
became increasingly critical diplomatically for President Wilson.

Reports from Japan placed direct pressure upon Wilson over the

question of the mistreatment of Japanese in the United States:

I have deemed it my duty to point out that the question

of discrimination against the Japanese people in Calif­
ornia is one which profoundly affects Japanese pride and
sentiment and any action by California at this time when
public feeling in Japan is generally antagonistic would
. . 195
lead to an extremely serious crisis.

193 . . . .
Madeleine Chi, m her "China and Unequal Treaties
at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919," Asian Profile, Volume
I, No. I, August, 1973, states that "Japan...was determined to
inherit German rights in Shantung. As early as December 1914,
after the occupation of Kiaochow and of the German Pacific
Islands, the Japanese government began its careful preparations
to secure these territories at the peace conference." p. 54.
194
As will be seen shortly, the production of the film
Patria not only deeply offended the Japanese, but also alarmed
President Wilson at the critical Conference time.
195
U.S. Department of State, Papers Relating to the
Foreign Relations of the United States, .1919. The Paris Peace
Conference, Volume I I , Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing
Office, 1945. [^Morris to U.S. Secretary of State, November 19,
1919], p. 416.

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 -83-

Japan’s move to include a racial equality clause in the

Covenant, however, was laraely a ploy to facilitate more realiz­

able designs on Shantung while maximizing A merica’s racial fears

as the lever. In essence, the clause called for just treatment

of all nationalities, regardless of race.196 Although racial

equality was a serious goal for the Japanese, despite their par­

adoxical and contradictory belief that the Chinese and Koreans

were inferior to the Japanese, the furtherance of J a p a n ’s pos­

ition in Asia was of more practical and immediate value. Thus

Baron Makino, the representative who pushed for the clause, was

willing to forego the issue of racial equality if Japan were

allowed to take Shantung:

He understood that if Japan received what she claimed in

regard to Shantung, her representatives [Japan's] at the
Plenary Meeting would content themselves with a survey of
the inequality of races and move some abstract resolution
which would probably be rejected. Japan would then merely
make a protest. If, however, she regarded herself as ill-
treated over Shantung, he [Makino] was unable to say what
197
line the Japanese delegates might take.

The real question, then, was Shantung and the continuation of

Japan's expansion, with race and the assumed forced liberaliz­

ation of American immigration laws vis-a-vis the racial equality

clause used as manipulative devices. The Japanese tactic proved

196
Thomas Edward LaFargue, China and the World War
(California: Hoover War Library Publications, No. 12, Stanford
University Press, Stanford University, 1937), p. 207.
197
U.S. Department of State, Papers Relating to the
Foreign Relations of the United States, 1919. The Paris Peace
Conference, Volume V , Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing
Office, 1946, p. 317.

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 -8 4 -

highly successful against the United States. President Wilson,

in fact, having been especially influenced by the English and

Australian delegates whose respective countries had followed

similar anti-Asiatic immigration policies, advised against in­

cluding the clause in the Covenant of the League of Nations

Charter. As a compensating gesture, and one definitively cal­

culated by the Japanese, the Americans endorsed Japan's demand

for Shantung. The President's fear that the racial eguality

clause would eventually pressure the United States into liberal­

izing its immigration laws was instrumental in the decision to

advise against the inclusion of the clause. If Wilson had o p ­

posed Japan on both the issues of racial equality and Shantung,

then Japan would have suffered the humiliation of having been

198
"put m her place" m the eyes of the entire world community.
199
Although Japan did not win "full acceptance" as a great

power with particular emphasis upon equal treatment of her

nationals, she had won her preferred and militarily essential

goal of legitimizing a more substantial foothold on the Asian

continent. On the issue of Shantung the Japanese militarists

had been heavily rewarded at Paris.

198
LaFargue, op. cit., p. 223. It should be noted, also,
that the Japanese were willing to compromise further on the im­
migration issue, realizing perhaps that America's racism would not
permit of substantive gains for future Japanese emigration. Thus
Japanese Ambassador Shidehara said that Japan would take measures
to prohibit the issuance of passports to 'picture brides'. The
brides were an issue of concern among exclusionists. See: U.S.
Department of State, Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of
the United States, 1919, Volume I I , o p . c i t ., p. 419.
199
LaFargue, op. cit., p. 223.

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 -85-

Lastly, the Paris Peace Conference and the proposed

League of Nations symbolized a new fairness and equality between

the small nations and the large nations. Particularly for the

Koreans and overseas Koreans, whose nationalist movement was as

intense as it was unsuccessful, President Wilson had represented

a new hope of bringing world attention to the plight of the Korean

nation at the hands of the Japanese militarists. The Wilson Admin­

istration, echoing Roosevelt's, continued to express a deep and

abiding apprehension of Japan's military potential. Save the u n ­

alterable immigration regulations, there had been a constant fear

that the United States should not take measures which might of­

fend Japan, notably on matters relating to Japanese expansion and

aggression in Asia. The Acting Secretary of State cautioned the

American representative in Japan, while the Peace Conference was

in progress:

The [United States] Consulate should be extremely careful

not to encourage any belief that the United States will
assist the Korean nationalists in carrying out their plans
and it should not do anything which may cause Japanese
authorities to suspect [the] American Government sympathizes
with [the] Korean nationalist movement.200

In the United States, the Korean National Association of San

Francisco pleaded with President Wilson to use America's good

offices, as spelled out in Article I of the Shufeldt Treaty, in

2°°Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United

States, 1919, Volume I I , o p . c i t ., p. 462.

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 -86-

securing self-government for the Korean people. However, Wilson

201
"made no reply" to the KNA. In a desperate effort, Syngman

Rhee made a special trip from Honolulu to Washington, in Feb­

ruary, 1919,in the hope that he would be allowed to represent

the Korean nation at the Peace Conference. But when Rhee applied

for a passport, President Wilson himself "instructed the State

202
Department not to issue a passport to him." For millions of

Koreans inside and outside of Korea, the expectations of a new

world order, an order in which all nations— large and small, weak

and strong--would be treated with equal dignity and fairness, were

dissolved in the brutal realization that "the Korean problem did

203
not come within the purview of the Conference," and that the

Conference's jurisdiction was not world-wide in scope and purpose.

Versailles, the Paris Peace Conference and the League of Nations

notwithstanding, the small nations and the weak nations would

have to continue to endure at the hands of the strong. Once

again, the United States had abandoned the Korean people to

appease the Japanese.

Consistent with the United States' dismissal of Korea's

political and national identity, President Wilson turned on the

Chinese in order to rationalize the United States' decision to

201
Curry, op. cit., p. 211.
202 . . . . .
Kingsley K. Lyu, Korean Nationalist Activities m
the United States and Hawaii, 1900-1945 (Washington: University
of Washington, 1947), p. 13.
203
Stephen Bonsai, Suitors and Suppliants: The Little
Nations at Versailles (New York: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1946),
p. 225.

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 -87-

support Japan's claims on Shantung. The President's estimate

of the Chinese people's political and social capabilities was

akin to Roosevelt's of the Koreans'. Justifying the United

States' open concession to Japan's demand and his unwillingness

to support the inclusion of the racial equality clause in the

Covenant of the League of Nations, the President denegrated the

Chinese, as Roosevelt did the Koreans, by doubting their "cap­

acity for democracy or even for self-government, and ... not

apply[ing[ to China the principles ... applied in Western [that

is, white[ l a n d s . M o r e o v e r , as early as 1917 the Lansing-

Ishii Agreement, as a formal instrument similar in its intent

to the Taft-Katsura Agreement, recognized and legitimized the

special position of Japan in China, based upon territorial pro­

pinquity, particularly in those parts in which Chinese and

Japanese possessions were continguous. Implicit in the 1917

Agreement was Japan's disavowals of aggressive purpose against

the Philippines and Hawaii. Hence the Chinese faced essentially

the same tragedy, although to a less extreme degree, as had the

Koreans in the United States' policy toward Japan:

To all Chinese it was unthinkable that the United States

could concede that Japan had 'special interest' in China,
thus tacitly acknowledging J a p a n ’s aggressive claims in
205
China.

In the end, by playing upon America's racial fears coupled with

204
Nemai Sadhan Bose, American Attitude and Policy to
the Nationalist Movement in China, 1911-1921 (Bombay, Calcutta,
Madras, New Delhi: Orient Longmans, 1970), p. viii.
205
I bid., p. 147.

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 an American predisposition to deliver Korea and China as a way

of conciliating Japan, the Japanese at the Peace Conference were

able to assume from China "all the possessions and rights for­

merly enjoyed by Germany in S h a n t u n g . P r e d i c t a b l y , the

Japanese government considered the "Shantung settlement a dip-

207
lomatic victory for China." For the Chinese, however, the

loss of Shantung, the birthplace of Confucius, was an irreparable

defeat by Japan and the big powers. It was, likewise, a moral

disgrace attended by China's allies in World War I, notably the

United States.

Against the background of the Paris Peace Conference,

and the tension between the United States and Japan, the ap­

pearance of the film serial Patria was as ill-timed as it was

ill-conceived. The United States, particularly in light of

its own expansionist drive, had for at least three Adminis­

trations followed a complex, and often times contradictory,

relationship with Japan. Largely because America's fundamental

perception of Japan was that of a militarily powerful nation

not averse to speaking the Western "language of shot and

shell,"208 Patria came as an unwelcome and potentially in­

206K.K. Kawakami, Japan's Pacific Policy (New York:

E.P. Dutton and Company, 1922), p. 197.
207
Ibid., p. 216. Kawakami stated the Japanese pos­
ition and logic, in defending Japan's taking of Shantung over
Chinese protest: "China is making a mistake in 'demanding' the
unconditional surrender of all the former German possessions in
Shantung, as though she had undisputed right to them. She would
do well to -emember that the former German possessions were taken
by the Japanese, not from China, but from Germany. The Japanese
took nothing from China." p. 196.
208K.K. Kawakami, Asia at the D o o r , o p . c i t ., p. 27.

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 -89-

cendiary article bearing upon relations between Japan and the

United States. Perhaps not surprisingly, William Randoloph

Hearst, whose anti-Asiatic views were well-known to Americans,

was responsible for the financing and production of the film.

By 1917, the year in which the United States entered the First

World War, Hearst had become intensely anti-Japanese— no doubt

conditioned by the fact that Japan had become an Asian power

and one whose emigrants had been in the center of racial dif­

ficulties between the United States and Japan— and highly cri­

tical of the United States’ foreign policy. Hearst believed

that the Japanese would attack the United States behind her

back once the decision had been made for the United States to

enter the War. That Japan might become an ally of the United

States apparently escaped Hearst altogether. That Japan became

an ally of the United States seemed not to affect his fundamental

distrust of the Japanese. For the most part, Hearst's Yellow

Peril alarmism, as manifested cinematically.., was on the surface

a product of his own dissatisfaction with "sundry items related

209
to American defense efforts over the previous few years,"

earlier films which concentrated upon the race issue and the
210
supposed aggressiveness of the so-called Yellow Menace, and

209
Kalton C. Lahue, Continued Next Week: A History of
the Moving Picture Serial (Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma
Press, 1964), p. 48.
210
The Yellow Menace serial dealt heavily with the race
issue, depicting the yellow race as especially treacherous and
aggressive. A "Mongolian" by the name of "Ali Singh" plotted

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 -90-

a disreputable and highly propagandistic translation of an

otherwise obscure book printed in Japan. The book's incorrect

American title was The War Between Japan and A merica. The New

York American ran an article purporting to delineate the con­

tents of the book. Under the heading 'Japan's Plans to Invade

and Conquer the United States', the American people were in­

formed of Japan’s plot to invade and overrun the United States,

with the assistance of Mexico, after which the Panama Canal

would be destroyed. Equally incorrect and misleading was the

report that the book had sold nearly one million copies in

Japan, presumably an indication of the Japanese people’s, not

the military's, support of the impending war with America. The

Japanese representatives in America reacted quickly to the story.

to overthrow the white race from within the United States. Singh,
whose name suggested an East Indian origin possibly Sikh, despite
the fact that the character was Mongolian, was one of the first
(1916) fifth-column scares in American films. While the conquest
of the white race by the yellow race was an American projection
onto the yellow race of what appeared to be the white rac e ’s
conquest of yellow Asia, Singh's ultimate defeat by the United
States' Secret Service was viewed as, in Kalton's succinct terms,
"the supremacy of right and white," op. cit.., p. 40. The Yellow
Menace serial, in addition to depicting Asians as a fifth-column
threat, also filmically critiqued the assumed apathy and neu­
trality of the United States prior to that country's entrance
into the War. Likewise, there was a particular irony in the fact
that the German forces in World War I were referred to as "Huns."
Once again, the West had projected its cultural racism onto the
Asians. That the Germans, then considered to be the worst and
most aggressive of the whites of Europe, were likened to the
Huns reveals that Asians served as the reference point of evil,
especially international and military evil. Although it has not
yet been determined to what extent the Huns were Asian, it is
generally accepted that there was "a Mongolian strain in the Huns."
So, too, it has been established that "many Huns were halfbreeds,"
i.e., Eurasians. See: for example, J. Otto MADNCHEN-HELFEN, The
World of the Huns, Studies in Their History and Culture (Berkeley
and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1973), pp. 363-64.

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 -91-

In an effort to discover the alleged source of the anti-Japanese

upsurge, the Japanese consul-general in the United States, after

having communicated extensively with his home government, was

able to locate a book written in Japan which was anti-American

only insofar as the author was disturbed and embittered over

the treatment of Japanese nationals in the United S t ates. The

consul-general in fact:

learned that the original book had been written by a

Japanese newspaperman to exploit the measures against
Japanese in California. It was a flimsy effort that
sold only a few thousand copies, had no official sup­
port and was ignored by the intelligent public. Its
true title was The Dream Story of the War Between Japan
and the United S tat e s . In it there was no mention what­
soever of the Panama Canal. The 'translation' for the
Hearst press was no translation at all but included many
inventions calculated to inspire fear. It was, in short,
4T 1 211
a fake.

Regardless of the obvious falsehoods surrounding the Dream

Story at the hands of the Hearst press, the serial Patria

was, to all intents and purposes, the motion picture equiv­

alent of the literary distortion, complete with its undeniable

anti-Japanese, and anti-Mexican, biases.

Patria was originally begun in 1917 and intended to

become a fifteen-chapter serial, at a cost of approximately

211w .a . Swanberg, Citizen Hearst, A Biography of

William Randolph Hearst (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons,
1961), pp. 296-297.

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 -92-

212 . .
$90,000, and starring Warner Oland as the sinister Japanese

Baron and Irene Castle as the white starlet. Filmed over an

extended period of time, and released in 1919, the serial was

a sensation in the United States, "playing to packed houses

213
but gravely offending Japanese Ambassador Hanihara." The

President, himself directly involved with the Japanese over

a number of emotional and potentially explosive issues, not

the least of which were Japanese emigration, the United States'

anti-Asiatic immigration policy, and the racial equality clause

controversy, took particular note of the film. In fact, Patria

214
"incurred the deep displeasure" of President Wilson. In an

unprecedented action, the President asked Hearst to recall the

film from distribution in order that certain alterations might

be made. In a letter to Hearst, Wilson stated:

May I not say to you that the character of the story

disturbed me very much. It is extremely unfair to the
Japanese and I fear that it is calculated to stir up a
great deal of hostility which will b e . ..extremely hurt­
ful. I take the liberty, therefore, of asking whether
215
the Company will not be willing to withdraw it.

212
Warner Oland was not only one of the first white
actors to use racist cosmetics in portraying Asians in the
films, but he was also later to portray two of the best-known
and ambivalently designed Asian characters, Charlie Chan and
Fu Manchu, about whom more will be said shortly.
213
Swanberg, Citizen Hearst, o p . c i t ., p. 297.
214
Raymond William Stedman, The Serials: Suspense and
Drama by Installment (Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press,
1971), p. 41.
215
Swanberg, Citizen Hearst, o p . cit., p. 297.

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 -93-

Hearst complied with the President's wishes, and the appro­

priate alterations were made in the film, "with the result

that the film appeared primarily a n t i - M e x i c a n . 16

The President's action had essentially accomplished

the task of postponing a substantially anti-Japanese position

in the American films, whether serial or feature. However, the

anti-Asiatic, that is, anti-Sinitic, efforts of the industry

were beginning to crystalize throughout the 1920's into the

1930's, with the Chinese, and the Japanese to a lesser degree,

serving as the representatives of all Asiatics. In the evol­

ution of perhaps the most famous and infamous of all Asian

serial characters, Fu Manchu, at least two earlier cinematic

characters were subsumed in rapid sequence before the final

product was presented to the American public. The ominous Long

Sin appeared in the serial The Exploits of Elaine, with Pearl

Stedman, The Serials, o p . cit., p. 41. It should

be noted that Patria became far more controversial than The
Yellow Menace not because it was more racist, but because it
was manifest in its identification of the Japanese as the Asian
peril to the United States. As was mentioned earlier, the Pres­
ident felt a special obligation to recall the film in order
that its more blatant anti-Japanese features be edited out.
The resulting anti-Mexican emphasis marked an important sub­
theme in the film. In defending the Japanese, Kawakami re­
marked: "The spectre of [a] Japanese invasion in Mexico was
conjured up, it seems, as a scheme of boosting a real estate
enterprise by those American interests holding immense tracts
of land in Lower California," Asia at the D o o r , o p . cit.., p. 37.
Hearst's mother owned, that is, held, ranch property, oil, timber,
mining and chicle property in Mexico. Indeed, the Hearst holdings
were conservatively estimated at $4,000,000, and they were under
the political protection of Porfirio Diaz. With D i a z ’s exile in
1911, however, the Mexican revolutionaries determined to drive out

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 -94-

White in the leading role (1916). As the prototype of the

Chinese villain, that is, the monstrous Mandarin, Long Sin's

only conspicuously Asian characteristic, excluding his p ec­

uliar name, was a drooping mustache, later to be known as

217
the Fu Manchu mustache. Apparently, Long S m only whet­

ted the industry's desire to create a Chinese character of

the most demonic proportions, playing upon the American fas­

cination with the Yellow Peril, as well as the structure of

serials in general. In the second serial starring Pearl

White, The Perils of Pauline, 1919, Long Sin had been re­

placed by a more sinister Chinese character, Wu Fang. As

one observer remarked:

'Beside Wu, the inscrutable, Long Sin, astute though

he was, was a mere pigmy — his slave, his advance
agent, as it were, a tentacle sent out to discover
the most promising outlet for the nefarious talents
of his master.’^18

Given the profitability of the anti-Chinese serials, Wu Fang

the Yankee "imperialists" and to ferret out those Mexicans who

had supported them under Diaz's tough regime. The pending threat
to the Hearst family's financial and territorial holdings no doubt
colored William Randolph Hearst's increasing anti-Mexican senti­
ment, as incorporated into Patria. So, too, H e arst’s Babicora
ranch, located in Chihuahua, was repeatedly attacked and finally
overrun by Pancho Villa's men. It was reported that Pancho Villa
personally appropriated upwards of 60,000 of Hearst's cattle.
217
Sax Rohmer's first Fu Manchu publication, The In­
sidious Dr. Fu-Manchu, appeared in 1913. It is very likely that
the Americans knew of the Fu Manchu character as early as that
date, and that Long Sin and Wu Fang were incipient Fu M a nchus.
Wu Fang was alternately played by Frank Lackteen and Warner Oland,
both of whom were white men in Asian character parts.
Stedman, The Serials, o p . c i t ., p. 39.

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 -95-

was so popular that he became Miss White's personal Fu Manchu

and a more exciting contemporary of Ali Singh. Thus, largely

based upon the Chinese characters Long Sin and Wu Fang, -with
219
Ali Singh as a less durable entity, by the "mid '20*s the

Master Oriental Criminal was solidly established in the [Am­

erican] cinema. However, it was not until the advent of che

talkies (1925) and the full-fledged arrival of Sax Rohmer's Dr.

Fu Manchu that the epitome of Chinese treachery and cunning

was to satisfy the apparent white racist craving for an Asian

enemy whose avowed purpose would be the total subjugation of

the white race, exposing in the process the exotic and myster­

ious world of the East.

Dr. Fu Manchu was not an American invention. He was

an English export to the United States, although his creator

was of Irish descent. Sax Rohmer was born Arthur Henry Ward

in Birmingham, England, in 1883, of Irish parents. During

his late teens, Ward dropped his given middle name and re­

placed it with Sarsfield, perhaps for romantic reasons and

as a gesture to a legendary character in England's past.

Having tried his hand at a number of professions, among which

were finance, art, journalism, musical composition, and the

theater, Ward finally turned to writing. The Fu Manchu char-

financing of The Yellow Menace film in which Ali Singh appeared.

220
Bradford M. Day, Sax Rohmer: A Bibliography (New
York and Denver: Science-Fiction and Fantasy Publications, 1953),
pp. 33-34.

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 -96-

221
aracter was unquestionably Rohmer's most successful lit­

erary accomplishment as well as being the most fascinating

manifestation of R o hmer’s personality. The first of the

thirteen Dr. Fu Manchu novels was begun in the latter part

222 . . .
of 1911. Rohmer had always possessed a vivid imagination.

He was especially eccentric and given to the ^ccult, in fact

believing as a devoted Egyptologist that in an earlier life

he had originated somewhere along the Nile. His attraction

for the exotic, coupled with a magazine editor's commission

for a story on Limehouse, that is, Lo n d o n ’s Chinatown, proved

to be the initial introduction between Rohmer and Mr. King, for

Rohmer perhaps the real Dr. Fu Manchu.

At some unspecified date in Limehouse, Rohmer made

the acquaintance of a Mr. Fong Wah. Rohmer would often go

to Limehouse, braving the fog and possible danger from the

more unruly members of the Chinese community, for the sole

purpose of talking, actually listening mostly, to the old

From Arthur Sarsfield Ward, Rohmer went through

another name change. Being of a very nervous character with
habits to match, Rohmer is reported to have taken a long
trip to Europe (the Continent). When he left, he was Arthur
Sarsfield Ward. Upon his return, he was Sax Rohmer. The
given name Sax was derived from the ancient Saxon word for
"blade." "Rohmer" as a surname was likewise derived from
the ancient Saxon, meaning "roamer.” The exotic-sounding
name did not inhibit Sax's literary career. On the con­
trary, Rohmer himself was under the impression that it
assisted his literary career.
222The last Dr. Fu Manchu novel was completed in 1959,
the year of its author's death. Sax had also written other
novels as well as numerous magazine articles, some on Dr. Fu.

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 -97-

Chinese man. There is no indication that Rohmer associated

with any other Chinese inside or outside of Chinatown. Mr.

Wah told Sax tales of old China, while Rohmer's adult imag­

ination, changed little from boyhood, embellished Wah's every

word. To Rohmer, Chinatown represented, as it did to most

white Englishmen and Irishmen in London, a living mystery

filled with the enchantments, dangers, and wonders of the

ancient East. And like man y whites, Sax was preoccupied

with the more seamy aspects of Chinatown, both real and

imagined. Murder, intrigue, narcotics, and assorted vil­

lainy all came to a head in Rohmer's perception of a man,

presumably a Chinese, known only as Mr. King. Who Mr. King

was, or if he truly existed outside Sax's own imagination,

is perhaps the greatest mystery surrounding the origin of

223
Dr. Fu Manchu. What is known is that Mr. King was to

Rohmer the most evil, mysterious, frightening, and unwhole­

some character— perhaps Rohmer's boyhood nightmare— ever to

walk the London streets. Ironically, Rohmer had never seen

Mr. King. Sax openly admitted that, in creating the image

of Dr. Fu Manchu, the visualization of Fu himself was a pa r ­

ticular dilemma. With his limited contact with real Chinese

223 ■
Rohmer actually mentions a Mr. King m one of his
earlier novels dealing with the Chinese, although not with
Dr. Fu Manchu. In The Yellow Claw (New York: McBride, Nast
and Company, 1915), p. 242, Dr. Cunmberly, one of the characters
says: "He is a certain shadowy being, known as Mr. King." "...
Mr. King being the chief, or president, of a sort of opium
syndicate, and, furthermore, it points to his being a Chinaman."

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 and his generous imaginal conception of Chinatown, Rohmer,

the man who created the single outstanding personification

of anti-Sinicism, confessed his ignorance of the Chinese

people, stating: ’" I MADE M Y NAME ON FU MANCHU BECAUSE I

KNOW NOTHING ABOUT the Chin e s e , " ’ after which he slyly com­

mented, ” ’I know something about Chinatown. But that is a

224
different matter.’" Rohmer's perception of Chinatown

was that of a faceless, exotic and mysterious evil, but­

tressed by traditional English prejudices and the recent

225
embers of the Boxer Rebellion m China. The otherwise

224
Cay Van Ash and Elizabeth Sax Rohmer, Master of
Villainy: A Biography of Sax Rohmer (London: Tom Stacey Ltd.,
1972), p. 72. Rohmer's propensity for the occult, it is
worthy to note, was epitomized in an episode he and his wife,
Elizabeth, had with a ouija board. While fooling with the
ouija board one night, Sax asked the board "how can I best
make a living?" As it was a time before the Fu Manchu cre­
ation, Sax and Elizabeth were astonished when "the pointer
moved rapidly over the chart and, not once, but repeatedly,
spelt out: C-H-I-N-A-M-A-N," p. 63.
225
The Boxer Rebellion, 1900, made an impact both
upon Rohmer and the film industry. The Boxers were intensely
anti-foreign, anti-Christian and particularly_anti-white. On
more than one occasion whites in China were killed by the en­
raged Chinese. Rather peculiarly, the one redeeming aspect
of Dr. Fu Manchu, that is, an understanding of why he hated
whites, was a product of the Boxer Rebellion. In the film The
Return of Dr. Fu Manchu (1930)[Paramount], with Warner Oland as
the Dr., an explanation is given for F u ’s evil. At Dr. F u ’s
assumed demise, two white characters expressed a kind of remorse:
Inspector Smith: "Before Fu Manchu went insane, he was a ma g ­
nificent scientist working for mankind. And not only that,
during the Boxer Rising, he was the best friend the white man
had in China." [in reaction to a Boxer attack near Fu's house,
English and other white soldiers were forced to open fire] "the
white troops were obliged to fire, and Fu Manchu's wife and

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 -99-

problematical visage of Dr. Fu Manchu, however, revealed

itself to Rohmer on one traumatic and terrifying night in

London's Limehouse. Someone, possibly Fong Wah, had in­

formed Sax that he might witness Chinatown's most notorious

inhabitant if he were to secret himself late at night in the

doorway of a particular house in Chinatown. Rohmer followed

the information and was later to recall:

'Minutes passed and I continued standing there in the

grip of such excitement as I had never felt before.
For a mere instant while the light flooded out from
the opened door, I had seen the face of the man in
the fur cap, and in that instant my imaginary monster
came to life. His face— well, I needn't describe i t . ’
'Was it "Mr. King"? I don't know, and it doesn't
matter. "King" was only a nickname or a part of his
real name, anyway. Whether or not it was the same man
whom I saw ceased to interest me. I knew that I had
seen Dr. Fu ManchuI His face was the living embodiment
of Satan. ’22^

little son, whom he adored, were killed before his eyes."

Newspaper M a n : "Is that why he went insane?"
Inspector S mith: "Yes. And in the mistaken belief that his
white friends had intentionally fired on his house, he swore
to his gods that he'd wipe them out to the third generation,
and that he'd use the child, Lea Eltham, in his vengeance."
The inspector went on to state that the Dr. had earlier hun­
ted down Russian, German and French men who were also res­
ponsible for the deaths of Fu's wife and son. Likewise, Fu's
symbol, a blood-stained dragon, represented his wife's blood.
Day, op. cit., pp. 33-34, says that film treated Fu too kindly,
that is, "Fu Manchu became a poor, misguided oriental who
sought revenge on the English for killing his wife during the
Boxer Rebellion." Apparently, Day missed the overall intent
of the film.
226Cay Van Ash and Elizabeth Sax Rohmer, Master of
Villainy, o p . c i t ., p. 77. Rohmer's description of Dr. Fu Manchu's

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 -100-

Thus, Dr. Fu Manchu was fully conceived in the mind of Sax

Rohmer, and given to the world at a time when China, rather

than fitting the image of the Yellow Peril, was turning to

the West, especially to the United States, for friendship

227
and democratic guidance.

The English motion picture industry, specifically

the Stoll Picture Corporation, released The Mystery of D r .

Fu Manchu in 1923, followed by two fifteen-chapter serials

physical being was as contradictory and ambivalent as was

the D r . ’s character. Physically speaking, Dr. Fu Manchu
was quite non-Chinese. He was "a tall, catlike individual
possessing a Shakespearean-yet-Satanic countenance, close-
shaven skull, and magnetic feline eyes," See: Jack Mathis,
Valley of the Cliffhangers (Northbrook, Illinois: Jack Mathis
Advertising, 1975), p. 137. In considering the importance
attributed to the difference between the occidental and the
oriental eyes, perhaps the most peculiar dissonance lies in
the fact that Dr. Fu Manchu was supposed to have had powerful
green e y e s . In Sax Rohmer [Arthur Sarsfield Ward], The Island
of Fu Manchu (New York: Doubleday, Doran and Company, Inc.,
1941), for example, Kerrigan, a white character opposing Fu's
evil, says: "..., I recognised the fact that this power em­
anated entirely from his [Dr. Fu's] eyes..." "...and I knew
that his power resided in a tremendous intellect, for it shone
out like a beacon from those strange qr. en eyes, feverishly
brilliant in cavernous shadows," p. 37, (Italics Added.) It ^
is also instructive to note that at a time when the superiority
of the white race was still a foregone conclusion, the white
characters should recognize F u ’s superior intellect, that is,
"Dr. Fu Manchu, embodiment of the finest intellect in the
modern world," p. 3. Likewise: "There was no man whom I feared
as I feared the brilliant Chinese doctor," p. 4.
227 •
Durgnat, "The 'Yellow Peril' Rides Again," op. cit.,
p. 38, states that Fu Manchu was created in the era of Sun Yat-
Sen, and so represents the West's fear of China as the sleeping
giant whom she’d have done better not to awaken...." Dr. Sun
Yat-Sen was friendly toward the United States and was in Denver,
Colorado, when the 1911 Chinese Revolution erupted. Sun had
approached the United States for financial support on several
occasions, without success. In frustration, he turned to the
Russians, and later to the Soviets.

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 -101-

under the title The Further Mysteries of Dr. Fu Manchu in

1924. Paramount Studios was the first of the American in­

dustry to seize upon Dr. Fu Manchu. In 1929, The Mysterious

Dr. Fu Manchu starred Warner Oland as the Dr. The Return of

D r . Fu Manchu and Daughter of the Dragon228 were released in

1930 and 1931 respectively by the same studio. In 1932, Metro-

Goldwyn-Mayer starred Boris Karloff as Dr. Fu Manchu in The

229
Mash of Fu Manchu. And Republic Studios, in 1939, went

into the production of The Drums of Fu M a n c h u , in serial,

starring Henry Brandon as Dr. Fu Manchu. Released in 1940,

the serial was condensed into a seventy-minute feature in

1942. NBC began a series of Dr. Fu Manchu thrillers, in

Anna May Wong portrayed Dr. Fu Manchu*s daughter,

Fah Lo Suee, who was supposedly Eurasian0 Rohmer may have
had erotic feelings toward Eurasian females, particularly in
light of his own personally progressive attitude toward sex
and marriage. In The Yellow C l a w , o p . c i t ., p. 155, he sen­
sually wrote: "She had the pallidly dusky skin of a Eurasian,
but, by virtue of nature or artifice, her cheeks wore a peach­
like bloom. Her features were flawless in their chiseling,
save for the slightly distended nostrils, and her black eyes
[not green] were magnificent. She was divinely petite, slender
and girlish; but there was that in the lines of her figure, so
seductively defined by her clinging Chinese dress, in the poise
of her small head, with the bluish rose nestling amid the black
hair— above all in the smile of her full red lips--which dis­
counted the youth of her body, which whispered 'Mine is a soul
old in strange sins— ...." Rohmer did have at least one extra­
marital relationship with a white woman. And during his Lime­
house escapades his wife, Elizabeth, feared that he might have
had a Chinese [Fong Wah's daughter], possibly a Eurasian, re­
lationship. There is, however, no solid evidence to support
the possibility.
229 .
Durgnat, "The 'Yellow Peril' Rides Again," o j d . c i t . ,
p. 35, says this film depicted Dr. Fu as "preaching genocide
and race-rape" of the whites, screaming: "Kill all the white men
and take their womenI"

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 -102-

1950, starring Sir Cedric Hardwicke as Nayland Smith, Fu's

nemesis, but difficulties and dissatisfaction with the spon­

sors permanently halted completion of the series. Finally,

Rohmer reportedly sold the TV, radio and film rights to Dr.

Fu Manchu to Republic Pictures for the sum of $4,000,000 in

1955. In the same year, Hollywood Television Productions, Inc.,

a subsidiary of Republic Pictures, started a serial of no less

than 78 one-half hour episodes under the general title of The

Adventures of Fu Manchu. Given the institutionally racist

nature of the American motion picture industry, controversies

involving Dr. Fu Manchu, including some English imports of the

230
cheap variety, continue to smolder.

230
The increased social and political awareness among
Asian Americans of the issue of anti-Asiatic white racism, cer­
tainly as it applies to the mass media as a whole, has often
times accounted for outspoken criticism of individuals and in­
stitutions. However, little attention or coverage has been
given specifically to Asian protest against anti-Asiatic racism
in the United States. One of the few incidents that did in fact
receive coverage by the media concerned the showing of a Fu Manchu
film on television in 1972.
"Members of several Asian-American groups Friday pro­
tested the showing of the film 'The Brides of Fu Manchu' by
television station KTLA [channel 5[.
The film was denounced by the groups as being 'racist
and distorted. ' They demanded a public apology by the station
as well as equal time to present a more accurate portrayal of
As i a n s .
Among those represented at a press conference were
spokesmen for the Los Angeles Joint Chinese Students Association,
the Japanese-American Citizens League and the Chinese Community
Council of Greater Los Angeles.
Richard Fong, president of the USC Chinese Students
Association, said the film 'perpetuates a false stereotype and
racial image of Asians in America.'
"...the manager of the station said his station did
not intend to schedule the movie again." See: Los Angeles T i m e s ,
May 13, 1972, MPAS Collection.

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 -103-

Throughout the first four decades of the 20th century,

the Asian serials(many of which were thematically anchored in

Hollywood's creation of Asian racism, the goal of which was "the

231
destruction of the white race" ) constituted a significant

aspect of the American motion picture industry's stock in trade.

Nonetheless, the fact remained that although the industry was

conspicuous in its efforts to encourage the belief that whites

232
were being victimized by the Chinese, the white "star system"

and the general profitability of the serials excluded the Asian

artists from both stardom and profit, while accounting for a

simultaneous increase in cinematic and social anti-Sinicism.

Because all major Asian characters "were played by white men

233
in yellowface," the industry had a free hand m racially

portraying Asian characters. Notably, augmenting Fu Manchu who

had become a substantive factor in A m e rica’s perception of the

Chinese, Victory Studios' Shadow of Chinatown serial (1936),

which was delivered in fifteen episodes, used the figure of an

insane Eurasian chemist, victor Poten [portrayed by Bela Lugosij,

not only to propagandize on the undesirability of interracial

marriages between whites and Chinese, but also more importantly

231
Ken Weiss and Ed Goodgold, To Be Continued... (New
York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1972), p. vii.
232
Bohn and Stromgren, Light and Shadows, op. cit.,
pp. 192-193.
233
Richard Griffith and Arthur Mayer, The Movies (New
York: Simon and Schuster, 1970), p. 108. The institutional ex­
clusion of real Asian performers from primary roles vis-a-vis
the use of racist cosmetics had become established practice as
early as the late Teens.

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 -104-

to emphasize the enfeebled and socially unacceptable character

traits allegedly inherent to the offspring of such unions.

Although Poten's own devilry was superlative, he nevertheless

remained a subtly pathetic creature whose personal dilemma was

rejection by whites and Chinese alike, and whose personal and

social degeneracy lurked in his hatred for "both the Chinese

234
and the white races.” Residing somewhere between Dr. Fu

Manchu and Poten was Universal Studios' most expensive, and

possibly most popular, serial: Flash Gordon. Begun in 1936,

and originally completed in thirteen episodes, the Flash Gordon

films introduced the American people to a futuristic Yellow Peril,

Emperor Ming, the Merciless, who was portrayed by the white actor

Charles Middleton. One observer of the films remarked on the depth

of the anti-Asiatic tradition of the industry:

Such is the villain in Flash Gordon — a trident bearded,

slanty eyed, shiny doomed, pointy nailed, arching eye­
browed, exotically garbed Oriental named Ming, who per­
sonifies unadulterated evil. A heavy [a villain] like
Ming is not contrived in a comic strip writer's imag­
ination during a coffee break, but rather is the pro­
duct of perhaps the richest and longest tradition of
all of Hollywood's ethnic [racial] stereotypes, one
which has spawned many grotesque offspring and con-
235
ceived innumerable variations of deformity.

To Be Continued..., op. c i t .,

Journal of Popular Film, Volume III, No. 1, Winter, 1974, pp.

24-26. Barshay also notes other important elements in the

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 -105-

At the same time, against the film industry's concentration upon

Asian villainy, the arrival of an otherwise sympathetically por­

trayed Asian character, necessarily played by a white actor, was

the product of historical happenstance, not social deliberation.

In 1919, the same year in which Patria appeared, with

its anti-Japanese intent, author Earl Derr Biggers while in

Hawaii read about a Chinese detective, Chang A p a n a , on the Hono­

lulu police department. The idea of a Chinese detective, of

whom there were presumably few, fascinated Mr. Biggers. By no

means a writer of import, Biggers' character creation, Charlie

Chan, might have achieved much of his success not only from his

assumed uniqueness, both in terms of personality and profession,

but also from the anti-Asiatic catharsis administered by the

United States' passage of the 1924 Alien Land Law-Immigration

Gordon serial. The projected white racist sexual phobia was an

inherent part of Ming's master plan for universal domination:
"...the evil Ming is perversely attracted to the fetching Dale
[the white female heroine], and much of the action revolves
around the emperor's diabolical insistance on marrying her and
ridding himself of a potential suitor, Flash. [The theme is
peculiar because at the time the serial was made, the United
States had miscegenation laws prohibiting the marriage between
Asians and whites.]
"What could be more psychologically excruciating and
suspenseful to an American audience than the personification
of evil of obviously alien [Asian] extraction lusting after the
pure blue-eyed, blond-haired American virgin of genteel breeding?
The mythical attraction of a vile, corrupt and sinister Oriental's
pursuit of a self-contained unit of almost prenatal innocence,
then, manipulated and exploited the commonly embraced stereotypes
in the American imagination for commercial success," p. 20.
235Frank Chin, "Interview: Roland Winters, the Last
Charlie Chan of the Movies," Amerasia Journal, Volume 2, Fall,
1973, p. 16.

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 -106-

237
Act. Less than a year after the passage of the legislation,

Biggers' first Charlie Chan novel, The House Without a K e y , was

published. The novel was a relative success, as were others

published by Biggers in the late 1920's. However, the motion

picture producers, conditioned and guided by traditional anti-

Asiatic imagery and sentiment in the industry and in America as

a whole, "were cautious in springing an Oriental 'good guy' on

audiences in large doses and, thus, introduced Charlie [Chan]

only casually. " In fact, in the first Charlie Chan film,

The House Without a Key (1926), which was titled after the novel,

Charlie Chan was not the "polite, mild mannered, gracious" Chin­

ese detective with "an endless capacity for calling forth the
239
wisdom of the past in application to the present situation,"

237
The primary intention of the 1924 land and im­
migration legislation was to deny admittance to the United
States any and all aliens [Asians specifically] who were
by law "ineligible for citizenship." See: Connie Young Yu,
"The Chinese in American Courts," Bulletin of Concerned
Asian Scholars, No. 4, Fall, 1972, p. 28. Since Asians were
prohibited by law from becoming American citizens, the leg­
islation in effect served as the final step in excluding
Asians from American shores. Added to the tension between
the United States and Japan, especially over the Japanese
emigration to the United States and Japan's demand for equal
treatment of her nationals in the United States, the 1924
legislation was destined to have a devastating impact upon
American-Japanese relations, as will be seen presently.
^"^William K. Everson, The Detective in Film (Secaucus,
New Jersey: The Citadel Press, 1972), p. 73,
239
Jones, The Portrayal of China and India, o p . cit.,
pp. 32-33. It should be noted that the Charlie Chan features
and serials numbered an impressive forty-seven. Likewise, the
Charlie Chan character has been a traditional favorite among
Americans and non-Americans alike. The popularity of Chan as
a detective is reportedly second only to Sherlock Holmes.

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 -107-

but rather a supporting character of little actual importance

to the film. Largely because of the producers' caution in

developing a more noticeable role for the detective, George

Kuwa, a Japanese actor, played the minor character of Charlie

Chan. In 1927, Behind That Curtain, the following Chan film,

was released with E.L. Park [possibly a non-white[ in the role

of Chan. However, Chan was of such minor significance in the film

that Park's name appeared last on the billing. Another Japanese

actor, a favorite of Douglas Fairbanks' and one best known for

his villainous-looking face, Kamiyama Sojin portrayed Chan in

the 1928 production of The Chinese P a r r o t . Charlie Chan thus

remained a character of only casual interest.

Not until the 1931 release of Charlie Chan Carries On

240
did the otherwise sympathetically portrayed Chan become

popular. Warner Oland, who had filled the roles of Wu Fang

and Dr. Fu Manchu earlier, starred as the Chinese detective.

Although Oland's personality had much to do with the success

241
of Chan, it is likely that the final immigration measures

taken by the United States Government, and the subsequent

2^0
‘ A sympathetic portrayal should not be construed as
necessarily non-racist. Although Chan was not a villain, the
portrayal of Chan is racist if only on the basis of racist cos­
metology, and the fact that the institutional exclusion of the
Chinese accounts for Chan's "never having been portrayed by a
Chinese actor." See: Chris Steninbrunne and Otto Penzler (e d s .-
in-chief), Marvin Lachman and Charles Shibuk (senior eds.),
Encyclopedia of Mystery and Detection (New York: McGraw-Hill
Book Company, 1976), p. 72.
241
Everson, The Detective F i l m , o p . c i t ., p. 73.

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 -108-

social relief accompanying the end to the Asian immigration pro-

242 . . .
blem, gradually provided a psychological incentive and social

climate given to the acceptance of an image of a non-villainous

Asian. C h a n ’s unaggressive persona, rendered affectedly quaint

243
by an "abundance of aphorisms" often times prefaced by a "Con-
244
fucius say," was as remotely threatening to white Americans

as the continuing fear of an Asian immigration deluge was at

last superfluous. Although anti-Asiatic motion pictures per­

sisted mostly because anti-Asianism per se had become standard

institutionalized practice— with Asians represented as a racial

245
threat only through the "crude efforts of the Hollywood writers"
246
— Chan became symbolic of the harmless and comical cultural and

racial characteristics of a people barred from American shores

because of their race.

242
Maisie Conrat and Richard Conrat, Executive Order
9066, The Internment of 110,000 Japanese Americans (California
Historical Society, 1972), p. 21. The Conrat's say, for example,
that the 1924 Exclusion Law put an end to the "burst of active
anti-Japanese agitation in the United States," although anti-
Asiatic imagery persisted.
James Robert Parrish (ed.), The Great Movie Series
(New York: A.S. Barnes and Company, 1971), p. 90.
244
Jones, The Portrayal of China and I n dia, o p . c i t .,
p. 34.
245Harold Isaacs, American Views of China and India:
Images of Asia (New York: Capricorn Books, 1962), p. 117.
246
Everson, The Detective Film, o p . c it. , p. 79, notes
that the second-generation Chans, sons and daughters, were gen­
erally engaged in "sleuthing misadventures." The Chan films were
the only vehicles, however, through which Asian actors did not
have to speak pidgin English. Keye Luke played C h a n ’s No. 1 son,
Layne Tom, Jr. and Victor Sen Yung as No. 2 ’s, Benson Fong as
No. 3, Edwin Luke as No. 4, Frances Chan as daughter Frances, and
Marianne Quon as Iris Chan.

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 -109-

Oland starred in a total of sixteen Chan films. Upon

his death, in 1938, Sidney Toler assumed the role of Chan for

eleven productions. Roland Winters continued the series after

Toler's death, in 1947, playing Chan in over twenty pictures.

The character of Charlie Chan, much like that of Dr. Fu Manchu,

has not diminished in popularity over the years. The films

have been continually brought to the American viewing public

on television:

The Chan movies themselves, staples on television for

years, in the early 1970s suddenly found themselves the
center of a new cult, part of the general craze for nos­
talgia of the thirties and forties. As a result, they
were repackaged, their television licensing fees sky­
rocketed, and, placed on the 16-mm. market, they com­
manded hefty rental rates commensurate with fees for
247
major classics.

Newer Chan-related materials, despite repeated protest by Asian

248
actors and charges of racism, have found their way into the

American market and the American home.

247
Everson, The Detective m F i l m , o p . c it., p. 80.
248 . . , .
The most recent Asian and Pacific American protest
against the continued presentation of Charlie Chan took place on
August 3, 1977. Asian and Pacific actors and actresses went to
Los Angeles’ Chinatown to protest the filming of a Charlie Chan
commercial for Dodge-Aspen automobiles, with Chinatown as a mere
background. The Chan character was portrayed by white actor Ross
Martin. The Association of Asian/Pacific American Artists argues
that the character is stereotypical, affected and negative, as well
as being a continuation of the use of racist cosmetology. The per­
sistence of racist cosmetics is not restricted to Chan. For ex­
ample, the Japanese American actor Mako was reportedly turned down
for an Asian role in Rashomon. In reading for the role, Mako was
told by David Susskind: " ’You gave a great reading. But as a

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 -110-

Not all of Chan's sympathetically portrayed contem­

poraries fared so well, however. Chan's Japanese counterpart,

Mr. Moto, appeared in 1937 at the Twentieth Century-Fox Studios.

Having found a successful "formula with its oriental detective

249
series Charlie C h a n ," the industry attempted to duplicate

the success. Also a d e t e c t i v e , a l b e i t one with a propen-

251
sity for "lisping, bowing, and foot-shuffling," Mr. Moto

was based upon the late John Marquand's character. Despite

252
his "impeccable English," m marked contrast to Charlie

Chan's pidgin English, Mr. Moto remained essentially an inscru­

table personage, as described by Marquand:

He was a small rather chunky Japanese, in well fitting

European clothes,.,." "I remember exactly the way the
light struck Mr. Moto's face, bringing out the eager,
watchful lines around his narrow eyes, and making his
blunt nose cast a sideward shadow on his coffee colored
skin. I remember that he was smiling, with the curious

real Japanese you'd be too conspicuous. All of the other actors

are white made up to look Japanese.'" Mako did not get the role.
See: Irvin Paik, "The East West Players: The First Ten Are The
Hardest," Neworld, Winter, 1975, p. 31.
249
Parrish, The Great Movie Seri e s , o p . cit., p. 259.
2 50
In the film Charlie Chan in Honolulu (1938), Chan,
played by Toler, actually made professional reference to Mr.
Moto: "Am expecting visit from distinguished colleague, Mr.
Moto, shortly — must be prepared for same." See: film and
final script, p. 3. It is curious that as part of C h a n ’s pid­
gin English and affected Asian humility, as conceived by whites,
he was never allowed to speak in the first person singlular.
251
Stephen Birmingham, The Late John Marquand: A
Biography (New York and Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company,
1972), p. 78.
252
S t e m b r u n n e and Penzler, Encyclopedia of Mystery,
o p . c i t ., p. 291.

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 -111-

reflex action of his race that makes the lips turn up

253
at unconventional moments into a parody of merriment.

With Peter Lorre in the starring role, Mr. Moto was capable of

physical violence, unlike Chan, and would sometimes "engage in

some extremely lively fight scenes which often brought the

films to a much more rousing conclusion than the predictable

254
confrontations of the Chans." Unfortunately, the Mr. Moto

character fell victim of international tensions between the

United States and Japan. The increasing aggression in Asia

of Japan's militarists, particularly when England's interests

in south Asia were being threatened, was largely responsible

for a new wave of anti-Japanese sentiment in the United States.

... the movie industry [decided] to abandon the Mr. Moto

series of detective stories because anti-Japanese feeling
[was] running so high in America that audiences [could]
no longer take pleasure in the courage and astuteness of
255
a member of that nation.

Dutifully, the American motion picture industry put Mr. Moto

into "his wartime internment camp,"256 as would the Government

of the United States 110,000 Americans of Japanese descent.

Mr. Moto was not released from his internment for

over sixteen years. In 1957, Twentieth Century-Fox Studios

253
John P. Marquand, Thank You, Mr. Moto (New York:
Grosset and Dunlap Publishers, 1936), pp. 31 and 105.
254 . . .
Everson, The Detective m Film, op. cit., p. 80.
255
ten Broek, Barnhart, and Matson, Prejudice, War
and the Constitution, o p . cit., p. 32.
256Everson, 0 £. c i t ., p. 79.

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 -112-

finished shooting Stopover Tokyo which was filmed entirely in

Japan. Hailed as "the latest and finest of the 'Mr. Moto'

257
stories," the motion picture itself made no reference to

the Japanese detective. In fact, the screenplay not only

"dropped the name Moto" 2^® from the lead role, filled by

Robert Wagner as agent Mark Fennon, but also "completely

259
eliminated" Mr. Moto from the story. To all intents and

purposes, Mr. Moto had been throughly emasculated by the

Studios' efforts. In 1965, more peculiarly, with the in­

creasing emphasis upon the surrealistic thrillers, many of

which had anti-Asiatic overtones, Warner Brothers Studios

released The Return of Mr. M o t o , which starred another non-

Asiatic, Henry Silva,2^ i n the role of Mr. Moto "to cash in

on the James Bond super agent cycle."261 Thus, finally

257 . .
From Harry Brand, Director of Publicity, 20th
Century-Fox Studios, Beverly Hills, "Vital Statistics on
'Stopover Tokyo'," p. 1.
2~^Reporter, October 28, 1957, MPAS Collection. In
the original story, Mr. Moto was definitely the character who
was later eliminated by the Studios. Marquand himself identi­
fied Moto when he wrote: "'Yes, it's the same n a m e , '...'Moto.
Yes, I've got it now. Your nephew gave me your name in San
Francisco.'" See: John P. Marquand, Stopover Tokyo (Boston,
Massachusetts: Little, Brown and Company, 1956), p. 71.
259
John Scott, "'Stopover Tokyo' Tale of Intrigue m
Orient," L . A . Times, November 8, 1957, MPAS Collection.
26°The Green S h e e t , The Film Board of National Organ­
izations, New York, December, 1965.
261Parrish, The Great Movie S eries, o p . cit., p. 259.
The racist character of the Bond films is emphasized by Bond's
lines: "'I don't think I've ever heard of a great Negro criminal
before,' said Bond. 'Chinamen, of course, the men behind the
opium trade. There've been some big-time Japs, mostly pearls
and drugs." See: Vincent Canby, "In 'Live and Let D i e , ’ the
Bad Guys are Black," The New York Times Film Reviews, 1973-74, p. 80.

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 -113-

assisted by a dismal performance by Silva, Mr. Moto appeared

to have found release from both the internment camp and the

motion picture screen.

The last of the sympathetically portrayed Asian char­

acters was Mr. Wong, D e t e c t i v e ? ^ T w o Asian detectives might

have proved sufficient by any American standard. However,

Monogram Pictures, in 1938, hoped "to duplicate the success

of the Oriental detective craze."^53 The rights to Hugh

Wiley's short-story character, Mr. Wong, Detective, were

bought by the Studio. Several white actors, in accordance

with the Studios' practice, were tested for the part of Mr.

Wong. After some deliberation, Boris Karloff, a former por­

trayer of Dr. Fu Manchu, secured the part. Although only

three Mr. Wong, Detective, films were made, the short-lived

series was important in one respect. Karloff, after having

made the first two films, left the series and Keye Luke, a

real Chinese actor, was able to try the role in the third

film, Phantom of Chinatown. While Phantom was a particularly

interesting film, the white film exhibitors, who were only

interested in Karloff, "lost interest in the series, and it

264
was dropped." Primarily as the result of the exhibitors'

262Mr. Wong, Detective, should not be confused with

a villainous character, called Mr. Wong, in a film starring
Bela Lugosi. They were two entirely different characters.
Richard Bojarski and Kenneth Beale, The Films of
Boris Karloff (Secaucus, New Jersey: The Citadel Press, 1974),
p. 132.
264
Everson, The Detective m F i l m , o p . cit., p. 82.

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 bias, the only series that might have starred an actual Asian

was terminated.

The collective impression of Asians created by the

American motion picture industry prior to the Second World

War was one of cultural condescension and open racism. Yet

a definitive irony lay in the fact that the industry while

profiting from its racist view of Asians was simultaneously

offending a growing n a t i o n a l i s m ^ ^ among Asians. Moreover,

the United States' anti-Asiatic policies, formally culmin­

ating in 1924, served to insult and humiliate all Asian

governments and peoples. Considering the nature of Japanese-

American relations, coupled with the rising expectations of an

especially high-strung, modern Japanese nationalism, it was not

Jones, The Portrayal of China and India, o p . cit.,,

p. 37, remarks that by the 1930's, when China had begun to
take her place among the family of nations, "the Chinese gov­
ernment began to express itself with respect to the manner in
which China and Chinese customs and people were being portrayed
in American motion pictures." Paul K. Whang, in his "Boycotting
American Movies," The World Tomorrow, August, 1930, stated: "...
whenever a Chinese is portrayed on the screen he is depicted as
a dope fiend, gambler, murderer or something equally bad. Being
far away from China, the public has nothing better to do than
take these misrepresentations at their face value." "Thus to
exaggerate the evils of Chinatown on the screen will not only
arouse the ire of the Chinese people, but will reflect no good
upon the reputation of the American government," p. 339. From
a more nationalistic perspective, Whang lamented the use of
Japanese actors in Chinese character parts, whom he said m i s ­
represented the Chinese "for the benefit of their own country,"
p. 339. In general, however, Whang took issue with Harold
Lloyd's Welcome Danger, in which Chinese were portrayed as
opium-smugglers, kidnappers, and gamblers. Additionally, a
young Chinese boy in Singapore decried: "We don't eat rats and
mice. We like candy, cake and ice cream, just like other kids.
You think all Chinese boys run laundries and are washermen. Say!

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 -115-

surprising that Japan should determine to offset the United

States. In like fashion, the American film industry, which

throughout the years had remained more heavily anti-Sinitic

than anti-Japanese, would act as one of the most vicious

weapons in America's struggle against Japan's aggression.

The United Stat e s ’ passage of the Immigration Act in

1924 severely wounded Japanese pride both nationally and rac­

ially. The insult and trauma to the Japanese nation was so

overpowering that "the train of events that culminated at

Pearl Harbor may be said to have been set in motion in 1924."265

In Japan, protest against the Act was unanimous. In addition,

it "created a tremendous antagonism in Japan and inspired the

growth of militaristic and anti-foreign elements who were

given the excuse to wage war against the United States."26"7

After what was for Japan a long contest with the white nations,

most outstandingly the United States, on the issues of national

and racial equality, the 1924 Immigration Act was a stunning

defeat, the disgrace and humiliation of which was unprecedented.

We want to be policemen, firemen, doctors, lawyers and sol­

diers, too. When my daddy takes me to America, I am going to
say 'Hello' to Jack Dempsey, Mayor Jimmy Walker, Lindy, Charlie
Chaplin and President Hoover. See: "Byrd Again in NewsReel,"
Chinese Boy in Singapore Talks in English for Film at Embassy,
New York Times Film Reviews (1913-1931), April 15, 1930, pp. 618-19.
266Kimitada Miwa, "Japanese Images of War with the United
States," in Akira Iriye (ed.), Mutual Images, o p . cit., p. 115.
26'7Albert M. Robbins, "Exclusion as a Factor in the
Relations of Japan and the United States, 1913-1924,» (Unpub­
lished M.A. Thesis in History, University of Southern Calif­
ornia, January, 1954), p. 172.

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 -116-

Perhaps reluctantly, the Japanese had begun to realize that

regardless of Japan's industrial achievements and military

successes, and despite her attempts to impress the white

nations with her non-Asiatic capabilities, the ultimate bar­

rier to equality was race. Thus it was remarked:

Previously the quest for equality had been seen largely

in terms of the acquisition of Western economic, pol­
itical, legal and cultural institutions; the barrier
of Western racism had been either ignored or thought
inapplicable to the Japanese case. The removal of
most other barriers to acceptability, however, raised
a depressing spectre, the growing awareness that the
dream of equality might in the end be frustrated by an
ingrained unwillingness among Europeans and Americans
to accept those of other races as equals under any cir­
cumstances. For many, the elimination of racial pre­
judice as a barrier to international acceptability
eventually became the single final achievement nec­
essary before Japan could take her rightful place among
the advanced nations of the world. To them, without
this ultimate acceptance, all J a pan’s achievements to
date would be worth little.26®

At the same time, however, Japan's final realization that in

the eyes of the whites the Japanese were not superior to the

other Asian nationalities, but merely a variant form of the

Yellow Peril, drove the Japanese more closely to the other

Lee Arne Makela, "Japanese Attitudes Towards the

United States Immigration Act of 1924,"(Unpublished Ph.D. dis­
sertation, Stanford University, 1973), p. 3. It should also
be noted that the 1st of July, 1924, the day the Act was passed
in the United States, was celebrated as National Humiliation Day
in Japan.

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 -117-

extreme of stationing themselves as the assumed head of the

» •
Asian races. 259

Japanese nationalism, and its inherent "call for 'a

270 . . .
militarily powerful Japan'," was intensified by the United

States' behavior in 1924. Racial rejection of Japan by the

United States enlivened the concept of a united Asia ready

to reverse the gains made by the whites in Asia. However,

the Pan-Asiatic ideal, perhaps Japan's regional expression

of Japanese nationalism, was based upon contradictory goals.

On the one hand, Japan's ideal Pan-Asianism would cast out

the white powers from Asia, thereby destroying "the Western

271
imperialistic structure m the Orient." On the other hand,

Japan would replace the white powers in Asia, thus in essence

272
making "serfs" of the supposedly liberated peoples. For

the Japanese, peculiarly, the diametrically opposed purposes

"were inseparably fused together and internalized in the nat-

273
lonal ideology." Resentment against the United States con-

269
Japan's own prejudice against the other races and
nationalities of the East literally undercut the idea of Pan-
Asianism. Hence:"The Japanese demanded equal status with the ad­
vanced Western imperialist countries; but they ignored the unequal
treatment they accorded their Asian neighbors," Iriye, Mutual Images,
o p . c i t ., p . 8.
270 . . . . .
Matsumoto Sannosuke, "The Significance of Nationalism
in Modern Japanese Thought: Some Theoretical Problems," The Journal
of Asian Studies, Volume XXXI, No. 1, November, 1971, p. 53.
2^1Joyce C. Lebra (ed.), Japan's Greater East Asia Co-
Prosperity Sphere in World War II (London: Oxford University Press,
1975), p. 4.
272
Reischauer, Japan: The S t o r y , o p . c i t ., p. 204.
273
Sannosuke, op. c i t ., p. 55.

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 -118-

274 . . ...
tinued to mount in Japan. ' In 1926, Vice-Admiral Reijiro

Kawashima argued that a war between the United States and

Japan had been decreed by Heaven, and Teisuke Akiyama, the

editor of the Niroku and a man influential in politics, said

that a war against the United States would be a moral tonic

275
for the Japanese people. In fact, the Japanese press had

become highly anti-foreign, reacting wildly to Japan's rejection

on racial grounds, with the United States and the other Anglo-

Saxon nations as primary targets:

More probably the anti-alienism of Japan is now dis­

played in hopes of bringing to Japan the headship of
an Asiatic federation against white aggression. 'The
whites,' says Kokumin, 'are robbers. They have long
been brutally and cruelly unjust ' The influence of
Japan, the Nichi Nichi thinks, will, in the future,
control the fate of Asia. The time will come, Yamato
said in 1925, when Japan will wage herculean struggle
against the Anglo-Saxon races on the plains of China,
and the Mainichi warned the world what fate befell
those nations who purposely and unnecessarily insulted
Dai Nippon. 27®

274
In the third week of June, 1924, Shochiku, one of
Japan's leading motion picture production companies, began a
general boycott against American products and refused to screen
American films. The boycott was a failure, however, largely
through the efforts of Makino Shozo, a film director, who said
Shochiku was exploiting the situation in order to promote the
sales of Japanese films.
275
Harry Emerson Wildes, Social Currents m Japan, with
Special Reference to the Press (Chicago, Illinois: University of
Chicago Press, 1927), p. 88.
276Ibid., p. 93.

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 -119-

Japan's martial spirit had been excited by the United States'

anti-Asiatic racism. Indeed, all Asians felt the sting of

America's racism. With the flame of a Greater East Asia

Co-Prosperity Sphere kindled, the Japanese seethed under the

sometimes placid surface of resignation. In 1930, eleven

years after the release of Patria had so gravely offended

him, and six years after the passage of the Immigration Act

of 1924, ex-Ambassador Hanihara Masanao reflected, in the

most ominous tones, upon Japan's humiliation:

'the resentment is felt now as it was then, nor will

it ever die out so long as the wound inflicted remains
277
unhealed.'

A year after the ex-Ambassador's words were spoken, the Empire

of Japan fatefully invaded Chinese territory. Although most

Americans paid little attention to Japanese aggression against

China in 1931, despite Chinese efforts to seek the assistance

of the United States, the course had been set. America and

the American motion picture industry would on December 7, 1941,

acknowledge Japan's unhealed wound, but not A m e rica’s white

racism, in the cry: "The Japs have just bombed Pearl Harbor'."278

277
Makela, "Japanese Attitudes Towards the United
States Immigration Act of 1924," op>. c i t ., pp. 268-269.
278Wake Island (1942), Brian Donlevy as Major Geoffrey
Caton speaking.

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 CHAPTER H I

THE MATURE YEARS: ASIANS IN THE AMERICAN FILMS

FROM THE SECOND WORLD WAR TO VIETNAM

The Japanese militarists' aggression against China,

in 1931, was as had been their earlier annexationist program

against Korea of minor concern to the United States. After

having been rejected on the questions of racial and national

equality by America, the Japanese turned to an increasingly

extreme view of the world and Japan's place in it. Notably,

the illusion of a united East Asia, in which Japan would hold

. . 279
the position of "elder brother" and the other nations of

Asia relegated to the status of younger brothers, was largely

predicated upon the industrial expansion of Japan and the dis­

persal of her surplus population. From the Japanese military

perspective, continued expansion into Asia was necessary for

Japan's growth as the leader, and hence for the growth of Asia.

279
Otto D. Tolischus, Through Japanese Eyes (New York:
Reynal and Hitchcock, 1945), [Lieutenant Colonel Tsukasa Kato
of the Military Affairs Bureau of the War Office speakingj p. 87.
By 1942, not only had the militarists' brutality toward other
Asians become manifest, but also Japan's claim to the leadership
of all Asia. Kato continued: "the fact must not be lost sight
of that Japan is the leader, and this fact must also be brought
home to the inhabitants of the occupied territories." The elder
brother/younger brother analogy was, in essence, a euphemistic
way of demanding that Japan hold paramount position in Asia.

- 120-

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 -121-

As Japan's first continental conquest, and one amply the pr o ­

duct of the United States' inaction, Korea was used as the

springboard from which the Japanese militarists initiated

their attack upon Manchuria. In the course of "her racial

expansion," Japan's penetration into North China was viewed

as "an inevitable step,"280 and prelude to an all-out invasion

of China. In referring to their activities in China, the mi l ­

itarists stated that Japan was a peace-loving country which

was doing only that which was required to assure her continued

progress as an industrial power and as a nation in Asia:

Japan is not actuated by land lust. What she wants is

unobstructed, peaceable access to the raw materials of
Manchuria on the fair and accepted principle of give
and take, of live and let live. Japan sees no other
way to industrialize herself and thus solve her pres-
281
sing population problem.

For international consumption, directed mainly at the Western

countries, the militarists insisted that activities in Manchu­

ria were innocuous, as had been earlier activities in Korea,

and that Japan had no designs on China's national sovereignty.

It was also asserted that contact between China and Japan would

benefit the Chinese, as it had the Koreans, and help to bring

Tatsuo Kawai, The Goal of Japanese Expansion (The

Hokuseido Press, 1938), p. 58. Kawai also noted the density
of the Japanese population of 1,000 per square kilometer: "The
highest figure in the world, surpassing easily that of 800 for
Holland," pp. 19-20.
281Kawakami, Japan S p eaks, o p . cit., p. 11.

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 -122-

them into the modern, outside world. Reacting to the Japanese

attack on Manchuria, however, the Chinese anxiously explained

the crisis to the United States and, as did the Koreans before

them, pleaded for American assistance:

As the United States, China and Japan are all signatory

powers of the Kellogg Pact, and as the United States is
the sponsor of the sacred engagements contained in the
Treaty, the American Government must be deeply interested
in this case of unprovoked and unwarranted attack and sub­
sequent occupation of Chinese cities by Japanese troops,
which constitutes a deliberate violation of the Pact. The
Chinese Government urgently appeals to the American Gov­
ernment to take such steps as will insure the preservation
of peace in the Far East and the upholding of the principle
of peaceful settlement of international disputes.

The United States' decision not to involve itself in the Sino-

Japanese dispute, Chinese entreaties notwithstanding, provided

a tacit recognition of Japan's activities and an incentive to

the militarists. What there may have been of American concern

for China was smothered in an isolationist blanket. Moreover,

with the American people's fear of an Asian deluge settled in

1924 by the Immigration Act, the topical popularity of Asians

had subsided. Asia appeared more remote and unimportant than ever.

U.S. Department of State, Papers Relating to the

Foreign Relations of the United States, 1931, Volume III, The
Far Ea s t , Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office,
1946, [[Yung Kwai to the American Secretary of Stated, p. 24.
On September 21, 1931, the Japanese occupied the city of Shen­
yang, near Mukden. The Kellogg Pact was an agreement to re­
nounce violence as a means of settling international disputes.

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 -123-

In light of Japan's invasion of Manchuria and the rel­

ative indifference of the United States Government, the motion

picture industry expressed negligible interest in the dramatic

events that were taking place in East Asia. Instead, with its

repertoire of and emphasis upon Asian imagery being mostly a

combination of 1) domestic anti-Asiatic racism, 2) a cultural

mysteriousness surrounding Chinatowns, and 3) a legacy of equ­

ally mysterious missionary writings about the Chinese^88 the

industry’s limited response to Japanese military aggression

was embarrassingly exploitative. As one observer remarked:

Predictably, Western film-makers failed on the whole

to treat this act of blatant aggression with more than
remote interest or indignation. Britain and Hollywood,
in fact, used it simply as an excuse to set their screen
melodramas against a freshly topical setting.... Even as
late as 1943, fantasy was still proving stronger than
284
reality....

More importantly, despite manifest indignation of the Chinese

government and concerned American Asians, Hollywood's feature

films throughout the 193 0 's vied with the serials for their

racist characterizations of Asians, especially of the Chinese.

Franz Schurmann and Orville Schell, Imperial China:

The Decline of the Last Dynasty and the Origins of Modern China
(New York: Random House, 1967), p. 269.
284 . . .
Clyde Jeavons, A Pictorial History of War Films
(Secaucus, New Jersey: The Citadel Press, 1974), p. 93. It is
noteworthy to mention the fact that on February 24, 1933, the
Assembly of the League of Nations openly condemned Japan for its
aggression in Manchuria and for the establishment of the puppet
state of Manchukuo. Shortly after, Japan resigned from the League.

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 -124-

Par amount Studios' production of Chinatown Nights (1930), for

example, was an unconscionable misrepresentation of America's

Chinatowns. Despite its farcical style, the film developed the

image of tong-warring Chinese, many of whom were depicted as being

285
illegal immigrants. In 1931, Paramount released Daughter of the

Dragon. The picture was important because of the appearance of

Anna May Wong288as Dr. Fu Manchu's daughter, Fah Loh Suee. By

playing upon the theme of Fu's revenge against the Petrie family,

the industry featured the miscegenation prohibition between whites

and Asians. To arrange contextually the setting, Anna May was

provided a powerful role vis-a-vis the assumed death of her

father, immediately before which she was seen taking the "oath

of a son," whereby acting as a son she would satisfy Fu's plan

to destroy the last of the Petrie line, notably Roland Petrie.

Demonstrating the Asian female's sexual weakness for white males,

as conceived by the industry, Fah Loh necessarily fell in love

with Petrie, while lamenting her Chinese identity and racial

characteristics, saying: "If I stay, would my hair ever become

golden curls and my skin ivory...?" Although the Hays Office

would not permit miscegenation even between an Asian female and

285
All films were viewed at least once.
286Judy Chu's "Anna May Wong," in Emma Gee (ed.), Counter­
point: Perspectives on Asian Americans (Los Angeles: University of
California., Los Angeles, 1976), states that Hollywood was ambivalent
about Anna: "Hers was a time of living as an American first, Chinese
second; and being seen as Chinese first and American second by a
larger white public. This situation was perhaps more magnified and
fantasized in Hollywood, where white American 'melting pot' mental-

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 -125-

a white male, in the 1930's, miscegenation could be conveniently

diverted as a way of defeating Dr. Fu. By her love of a white man,

Fah Loh betrayed and disgraced her father and herself, shouting:

"I can't kill him. I love him. I would rather kill myself!" In

1932, Paramount1s release of Shanghai Express "provoked a riot

when it was shown in Shanghai [Chinaj] shortly after its comple­

tion. Again the dangers of Asian-white miscegenation and the

apparent social dislocation such unions created for the offspring

were treated. More notably, an especially racist view of China and

the Chinese was demonstrated in Eugene Pallette's lines, delivered

when he learned that the Eurasian Henry Chang [portrayed by Warner

Olandj was "not proud" of his white blood. Pallette responded

indignantly: "What future is there in being a Chinaman? You're

born, eat your way through a handful of rice, and you die!"

ity took blatant pride in her as a paragon of an individual who

could overcome race prejudice." With respect to Anna's career,
Chu states: "The limitation of Anna May's role on screen is a
concrete example of the limitation for roles for Asians in general,'
p. 288. White views on Anna May can be found in: Beverley N. Spa­
rks, "Where East Meets West," Photoplay Magazine, Volume XXVI, No.
1, June, 1924. Sparks says: "She has put aside the mental garment
of her nativity. Psychologically speaking, she has the mind flex-
ings of an Occidental." "Her deep brown eyes, while the slant is
not pronounced, are typically Oriental," p. 55. Again emphasis on
the epicanthic fold and cultural ambivalence can be noted in Mary
Wihship's "The China Doll," Photoplay M agazine, Volume XXIV, No.l,
June, 1923: "Almond-shaped, unfathomable eyes, with the calm depths
of the Orient in them. China— a million years old— gazes up at
you. But the rest of her— all American!" p. 35. Ultimately, Anna
was referred to as "the screen's foremost Oriental villainess...."
Time, February 10, 1961, Volume LXXVII, No. 7, "Milestones," p. 78.
286Verina Glaessner, Kung Fu, Cinema of Vengeance (Bounty
Books, Lorrimer Publishing, Ltd., 1974), p. 13.

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 -126-

Fox Studios' Shanghai Madness (1933) was indicative of the then

racist and culture-bound attitudes of whites toward Chinese.

Not only were full-grown Chinese males referred to as "boy,"

but the Chinese language was likened to "a bunch of phono­

graph records playing backwards." Moreover, given America's

continued ignorance of the serious political struggle in China,

the Communists were summarily dismissed as "A lot of cowardly

snipers'." The non-Communist Chinese, in contrast, were con­

descendingly ordered about by whites whose impatience was en­

unciated in the enigmatic "chop-chop I " P aramount's Limehouse

Blues and Shanghai (1934 and 1935) both again treated of the

miscegenation theme between Chinese and whites. The pictures'

final message was that such interracial marriages and their

offspring created social and racial problems, and that they

should be avoided.287 Shortly before J a p a n ’s full-scale in­

vasion of China, in 1937, Paramount released The General Died

at Dawn (1936). Although the film sympathetically portrayed

the Chinese, it nevertheless focused upon the culturally racist

assumption that life in Asia was cheap. The racially cosmetized

Akim Tamiroff, as the General, succinctly posited the simile of

China's disrespect for life to the white lead, Gary Cooper: "Mr.

In Limehouse B l u e s , George Raft portrayed Harry

Young, a Eurasian. Young was warned by Anna May Wong that he
must never marry the white girl with whom he was in love. "The
white girl cannot bring happiness to you. White flowers are
not for you." In. .his death scene, Raft laments the Eurasians'
supposed dilemma: "Half white, half yellow— all or nothing."
In Shanghai, Charles Boyer, playing a Eurasian, was warned: "It
is not how noble the strains. If they have been crossed, as
yours have been, a man becomes an outcast.”

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 -127-

O'Hara has so little regard for his life £by insulting the Gen­

eral], he sounds almost like [[a] Chinese." Additionally, sup­

plying a measured degree of credibility to the alleged Chinese

disregard for human life— even their own— a final scene dep­

icted the General's troops, upon his last orders, committing

mass suicide by shooting one another.

Beginning in 1937, however, "the American people

became fascinated by the stubborn and heroic resistance of

the Chinese against the better-equipped and better-trained

Japanese troops.*'2^ Both for the United States Government

and the American motion picture industry, the shortcomings

and contradictions of American foreign policy toward Asia had

become increasingly manifest and undeniable. Since at least

the turn of the century, the United States had not been u n ­

willing to sacrifice the social, political and national in­

tegrity of the smaller and the weaker Asian states in order

to avoid a direct military confrontation with Japan. A m e rica’s

anti-Asiatic racism, especially as it was directed against the

Japanese, formed a cycle which a) intensified the possibility

of a Japanese-American encounter over the race issue, and b)

simultaneously encouraged the Americans to barter off other

Asian states as recompense to Japan for immigration restriction

and finally exclusion. Providing that the American territorial

288Tang Tsou, America's Failure in China, 1941-1950

(Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press, 1963), p. 20.

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 -128-

possessions in the Pacific, notably Hawaii and especially

289
the Philippines, were not jeopardized, the United States

as an expanding power gave tacit and occasionally official

recognition to Japan's military appetite. However, the fear

that America's dome' 'ic anti-Asiatic policy would eventually

serve as a catalyst to military involvement with Japan re­

mained constant. As one American scholar observed:

Seldom has a year passed since 1905 during which the

conviction has not been expressed in this country that
Japan was strengthening itself in Asia in order to in­
vade the continental United States. This fear, par­
ticularly widely felt in the Western states where
Japanese immigration was long a cause of friction,
has continually been reflected in the Far Eastern
290
policy of the American government.

Paradoxically, as the diminishing returns of America's lit­

eral investments in Japan's militarist activities became more

substantive, the policy of assisting and appeasing Japan was

seen as the most successful way of sidestepping the dreaded

confrontation with that Empire.

289
The American fear that Japan might, international
conditions favorable, move against the United States' possessions
in the Pacific were not totally unfounded. In James K. Eyre, J r . ’s
"Japan and the American Annexation of the Philippines," The Pac­
ific Historical Review, Volume XI, Number 1, March, 1942, it is
strongly asserted that Japan had planned to take the Philippines
from the United States. See: notably, p. 70.
290
Knight Biggerstaff, "A Reappraisal of the Far Eastern
Policy of the United States," in Faculty of Cornell University,
The Impact of the War on America: Six Lectures by Members of the
Faculty of Cornell University (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University
Press, 1942), p. 78.

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 -129-

As an island nation with pathetically limited natural

and mineral resources, Japan could not industrialize without

substantial imports of raw materials, especially petroleum

products. Without a solid industrial base, likewise, the

Japanese could not successfully support and expand their mod­

ern military establishment. Although at the time it was not

highly publicized, the United States had been the primary sup­

plier of Japanese oil, scrap iron and other strategic war mat­

erials from the early 1930’s. Deprived of the United States'

assistance, it is unlikely that Japan's military and industrial

combine could have developed and operated so effectively. Furth­

ermore, as evidence of the United States' generosity, in face of

the Japanese militarists' aggression against China and their

continued domination of Korea, Japan was in fact able to build

up resource reserves, notably of the all-important oil:

Approximately eighty per cent of Japan's crude oil and

refined stacks in the early 19 3 0 's was imported from
the United States and from those imports Japan began
to accumulate an oil reserve for war. By 1939 that
291
reserve had grown to a peak of 55,000,000 barrels.

While cognizant of the fact that the Japanese were wreaking

havoc on Chinese soldiers and civilians with weapons that were

largely the end products of American imports, the United States

continued to sell vital war materials to Japan. That Chinese

291
James H. Herzog, "Influence of the United States
Navy in the Embargo of oil to Japan, 1940-1941,” Pacific Hist­
orical Review, Volume XXXV, Number 3, August, 1966, p. 317.

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 -130-

and concerned American whites repeatedly implored the United

States Government to reappraise its policy of selling strategic

materials to Japan did not dissuade or in any form substantially

affect or alter the course of the United States' policy. The

American fear of a military confrontation with Japan, despite

increasing indication that war would be forthcoming, continued

to shape the United States' perception of Japan as late as the

end of 1940. In contemplating the possibility of an embargo

of Japanese trade, an American study was conducted under the

direction of Rear Admiral Turner of the United S tates’ War

Plans Division. In part, although most profoundly, the final

report strongly argued that "an embargo on exports will have

an immediate severe psychological reaction in Japan against

the United States." In respect of that reaction, the report

closed with the recommendation that "trade with Japan not be

292
embargoed at this time."

For the Chinese, the continuation of American sales to

Japan was tantamount to sentencing thousands of Chinese— soldiers

and civilians alike— to death at the hands of the Japanese. To

many Americans, especially as undeniable evidence of Japanese

brutality was revealed and American guilt was heightened, the

United States’ sales to the Japanese militarists appeared to be

an outright abomination. Yet against America's long tradition

of anti-Sinicism, reinforced by the assumed cheapness of Asian

292
Herzog, "Influence of the United States Navy...,"
o p . c i t ., p. 317.

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 -131-

life, the decision to continue the sales came as no surprise

to Chinese both in America and China. Nor was it a surprise

to the Chinese when finally the United States did decide— in

late July, 1941— to begin a total embargo of strategic goods

to Japan, that that decision was based upon A m e rica’s concern

for the European area of the world and American interests in

. 293
Asia. It was noted:
Only when Japan, by then an ally of Germany, occupied
southern Indochina in July, 1941, in preparation for
an attack on Singapore and the Netherlands East Indies
did the United States risk war by imposing a total em­
bargo on oil. Japan's projected move would have severed
the British trade routes in the southern Pacific and
might seriously have affected the chance of a successful
defense of the British Isles. It would have denied the
Western powers important raw materials in Southeast Asia
.... The embargo was essentially a measure to defend,
directly, American interests in Southeast Asia and, in-
294
directly, those m Europe.

Ironically, after all the United States' efforts to appease

Japan's militarists, she found herself in a position which,

to the Japanese, threatened to halt Japan's conquest of Asia.

293
Paul A. Varg, The Closing of the Door: Sino-American
Relations, 1936-1946 (Michigan: Michigan State University Press,
1973), pp. 41 and 16. Varg states that the American policy of
putting the European theater before the Pacific in importance
caused no little distress among the Chinese. On more than one
occasion the Chinese, in desperation, threatened to capitulate
to Japan if greater interest were not shown the Pacific field.
Varg also noted: "the sale of oil and scrap iron to Japan...
aroused a storm of criticism."
294 . . . .
Tsou,A m e ric a 's Failure m C h i n a , o p . c i t ., p. 9.

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 -132-

By July, 1941, the Japanese viewed the United States as the

outstanding barrier to Japan's conception of an Asian Monroe

295
Doctrine and the concomitant establishment of an East Asian

Co-Prosperity Sphere. Consequently, discounting their own ag­

gression which began at least as early as 1876, the Japanese

considered themselves to be the hapless victims of America's

alleged insensitivity to and misunderstanding of Japan and her

international ambitions. The most responsible and efficacious

response to the embargo, from the Japanese militarists' logic,

was to strike at the source of the embargo. If Japan were to

fail to deal promptly with the Americans and their allies, in

the process allowing Southeast Asia's resources to fall out of

reach, then the situation would prove disastrous. In the words

of Okada Kikusaburo of the Japanese Army's War Preparation Sec­

tion:

'within two years Japan will have exhausted all its power to
defend itself.... As a result, without doing a thing, Japan
will be doomed to national exhaustion and collapse. Or Japan
may find a course to national rejuvenation by striking out
right away in a situation where the only alternative seems
J 0-1-
slow death. 296

295
Lebra (ed.), Japan's Greater East A s i a ..., o p . cit.,
p. 27. The Japanese, in order to ingratiate themselves with the
United States, endeavored to liken their expansion to America's
own. "In fact the continental policy of Japan since the M a n ­
churian Incident has been frequently called the Japanese 'Monroe
Doctrine' or the East Asiatic 'Monroe Doctrine.'"
296
Iriye, Mutual Images, o p . cit., p. 134. The Japanese
continued to refer to the American immigration policy as a blow
to Japan's national pride and "an unbearable insult" to her cit­
izens. See: Tolischus, Through Japanese Eye s , o p . cit., p. 105.

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 -133-

In the years immediately prior to the Japanese attack

on Pearl Harbor, the American motion picture industry’s attitude

toward international events was for the most part in keeping with

the United States Government's relative isolation. When the in­

dustry did in fact begin to react to the international situation,

however, it too was preoccupied with Europe. In broad terms, the

industry had followed the tradition of evading controversial po l ­

itical matter as material for the screen. The rise of the fas­

cist states and the human oppression that was a natural conse-

qence of fascism remained entirely too provocative for Holly­

wood to touch without official United States Government endor­

sement and initiative.

Even when the fanatical dictatorships came to be rec­

ognized and labeled for what they were, American film­
makers were reluctant to deal with the growing threat
to the United States. Isolationist sentiment and pot­
ent pacifist groups, added to the government's pledges
of neutrality, proved powerful restraining forces. No
major film company, without the sanction of national
policy, was bold enough to treat the subject of dic­
tatorships and their aggressive atrocities, or the
297
growing expansion of their ideological adherents.

However, mostly because the American film industry had a heavy

concentration of Jews, especially in high-ranking positions,

Hollywood gradually turned its attention to Europe's fascism.

297
Lewis Jacobs, "World War II and the American Film,"
Cinema Journal, Volume VII, Winter, 1967-1968, p. 1.

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 -134-

While anti-Chinese portrayals in the motion pictures

did not diminish nor pro-Chinese sentiment increase to any

substantial degree before Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, the

American motion picture industry became increasingly opposed

to fascism— notably anti-Nazi— in Europe. Many of the film in-

298
dustry's top executives,"almost all of whom were Jewish,"

determined, despite the United States Government’s position,

to attack Nazi Germany largely on the basis of its anti-Jewish

activities. Consequently, in 1939, Hollywood's Confessions of

a Nazi Spy appeared as "the first response to the political ten-

299
sions of the time." The main theme of the film was used to

caution Americans against the dangers of fascism in Europe and

its eventual impact on the United States. Designed specifically

to alert the audience to the threat to democracy posed by the

Nazis in Germany, the picture also pointed to the rise of a

German fifth-column in the United States. More particularly,

the German-American Bund, which had operated with relative

freedom, and the German steamship lines were brought into

question. The overall message of the film encouraged the

American people to take a stand against fascism in Europe,

notably in Germany, and to directly oppose representatives of

fascism and anti-Semitism in the United States. Perhaps more

conspicuously, Confessions of a Nazi Spy was manifest and blunt

298
I.C. Jarvie, Movies and Society (New York: Basic
Books, Inc., Publishers, 1970), p. 210.
299
Jacobs, "World War II...," op. cit., p. 2.

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 -135-

in its anti-isolationist and anti-neutralist intent. Peculiarly,

while fascist Japan's military aggression had begun as early as

1931 in China and had been expanded in 1937 to a full-scale in­

vasion of that country with the backing of American supplies of

oil, scrap iron and other strategic materials, the American film

industry did not focus on the forces of fascism until 1939, and

then on Europe alone with emphasis upon the Jews. In fact, the

industry's opposition to European fascism became so strong, and

potentially so influential vis-a-vis the medium, that the United

States’ Ambassador to Great Britain, Joseph P. Kennedy, attempted

to discourage anti-Nazi productions and sentiment in the industry.

[Ambassador Kennedy] continued to warn the American public

against entering the war. ...he visited Hollywood and at
a private dinner meeting lectured leaders of the motion
picture industry. He insisted that the production of
anti-Nazi films must stop because we would have to make
peace with Hitler since the fall of England was inevitable.
Kennedy noted that many industry leaders were Jewish and
allegedly suggested that their fate might eventually be
as tragic as that of European Jews if they were not more
careful in their pro-Allied film treatments.

Doubtless influenced by the industry's efforts and the weight of

fascism itself, American isolationist and neutralist feelings

began to subside by 1940.

Ken D. Jones and Arthur F. McClure, Hollywood at

War; The American Motion Picture and World War II (New York;
A.S. Barnes and Company, 1973), p. 16.

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 -136-

Hollywood, expressing minimal interest in Japanese

activities in Asia, gradually began to increase a favorable

depiction of American Chinese, thereby balancing out continued

anti-Sinitic productions, as well as reflecting a changing at­

titude among the American people toward China as their aware­

ness of that country's struggle against the Japanese militarists

continued unabated.301 Indicative of the American Chinese theme,

for example, Daughter of Shanghai was released by Paramount in

1938. The film focused on the smuggling of aliens, many of whom

were Chinese, into the United States. While failing to explain

that given anti-Asian legislation the only way in which Chinese

could enter America was through illegal means, Daughter was a

favorable treatment of Chinese. The smugglers, that is, the

villains, were white. The Chinese, contrariwise, were portrayed

as upstanding American citizens. More importantly, the two main

characters were Asian, and both were seen as instrumental in ap­

prehending the smugglers and ending the alien traffic. Philip

Ahn [portraying Kim Lee[ was described as a "Crack Agent for U.S.

Bureau of Investigation," and the intellectual superior of the vil­

An opinion poll taken of the American people in 1937

asked the question: "In the present fight between Japan and China,
are your sympathies with either side?" 45% answered Yes. 55%
answered No. "Which side are your sympathies on in the present
fight between Japan and China?" The national total was: 55% N e i ­
ther; 43% China; 2% Japan. Four months later, in August, 59%
China; 1% Japan; 40% Neither. By February 20, 1940, the American
people had become more pro-Chinese than ever. "In the present
war between Japan and China, which side do you want to see win?"
The result was: 76% China; 22% Neither; 2% Japan. See: Public
Opinion 1935-1946 (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University
Press, 1951), pp. 1081-1082.

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 -137-

lains.302 Likewise, in a powerful role characteristic of her

earlier career,3^3 Anna M ay Wong was allowed to prove herself

not only as an American Chinese, but also as a capable female

whose self-confidence was expressed in the line: "It's possible

I can get information Mr. Lee can't." The combination of Ahn

and Wong provided an extraordinarily interesting filmic attempt

to develop Asian American characters. The following year, King

of Chinatown (1939) appeared, featuring Philip Ahn and Anna May

Wong. Once again, the theme was American Chinese, with Chinese

depicted favorably and as the victims of unscrupulous white men.

Akim Tamiroff, J. Carrol Naish and Anthony Quinn, the villains,

were portrayed as racketeers attempting to dominate Chinatown.

However, through the combined efforts of Anna May, as doctor

Mary Ling, and Philip Ahn, as lawyer Bob Lee, Chinatown was

302
Typical of the film's attempt to portray Ahn's
ability to outwit a white man, as well as to emphasize the
ignorance of the villain, came in an exchange between Ahn,
disguised as a seaman, and the ship's captain. C aptain: "
Pretty good with your lingo, a i n ’t yuh?" A h n : "I ought to
be." Captain: "How many other languages do you speak?" A h n :
"Russian, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese...." Captain: "Let's
hear some Russian'." Ahn: "Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon."
Captain: "That Russian?" A h n : "Sure!" Captain: "You know, you
could be useful to me. How would you like to be my interpreter?"
Unfortunately, after a career spanning over forty
years in the American motion picture industry, Anna May Wong
was reduced to playing a maid in Universal Studios' 1960 pro­
duction of Portrait in B l a c k . In a sense, Anna May's career
ended with Lana Turner’s curt: "That'll be all." Ms. Wong died
not long after the picture was finished. Ironically, Anthony
Quinn, who had held minor roles in some of Anna May's earlier
films, not only became a star by the time Portrait was made, but
as the male lead in the film his character reference to Anna was
that of "Are the servants ^Anna] out?"

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 -138-

freed of the racketeers. Hollywood, then, in prepping itself

and the viewing public for a more favorable presentation of the

Chinese and China, began with an improved treatment of American

Chinese.

As the United States' involvement in the world crisis

drew near, greater numbers of Americans were convinced that the

fascists and militarists must eventually be reckoned with by the

United States and her allies. Neutrality and isolation were in­

creasingly viewed as inapplicable to the world situation and the

United States' international obligations. With Europe being the

motion picture industry's more concerned area of interest, the

magnates of Hollywood finally admitted their efforts to oppose

European fascism. In a Senate investigation concerning the in­

dustry's alleged war-mongering, Hollywood made its stand:

In 1941 a Senate subcommittee, chaired by Senator D.

Worth Clark, held hearings to investigate Hollywood's
alleged 'war-mongering.' Wendell Willkie was hired to
defend the industry, and soon had the isolationists on
the defensive. Willkie told the Senators, 'If you charge
that the motion picture industry as a whole and its leading
executives as individuals are opposed to the Nazi dictator­
ship in Germany, if this is the case, there need be no in-
304
vestigation. We abhor everything Hitler represents.

After Pearl Harbor, the motion picture industry and nearly all

other elements of American society had become one in opposition

304
Joe Morelia, Edward Z. Epstein, and John Griggs,
The Films of World War II (Secaucus, New Jersey: The Citadel
Press, 1973), pp. 14-15.

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 -139-

to the fascist powers’ international aggression. The Japanese

attack "shocked America into the war and brought an abrupt end to

any convictions favoring non-intervention."305 On December 7,

1941, the "issues [became] gratifyingly clear-cut"305 for the

film industry and for the United States as a whole. America

and her allies were, in cinematic terms, the goodies and the

fascist-militarist powers the baddies. Especially for the

Japanese, the industry's long tradition of anti-Asianism would

become a state weapon, as "Hollywood tooled up to produce war

307
propaganda just as Detroit tooled up to produce tanks and jeeps."

Jacobs, "World War II and the American Film," o p .

cit., p. 10. It should be noted that the attack also shocked
the motion picture market. As one observer said: "I never saw
so great a scurry in my life as in that first week of war in
the chambers of Hollywood's magnates. A third of their world
market had vanished overnight or become completely uncertain."
See: John Grierson, "The Film at War," in Richard A. Maynard (ed.),
Propaganda on Film, A Nation at War (Rochelle Park, New Jersey:
Hayden Book Company, Inc., 1975), p. 55. So, too, the Pearl
Harbor attack has been a controversial article for some time.
A less conventional interpretation of the attack on Pearl argues
that the United States was directly responsible for the war. For
example, in Anne Reeploeg Fisher's Exile of a Race (Seattle,
Washington: F & T Publishers, 1970), it is stated that the Roose­
velt Administration "seemed more intent on keeping the war between
China and Japan going rather than helping to end hostilities," and
that in 1941 "Roosevelt authorized an outright subsidy of $100,000,
000 to Chiang Kai-shek to keep on fighting. At the same time,
shiploads of scrap iron and tankers of oil continued to provide
the Japanese militarists with material of war even as pickets
marched on American docks carrying signs warning 'THE SCRAP WILL
COME BACK,'" p. 5. Fisher also argues that "Pearl Harbor was a
baited trap to lure Japan to strike the first blow...," p. 21.
305Jeavons, A Pictorial History..." o p . c i t ., p . 112.
30^Morella, et al, The Films of World War II, op. cit.,
p. 57.

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 -140-

The United States Government and the American motion

picture industry reacted quickly and racially to Pearl Ha r b o r .

The day after the attack, American citizens of Japanese des­

cent who worked for the motion picture studios, and who had

had no more to do with the attack than did the top executives

in the industry, were summarily told not to report for work

"until their status had been c l a r i f i e d . N o n e was able

to return because of the United States Government's assump­

tion that American Japanese were not above suspicion as both

potential fifth-columnists of and saboteurs for the Empire of

309
Japan. The studios acted swiftly to secure copyrights to

manifestly anti-Asiatic racist materials and to register other

specifically anti-Japanese matter at the Hays Office, of which

the films Yellow Peril, Yellow M enace, and Bombing of Honolulu

. . . . 310
were initially outstanding. One motion picture theater, m

fact, actually changed its Japanese-sounding name as a gesture

commensurate to its presumed patriotismr^^owever, it was not

the film industry’s attempts to ferret out would-be Japanese

saboteurs from the studios nor its emphasis upon anti-Asiatic

308Garth Jowett, Film: The Democratic Art (Boston,

Massachusetts: Little, Brown and Company, 1976), p. 281.
309
Ibid., p. 281.
310
"War Films on Other Fronts," Motion Picture H e r a l d ,
December 20, 1941, Volume 145, Number 12, p. 14.
311
"Theatre Switches Its Japanese Name," Motion Picture
Herald, December 27, 1941, Volume 145, Number 13, p. 18: "The
war-consc.ious management of the Mikado Theatre, delux second-
run house operated by Fanchon & Marco for the St. Louis Amuse­
ment Company in St. Louis, intends to change the name of the
theatre."

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 -141-

themes, a long-standing characteristic of the industry at

any rate, which expressed Hollywood’s true worth to the war

effort. Few Asians were in the first instance allowed into

the industry, and anti-Asianism regardless of the particular

Asian nationality involved was in the second instance a t ra­

ditional article of profit. The ultimate potency of the in­

dustry was its development of the war film, especially as it

applied to Asiatics.

Before Hollywood could completely put its cinematic

machinery into high gear against the Japanese, and in the pro­

cess minimize the general anti-Asiatic taint of its sources in

order not to offend potential non-Japanese Asiatic allies, the

United States Government acted to set the pace and the depth of

activities against the American Japanese. With anti-Japanese

feeling reaching critical mass, few Americans were ignorant of

the United States' long-simmering antagonisms with the Japanese

over immigration policy and apprehensions of Japan's international

ambitions. One observer was alert to acknowledge America's res­

ponsibility in encouraging Japanese resort to arms:

...the Japanese mind was almost impossible to read. But,

under the suave, unwrinkled face, there rankled the old
scar of former exclusion, their inability to buy property
in many locations, discrimination in employment, and beyond
and underneath all of these, was a deep and carefully pro-
312
pagandxzed race-hatred.

312 . • .
A.I. Esberg, Forty-Nine Opinions on Our Japanese
Problem (San Francisco, California: The Grabhorn Press, 1944),
p. 2.

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 -142-

Within a week after the Pearl Harbor attack, Secretary of the

Navy Frank Knox asserted that American Japanese in Hawaii had

engaged in "'the most effective fifth-column work that's come

313
out of this war, except in Norway.'" Knox's assertion had no

basis in fact. Nevertheless, the United States, having feared

and dreaded a confrontation with Japan, acted hastily in its

harassment, arrest, relocation, and finally imprisonment of

110,000 Americans of Japanese descent. Although anti-Japanese

feelings were old and primarily concentrated in California and

314
the West, the majority of the American people was to one

degree or another supportive of the mass imprisonment of the

American Japanese. Fantastic stories concerning the Japanese

circulated, some suggesting that fishermen carried their army

uniforms in oilskins, that otherwise inoffensive-looking men

lived near refineries and factories for the sole purpose of

sabotage, that Japanese truck farmers used human excrement as

fertilizer in order to spread dysentery epidemics among white

Americans, that the same farmers had used lead arsenic spray

on their produce in order to poison whites, and that still

other Japanese were selling large quantities of opium to sub­

vert white America."^15 White Americans seemed not to be able to

Petersen, Japanese Americans, o p . c i t ., p. 66.

314
ten Broek, Barnhart, and Matson, Prejudice and
W a r , o p . c i t ., p. 11.
315
H. Brett Melendy, The Oriental Americans iNew York:
Twayne Publishers, Inc., 1972), p. 155.

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 -143-

control the extent of their anti-Japanese outrage. Attempts

fairly to evaluate the American Japanese as loyal citizens -were

often laced with ambivalence and even fear. While supposedly

cautioning the American people against acting precipitately

toward the Japanese, there remained the fundamental question:

"How many of these people are still firmly rooted in their loy­

alty to the Land of the Rising Sun, especially the older ones,

the generation born in Japan? In contrast, the United States

Government's attitude toward German and Italian Americans, des­

pite the fact that the German-American Bund's activities had been

well-known to the Government and the industry for a long time,

was conspicuously different than that toward the Japanese. In

May, 1942, the anti-Japanese rationale, and its racist base, was

delivered by the assistant chief of the Army's Western Defense

Command's Civil Affairs Division:

In the case of the Japanese, their oriental habits of life,

their and our inability to assimilate biologically, and
what is more important, our inability to distinguish the
subverts and saboteurs from the rest of the mass made nec­
essary their mass evacuation on a horizontal basis. In the
case of the Germans and the Italians, such mass evacuation
is neither necessary nor desirable.

Blayney F. Matthews, The Specter of Sabotage (Los

Angeles, California: Lymanhouse Publishers, December, 1941),
pp. 100-101. Mr. Matthews was a former special agent for the
F.B.I., as well as Director of Plant Protection, Superintendent
of Personnel, Warner Brothers Pictures, Inc.).
■^"^Melendy, The Oriental Americans, o p . cit., p. 156.

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 -144-

Although the United States Government's unprecedented mass

imprisonment of over 110,000 Americans of Japanese descent was

not only "law and order to the maximum degree, devoid of any

justice, its execution was also later viewed as a culmin­

ation of the on-going racial and immigration problems which had

begun early in the century:

Behind it all was a half century of focusing anti-Asian

hates on the Japanese minority by West Coast pressure groups
resentful of them as being hyperefficient competitors. An
inordinate amount of regional anxiety had also accompanied
Japan's rapid rise to power. Years of media-abetted con­
ditioning to the possibility of war, invasion, and conquest
by waves of fanatic, Emperor-worshiping yellow m en— invar­
iably aided by harmless-seeming Japanese gardeners and
fisherfolk who were really spies and saboteurs in disguise
— had evoked a latent paranoia as the news from the Pacific
in the early weeks of the war brought only reports of cata-
319
clysmic Allied defeats.

"Statement of Edison Uno for the Japanese American

Citizens League," in Hearings Relating to Various Bills to Repeal
the Emergency Detention Act of 1950, Hearings before the Committee
on Internal Security, House of Representatives, Ninety-First Cong­
ress, Second Edition, March 16, 17, 19, 23, 24, and 26; April 20,
21, and 22; May 21; and September 10, 1970, p. 3264. It is worth
noting that Japan's military and aggressive ways in Asia over the
years brought forth no sympathy from other Asians. For example,
Linda Shin, in her "Koreans in America, 1903-1945," Amerasia Jour­
n al, Volume 1, No. 3, November, 1971, p. 37, states: "Declaring
themselves to be the 'champion Jap-haters of the world,' Koreans
unanimously supported the move to intern Japanese-Americans during
the war and in other ways declared their allegiance to the Allied
cause." The Chinese also supported the imprisonment.
319
Michi Weglyn, Years of Infamy: The Untold Story of
America's Concentration Camps (New York: William Morrow and
Company, Inc., 1976), pp. 35-36.

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 -145-

The United States Government's arbitrary and racially

inspired action against American citizens of Japanese descent,

sanctioned by its official anti-Japanese line, served as a gen­

eral clarion call to the same motion picture industry that only

a few years earlier had been reprimanded for its alleged anti­

fascist proclivities and war-mongering. Hollywood's racially

white composition and its European-orientation acted as an aber­

rational lens through which its perspective on Japan, and for

that matter Asia, was established:

With U.S. involvement in the Pacific after Pearl Harbor,

the Japanese joined their Aryan colleagues as prime tar­
gets for Hollywood's propaganda machine, the main diff­
erence being that whereas the movie-makers did have
some knowledge of Europe, albeit often second-hand, they
320
were m the dark about J a pan....

However, ignorance and distortion, whether cultural, political or

racial, were not conditional factors that had at any time inter­

fered with Hollywood's depiction of Asians in the past. Hollywood

could both set or follow the anti-Japanese pace. Even before Pearl
321
Harbor, the Mr. Moto character had been retired from the screen

and to Hollywood's version of the concentration camp (see: text,

p. Ill) as a cinematic manifestation of anti-Japanese sentiment.

320
Charles Hingham and Joel Greenberg, Hollywood in the
Forties (New York: A.S. Barnes and Company, 1968), p. 98.
321
Peculiarly, given American Chinese disaffection with
the Charlie Chan character, coupled with the prejudicial removal
of Mr. Moto, Charlie Chan films reportedly became "official anti-
Jap propaganda" material by order of the Office of War Information,
shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor. See: Frank C h i n ’s, "Con­
fessions of a Number One Son," Ramparts, March, 1973, p. 43.

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 -146-

The industry's summary dismissal of Japanese workers, coupled with

the United States Government's mass incarceration of Japanese en-

322
tertainers as part of the overall internal security program,

added a newer dimension to its anti-Asiatic tradition. Consequently,

323
in the process of finding actors who looked like "'the e n e m y , " ’

Hollywood turned to the otherwise unemployed or underemployed Asian

actors and actresses [mainly Chinese and K o r e a n ] ^ ^ to fill the

Japanese character parts and "extra" slots. So, too, by playing

325
upon nationalist feelings among non-Japanese Asians, Hollywood

was able to manipulate the image of Japanese so as to create in

the process intense and highly racialist attitudes among non-Asian

Americans for the Japanese, and ultimately for all Asians. As one

observer of the times reflected:

...casting directors— knowing that they'd never be able to

use real Japs in these films— dubiously began to make up
lists of Chinese actors. They didn't expect these rosters
to mean much, because they were afraid few Chinese would
risk the wrath of their honorable ancestors by depicting
their despised 'little brown brothers.'
Fortunately, for the movie-going public, the philosophic
and wise Chinese jumped at the seemingly unpleasant job of

322
Morelia, Epstein and Griggs, The Films of World War
I I , o p . c i t ., pp. 59-60.
323
Ibid., p. 59.
324 . .
Philip Ahn, the famous Korean American actor, not only
found himself better employed but also deferred from the draft
because of his propaganda value. See: Leslie Raddatz, "'No. 1 Son'
is Now 'Master Po'," T.V. Guide, June 23, 1973, p. 32.
325
Ahn, reflecting upon his Japanese portrayals during the
war years, said: "'The Japanese were not only our enemies, they were
responsible for my father's [Ahn Chang Ho[ death in a Japanese pri­
s o n . ’" Ib i d ., p. 32. Also confirmed in the Ahn interview: 11/9/77.

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 -147-

playing Nip parts. They knew that thousands of unthinking

Americans would hate them — but they welcomed the hisses
and they acted out their Jap roles to the hilt. More than
once they were hooted at on the street by youngsters who
had seen them on the screen.

Following the United States Government’s lead in mobilizing

totally against Japan, the American motion picture industry,

327
after having cleaned its own house of Japanese, began to

produce films of the war genre that would not only serve as

propaganda weapons against the Japanese enemy, but also as

the most profoundly racist broadsides against all Asiatics

as international conditions changed. Hollywood's reflection

L.A. Examiner American W e ekly, November 26, 1944,

p. 22. It is interesting to note that John Ringo Graham’s
"Philip A h n ’s Frustrated Success," Hollywood Studio Magazine,
Volume 4, No. 9, January, 1970, p. 8A, states that: "During
World War II, Philip Ahn was cast in dozens of propaganda films
that stirred up hate for the Japanese. The roles he played
were usually Japanese soldiers who tortured American flyers and
soldiers for information. The pictures were so successful at
building hate among audiences, he was personally attacked by
people who took the movies seriously. Hate mail, threats on
his life, and other manifestations of his unpopularity soon
convinced Ahn the only way to stop it was to quit being an
actor and join the Army— which he did." In respect to Graham,
Mr. Ahn did not confirm the reported personal attacks or the
hate mail. He referred to the story as "exaggerated," although
the anti-Japanese characterizations were seen as both Korean
and American duties in defeating military Japan.
327
Sessue Hayakawa was one of the few exceptions to
Hollywood's and the Government's anti-Japanese housecleaning.
For the most part, he "sat out World War II" in France, not in
an American concentration camp. Later, he was recalled by the
industry for propaganda work, especially in Three Came H o m e . See:
"Risen Sun," The New Yorker, August 1, 1959, Volume XXXV, No. 24,
pp. 16-17. It should likewise be recognized that Mr. Hayakawa
and his family were opposed to Japanese militarism, and that "many
members of his family were executed in Tokyo by Premier Tojo for
their opposition to the war." See: "Enter the Villain," N ewsweek,
March 17, 1958, p. 62.

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 -148-

of the American Pearl Harbor complex substantially influenced

not only the American people's modern perceptions of Japanese,

but also of Asians of all nationalities.

By maximizing its tremendous resources, Hollywood was

able to finish the first "film of the new w a r , " ^ 8 and one

which became both a classic and "model for the war films to
329
come," within a year after Pearl Harbor. Paramount Studios

released Wake Island in 1942. Directed by John Farrow, the

screenplay was drawn from the records of the U.S. Marine Corps

by W.R. Burnett and Frank Butler. In the opening scenes, news

of the United States' military trauma, the possiblity of which

in one fantasied form or another had stalked the Americans since

the turn of the century, was cinematically delivered to the

American audiences. An American radioman, pressing the ear­

phones close to the sides of his head, cried in disbelief:

"Japs just attacked Honolulu — bombed Pearl HarborI" Brian

Donlevy, as Major Geoffrey Caton, repeated the news: "The Japs

have just bombed Pearl Harbor'. The Japs have just bombed Pearl

Harbor'. I " Thus began Hollywood's official treatment of the

Japanese and the Pacific theater of the Second World War. The

film contained all of the essential anti-Japanese ingredients,

which from a racial perspective would prove to be applicable to

all Asiatics, necessary to augment and justify America's history

228Steven H. Scheuer, The Movie Book (Chicago, Illinois:

A Ridge Press/Playboy Press, 1974), p. 236.
329
Kagan, The War F i l m , o p . c i t ., p. 56.

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 -149-

of anti-Asianism. After nearly a half century of immigration

controversies which were racially based, added to by the racial

persecution of all Asian groups in the United States and the

simultaneous American humiliation of their home governments,

the motion picture industry designed the attack on Pearl Harbor

to be an unprovoked and unjustified stab at the United S t ates’

unsuspecting back. Indeed, the racist term which had well prior

to any hostilities between the United States and the Empire of

Japan become symbolic of America's white racist hatred of the

Japanese was noted as an integral part of the film's treatment.

The Japs— not the Japanese— had bombed Pearl Harbor. A printed

message in the film read: "Sixth enemy attack. 27 Jap bombers."

And in two newspaper headlines: "Jap Premier" and "U.S. Marines

beat off Jap Sea, Air Attacks." With Americans of Japanese des­

cent forced into concentration camps, few American viewers real­

ized that the United States Government's racist policy toward

the American Japanese accounted for the fact that "every one of

the Jap soldiers in the movie 'Wake Island'"330 was a Chinese

. .. . , ...... _... 331 .
w no n u g n u nut nav e u n i e i w i s e yv'C aeL-liiy Ol'edac> iii aii

industry that used Asian performers largely as props.

The supposed cheapness of Asian life became an institu­

tional necessity in the picture in order to maintain the image

of the United States' moral and racial superiority to the Asian

330
L.A. Examiner American Weekly, November 26, 1944,
o p . c i t ., p. 22.
331 . .
The Tidings, March 24, 1944, ojo. c i t ., MPAS Collection.

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 -150-

hordes that rushed to their perdition with fanatical zeal.

Japanese fanaticism was closely juxtaposed with the assumed

Asiatic trait of treachery. An unarmed American pilot was

seen machine-gunned to death as he hung helplessly from his

open parachute. The racialist components of Wake Island ante­

dated the industry's Korean War image of human-wave attacks

against outnumbered Americans by Chinese and North Koreans. It

also predated the United States' kill-ratio phobia and body-

count syndrome during the Vietnam War. To the industry, the

cheapness of Asian life, notably Japanese, harked back to the

lynchings of Asians in the United States and the legal system's

tacit recognition of such activities by whites. The otherwise

inhuman characteristics of early Asians in America were integ­

rated into the Asian enemy, the competitor, the unfair and de­

grading threat to white labor, the culturally peculiar aliens

whose low standard of living paralleled their own low value on

human life, and the secretive Japanese farmer who was under his

coveralls a barbaric samurai ready at a moment's notice to

spearhead an invasion of white, Christian America. "Shown at

training camps and military installations all over the country,

332
where it was always received enthusiastically," Wake Island
, . . . 333
was, without qualifications, an "enormous hit." It was also

an Academy Award winner for Best Picture, with John Farrow’s

332
Kagan, The War F i l m , o p . c i t ., p. 57.
333
Morelia, Epstein and Griggs, The Films of World War
I I , o p . c it., p. 51.

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 -151-

being nominated for his direction. As the proto-type anti-

Japanese film, Wake Island epitomized not only America's fear

of the Japanese, but also its dread of the Yello-w Peril. The

inherent contradictions in the United States' anti-Asiatic

racism, ironically, were noted shortly after the release of

the film and those which followed its theme:

Early in the war Hollywood’s movie references to the

Japanese as 'yellow cowards' and 'yellow rats' ('yellow
bastards' was taboo in those Hays-office days) caused
some official nervousness in Washington where the Office
of War Information pointed out to the producers that the
Chinese were our allies and they were yellow, too, and
might not like the racial slurs implicit in such lan­
guage. Hollywood agreed and the Japanese became just
334
plain cowards, rats -- and savages.

The O W I 's advice to the motion picture industry was equally

applicable to the United States Government.

While the American Government cautioned Hollywood on

its racist productions, the Chinese cautioned the United States

on its anti-Sinitic practice. Although an exaggeration to state

that China had become "a great ally"333 of the United States

during the Second World War, America and China were allies even

though the United States had supplied Japan with strategic war

materials. The United States' sixty-year-old Chinese Exclusion

Laws still barred Chinese from America, and America continued to

hold extraterritorial rights and other special privileges in China.

334Ibid., pp. 59-50.

335 . . .
Yung-Deh Richard Chu, "Chinese Secret Societies...,"
o p . c i t ., p. 31.

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 -152-

In practice, the Chinese were officially no different from the

Japanese in terms of the United States' racially motivated ex­

clusion policy. Although China was an ally of the United States,

American Chinese continued to be a racially despised minority in

the eyes of the American people and Government alike. The p ro­

spect of an increase in the numerical proportion of the Chinese

vis-a-vis immigration was viewed as socially repellent. In open

reaction to America's anti-Sinitic persistence, the Chinese in­

formed the United States that, regardless of formal international

alliances, the white racist, patently anti-Sinitic policy of ex­

cluding the Chinese from America was not only humiliating and

insulting to the Chinese people in China and in other countries

around the world, but it was also interferential to the allied

war effort and to the morale of the Chinese people. Not inap­

propriately, military Japan's anti-white racism was used as an

example of America’s anti-Sinitic foolhardiness. In opening the

Chinese side to the Americans, Catholic Bishop Yu Pin stated:

But should your honorable committee look unfavorably upon

these bills [giving token repeal to the exclusion policy]
before you today, than fsic] I assure you that my country
and my people will not be able to understand. It would be
a great blow to our morale in China, irreparable harm to
! J
the allied cause. 335
At the same time, the United States was not unaware of Japan's

Yu Pin, Reverend Catholic Bishop, Hearing, May 19,

1943, "Repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Acts," before the Com­
mittee on Immigration and Naturalization, House of Represen­
tatives, Seventy-Eighth Congress, First Session, on HR 1882
and HR 2309, p. 14.

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 -153-

use of race as a factor in the establishment of a Greater East

Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, and that against the shared back­

ground of Western imperialism and white racism Chinese and

Japanese might forge a mutually accommodating program of op-

337
posing the West. Supporting the Reverend Yu's appeal for

equality in America's treatment of Chinese, John G. Magee put

the issue in terms white Americans could understand:

I will give you one illustration of what Bishop Yu has said.

In the school books being used all over the Japanese-occupied
territory you have anti-Western [anti-white] propaganda put
in all the time— I remember one lesson for primary students—
which had a story something like this.
Two yellow cocks were fighting and along came a white swan
and tried to separate them, and they both turned on the white
swan. A teacher could use a story like this to show how the
interests of the yellow race are the same and they should
turn against the powerful white race.
These lessons are full of things like that, and it is
unquestionably a danger to us [white people],

337
The late Dr. Sun Yat-Sen had laid the groundwork for
Chinese-Japanese cooperation on the question of a Pan-Asian Sphere.
"With respect to Japan, Dr. Sun had always favored Sino-Japanese
cooperation to realize his Pan-Asian ideal. 'The relations between
Japan and China,' he once said, 'are such that the existence or
nonexistence and Lht; security or insecurity of one is dependent on
that of the other. To insure everlasting peace for both countries,
there must not be the slightest misunderstanding between them...
Being similar to China in language and race, Japan is in a par­
ticularly good position to help China develop herself."' See:
Chung-Gi Kwei, The Kuomintang-Communist Struggle in China 1922-
1949 (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1970), p. 4.
^"^Yu Pin, "Repeal...," op. cit., John G. Magee, Minister
of St. John's Episcopal Church, p. 17.

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 -154-

Consequently, at China's initiative— not the United States'— the

Chinese Exclusion Laws, and the special, colonial privileges held

in China by America, were scrutinized under the pressure of World

War II. In January, 1943, the United States "signed a treaty

with China relinquishing her extraterritorial rights and other

. . 339
special privileges." In October of the same year, President

Roosevelt sent a message to the United States Congress strongly

urging that body to repeal the Chinese Exclusion Laws and in

their place to establish— paradoxically in the anti-Sinitic tra­

dition— an annual quota system. Congress' repeal of the Exclusion

Laws served, thus, as a token act of good faith toward America's

Chinese ally. However, the quota, which allowed only 105 Chinese

to enter America per year, did not erase the resenLment among the

Chinese of the United States' anti-Sinitic immigration policy.

As one observer later noted:

The injustice of our [American] immigration policy, with all

its overtones of racial prejudice, always rankled in the
minds of a proud, self-reliant people and left a lasting
■u j
shadow. 340

With the dangers of general anti-Asiatic racism particularly

keen in the minds of Hollywood's magnates and executives, as

well as in the consciences of American senators, the business

of fighting the Japanese continued with great vigor. Although

the United States and its allies were also at war with Germany

339 . . . .
Tsou, America's Failure m China, op. cit., p. 57.
340
Foster Rhea Dulles, American Policy Toward Communist
China, 1949-1969 (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1972), pp. 14-15,

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 -155-

and Italy, the film industry followed the Government's lead in

treating the Japanese differently than the other Axis peoples.

From a politically propagandistic perspective, Hollywood

was consistent in depicting all fascist and militarist peoples

as being villainous and evil. The industry’s racialist prop­

aganda, however, stratified the Germans and Italians on one

level of cinematic presentation and the Japanese on another.

For the most part, the Italians "were portrayed as a stupid,

341
emotional people who had been regrettably misled" by the

fascist dictators. There was nothing intrinsically hostile

or brutal about the Italians. Not having to undergo the dev­

astating treatment the Japanese were subjected to by the United

States Government, the Italians were fairly well handled by the

industry, thereby surviving both on and off the screen with a

minimal amount of damage. The Germans were portrayed as the

military superiors of the Italians. "Methodical and regimen-

342
talized," the German was or could be a "man of supreme m -
343
tellect and culture, placidly listening to Wagner," a "cul-
344
tural swine.... intellectual about it all." In more profound

terms, both the Germans and Italians were seen as caricatures

341
Rory Guy, "Hollywood Goes to War," Cinema, Volume 3,
No. 2, March, 1965, p. 27.
342 . . . .
William K. Everson, The Bad Guys: A Pictorial History
of the Movie Villain (New York: The Citadel Press, 1964), p. 130.
343
Ibid., p. 130.
344
Morelia, Epstein and Griggs, The Films of World War
I I , o p . c it., pp. 59-60.

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 -156-

of a political ideology that did not contaminate the entirety

of their ethnic identity, nor extend itself to the Americans of

German or Italian descent. The Japanese, contrariwise, were

depicted in the most barbarous fashion. Their "methods of corn-

345
bat were given a distinctly dishonorable color." Almost

without exception, the Japanese "were presented as fanatical

346
near-savages, sneaky, dirty fighters." Again, the industry

harked back into the depths of A m e r i c a ’s anti-Asian racism:

Pearl Harbor enabled Hollywood to revive all the old

'Yellow Peril' characters from the days of The Mask of
Fu Manchu. Determined to 'overthrow Western civilization,'
347
the Japanese were fanatical m battle....

As "fanatic, robot-like beasts,” the Japanese were shown to be

capable of any human atrocity, especially if the victims were

unarmed, sickly, female, or generally defenseless. They were

"always more brutal, indulging in torture and rape to excess,

349 ...
and with obvious pleasure." There was a definitive emphasis

345
Jones and McClure, Hollywood at W a r , o p . c i t ., p. 24.
3^ 6Morella, et a l , o p . cit., pp. 59-60.
347
Everson, The Bad G u y s , o p . c i t ., pp. 130-131.
348
Guy, "Hollywood Goes to War," op. cit., p. 27. Guy
also notes: "Actors to portray Germans and Italians were easy
to find, but the Japanese posed a problem. In one of her most
unreasoning acts of war hysteria, America had forced her cit­
izens of Japanese ancestry into internment camps. For stories
of the Pacific conflict, Hollywood recruited Chinese-American
actors, as well as waiters, doctors, writers and beer salesmen,
and paid them as much as $1700 a week to cut their hair short in
the Tokyo fashion or comb it straight bac'y. ar.d glare menacingly
at the camera."
349
Morelia, et a l , o p . cit., p. 60.

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 -157-

upon the assumed treacherous and unwholesome character of the

Japanese soldier— later extended to all Asian soldiers— who in

his dying fanaticism was capable of pulling the pin of a hand-

grenade or a knife from its sheath in order to take an unsus­

pecting and boyish-looking white American with him. Perhaps

more racially noxious than the portrayal of Japanese soldiery

as "repulsive, sadistic, libidinous little monkeys, grinningly

350
bespectacled, and sporting king-size choppers," was the fil­

mic damage done to the American Japanese, adding the ultimate

injustice to their barbed-wire brutalization, by the industry.

In 1944, 20th Century-Fox Studios released The Purple

Heart. From both a propagandistic and racist point of view, the

picture was unquestionably the most terrifying and incendiary

product Hollywood ever would produce dealing with the Japanese.

Directed by Lewis Milestone, The Purple Heart was produced by

Darryl F. Zanuck and the screen story written by Melville Cr oss­

man, a Zanuck pen name. The motion picture was designed to

capitalize on the capture of eight American flyers from the

Doolittle raids over Tokyo, Japan. Notably, Heart played upon

the alleged "national and racial policy of brutality" carried on

by Japan, the main purpose of which was not only to depict for

the American audience the "savagery and sadism of the Japs," but

^“^Hingham and Greenberg, Hollywood in the Forties, o p .

c i t ., p. 98.
^5~Variety, February 23, 1944, pp. 3 and 10.

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 -158-

352
With Asian actors effecting a racial realism that could not

be achieved convincingly by cosmetized whites, especially by

well-known whites, The Purple Heart was a presumed expos§ of

military Japan's uncivilized and vengeful execution of the

eight American pilots. The American bombing raids, which took

place in April, 1942, were in the context of the film used by

the Japanese court as evidence of the Americans' bombing of

civilian targets and as the subsequent justification for the

trial's being held in a civil court. The charge was murder.

Although Zanuck "had only meager news clips on which to base

353
his scenario,"'' the "highly conjectural but carefully pre-
354
pared version of the Japanese trial" was so successful at

feeding America's racist beliefs about the Japanese, the film

became an immediate hit at the boxoffice. Louella 0. Parsons

remarked, after viewing the film: "I defy anyone to see this

picture and not want to go out and kill, single-handed [sic],

355 . . .
every Jap." Parsons' otherwise irresponsible remark did

[memo from] Twentieth Century-Fox Studio, Harry Brand,

Director of Publicity, Hollywood, California, #101343sp, p. 1.
Richard Loo played Mitsubi; Key Chang played Admiral Yamagichi;
Peter Chang played Toyama; Philip Ahn played Saburo Boto; Joseph
Kim played the Procurator; Allen Jung Played Sakai; Beal Wong
played Toma Nogato; and Paul Fung played the court clerk.
^~^"Movie of the Week: The Purple H e art:It is a Ringing
Indictment of Jap Atrocity," Life, March 14, 1944, p. 121.
354
by McManus, Speaking of Movies, "Milestone to Shangri-
La," PM, Monday, February 28, 1944, New York, MPAS Collection.
^^^Louella 0. Parsons, "'Purple H e a r t ’ Strong Indictment
of Tokyo," Los Angeles Examiner, March 10, 1944, MPAS Collection.

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 -159-

express America's racial hatred of the Japanese and at least

one secondary justification for the mass imprisonment of the

American Japanese: namely, that if Americans of Japanese des­

cent had not been forced into concentration camps, they might

have been slaughtered by an outraged American public. To the

American audience, exposed to Hollywood's brand of anti-Asian

racism, the Japanese were depicted as "little yellow t r a i t o r s " ^ ^

who not only stabbed the United States in the back with the at­

tack on Pearl Harbor, but were also "practitioners of torture"

and "men who [were] cunning and shrewd but who lack[ed] the code

of honor which prevails in our Western [white] culture. Thus

the "sheer imagination, .about an event that [allegedly] happened

a long way off in a country to w h i c h . ..there [was] no chance of

going on l o c a t i o n " w a s presented to the American viewing pub­

lic as established fact [indubitably as unfair as the trial it

depicted], complete with racist embellishments, by the motion

picture industry. When questioned about the authenticity of

the film and the events it purportedly covered, Producer Zanuck

answered in a style exemplary of the latitude with which the

film industry had been able to vent its racism: " ’Sure, w e ’ve

taken dramatic license. But no one can prove or disprove our

^56Edwin Schallert, " ’Purple H eart’ Atmosphere Effective,"

Los Angeles Times, March 10, 1944, MPAS Collection.
357
Bosley Crowther, "'The Purple Heart'," New York Tim e s ,
MPAS Collection.
^5^"Story of an Outrage," The New Y orker, March 11, 1944,
MPAS Collection.

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 -160-

359
story. It could have happened — possibly did." Moreover,

the racism extended beyond the depiction of Japan's militarists.

The cumulative impact of The Purple Heart was not achieved until

the loyalty of 110,000 American Japanese had been attacked and

their American nationality cinematically revoked by the film

industry, thereby misleading the American viewing public and

justifying the Government's anti-Japanese activities. In a

scene in which a Mr. Kipple, of the Swiss Red Cross, bargained

for the American flyers, it was stipulated to the Japanese of­

ficers: "Remember, there are over 100,000 Japanese nationals in

internment camps in the United States."3^ The line was an un­

conscionable falsehood. The film ignored the fact that over 70

percent of all the Japanese imprisoned in America by the United

States Government were not Japanese nationals, but rather American

nationals, American citizens who had been born and raised in the

United States. Under no conditions were they or could they have

been nationals of Japan. All known agents of Japan had been

under surveillance by American internal security forces. Thus

the mass imprisonment of American Japanese was unnecessary and

unwarranted. The deliberate assertion that American Japanese

were citizens of Japan served to reinforce the traditional assum­

ption that the Japanese— indeed all Asians— regardless of citizen­

ship were an unassimilable and foreign element in America, and one

359
E r s k m e Johnson, "Zanuck's Second Guess," Los Angeles
Daily N ews, February 9, 1944, MPAS Collection.
360Although there was selective surveillance of German
and Italian Americans, there was no mass harassment or internment.

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 -161-

not above serving the political and military interests of an

Asian government. A brief but crucial scene between the main

Japanese and American characters [[played by Richard Loo and

Dana Andrews] completed the cinematic distortion that had been

designed to expose alleged, long-term subversive activities of

the Japanese in America:

Mitsubi: "I was only curious about Santa Barbara. I

lived there for some time. Worked on a fishing boat."
R o s s : "And charted every inch of water from San Diego
to Seattle."
Mitsubi: [in effect agreeing with the allegation] "Those
charts will be useful some d a y . " ^ 1

Standing in sharp contrast to the fifth-column innuendos that

were directed against the Japanese, supportive and protective

depiction of America's white ethnic groups became a recurring

theme throughout the Second World War. Actual white ethnic

actors were used in order to add greater realism to the films

and to maintain the image of ethnic loyalty and brotherhood

among the whites. Indicative of such treatment, Richard Conte,

John Gassner and Dudley Nichols (eds.), Best Film

Plays of 1943-44 (New York: Crown Publishers, 1945), p. 123.
The Purple Heart is used as an outstanding example of Hollywood's
unjust and racist treatment of American Japanese, particularly
since Heart, like Wake Island, was a boxoffice bombshell, reaching
tens of millions of Americans. It was, however, by no means the
only film that referred to alleged fifth-column activities by the
Japanese. In G-Men vs. The Black Dragons, a Republic serial (1942-
43), the very first episode pointed to subversive work by Japanese.
Rex Bennet, the star American Government man, portrayed by actor
Rod Cameron, stated: "'No one knows very much about it. The Black
Dragon Society was organized in Japan for the purposes of terr­
orism, assassination, and espionage. For years they've been
building up an undercover organization here in America. Behind
it are all the cunning and treachery of the keenest Oriental

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 -162-

himself of Italian extraction, was given the opportunity to po r ­

tray an Italian American Lieutenant, Angelo C a n e l l i . The Canelli

character was seen as steadfastly loyal to America. There was

no suggestion that because Italy was a fascist power and Can­

elli of Italian descent a disloyal and subversive element lay

dormant in Italian Americans. Parsons, unlike her anti-Japanese

comment, remarked upon the character and the actor: "You feel

strongly this Italian boy's loyalty."3^ As an actor, Conte

climbed "a notch higher with his work as an Italian A m e rican."3^

A general contradiction persisted in the industry with

respect to the larger society's anti-Asiatic racism as a unique

component of the race issue. While covering up, even ignoring,

the mass incarceration of American Japanese and the continuing

restriction of the Chinese, the film industry endeavored to

create the illusion of ethnic and racial harmony among A m e r i c a ’s

fighting men as a means of creating the image of ethnic and racial

harmony in American society as a whole. Consequently, a presumed

unity of America's racial diversity, excluding the Yellow race,

minds.” ’ The cinematic leader of the Black Dragons, a Baron

Oyama Haruchi, played by a white man [Nino Pipitone[] in racist
cosmetics, related to his lieutenants, Lugo and Rango, the pur­
pose of the society. In the process, the industry again added to
the fear of the Japanese, perhaps as a way for the industry to
rationalize the mass incarceration of American Japanese. Haruchi:
"'Keep in mind that our aim is to spread terror and confusion...
to attack industry and leaders of industry... to cripple America's
war effort and undermine her morale. So we shall speed the day
when Japan will completely rule the Pacific and all the lands
bordering on the Pacific.'"
362Parsons, "'Purple Heart'," op. cit., MPAS Collection.
363HR, February 23, 1944, MPAS Collection.

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 -163-

was stressed. The otherwise savage and sub-human traits of the

Asians were used as rallying poles around which the impeccability

of America's white ethnic groups was gathered by Hollywood. As

mentioned above, Conte was established as a symbol of Italian

Americans. Sam Levene, both as a Jew and a Jewish character,

was structured as a reflection of American J e w s ’ Americanism

and patriotism. The character Skvoznik represented any and all

........................... . 364
Slavic minorities m the United States. Possibly the industry's

consciousness of its own racist leanings, measured against the un ­

rest among America's racial and ethnic minorities, accounted for

the depiction of American fighting units as "composed in equal

proportions of Negroes, Jews, Irish and Italians."366 The pre­

sumed "moral strength"366 gained from white-Black racial and white

ethnic unity on screen no doubt eased Hollywood's burden with res­

pect to Yellow Americans. The American film industry's attempt to

364 . . .
It is interesting to note that while the bulk of
Hollywood’s attention with respect to minorities was directed to
Jews and Blacks, followed by white ethnics, the Asian American
minorities were absent from America’s military films. Those Asians
portrayed were foreigners, whether Chinese, Korean, Japanese or
Filipino. On the military front and the war effort, the Asian
Americans were excluded. Not until Go For Broke! appeared in 1951
was there a substantive effort to demonstrate an Asian, notably
Nisei [second-generation American Japanese] presence in the War.
Ironically, although not surprisingly, Broke I was released at a
time when the United States had begun its second wave of anti-
Asiatic racism over the Korean War [facing the North Koreans and
the Chinese], and when--more importantly— it needed its former
enemy, Japan, as a strategic, political and moral base in Yellow
Asia.
366Higham and Greenberg, Hollywood in the Forties, o p .
c i t ., p. 87.
366Jeavons, A Pictorial H istory..., o p . cit., p. 131.

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 -164-

create the illusion of "oneness”357 among Americans was to a

large extent successful in America's popular imagination. For

the most part, the diversity was blended into an American hero­

ism and fed to the American public as the ideal, composite type.

Reflecting on the phenomenon, one observer suggested:

These heroes are treated in groups rather than as in­

dividuals, and though they are given a democratic tex­
ture of names like Winocki, O'Doul, Feingold, and R a m­
irez, they are given only one personality. Winocki- 0 ’Doul-
Feingold-Ramirez is a man of average looks on the handsome
side, very friendly, short on ideas and emotions, philo­
sophically on the Saroyan side of the street and capable
of trading you a wisecrack.358

Equally propitious for Americans was the inherent assumption

that unlike the Asiatics who had neither respect nor value for

human life, the Americans regardless of their social, economic,

ethnic or racial background did care for life, even for that of

the enemy:

...the point remains: the necessity to wage war against

an evil system by killing its individual components will
not change the basic humanitarian regard of the American
fighting man for the life of another individual, who also
happens to be an enemy.

357Jones and McClure, Hollywood at W a r ..., o p . cit., p. 17.

358Manny Farber, "Movies in Wartime," The New Republic,
January 3, 1944, p. 18.
369 . .
David E. Meerse, "To Reassure a Nation: Hollywood
Presents World War II," Film History, Volume VI, No. 4, December,
1976, p. 86. In contrast, Heart emphasized the cheapness of Asian
life. Mitsubi: "We will win this war because we are willing to
sacrifice ten million lives I [[smiles] How many lives is the
white man willing to sacrifice?"

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 -165-

As the Second World War dragged slowly toward its end,

the film industry still could not convincingly deviate from its

racist tradition when dealing with Asians. Resembling the United

States Government’s ambivalence toward the Asian Exclusion Laws,

their repeal, and the substitution of an equally racist immigra­

tion quota, the American motion picture industry's supposedly

pro-Chinese policy [mostly a function of anti-Japanese hatred,

not of a diminution of anti-Chinese racism] was more in theory

than in practice an institutional reality. In the same year in

which The Purple Heart appeared (1944), M-G-M Studios released

Dragon S e e d . While the film was intended to reveal the "un­

conquerable spirit of the Chinese race and their fearless de­

fense against the violence of the ruthless J a p a n e s e , a n d

371
to pay "high tribute" to the Chinese as A m e rica’s allies,

the mechanics and the institutional workings of Dragon Seed

demonstrated little change in the industry's anti-Asian racism.

All major roles were given to white actors and actresses, with
372
the assistance of racist cosmetics. Even the majority of
373
minor Asian roles were denied both Chinese and Korean actors.

370
Louella 0. Parsons, "'Dragon Seed,'" Los Angeles
Examiner, August 18, 1944, MPAS Collection.
371
Dorothy B. Jones, "The Hollywood War Film: 1942-1944,"
Hollywood Quarterly, Volume 1, October, 1945, p. 7.
372
Katharine Hepburn played Jade; Walter Huston, Ling Tan;
Ling's wife, Aline MacMahon; Wu Lien, Akim Tamiroff; Lao San, Hurd
Hatfield; Lao Er, Turhan Bey; Third Cousin's Wife, Agnes Moorehead;
Lao Ta, Robert Bice, and so on.
373 .
Listed under "Minor, parts and Bits" were Philip Ahn,
Benson Fong and Joseph Kim. See: Cali Bureau Cast Service Asso­
ciation of Motion Picture Producers, Inc., M-G-M Studio, March
28, 1944.

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 -166-

To the industry, Asian American actors were acceptable in those

roles which called for a minimal amount of visibility and a ma x ­

imal amount of stereotypy. In more fruitful capacities, however,

the industry quickly pronounced its caution clause. M-G-M ex­

emplified the institutional practice:

MGM faced once again in choice between making a motion

picture with what is called 'box office star value,'
or risking a two million dollar investment on a story
about China, in which relatively unknown Chinese actors
374
would be given starring roles.

A film about China devoid of Chinese in major roles was not a

new occurrence in Hollywood. Nor was it unconventional for the

studios and the industry as a whole to assert that Asian talent

was relatively unknown. It was, after all, the studios and the

industry that had kept Asian performers relatively unknown. At

the same time, however, there was a considerable number of Asian

artists in the industry, many of whom were being used to exploit

anti-Japanese sentiment in the films. More significantly, the

practice of using relative unknowns was not unheard of in the

industry. Farley Granger, Richard Conte, and many other whites,

were unknowns who nevertheless secured leading roles, prompting

the observation that, without proved boxoffice star value, films

"full of fresh Hollywood faces”375could be and were being made.

Most peculiarly, the industry's inherent anti-Asiatic

174
The Tidings, Friday, July 28, 1944, MPAS Collection.
375PM Picture N e w s , March 5, 1944, MPAS Collection.

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 -167-

proclivities belied superficial attempts to portray favorably

America's Chinese ally. Not only were the Japanese routinely

referred to as "Japs" and "Nips,"37^ the Chinese were often

alluded to as "Chinamen."377 Moreover, by utilizing its own

racist vocabulary, Hollywood made an effort to instill the idea

that hostilities between China and Japan were fundamentally a

product of racism by the Japanese. While the militarists were

undeniably brutal and highly ethnocentric toward fellow Asians

vis-a-vis their policy of "Blood and Iron,"373 Japan's military

aggression— not race— lay at the heart of international hostil­

ities. Indeed, what there was of Japanese racism was directed

. . 379
at the West, and mostly m the military sector." There was

375Variety, July 19, 1944, MPAS Collection.

377Gassner and Nichols, Best Film P l a y s ..., o p . c i t .,
pp. 424 and 435.
373Carl Crow (ed.), Japan's Dream of World Empire: The
Tanaka Memorial (New York: Harper Brothers, 1942), pp. 28-29.
379
Japan may have used America as its teacher on the sub­
ject of racism. It was reported that the "Japanese maintained a
policy of submitting allied prisoners of war to violence, insults
and public humiliation to impress other peoples of Asia with the
superiority of the Japanese race." The Japanese militarists were
not averse to returning a form of racism to the whites who had
practiced it so consistently against the Asians. For example, Vice-
Minister of War Kimura, in 1942, sent "about 1,000 white prisoners
of war" [mainly American and English] to Pusan, Korea, in an at ­
tempt to diminish lingering respect among the Koreans for the A m ­
ericans and English, and to disprove the superiority of the white
race, particularly on the question of military prowess. The same
practice was carried out in Taiwan, Burma and Singapore. In effect
the Japanese humiliation of the whites was successful, "driving
all admiration for the British [and Americans] out of the K o r eans’
minds [and those of other Asians] and in driving into them an un ­
derstanding of the situation." See: Judgment of the International
Military Tribunal for the Far E a s t , Part B, Chapter VII, "The Pac­
ific War," November, 1948, pp. 1,092-1,095.

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 -168-

nothing comparable in Japan to America's anti-Japanese racism.

In equivalent contexts, Japan's motion picture industry, albeit

as politically propagandistic as any, spent most of its energy

on exhalting Japan's culture and tradition, "-while presenting

Japanese militarism as a crusade to free Japan and Asia from

Western imperialism and its cultural counterparts."888 Unlike

the American tradition, the Chinese -were not "caricatured as

grotesque, as were the Japanese in American-made World War Two

movies."881 A racist portrayal of whites could easily have been

invoked by the militarists, given the history of America's anti-

Japanese behavior. Japan's films, however, were not designed

for that purpose. In fact, there was no general manifestation

of racism:

No attempt was made to parallel the extreme type of violent

anti-Oriental caricature so frequent in British and American
films, stemming from the old, melodramatic image of the cun­
ning, sub-human Asiatic or from S ax Rohmer's Fu Manchu stere­
otype, the mad villain with a mastermind.882

The United States Government and the American motion picture in­

dustry, contrariwise, had not only succeeded in firmly establishing

anti-Asianism in the public mind, but had also in the process set

a backlog of anti-Asiatic imagery that would prove movable from

one Asian group to another as international conditions changed.

888Joan Mellen, The Waves at Gen j i 1s Door: Japan Through

Its Cinema (New York: Pantheon Books, 1976), pp. 139-140.
381Ibid., p. 143.
882Roger Manveil, Films and the Second World War (Cran-
bury, New Jersey: A.S. Barnes and Company, 1974), pp. 137-138.

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 -169-

The cinematic ferocity with which Hollywood struck back

at the Japanese and their European fascist allies could not be

sustained without an inevitable decrescendo whether by force of

the viewing public's capacity to absorb war films or by changing

international events. By 1944, there "was a marked decline in

the number of war films produced by Hollywood."888 War films as

an established genre had saturated the American audience, and

. . 384
the realities of the war had exhausted the American people.

In effect, the limit to which war and war-related motion pictures

could be tolerated had been breached. So, too, with the outcome

of the war in view, the urgency of such films diminished rapidly.

The Japanese surrender in 1945 marked the formal end to films of

the war genre produced during the war years.888 The defeat of

Japan and the end of the war served only as a respite before a

renewed anti-Asiatic attack by the industry was begun in response

to the United States' fear of Communism. As was the case prior

Jeavons, A Pictorial History of War F i l m s , o p . cit.,

p. 134. Jones, "The Hollywood War Film: 1942-1944," op. cit.,
states that President Roosevelt laid the groundwork in defining
a war film. Generally speaking, six broad topics were outlined
within which a film could be classified as of the war genre: "the
Issues of the War; the Nature of the Enemy; the United Nations
and Peoples; Work and Production; the Home Front; and the Fighting
Forces." The Office of War Information subsequently adopted the
topics as guidelines in its dissemination and analysis of war data.
From 1942-1944, approximately three out of every ten films dealt
with some aspect of the war (374 out of 1,313 total productions).
384
Ibid., p. 134.
885Many films treating of the Pacific theater have been
produced after the end of the War. Within three years after Japan
had surrendered, the first of the post-War war genre was released.

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 -170-

to the outbreak of the Second World War, the American preoccupation

with Europe was primarily responsible for the delineation of the

new enemy, Communism. The seeds of the United States' and the

film industry’s anti-Communism had been sown as early as 1917

with the success of the Russian Revolution (sees text, p. 75).

From a more contemporary perspective, however, the United States

and its allies had developed severe misgivings about the Soviet

U n i o n ’s intentions before the end of the Second World War. The

spectre of Communism grew geometrically as the world emerged from

the War. Unfortunately for those persons in the motion picture

industry who had, in their anti-fascist enthusiasm, sympathetically

portrayed the Soviets as heroic fighters and a positive force in

the world community, the United States' Communist phobia focused

on the Soviet Union. In light of difficulties in Eastern Europe

and Germany after the War, anti-Communist exponents turned on

the film industry in much the same fashion as had the forces of

anti-interventionism in 1939. A witch-hunt was begun to locate

those in the industry who, as alleged instruments of the inter­

national conspiracy to subvert the free world, had been responsible

for "'injecting Communist propaganda' j_n t0 the American films.

The anti-Communist extremists were exemplified by J. Parnell Thomas,

Republican Representative of New Jersey, who served as chairman of

the Committee on Un-American Activities of the House of Represen­

tatives. The Committee's (HUAC) unswerving attitude and policy

^ ^ G o r d o n Kahn, Hollywood on Trial (New York: Boni and

Gaer, 1948), p. 11.

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 -171-

toward "any motion picture regardless of when made, which said

anything nice about the Soviet Union, was that it verged on high,

cinematic treason."387 Mission to Moscow (1943) and Song of Russia

(1944), among others, were cited as pro-Russian and hence suppor­

tive of Communism. Congressman Richard M. Nixon strongly argued

that Hollywood might be well-advised to produce films that would

be acceptable to Washington (to produce anti-Communist films) and

at the same time be indicative of the film industry's patriotism.

Many persons in the industry388 had the infamous question put to

them by H U A C : "'Are you or have you ever been a member of the

389 . . . .
Communist party?"' While after the anti-Communist hysteria

was to subside and many of the extremists' accusations of pro-

Communist propaganda and activities were to be proved ill-founded,

by 1948, Hollywood presumably by force of patriotism but largely

by weight of anti-Communist extremism had entered the United

States' new war.

Hollywood’s involvement in the Cold War was somewhat less

enthusiastic, albeit of greater duration, than its Second World

390
War participation. Only three years after the end of the Second

Ib i d ., p. 11.
388The prime example was the so-called Hollywood Ten: Alvah
Bessie; Herbert Biberman; Lester Cole; Edward Dmytryk; Ring Lardner,
Jr.; John Howard Lawson; Albert Maltz; Samuel Ornitz; Adrian Scott;
and Dalton Trumbo.
389
John Cogley, Report on Blacklisting, I - Movies (The
Fund for the Republic, Inc., 1956), p. 1.
390
Russell E. S h a m , "Hollywood's Cold War," Journal of
Popular F ilm, Volume III, No. 4, Fall, 1974, p. 334. Shain says
fewer films dealing with the Cold War were made compared to the
Second World War, although the duration of involvement was 1948-
1962 and 1942-1945 respectively.

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 -172-

World War, Hollywood began to depict the heat and intensity that

the Cold War generated. The film industry's new war films were

in fact old war films designed to meet the new enemy. The res-
391
urrection of the United States' "World War II enemies" cen­

tered directly on the Japanese— with the Germans receiving more

friendly treatment— as surrogates for the Russians. Although the

foe was the Soviet Union and Communism, the film industry con­

tinued to use anti-Asianism as the visual manifestation of its

assumed patriotism. The Sands of Iwo Jima (1949), Three Came

39?
Home and the Halls of Montezuma (1951) pointed to a rejuve­

nation of the Japanese menace and the accompanying, general anti-

Asiatic imagery. The particular ease with which Hollywood could

continue to exploit the anti-Japanese theme, especially after the

391
Lawrence L. Murray, "The Film Industry Responds to
the Cold War, 1945-1955," Jump C u t , A Review of Contemporary
Cinema, No. 9, October-December, 1975, p. 14. Murray, concen­
trating upon the European implications of the Cold War and the
film industry's response, ignores the importance of the Asiatic
component. For example, he says: "our one-time enemies were now
our allies, and Hollywood began casting them in more favorable
light: witness the laudatory treatment of Rommell in Desert Fox
(1951)." He fails to recognize the continued racist treatment
of the Japanese in the films above; nor does he refer to the
racist treatment of the Chinese and Koreans, largely based upon
the format established in Wake Island, that has continued into
even the most recent films. The Yellow Peril transcended both
ideology and world wars, whether hot or cold.
392
In Three Came H o m e , for instance, Sessue Hayakawa was
utilized (see: text, p. 147) by the industry to exploit anti-
Japanese feelings after the war. In the movie, Hayakawa addressed
the fifth-column theme as a Japanese camp commander: "I lived in
America for years. I went to the University of Washington." The
lines closely parallel in intent those of Mitsubi in The Purple
H eart. Racist language, too, continued. Even a white child, a
prisoner with his mother, was allowed to say to a Japanese soldier:
"Stay away from me, you dirty Jap!"

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 -173-

brief interlude in which Americans were able to renew their in-

393
terest in war films, was actually used as a lever by which

the industry could attack the Chinese. In 1949, the prospect

of a new (the original) Yellow Peril appeared in Communistic

394
garb, thereby adding greater credibility to the violent in­

ternationalist and revolutionary program set by the Soviet Union.

The establishment of the People's Republic of China, in October,

1949, created a new wave of anti-Communist hysteria in the United

States, with one of the main articles of contention being the so-

called loss of China to the Communists. More importantly, the

In addition, despite the fact that the film was made five years
after the surrender of Japan, the intensity of the anti-Japanese
sentiment inherent in the movie was demonstrated in the attempted
rape of a white woman by a Japanese soldier, the brutalization of
a white woman (who was made to stick out her tongue, after which
a Japanese guard was seen giving her an uppercut, nearly severing
her tongue), and the mass machine-gunning of unarmed Australian
male prisoners. Hayakawa’s collaboration in Three Came H o m e , no
doubt satisfying the racist expectations of the film-makers, was
a prime factor in his being cast in a film ironically believed to
be less racist toward the Japanese. So effectively negative and
stereotypical was Hayakawa’s performance in Home that seven years
later the English, taking the initiative from the Americans, cast
him again as a prison camp commander in Bridge on the River K w a i .
Thus, "David Lean used him in Bridge on the River Kwai on the
strength of his appearance in Three Came Home." See; Qjean Negulesco
speaking^] Charles Higham and Joel Greenberg, The Celluloid M u s e ,
Hollywood Directors Speak (London, England: Angus and Robertson,
Ltd., 1969), p. 198. It is noteworthy to suggest that the film was
highly propagandistic vis-a-vis the scene showing the destruction of
the bridge. Not only was the bridge successfully completed, but it
continues to stand today.
393
Roger Manvell, Films and the Second World W a r , o p . cit.,
p. 141. Manvell says: in "the later 1940s the war films began to
creep back onto the American screen."
39 ^
'As early as 1929, Floyd Gibbons published The Red
Napoleon, which reached millions of readers in serial form in
Liberty Magazine. Years later, it was hailed as a "prophesy of
the rise of Mao Tse-tung," See: O ’Connor, op. cit., p. 422.

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 -174-

outbreak of hostilities in Korea, in 1950, -was interpreted by the

United States as an undeniable demonstration of the Communists'

insatiable appetite to enslave the free world. The Communist

Chinese involvement in the Korean W a r — in response to the A m ­

erican movement across the 38th Parallel into North Korea— and

the subsequent confrontation between American forces and the

Chinese volunteers summoned intense anti-American feelings among

the Chinese and anti-Sinitic emotionalism among the Americans. In

retrospect one witness recalled:

The Chinese saw the Americans as barbarian invaders

threatening their hearths and homes; Americans viewed
the Chinese as ruthless aggressors creating a new
395
yellow peril.

Although the yellow peril had been a racial myth created to justify

the West's aggressive and imperialistic activities in the East, and

to legitimize overt anti-Asiatic racism among whites in the West,

the fighting in Korea quickly raised images of fanatical, yellow

hordes similar to those associated with the Pacific theater of

the Second World War. Again the Americans harked back to the

depths of their anti-Asiatic tradition as well as to Europe's:

In all our history we [whites] had never felt quite like

this about the Chinese. For a parallel we would have to
go back to Medieval Europe and the Tartar hordes. It was
396
the rebirth of the "Yellow Peril" spectre....

395
Dulles, American P o l i c y ..., o p . c i t ., p. 127.
396
A.T. Steele, The American People and China (New York:
McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1966), p. 37.

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 -175-

Relegating ideological differences to second place, the United

States could not control its racist impulse. The Chinese, unlike

the Russians, represented a racial threat. Ambivalent images,

founded upon years of racist construction, assured many Americans

that "their earlier fears had been well taken, that indeed Fu
397
Manchu and not Charlie Chan was the characteristic Chinaman."

The Communist Chinese were seen as a greater threat than the

Soviets mostly on the basis of race:

...we are made to labor under the deliberately cultivated

fear that she £the People's Republic of China^] is a new
monster which must be leashed. That fear has been stres­
sed again and again in all the mass media, on the public
forums, and in the whispering galleries of many countries.
People do not spell out the words "yellow peril" as bluntly
as before. But the implications are clear. They are being
made clear to members of the Caucasian race. If China becomes
a strong power, so it is argued, it is not just another Ru s ­
sia -- it will be a strong nation of people with a different
pigmentation of the s k i n . ^ ^

397
Jerry Israel, Progressivism and the Open Door: America
and China, 1905-1921 (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: The University of
Pittsburgh Press, 1971), p. 196.
398
Chang Hsin-hai, America and China: A New Approach to
Asia (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1965), p. 20. The underlying
anti-Sinitic racism in the United States was catalyzed by the
Korean War. The "spillover" of the fighting in Korea was in fact
directed against American Chinese: "In the middle of the Korean
War, a San Francisco Chinatown restaurant was ransacked by a mob,"
See: Stanford M. Lyman, Chinese Americans (New York: Random House,
Inc., 1974), pp. 131-132. Fortunately for the American Chinese,
the United States has held that there are "two" China's, the one
an essential ally, the other a fundamental monster. In that con­
text, America’s "new sophistication" in foreign affairs has p re­
vented the mass incarceration of American Chinese. See: Daniels
and Olin, Racism in California, o p . c i t ., p. 64. Nevertheless, few
thinking Chinese are not unaware of America's latent anti-Asiatic
tendencies and their excitability vis-a-vis foreign relations.

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 -176-

Despite a heightened sense of yellow perilism, and a

shift in the popular mind from the Japanese to the Chinese and

Koreans, the Korean War and America's military involvement were

confusing to the American people. The United States' policy of

. . . . 399
"adroit and vigilant application of counter-force" measures

as a means of containing the tide of Communism was not unqual­

ifiedly acceptable to all sectors of even the more hawkish R ep­

ublican party, especially where Asia was concerned and the pro­

spect of confronting China's millions. While patriotically in

support of the American policy, many felt nonetheless that the

Korean adventure 'was in fact a "tragic b l u n d e r . T h e American

film industry, likewise, was confused. For the most part devoid

of political and moral guidance of the clear-cut variety peculiar

to the Second World War, the film industry was left with its

anti-Asiatic racism as the only skeletal structure upon which

to create its new productions. Having exhausted nearly every

racist possibility against the Japanese, Hollywood’s response to

the Koreans and Chinese was simply "cheapjack variations on the

401
slant-eyed Commies theme not too distant from the" Second

(^George F. Kennan speaking] in Walter LaFeber (ed.),

America in the Cold War; Twenty Years of Revolutions and Res­
ponses, 1947-1967 (New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1969),
p. 44.
400Ronald James Caridi, "The G.O.P. and the Korean War,"
Pacific Historical Revi e w , Volume XXXVII, Number 4, November, 1968,
p. 432.
401
Morelia, Epstein and Griggs, The Films of World War
I I , o p . c i t ., p. 7.

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 -177-

World War films. With many of the issues surrounding the hos­

tilities blurred into the complex mass of Cold War politics, the

film industry found it difficult purposefully to excite A me r i c a ’s

nationalistic spirit. The most successful motion pictures were

those that had World War II themes and struck at the Chinese and

Korean foes through the obvious victory over the Japanese. The

only Hollywood innovation connected with the newer films was

that of an emphasis upon American prisoners of w a r — underlining

the fact that "Korea did not induce a great wave of patriotic
402
battle films," and those it did induce made for otherwise
403
"dismal viewing." M-G-M Studios' 1954 production of Prisoner

of W a r , starring Ronald Reagan, although manifestly anti-Asiatic

and anti-Communist, reflected the United States' concern for the

inconsistent and sometimes shameful performance of American sol­

diery in Korea. Unlike the blistering realities of the earlier

War, the Korean encounter while hot was likewise subtle, often

times taxing the psycho-emotional capacities of America's G.I.'s.

Propaganda notwithstanding, a pronounced dilemma of the Korean

fighting lay in the fact that, unlike the Second World War,

Korea was the first war in which the conduct of American

prisoners became a national issue. Nearly a third of our
POW's collaborated with the enemy in some way, and not a
single American escaped from a permanent camp in North

40?
Scheuer, The Movie B o o k , o p . cit.., p. 239.
403
Ivan Butler, The War Film (New York: A.S. Barnes and
Company, 1974), p. 87.
404 . . .
Julian Smith, Looking Away, Hollywood and Vietnam
(New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1975), p. 46.

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 -178-

Hollywood attempted to rationalize the collaboration

of American prisoners of war with the Communists by attacking

the so-called brainwashing techniques employed by the Chinese

and Koreans. The image of white men's minds being manipulated

or destroyed by Asians was not new to the film industry. The

first of such filmic endeavors was personified in the character

405
of Dr. Fu Manchu. During the 1950's, Columbia's The Bamboo

Prison (1954) was an outstanding transition piece between the

war film and the on-going battle for men's minds. Anti-Communism

and anti-Sinicism were encapsulated in the language of the film.

The white Russians were alluded to as "Commies," while a Chinese

prison guard was referred to in mixed imagery as "Charlie Chan."

More dramatically, a cinematic metaphor was used to play down

anti-Black racism in the United States and play up the supposed

enslavement of the Chinese by the Russian whites. Thus in order

to render the Black character susceptible to the Communist line,

the leading Chinese character addressed the white-Black racial

issue, asserting that the Black [a medical student in civilian

life] was drafted because of his race. "A white student wouldn't

have been conscripted.” Likewise, the Chinese asserted: "They

[the white capitalists] lynch you there [in America], don't they?"

Climactically preying upon the old Hollywood theme of racial and

ethnic solidarity, the Black indignantly informed the Chinese:

405
In The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu (1930), Fu said to a
helpless Nayland Smith: "Your mind is my enemy. I shall merely
kill your mind." Psychological warfare was part of Fu's stock
in trade.

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 -179-

"The suffering of you Chinese at the hands of your Russian masters

is just beginning!" The Chinese were depicted as the new slaves.

Not surprisingly, the Russian characters did not disagree. Nor

did the motion picture industry mention anti-Chinese racism in

the United States in its race-conscious propaganda p l o y . ^ ^ The

image of the Chinese as non-white slaves to the white Russian

masters successfully projected America's racial policies onto

the Communist block. Of the more directly brainwashed-oriented

films, United Artists' Time Limit (1957) served as an intense

expose of the practice. With the main POW character [portrayed

by Richard Basehart[ openly having collaborated with the Com­

munists by making radio broadcasts in which he admitted that the

Americans had used "germ warfare" against Asians, the Koreans

The American motion picture industry began to produce

socially conscious films after the Second World War. In those
dealing with race and ethnicity, only Blacks and Jews were m e n ­
tioned (See: Higham and Greenberg, Hollywood in the Forties, o p .
c i t ., p. 68. Also see: Frank Manchel, Film Study: A Resource Guide
(Fairleigh Dickenson University Press, 1973), p. 79. Crossfire
(1947), for instance, examined the anti-Jewish theme, and Home of
the Brave (1949) treated of anti-Black racism. Despite decades of
anti-Asiatic racism, no films explored anti-Asianism, especially
as it applied to American Asians. In the 1950's, two films, no
doubt encouraged by America’s strategic dependence on Japan at the
time of the Korean War, superficially touched on anti-Japanese
racism. Japanese War Bride (1951) was a deceptive film because it
depicted anti-Japanese practice as a function of World War II, not
as an established fact, of American life long before the War. Go
for Broke! (1950) referred to the mass incarceration of the American
Japanese only indirectly. While the film was produced six long
years after the famed 442nd all-Nisei units had become the most
decorated of U.S. military history, the cultural racism of the film
vitiated assumed sympathetic traits. Throughout the film racist em­
phasis was placed on the comparatively smaller size of the Nisei to
the star of the film, Van Johnson [6'3"j. "Little Nisei legs" were
shown in juxtaposition with Johnson's. From a purely visual per-

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 -180-

were identified as the enemy. Korean treachery was exemplified

by a Colonel Kim [played by Khigh Dhiegh]]40''7 whose brainwashing

techniques were accompanied by torture, the most brutal indic­

ation of which was putting American POW's in "the hole," (lit­

erally a hole in the ground). Hollywood used Asian diabolism,

particularly the manipulation of men's minds, as a way of in­

stilling not only understanding of, but also sympathy for those

Americans who collaborated with the enemy.

By the end of the 1950's, the industry had clearly re­

established the Chinese as A m e r i c a ’s main enemy, overshadowing

the Russians if only on the basis of race. In 1954, the year

in which 20th Century-Fox released Hell and High Water and named

"Communism explicitly as the new e n e m y , D w i g h t David Eisen­

hower cautioned:" 'You have a row of dominoes set up, you knock

spective "Ohhara's legs [Japanese], doing double time to keep up

with Grayson"[white], were used to suggest the biolgical advantage
of the white man. See: film and final script, p. 37. In many films
depicting white G.I.'s in Asian countries, Asian females have been
used as sexual diversions from the fighting theme, and white males
have been shown in explicit sex scenes with them. In Go for Bro k e !
there was not one scene in which an American Japanese G.I. was
shown with a white woman, despite the fact that thousands of Nisei
were in Europe. The film does have a sex scene, however, between
Johnson and an Italian woman, Rosina, who— it should be noted— was
"impressed with [Johnson's[] height," p. 54. In-depth attempts at
analyzing the subtleties and complexities of anti-Asiatic racism,
with its domestic and foreign implications, have not been made by
the industry. In 1975, Farewell to Manzanar was produced at the
initiative of some American Japanese. It is the only film which
begins to look at Ameri c a ’s concentration camps. See: Rafu Shimpo,
Thursday, July 24, 1975, p. 1.
407 . . . . .
Khigh Dhiegh is not Asiatic. He is a mixture of Sudan­
ese Negro, Egyptian and English.
^ ^ L a w r e n c e Alloway, Violent America: The Movies, 1946-
1964 (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1971), p. 10.

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 -181-

over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is
409
certainly that it will go over very quickly." The United

States' Domino Theory, which in essence mirrored the Empire of

410
Japan's anti-Communist front, was the alter ego of the C on­

tainment Theory. It was believed that if the West did not con­

tain Communism, Communism would spread to one country after the

other until the entire free world was enslaved. The 1960's,

however, saw the beginnings of the Communist monolith's dis­

solution. Ideological and even racial tensions between the

411
Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China revealed to

the world that of the many things Communism might have been, a

unified agent of anti-Capitalism it was not. The People's R e p ­

ublic of China was seen by both the United States and the Soviet

Union as the greatest threat to world peace. In the opinions of

the superpowers, the Chinese brand of Communism was irrational

and deviant, so much so that it was commonly held that Peking

409r • ■ -i
LEisenhower, "The Falling Domino and Southeast Asia"J
in LaFeber (ed.), American and the Cold W a r ..., o p . c i t ., p. 96.
Lyndon Johnson also marked 1954 the date of America's involvement
in Vietman, p. 187.
410 . . .
The Japanese militarists used anti-Communism as one of
the arguments with which to justify their aggression. After 1948,
the United States' anti-Communist front necessitated the use of
Japan as a strategic base against Communism. In February, 1948,
George F. Kennan said: "The United States should 'devise policies
toward Japan which would assume the security of that country from
Communist penetration ana domination as well as from military
attack by the Soviet Union and would permit Japan's economic pot­
ential to become once again an important force in the affairs of
the area, conducive to peace and stability." See: Akira Iriye,
The Cold War in Asia (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall,
Inc., 1974), p. 173.
411
Tensions between the Soviet Union and the Pe o pl e ’s
Republic of China began as early as 1956, with Nikita Khrushchev's

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 -182-

412
was capable of catapulting the world into a nuclear war. The

Sino-Soviet contradictions demonstrated the overall weakness of

the Communist ideology. While treacherous individually, the Com­

munist giants were not a collective directed by Moscow, as it was

413 ■ ...
earlier believed. To a large extent, the Sino-Soviet divisive-

ness allayed the fear of a Red Tide that would sweep across Asia

and Europe and finally to America. When given enough rope the Com­

munists might not hang one another, but it was proved that they

would pull in opposing directions.

414
Beginning m the early 1960's, the American motion

picture industry gradually began to turn away from a Cold War

Secret Speech, in which he denounced Joseph Stalin. The Chinese

and Russians developed serious difficulties and disagreements over
the ideological questions of peace and war, wars of national lib­
eration, nuclear policy, transition to Communism, and continuous
revolution, to name the most obvious. Border disputes were ac­
companied by charges of racism vis-a-vis global preferences by
both sides. See: Joseph S. Roucek, "Racial Elements in the Sino-
Russian Dispute," Contemporary R e v i e w , Volume 210, No. 1213, Feb­
ruary, 1967. Harrison E. Salisbury, War Between Russia and China
(New York: Bantam Books, 1969), particularly pp. 17 and 19. Alan
Lawrance, China's Foreign Relations since 1949 (London and Boston:
Routledge and Degan Paul, 1975), p. 171. Stuart R. Schram, The
Political Thought of Mao Tse-tung (New York: Frederick A. Praeger,
Publisher, 1963), p. 263. William E. Griffith, Sino-Soviet Rel­
ations, 1964-65 (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The M.I.T. Press, 1967),
p. 208. Peking Review, #24, 1965, p. 12. Yevgeny Yevtushenko's
"On the Red Snow of the Ussuri," Sunday Outlook Section of the
Washington Po s t , April 13, 1969.
412
In a war between Russia and China, Arnold Toynbee
argued that white America should support white Russia. See: "Is
a 'Race War' Shaping Up?" in the Magazine Section of the New York
Times, September 29, 1963.
413
See: U.S. Department of State, The China White ‘ f aper,
August, 1949 (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1967),
p. x v i . For the Chinese view of the Russians see: Young Hum Kim,
East Asia's Turbulent Century, with American Diplomatic Documents
(New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1966), p. 190.
414
S h a m , "Hollywood's Cold War," op. cit., p. 338.

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 -183-

415
posture. In fact, the Cold War "did not survive the 60s."

American domestic strife became the Cold W a r ’s successor. The

new civil rights movement sparked a greater social and filmic

emphasis on and interest in the upgrading of Black and female

minorities. The Asians, however, were omitted from what was

essentially a biracial consciousness (whites and Blacks only)

416
among film-makers. While certain minorities were able to

maximize their political and numerical power against the film

industry, the Asians were overlooked as a minority that had

long endured anti-Asiatic racism on all levels of the industry.

As scapegoats, contrariwise, the Asians continued to be subjected

to the industry's racism, often times being substituted for groups

that would have protested violently against negative portrayals.

41^Alloway, Violent America, o p . c i t ., p. 63.

416A s in the post-World War II socially conscious films,
the newer films dealt with "black-white difficulties," leaving the
issue of anti-Asiatic racism in the dark. See: Michael F . Mayer,
The Film Industries: Practical Business/Legal Problems in Pro­
duction, Distribution and Exhibition (New York: Communication Arts
Books, Hastings House, Publishers, 1973), pp. 37-38. Political
and numerical non-representation of Asians doubtless represent
factors responsible for so little attention's being directed to
the issue of anti-Asiatic racism both on and off the screen. Some
observers summarize the condition in the following manner.: "If
you're a politician, you look at votes and you're not going to
give much money or ear to the Chinese because, they say, the ones
who do n ’t complain the loudest can be left as they are. We are
like raindrops [the Exclusion Laws account for the small number
of Asians] in an ocean of votes. We have no impact on the American
population or populations." See: C.T. Wu, Irving Chin, and Dr. Chih
Meng, "Third Class Minority,” Bridge, Volume I, No. 2, September/
October, 1971, p. 17. Double historical discrimination obtains
against the Asians: Persecution, restriction and exclusion because
they allegedly came to America in too great numbers; political
and social emasculation the next century because they were not
allowed to come to America in great enough numbers vis-a-vis the
earlier restriction and exclusion of Asiatics by United States law.

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 -184-

Thus the villain and notably the "enemy in 'sixties films was

often Asiatic, and, as in the James Bond pictures, of an in-

417
determinate yellow colour— merely oriental." More importantly

for Asians, the United States' Vietnam adventure became a concom­

itant of the United States' domestic strife. Vietnam, in the tra­

dition of Korea, was blurred by gross ideological and propagand­

i s t s exaggerations by the United States. Moreover, the assumed

defense of an Asian people by a country that had one of the oldest

and most durable anti-Asiatic histories was laced with ambivalence.

American racism against the Vietnamese, the Southern allies in­

cluded, reached near genocidal proportions. The contradictions

417
Leif Furhammar and Folke Isaksson, Politics and Film
(London, England: Studio Vista Publishers, 1971), p. 216. Also
see: Norman Sklarewitz, "The New Bad Guys: Orientals Take Over as
TV Film Villains," The Wall Street J o urnal, Wednesday, October 12,
1966, p. 1. In the greater society, the American Chinese were id­
entified by name as potential fifth-columnists by the late J. Edgar
Hoover. The F.B.I. Director said that American Chinese "could be
susceptible to recruitment either through ethnic ties or hostage
situations because of relatives in Communist China." See: Hearing
before a Sub-committee of the Committee on Appropriations House
of Representatives, Ninety-First Congress, First Session, Part 1,
The Judiciary Department of Justice, the Hoover Testimony, p. 546.
The Hoover allegation, doubtless reflecting the views of other
whites in high-ranking positions, was seen by the Asian American
communities as bearing unwholesome similarities to the popular
thinking responsible for the mass incarceration of the American
Japanese during World War II. Consequently, many Chinese and
other Asians, considered the F.B.I.'s position to be exhibiting
"racist and intimidating insinuations." See: Francis L . K . Hsu,
The Challenge of the American Dream: The Chinese in the United States
(Belmont, California: Wadsworth Publishing Company, Inc., 1971),
p. 124. Also see: H.M. Lai's "A Historical Survey of Organizations
of the Left Among the Chinese in America," Bulletin of Concerned
Asian Scholars, Volume 4, No. 3, Fall, 1972, p. 16. It should be
noted that no such allegations were raised against Russian Americans
by the F.B.I., despite the fact that given the Agency's own criteria
the relationship between Russian Americans and Russia and American
Chinese and China were identical--the only exception being the fact
that the Chinese are non-white, a critical difference to racists.

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 -185-

of the Vietnam War eventually cut "across American life and con-
418 . . . .
science like a deep -wound." The American motion picture in­

dustry, reluctant to take the initiative on the United States'

. , , 419
"military misadventure," kept its silence on the Vietnam War.

An observer commented on the industry's attitude toward Vietnam:

Reflecting the visceral frustration of the American people

over the conflict that no one wanted, the American cinema
is sitting this one out. Unlike the other arts,... the
Seventh Art has stood aloof from the war. Only Vietnam
420
has prompted silence....

Furthermore, the creative talents of Hollywood were taxed on the

issue of Vietnam. Even more conspicuously than the Korean ex­

ample, Vietnam could not be thematically and structurally dev­

eloped by the industry:

Vietnam's disorienting effect on our society, the indeter­

minate nature of this war we can't seem to win or abandon,

418
Butler, The War F i l m , op. cit., pp. 131-132.
419
In 1954, the United States' replacement of the French
imperial-racist presence, which in the years immediately prior to
the defeat of the French by the Vietminh at Dienbienphu was heavily
financed by the Americans, marked the formal beginning of A m e rica’s
involvement in Vietnam. In terms of the United States' manifest
commitment on the military level, two dates are possible:The first
was "December 14, 1961, the day the late President Kennedy sent
Viet-Nam's late President Diem a letter promising 'to help the
Republic of Viet-Nam to protect its people and preserve its in­
dependence." The second was the Americans' "initiating around-
the-clock bombing of North Viet-Nam on February 7, 1965." See:
Bernard B. Fall, Viet-Nam Witness, 1953-66 (New York: Frederick
A. Praeger, Publishers, 1966), pp. 331 and* 316-17. Also see: U.S.
Senator Ernest Gruening and Herbert Wilton Beaser, Vietnam Folly
(Washington, D.C.: The National Press, 1968), pp. 262-265 for the
1965 date. Text quote: Morelia, Epstein and Griggs, The Films of
World War II , o p . c i t ., p. 249.
420
Axel Madsen, "Vietnam and the Movies," C i nema, Volume
4, No. 1, Spring, 1968, p. 10.

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 -186-

is reflected in our filmmaker's inability to find an

appropriate format for presenting the war to a mass
421
audience.

With the exceptions of A Yank in Vietnam (1964), released by

Allied Artists, which showed "simply that American troops [were]

welcome allies of the [South Vietnamese] in stemming the Corn-

422
munist tide," and John Wayne's production of The Green Berets

(1968), which was dismissed as "studded with cliches," and pre­

sented a "simplified, hawkish point of view that gloss[ed] over

423
the complexities of the situation m South Vietnam," the

motion picture industry has noticeably avoided the Vietnam War.

However, "with Vietnam even K o r e a ... suspect, and the Second

424
World War, with its unquestioned purity of motive" still

cinematically intact, the few Korean and Vietnamese themes were

augmented by those of World War II in the 1950's and 1960's pri­

marily because the Second World War, unlike the Korean and viet-
425
nam Wars, represented "more ordered conflicts" to the Americans.

421
Julian Smith, "Look Away, Look Away, Look Away, Movie
Land," Journal of Popular Fil m , Volume II, No. 1, Winter, 1973, p.
35. In her book, Looking Away, Hollywood and Vietnam, o p . cit.,
p. 141, Smith records that there have been "over seventy films
dealing specifically with the war's influence at home."
42^New York Times Films Reviews (1959-1968), p. 3444.
423
The Green Sh e e t , N ew York, August, 1968, p. 1. Page
Cook's "The Green Berets," Films in Review, August-September, 1968,
Volume XIX, No. 7, p. 453, says: "it is the only film made in Hol­
lywood which supports our present policy in Vietnam." And Norman
Kagan's "Two Classic War Films of the Silent Era, Birth of a Nation
and Shoulder A r m s ," in Film H istory, Volume IV, No. 3, September,
1974, likens thematically The Green Berets to the Ku Klux Klan, p. 3.
424
Tom Perlmutter, War Movies (Secaucus, New Jersey:
Castle Books, 1974), p. 35.
425
Kagan, The War F i l m , o p . c i t ., p. 105.

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 -187-

To a large extent, throughout the 1960's the American motion

picture industry had maintained its standard presentation of

Asians. The overall enemiization and foreignization of Asians

in the ideology of white racism was epitomized in the war film:

The clich£ for Asiatics is based on the treatment of the

Japanese in World War II films or the Chinese and Koreans
during the Korean War. They are quite anonymous, and there­
fore cannot arouse empathy. We rarely see their faces. They
are gathered somewhere in the jungle, gesticulating and
shouting until they start getting hit by the naval bomb­
ardment. They emit shrill cries, lay ambushes and hid in
burrows like animals, until the flame throwers are brought
426
in to deal with them.

Hollywood's institutional racism and its insensitivity to and ig­

norance of all Asians— particularly of American Asians— accounted

over time for the creation of a social dilemma the actual impact

of which has yet to be understood fully. Because of the blending

together of America's anti-Asiatic racism in both the foreign and

domestic contexts, American Asians in particular— as one of the

smallest racial minorities in America— have been "inexorably en­

tangled in a web of economic, political, and social complexities

427 . . . .
and conflicts." The extent of the industry's institutional

racism against Asians was tabulated by a closer look at sample

films.

426 _ . .
Furhammar and xsaksson, Politics and Fil m , o p . c i t .,
pp. 216-217.
^ ^ " R e p o r t to the Governor [jof W a s h i n g t o n o n Discrim­
ination Against Asians," op. cit., p. 113.

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 CHAPTER IV

TABULATION OF THE SAMPLE AMERICAN

MOTION PICTURES

In sampling the films which employed Asian themes,

Asian actors or actresses, or both, a general list of films

was constructed covering the years 1930-1975. The New York

Times Film Index (by year), the Film Buff's Bible, Novels

Made Into Films, Those Who Wrote the Movies, and numerous

film journals and reviews were gleaned in order to ascertain

if the two basic criteria were applicable. A film list of

appearances credited to individual Asian actors and actresses

was used as a means of augmenting and substantiating the gen­

eral list (See: Appendix A ) . It is unlikely, however, that

the general film list contains all of the films in which Asians

have appeared, for on occasion the names of Asian actors were

omitted from both the source journals and film billings. It

is probable that some films were overlooked because the only

absolute way in which to determine the absence or the presence

of Asian actors and actresses was literally to view all films

that had been produced in the United States. That was impractical

if only from a financial perspective. What can be suggested is

that the general list of films is to all practical intents and

-188-

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 -189-

purposes a comprehensive collection of film titles reflecting

the presence of an Asian theme, the employment of Asian actors,

or the employment of Asian actors within an Asian theme. There

was no limit or specification as to the extent to which any of

the films treated of the criteria. Consequently, if an Asian

were in the film at all, regardless of how major or minor his

or her role, the film was listed. From the general film list

a total of 125 American feature films were chosen at random

from the years 1930-1975 (See: Appendix B ) . The sample films

constituted approximately 25 percent of the general list.

Because of the time period covered by the sample, the

films were stratified according to their respective decades

(See: Table 1). The 193 0 ’s, the first decade, represented 17

films (13.6 percent). The 1940’s saw 28 (22.4 percent). The

1950’s peaked the sample at 33 (26.4 percent). The 1960’s had

a total of 29 (23.2 percent). And the first half of the 1970's

represented 18 (14.4 percent). Given the American motion p ic­

ture industry’s negligible interest in the Asian minority as a

part of the American population, coupled with the United States'

military experiences in Asia, the films were bifurcated into the

war and non-war genres in order to determine how extensive the

industry’s concentration on the war image lay over time. Of

the entire 125 films, the war genre numbered 45 (36 percent

of the films)[See: Table 2~\. The disproportionate emphasis

upon the war theme, constituting over one-third the total, is of

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 -190-

TABLE 1

NUMBER AND PERCENTAGE OF FILMS BY DECADE

Decade Number Percentaqe

1930-1939 17a 13.6

1940-1949 28 22.4

1950-1959 33 26.4

1960-1969 29 23.2

h
00
1970-1975 H 14.4

Total 125 100.0

TABLE 2

BER AND PERCENTAGE OF FILMS OF WAR GENRE BY DECADE

Decade Number Percentaqe

1930-1939 0C 0.0

1940-1949 16 57.1

1950-1959 22 66.6

1960-1969 7 24.1

1970-1975 0 0.0

Total 45 36.0

aThe film numbers read 1-17, 18-45, 46-78, 79-107 and

108-125 by respective decades.
^1970-1975 represents a half decade only, of course.
CThe film numbers read: 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30,
32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 43, 44, 45 for 1940-1949. For the decades
1950-1959 and 1960-1969 the film numbers read respectively: 48,
49, 51, 52, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 66, 67, 70,
71, 74, 76, 77, 78 and 81, 83, 89, 94, 95, 102.

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 -191-

greater significance against the realization that neither the

428
1930’s nor 1970's produced a single film of the war genre.

Consequently, 36 percent of the films selected fell somewhere

within the 1940 to 1960 decades vis-a-vis the war films. The

absence of the war theme during the 1930's, in addition to the

film industry's preference for other genres, reflected the fact

that the United States was not involved on a formal, military

level in either the European or Asian spheres. With respect

to Asia, in particular, the American motion picture industry,

following the United States Government's lead, did not cover

or recognize the plight of the Chinese and other Asians at the

hands of the Japanese militarists until late into the decade

(See: text, pp. 120-27). That does not suggest the industry

failed to produce products which depicted military violence.

It notes that until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the

industry did not have an incentive to develop a separate war

genre per s e . Of the three decades on which the war theme did

impact filmically, 16 of the films (57.1 percent of the decade)

were sampled from the 1940's, 22 (66.6 percent) came from the

1950's, and 7 (24.1 percent) represented the I960's. By the

1970's, the war film, especially as it was constructed from the

428 . .
Non-traditional films treating of war, notably of
the Vietnam War, have from time to time made their presence felt.
Perhaps symbolic of the type, The Losers (1970) fell short of
depicting formal American involvement, substituting instead
motorcycle toughs as G.I. proxies and altering the sex theme to
include Black males' associations with Asian females.

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 -192-

perspective and format of the Second World War and applied to

Asians, became virtually extinct as a genre. Not surprisingly,

the absolute number of films dealing with Asians dropped pro­

portionately. The 1950's decade peaked the war picture years.

Although the 1940's saw the production of a considerable number

of war films, the industry’s initial delay, culminating in Wake

Island as the prototype film nearly a year after Pearl Harbor,

there were only two years (1942-1944) of intense war film pro­

duction, after which the relief from the war itself moved the

industry to release movies that would turn the audiences' heads

to more escapist genres. By the late 1 9 4 0 ’s, the rearrangement

of alliances between the United States and its former enemies

of the Second World War coupled with the new threat of the Com­

munist monolith— no doubt graphically expressed in the so-called

loss of China to the Communists— and encouraged the motion pic­

ture industry to prepare itself for another wave of patriotic,

anti-Communist oriented productions. The outbreak of the Korean

Conflict or War in 1950, and the United States' military involv­

ement, became a controversial issue among the American people,

particularly as American casualties rolled in. As was mentioned

earlier, the Korean War did not encompass otherwise clear-cut

reasons for American involvement in the opinions of the poli­

tical power structure or among the American populous. The seem­

ingly manifest assurities of the safe war, World War II, were

for the most part absent from the euphemized police action in

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 -193-

the minds of the American people. Complementing the often times

disconcertingly emotional ideological and political justifications

for opposing Communism, military hostilities only five years after

the end of the Second World War taxed the resolve of the American

electorate. Not only was the United States deeply involved in the

East Asian sphere again— with the still-lingering image of fanati­

cal, fight-to-the-death Asian jungle-warriors an undeniably new

aspect of America's perception of Asians— but she was also facing

the largest nation in the world, the People's Republic of China.

Old fears of the futility of a land war in Asia, ambivalently et­

ched in the recollection that China was America's ally in the safe

war, stood as a stumbling block to the American people's complete

endorsement of the United States' role in the Korean fighting.

From the industry's cinematic point of view, enthusiasm for the

Korean War might be obliquely stimulated by the production of a

new edition of Second World War war films which in turn would

induce a greater degree of citizen support of the United States'

Korean adventure. In speaking to such linkage films, one critic

remarked poignantly:

'Halls of Montezuma' shows what our Marines went through

on those Jap-held islands, which is what they are going
through today in Kor e a . (Italics added.)

429 . . .
Ruth Waterbury, "Marine Film Wins Praise," Los Angeles
Examiner, January 6, 1951, MPAS Collection. Ironically, in face
of the continued anti-Japanese background, actual Nisei actors
were used in the film, driving home the reality that alliances
had indeed taken a 180-degree turn. As another anti-Asiatic

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 -194-

Strategically the American motion picture industry was able to

be 1) anti-Asiatic by way of the World War II genre war film

on screen while 2) simultaneously and effectively projecting

the intensity of anti-Japanese hatred on the Chinese and the

Korean Communists. The World War II films which were produced

after the actual war years were intentionally designed to meet

new threats in Asia. As a format that had been successfully

tested to create and exploit anti-Asiatic sentiment, the Wake

Island formula films were resurrected to capitalize on anti-

Asiatic emotionalism while subtlely introducing a different

target nationality. Only the pathetically naive missed the

patently anti-Sinitic intent of a film like Halls of Montezuma.

The circuitous attack on the Chinese released Hollywood from

standby Hollywood sought to utilize and manipulate Asian actors

in the industry as a means of filmically testing the popularity
of the Korean War and the United States' involvement. Several
Nisei, all of whom had "served in the American armed forces dur­
ing the" safe War, were integrated into the film as the enemy but
in the company of wide publicity that notified the American public
that the Japanese were America's ally, and the the Chinese were in
fact the enemy. Additionally, publicity was given to Asian actors
who were willing to speak out on the supposed aggressive nature of
the Korean Communists, with one actor reportedly having actually
"predicted the attempted coup of the communists." See: vital Stat­
istics on "Halls of Montezuma" from Harry Brand, Director of Pub­
licity 20th Century-Fox Studio, Beverly Hills, 1951, p. 5. So, too,
the industry was not averse to integrating the miscegenation theme
through one of the film's characters, Pretty Boy, who "hate[dj the
Japs venomously because his sister ha[d] disgraced the family by
marrying one," p. 1. For further linkage between the Second World
War and the Korean War, See: C u e , January 6, 1951, MPAS Collection.
In general terms, not only was Halls of Montezuma successful in 1)
maintaining anti-Asiatic feelings and 2) transferring those feelings
from the Japanese onto the Chinese, but it was also especially suc­
cessful at the boxoffice. See: Variety, January 11, 1951, MPAS Col­
lection.

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 -195-

appearing to support the Korean War more extensively than did the

American viewing public as a whole. Korean War films, thus, never

approached the level of those treating of the Second World War.

The United States' most recent military adventure in Asia, the

Vietnam Conflict, became as unpopular and more nationally div­

isive than the Korean War. With the realities of Vietnam con­

stantly covered by television, it became especially difficult

for the film industry to act creatively on the hostilities and

the United States' purpose in those hostilities. Furthermore,

Vietnam became the foreign reflection of A merica’s domestic civ­

il rights movement. Opposition to Vietnam was inextricably a

part of minority rights at home. White racism as a factor in

430
the Vietnam War developed credible dimensions as America's

conduct of the war against an Asiatic people received increasing

amounts of adverse publicity both at home and abroad. In many

respects, particularly among American minorities, the Vietnam

War had become symbolic of white America's racial oppression of

all non-white peoples. The real war, it was reckoned, was not in

Vietnam, but rather in the United States and the other predom-

430 . . .
Asian American servicemen have often times been rac­
ially discriminated against in the American military forces. As
one former serviceman, a Marine, said: "...all during boot camp,
I was used as an example of a [Gjook. You go to a class and they
say you'll be fighting the VC or the NVA. But when the person
who is giving the class [sees me he says] 'He looks just like
that, right there!' which goes to show that the service draws no
lines, you know, in their racism." See: L / C p . Scott Shimbukuro,
Liberation: Testimony from Winter Soldier Investigation, Volume
15, op>. cit., p. 47. Also see: Norman Nakamura, "The Nature of
G.I. Racism," in Roots: An Asian American Reader, o p . c i t ., pp.
24-25.

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 -196-

inantly white, technologically advanced nations of the West.

The real enemy, likewise, was not the Vietnamese forces and

the other non-white peoples who were struggling for national

independence from the remnants of colonialism and imperialism,

but rather the whites of the more advanced nations of the world

and the ideology of white racism. The 1970's did not in the

sample reflect an industry attempt to explore the Vietnam War

or the United States' role in it. Over time, from the 1940's

to the 1970's, there had been a gradual de-emphasis of the war

genre by the American motion picture industry.

The films were further classified by their appropriate

genres, A total of 14 motion picture genres were listed and

their frequency and percentages noted. As mentioned earlier,

the War genre topped the list at 45 (36 percent). Adventure

films numbered 27 (21.6 percent). Of the total film sample,

72 (57.6 percent) of the pictures belonged to either the War

or Adventure genres (See: Table 3). There were 10 (8 percent)

Westerns, 9 (7.2 percent) Crime and Mystery, 5 (4 percent)

Phantasy, 4 (3.2 percent) Love, Musical, and Social Issues,

3 (2.4 percent) Comedy, 2 (1.6 percent) Spy, and 1 (0.8 p er­

cent) Horror, Satire, and Science Fiction. The genres were

stratified by decade to determine change in emphasis. The

Adventure films dominated the industry's production through­

out the 1930's (See: Table 4), with 9 (52.9 percent) of the

output falling into that broad genre. Crime films produced were

4 (23.5 percent), Mysteries 2 (11.8 percent), and Horror and Phan-

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 -197-

TABLE 3
FILM GENRES

Code Number Percentage Cum. Percentage

1 . Adventure3 27 21.6 21.6

2 . Comedy 3 2.4 24.0

3 . Crime 9 7.2 31.2

4 . Horror 1 0.8 32.0

5 ,. Love 4 3.2 35.2

6 . Musical 4 3.2 38.4

7,. Mystery 9 7.2 45.6

8,. Phantasy 5 4.0 49.6

9,, Satire 1 0.8 50.4

10 , Sci. Fiction 1 0.8 51.2

11,. Social Issues 4 3.2 54.4

12,. Spy 2 1.6 56.0

13 , War 45 36.0 92.0

14,, Western 10 8.0 100.0

Total 125 100.0

aFilm genres can be especially diverse with frequent

inter-genre overlapping. According to this code, the "Adventure"
classification is the most ambiguous, including action films and
psuedo-historical swashbucklers. Also included are films which
depicted American soldiers in violent confrontations with Asians.
The films themselves were not classified as war genre because in-
each episode depicted the United States was not formally a party
to hostilities. With the exceptions of the Korean and Vietnam
Conflicts, and the manifest American presence, only those films
in which the United States was shown to be formally at war were
classified as war genre. For further information on genres see:
Beograd Film Institute, Film Genres: An Essay in Terminology and
Determination of Film Genres (Belgrade: Beograd Film Institute,
1964), and Frank Manchel, Film Study: A Resource Guide (Fairleigh
Dickenson University Press, Associated University Press, 1973, p p ,
57-58 in particular.

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 -198-

o u
CO 0)
42 a

d a
42 nj
^ -p

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 -199-

tasy 1 (5.9 percent) each. The 1940's saw a definite shift to

the war films, 16 (57.1 percent). There was a corresponding

drop in Adventure to 6 (21.4 percent). Mystery decreased

slightly to 3 (10.7 percent), while two new genres, Musical

and Western, appeared with 1 (3.6 percent) each. Adventure

fell to its lowest point during the 1950's, 1 (3.0 percent),

as the War genre rose to a high of 22 (66.6 percent). Comedy,

Love, and Social Issues represented new genres, with 2 each

for Comedy and Love and 1 for Social Issues (6.1 percent and

3.0 percent respectively). It is important to note that the

1950's decade marked the beginning of the formal, interracial

Love genre, including explicit interracial sex. Prior to the

1950's, interracial sex, whenever a topic, was inferred only.

Crime reappeared at 2 (6.1 percent), as did Musical, Mystery,

and Western at 2, 1, and 1 (6.1, 3.0, and 3.0 percent) respect­

ively. The 1960's showed the greatest distribution yet thinning

out of genres. With a significant decrease in War, Adventure

once again was brought back into fashion at 7 (24.1 percent)

for each genre. Satire, Science Fiction, and Spy emerged as

new genres, at 1, 1, and 2 (3.4 and 6.9 percent). Westerns

increased to 3 (10.3 percent), Love and Musicals each con­

stituted 2 (6.9 percent), while Comedy, Mystery, Phantasy and

Social Issues each registered at 1 (3.4 percent). Following

the diversity and the thinning out of genres of the 1960's,

the 1970's decade showed a definite constriction of genres as

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 -200-

a -whole. In fact, the Comedy, Horror, Love, Musical, Satire,

Science Fiction, Spy and War genres disappeared. Adventure de­

creased slightly at 4 (22.2 percent), while Crime, Phantasy,

and Social Issues increased at 3, 3, and 2 (16.7, 16.7, and

11.1 percent). Mystery continued to remain low at 1 (5.6 per­

cent). Of all the genres, the 197 0 ’s saw a significant in­

crease in Westerns, topping all decades for that genre at 5

(27.8 percent).

Again the sample was stratified by decade in order

to tabulate the Asian characters by occupation. In the 1930's,

Asians were portrayed as either domestics or persons in the

menial services 7 (41.2 percent) times, marking a high point.

431
The legal profession and illegal occupations each registered

a total of 4 (23.5 percent), thereby balancing each other out.

Military figures [all of whom were pre-World War II characters

of the warlord variety[] appeared 3 (17.6 percent) times, as did

the professionals, that is, medical doctors specifically, and

the d£class£ (fallen) females. Business people, urban laborers,

and entertainers represented 1 each (5.9 percent). The 1940's

witnessed a drastic rise in the military figure to 18 (64.3

percent), accompanied by a decrease in the domestic/services

area to 8 (28.6 percent), and a rise in the professionals to

7 (25.0 percent). D£class£, with its emphasis upon Chinese

431
The legal profession was separated from the other
standard professions, all of which dealt with mathematics, sci­
ence, chemistry, engineering and so forth, in order to tabulate
the verbal profession against the non-verbal.

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 -201-

females, fell to 2 (7.1 percent). Business, urban labor,

entertainment, legal and illegal all dropped: 1 (3.6 per­

cent) . The military occupation continued to rise in the

432
1950's decade to a high of 23 (69.7 percent). Domestics

dropped slightly 7 (21.2 percent). The illegal occupations

rose significantly to 4 (12.1 percent). The professionals

fell to a low of 3 (9.1 percent). Rural labor, as a new

occupation, registered 3 (9.1 percent). Entertainment hit

an all-time high at 2 (6.1 percent), as d§class£ dropped to

an all-time low of 1 (3.0 percent) in the company of business

at 1 (3.0 percent). The military began its decline in the

1960's to 13 (44.8 percent), while d£class§ rose to a high

of 6 (20.7 percent). Both business and illegal occupations

rose to 5 each (17.2 percent). Domestics continued to fall

to 3 (10.3 percent). Urban labor rose to its highest point

of 3 (10.3 percent), as did rural labor to 4 (13.8 percent).

Professionals dropped to 2 (6.9 percent), as did entertainment

to 1 (3.4 percent). The military disappeared in the 1970's

decade. Professionals, rural labor, and illegal occupations

dominated the decade at 3 (16.7 percent) each. Domestics in

turn began to show a slight increase to 2 (11.1 percent), and

d£class£ a significant decrease. Business fell considerably

to 1 (5.6 percent). Urban labor, entertainment and the legal

occupations disappeared along with the military characters.

432
The number and percentage of occupations should not
be confused with the film genres.

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 -202-

only.
decade
a half
represents
1970-1975

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 -203-

According to frequency, the overpowering image of

the Asiatic created by the American motion picture industry

is that of the military figure, with an absolute concentration

upon Asian males, running along a continuum from the 1940's to

the 1960's. 57 military characters were noted (45.6 percent

of the total for all decades), including 3 (17.6 percent) of

the 1930's warlord type. With the 1950's as a high point, the

military figure disappeared by the first half of the 1970's.

The second most common image of the Asiatic is that of the

domestic, numbering 27 (21.6 percent of the total films for all

decades). Although the domestic as a species declined across

decades, the first half of the 1970's showed an increase in

the occupation. As professionals in the scientific fields,

Asians, 18 (14.4 percent of all decades) by the mid-1970's,

having decreased during the 1950's and 1960's began to show

a rise almost equal to the 1930's decade, albeit substantially

below the 1940's high point of 7 (25.0 percent). As members of

the illegal occupations, 17 (13.6 percent of all decades); the

Asians after the 1930's high of 4 (23.5 percent) dropped to a

low of 1 (3.6 percent) during the 1940’s, after which the

1950's and 1960's showed increases. By the mid-1970's, the

illegal occupations were nearly as high as the 196 0 's figure.

The Asian female as a d£class§ figure, 14 (11.2 percent of all

decades) reached a high point during the 1960's and low point

during the 1950's. The mid-1970's saw the occupation decrease

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 -204-

by nearly half from the 1960's. As rural laborers, 10 (8.0

percent of all decades), Asians increased steadily from the

1950's to the mid-1970's. The Asiatic as businessman, after

reaching a peak during the 1960's, represented 9 counts (7.2

percent of all decades), with the 1930es and mid-1970's each

showing 1 (5.6 percent of their respective decades). As m em­

bers of the legal profession, 5 (4.0 percent of all decades),

Asians ceased to be represented by the 1950's. The Asians as

entertainers, 5 (4.0 percent of all decades), having reached

a high of 2 (6.1 percent of the 1950's), likewise ceased to

be represented by the mid-1970's. Lastly, as urban labor, 5

(4.0 percent of all decades), Asians reached a high of 3 (10.3

percent) during the 1960’s, after which the occupation disap­

peared in the mid-1970's (See: Table 5).

In order to gain a more definitive perspective on the

industry's interpretation of who the Asians are with respect

to American identity, the films were bifurcated into Foreign

Asian and Asian American thematic settings by decade (See:

Table 6). Of the 17 films sampled from the 1930's, foreign

Asian themes numbered 11 (64.7 percent) and Asian American

6 (35.3 percent). The foreign theme increased to 23 out of

28 (82.1 percent), with Asian American 5 (17,9 percent), in

the 1940's. The 1950's decade hit an all-time high of 29 out

of 33 films (87.9 percent), with 4 (12.1 percent) for the Asian

American theme. Both the 1940's and 195 0 's emphasis upon the

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 -205-

TABLE 6

FILM LIST OF ASIAN AMERICAN, FOREIGN ASIAN,

AND OTHER THEMES BY DECADE

Asian American Foreign Asian Other

1930-1939 6 11
35.3 64.7

1940-1949 5 23
17.9 82.1

1950-1959 4 29
12.1 87.9

1960-1969 9 20
31.0 69.0

1970-1975 9 2 7
50.0 11.1 38.9

Total 33 85 7
26.4 68.0 5.6

the foreign theme reflected the influence of the war

The 1960’s, however, marked the decline of the foreign Asian

theme, with 20 out of 29 (69.0 percent) foreign and 9 (31.0

percent) Asian American themes. The first half of the 197 0 ’s

showed a sharp decline in the number of foreign Asian themes,

with 2 (11.1 percent) out of 18 films. Asian American themes

rose to 9 out of 18 (50.0 percent). However, unlike earlier

decades, the 1970's presented a third category of 7 (38.9 per­

cent) which did not rightfully fit into either the foreign or

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 -206-

Asian American settings. In initially classifying the films

as part of the universe from which to select the sample, an

Asian theme, the employment of Asian actors, or both the pre­

sence of Asian actors in an Asian theme were the basic criteria

by which the universe could be separated from all other films

that had been produced by the industry. The films of the mid-

1970’s began to depart from the more traditional dichotomy of

foreign Asian and Asian American settings, thereby establishing

a trichotomy while maintaining many of the features of the in­

dustry’s standard treatment of Asians per s e . Three of the

newer films treated of Asians in a foreign European setting.

Two of the films, Husbands (1970) and The Big Game (1972) had

Asian females, one of whom was Eurasian, in roles which req­

uired explicit interracial sex with white males. Thus while

the themes were in fact new vis-a-vis the European Asian set­

ting, the type of performance expected by the industry of Asian

females was continued. The third film, produced by Disney's

BuenaVista, One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing (1975), retained

the practice of using white males in racist cosmetics in order

to portray Asian males, particularly on the major role level.

In addition, the Asian characters, in this case Chinese, were

depicted as vicious and unscrupulous persons not above murder

to achieve their demonic goals. Another set of three newer

films of the 1970's demonstrated the use of Asians in the non-

Asian American, non-foreign Asian setting. The McMasters (1970),

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 -207-

Little Big Man (1971), and Island at the Top of the World

(1974) utilized Asian actors and actresses as non-Asians.

433
In both films Asian females were cast as Native Americans.

Likewise, each film was a Western, the fastest growing genre

in which Asians have appeared in the mid-1970's, whether as

Asians or as non-Asians. In the third film, Mako portrayed

an Eskimo male, Comiak. The film itself was of the popular

Adventure genre. The last of the trichotomous category was

Skullduggery (1970) which employed Pat Suzuki in the role of

a Tropi. Perhaps indicative of the Phantasy genre, a Tropi

was described as "a female ape woman in long golden body hair

[or more accurately fur[."4^ Despite the non-human dimensions

of Tropi characters, the interracial sexual theme made its pr e ­

sence obliquely felt in the relationship between Suzuki and

Roger C. Carmel, who portrayed the character K r e p s . Suzuki

became pregnant, thereby extolling what one critic considered

435
to be "the virtues of inbreeding." As part of the 1970's

trend, Hollywood embarked upon the policy of utilizing Asians

as intervening elements in white-Black race relations in the

433
The Eurasian Nancy Kwan portrayed Robin, a Native
American, in The McMasters. In Little Big M a n , Emily Cho played
Digging Bear, another Native American female character.
434
Variety, March 11, 1970, p. 3.
435
Entertainment W o r l d , March 20, 1970, p. 26. Paradox­
ically, although the film had nothing to do with the Japanese,
save the presence of a Japanese actress in ape makeup, the ~acial
slur "Jap" was used: Spofford speaking: "In your spinning mills
alone tropi labor will sweep the Jans right out of the market."
The context w a s _important because of increased anti-Japanese
feeling in America on the issue of economic competition.

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 -208-

American films. As a strategic means of expanding the variety

of otherwise banal and overworked white-Black racial settings,

the film industry in the first half of the 1970’s began to de­

pict A.sians (and other non-white/non-Black groups) as peripheral

characters in productions that were calculated to be as exploi­

tative of the American viewing audience as they were pretentious

to the exploration of American race relations. In Skullduggery,

for instance, Suzuki as a Tropi not only satisfied the sexuality

usually associated with Asian females, albeit in disguised form,

but also served through the nature of the character as a pawn

around whom white-Black racial issues were developed. As a

possible third racial alternative to the whites and Blacks in

the film— as Asians are in life— the Tropis were relieved of

their racial identity by a Black character, Justin Smoot, who

insisted that race questions revolved around whites and Blacks

only, and that between those two, "The tropis aren't black.

They’re white. White'.!" The entirety of race relations was

put on a white-Black level. So, too, in The McMasters, the

white-Black racial issue was negotiated through Nancy Kwan's

portrayal of a Native American. On the one hand, Kwan fulfilled

the explicit sexuality imposed upon Asian females. On the other

hand, Kwan's sex partner, rather than being a white male, was a

Black male, Brock Peters (as Benjie). Both the film and the

script, however, read as a standard example of Asian female sex­

uality as traditionally set by the motion picture industry. Only

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 -209-

the presumed Native American identity of Kwan was at variance

with the interracial sex obligation levied upon Asian females

by the industry. The standard format remained unchanged:

Benji [Peters]: "You do anything I say, right?"

[writer]: "She nods...."
Robin [Kwan]: "I your woman."
[writer]: "...he [Benjie] lowers his head and kisses
Robin."
[writer]: "She lets the blanket slide from her shoulders,
offering herself to him. Her nipples stand out, turgid,
..436
demanding."

Additionally, the mid-1970's saw a continued shift back to the

Chinese as the prime Asian group depicted by the industry. Of

the Western genre in which Chinese actors portrayed Chinese,

McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971) stood out as one of the more

successful among the films. However, not only were the racial

slurs "Chink," "Johnny Chinaman," "dead Chinaman," and "Chinaman"

used without benefit of a disclaimer of any kind, but the young

. . 437
Chinese female actress, Maisie Hoy, was cast as the sexual

stereotype of a Chinese whore among white men, demonstrating

the film industry's consistent emphasis and concentration upon

the Asian female in America— especially in early Western times

— as a prostitute for whites (See: text, p. v i i ) . Moreover,

4
See: Film and Final White Script, pp. 38, 39, 44A,
and 49 respectively.
437 . .
Strangely, Maisie Hoy, the actress, stated that her
role in McCabe notwithstanding: '"With Bob [Robert Altman, the
Director] I know I am seen as a person, an actress, not as an
Asian-actress-type,'" Kay Carter, "Dragon Lady/Geisha Girl:
Hollywood's Mythical Asian Female," Neworld, Fall, 1975, p. 53.

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 -210-

the Chinese female, besides being a prostitute, was portrayed

as an opium addict, filling another negative and historically

misleading image of Asians, with its roots deep in the American

past (See: text, p. viii ) , still popular in the United States.

Asians in the role of domestics were represented by two elderly

Chinese who, as a couple, worked for the house of prostitution.

To all intents and purposes, McCabe and Mrs. Miller contained

essentially the full score of anti-Sinitic characterizations,

while using actual Chinese actors in especially minor parts.

In sharp contrast, and in deference to the growing power of the

Blacks in the industry, the two Black characters were depicted

as otherwise ordinary persons, a barber and his wife, without

suffering negative racial imagery or slurs.

Treatment of Asian males in the 1970's Western gen

began to develop peculiar and ambivalent characteristics. There

Was a Crooked Man (1970) played up the character of the Chinese

as a brute, having criminal-homocidal-suicidal traits, who des­

pite a physical presence in the film was not allowed to speak

a single line. The character Ah-ping Woo [played by C.K.Yang

combined noticeably large stature with negligible intellect. As

an oddity, Woo was "totally catatonic" and "flipped out," but

who in relation to the star of the film, Kirk Douglas, behaved

438
"like a dog obeying his master." Unlike earlier portrayals

438
See: Film and Final Script, pp. 83 and 85.

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 -211-

of the Chinese, in such films as Nob Hill (1945), A Ticket

to Tomahawk (1950) and One-Eyed Jacks (1961), the Western

genre became increasingly conspicuous as a vehicle of anti-

Sinitic attitudes by the late I960's. In True Grit (1968),

for example, John Wayne [as Rooster] took an unconscionably

free license with the Chinese character, Chen Lee [portrayed

by Horn G i m ] . Among other things, the myth of the inscrutable

Oriental mind was incorporated into the film, as epitomized in

Wayne's remark: "You can't tell what a Chinaman is thinking.

That's how they beat you at cards." Likewise, the Chinese as

an unscrupulous businessman was encapsulated in the line: "The

439
Chinaman is running them cheap shells on me again." The

general image of the Chinese in the Western genre was one of

historically inaccurate and cinematically distorted deliverance.

In the company of McCabe and Mrs. Miller and The Crooked M a n ,

excluding those Westerns in which Asians were allowed to por­

tray Native Americans, both The Great Bank Robbery (1970)

4S Q
See: Film and Final Script, pp. 33, 47, 105.
440
Although Asian Americans and Native Americans have
not been permitted to portray either whites or Blacks (while
whites and Blacks have portrayed both Asian and Native Americans),
they have portrayed one another. Whenever an Asian has portrayed
a non-Asian/non-white, it has historically been a Native American.
And vice versa. One of the earliest manifestations of the Asian
American/Native American relationship occurred in 1936 during the
filming of the first Lost Horizon movie. While the film industry
had routinely used whites in both Asian and Native American roles,
occasionally substituting Blacks as Asians and Indians, a peculi­
arity of the technical advisor to the Studio— and doubtless an in­
dication of the inconsistency of treating non-whites as a whole—
demanded that actual Tibetans be used in the film in order to ef­
fect, presumably, an authentic Tibetan atmosphere. That actor Sam

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 -212-

and One More Train to Rob (1971), while not treating of the

Chinese in an overtly racist fashion, expressed Hollywood's

profound ignorance of the social diversity of the Chinese in

America's early West (See: Sienkiewicz' observation and Ping

Chiu's Chinese Labor in California, 1850-1880, text, p. v ) .

From the industry's limited perspective, the Chinese were only

miners, laundrymen/cooks, or railroad workers. In actual fact,

of all the non-white minorities in the West, the Chinese were

the most diverse and competitive. The film industry, however,

has traditionally delimited the image of the Chinese to the

above-mentioned occupations, with the Chinese female depicted

as a whore.

Of those films of the 1970's which had an Asian American

setting, The Carey Treatment (1972) was one of the more successful.

The industry's return to the illegalist aspects of the Chinese,

without balanced characters in the film, was demonstrated in the

Chinese character David Tao [played by James Hong], Although the

character was a medical doctor, he performed illegal abortions, a

Jaffe, a Jew, was allowed to portray the leading character of the

High Lama, and white actor H.B. Warner as the major character Chang,
seemed not to affect the technical advisor's demand for authenticity,
nor Producer-Director Frank Capra's. When it came to utilizing the
"extras," all of whom were non-whites, the "big problem was to get
atmosphere players for the Tibetan village. There were no native
Tibetans in America [apparently excluding Jaffe and Warner]. Many
other nationalities were tested, such as Mexicans, Hawaiians, Fil­
ipinos, Chinese, etc., but all were ruled out by the technical
advisor.^ Finally the search led to the Pala Indian Reservation
where this tribe of American Indian was found to resemble closely
the Tibetans," A Picture for the Classroom, March 4, 1937, MPAS
Collection. (Native American actor Chief Big Tree portrayed an
Asian porter). In contradictory fashion, but demonstrating the

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 -213-

practice which sent him to jail. Apropos of the industry's

441
use of white males m leading roles, the star of the film,

James Coburn, was responsible for Tao's vindication of m u r ­

der but not of illegal medical practices. Battle for the P la­

net of the Apes (1973) was classified as Asian American only

because France Nuyen was one of the characters in a futuristic

America. There was no treatment of Asians per s e . As a "human

being," rather than as an "ape," N u y e n 's role was minimal both

in time and importance. Charley Varrick (1973) was properly

Asian American, that is, it depicted Asian Americans as part

of American society. In keeping with the industry's renewed

propensity to depict Asians as illegalists, the Chinese char­

acter, Honest John [portrayed by Benson Fong[], had gangland

connections. With traces of Dr. Fu Manchu, Honest John worked

442
out of an "inner sanctum" in the basement of his restaurant.

The older delimitation of the Chinese as a restauranteur was

lingering racism against Japanese in the industry, even the Asian

American/Native American relationship has come under fire, with
racialist emphasis toward the Japanese. In one film in which a
Japanese actor was considered for the part of a Native American,
a supposed defense of the Native American sensibilities was ex­
pressed while simultaneously manifesting anti-Japanese overtones:
"Fred Zinnermann has Toshiro Mifune playing Crazy Horse in a movie
he is casting, and now wants what Dunne calls, I hope with irony,
'another Oriental’ to play Sitting Bull.
"'It'll maintain an ethnic balance, Dick,' Zinnermann said.
"A stricken look crossed [Richardj Zanuck's face. 'Jesus,
Freddy,' he said, 'you want us ostracized by the American Indian
Association? And you want Japs to play both of them?'" See:
Michael Wood, America in the Movies (New York: Basic Books, Inc.,
Publishers, 1975), p. 133.
4^1None of the Asians had a major role in the new films.
442
See: Revised Final Script, p. 59.

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 -214-

expanded to include illegal activities. Furthermore, "John's"

female counterpart, the Chinese hostess of the restaurant [Vir­

ginia Wingj was also part of the illegal sideline. The film

was originally designed to use racial slurs against Honest

John by a Black character, Percy. As part of his gangland con­

nections, the Chinese was a dealer in "hot" cars. In a scene

in which the Black's car was supposed to be repossessed by the

Chinese, the Black character was to say: "That Chink son of a

bitch burned [cheatedj me...."443 However, Chinese American

actor Benson Fong protested the use of the racial slur against
444
the Chinese character. In discussing the objectionable lan­

guage, Fong asked the white executives: "Do you need the word

Chink?" Reflecting upon the term, it was decided that "Chink"

was in fact unnecessary. In its place, it was suggested by the

whites that "Chinaman" be used, after which Fong again suggested

that that term, too, was inappropriate. And again the whites,

aware of the Chinese actor's willingness to defend the racial

integrity of the Chinese, agreed not to use the word "Chinaman."

Finally, the entire scene was cut by the Studio. Such was not

the case in one of the most recent mid-1970's films. Chinatown

(1974) saw both the Chinese and Japanese cast in the role of

domestics and menials. Indicative of the industry's belief that

all Asian groups are identical, the Japanese character spoke in

443
See: Final Script, p. 59.
444
Interview with actor Benson Fong on 11/18/77.

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 -215-

a standard Chinese accent, and one largely perpetuated by the

industry, which was literally written into the script itself.

The Japanese gardener's lines, although few in number, were of

great enough duration to reinstate the image of Asians as a for­

eign collective with linguistic problems. In responding to a

white character, the Japanese delivered: "Bad for glass [grass]]."

"Salt water velly [very]] bad for glass [grass]]. Oh, yes, bad

for glass [ g r a s s ] . " ^ Although within the era depicted by the

film thousands of Asians were natural-born Americans who exper­

ienced no more difficulty with the English language than did

whites, the industry was specific in its presentation of broken-

English speaking Asian characters. Other lines spoken by the

Asians were brief and, in the context of the film, truckling.

James Hong, for example, said only: "You wait, please. You
445 . . . .
wait." Perhaps more blatantly a n t i - S m i t i c was the film's

use of sex and race, the combination of which was "a dumb sex-
447
ual joke about Chinamen." The boxoffice gross of the film

and the number of people it reached justifies a quote in full:

BARNEY: "Hey, c'mom, Jake. Sit down. Sit down— you hear
about the fella goes to his friend and says, 'Whyn’t you
do what the Chinese do?" / I.56/ /BARNEY CONTINUING/: "So
anyway, he says, 'Whyn't you do what the Chinese do?"
/I.56/.

445 . . . .
See: Film and Revised Final Script, pp. 32, 121, 122.
446
Ibid., pp. 31, 123.
447
Garrett Stewart, "'The Long Goodby' from 'Chinatown',"
Film Quarterly, Volume XXVIII, No. 2, Winter, 1974-75, p. 29.

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 -216-

/scene switches/:
G ITTES:/retelling the story/: "Shut up, Duffy, you're
always in a hurry — and his friend says why not do what
the Chinese do? So he says what do they do? His friend
says the Chinese screw for a while — just listen a sec­
ond, Duffy — "
/GITTES CONTINUES/: "— and then they stop and they read a
little Confucius and they screw some more and they stop
and they smoke some opium [[italics added.] and then they
go back and screw some more and they stop again and they
contemplate the moon or something and it makes it more
exciting. So this other guy goes home to screw his wife
and after a while he stops and gets up and goes into the
other room only he reads Life Magazine and he goes back
and he screws some more and suddenly says excuse me a
second and he gets up and smokes a cigarette and he goes
back and by this time his wife is getting sore as hell.
So he screws some more and then he gets up to look
at the moon and his wife says, 'What the hell do you
think you're doing?'
,448
/GITTES BREAKS UP/: ’...you're screwing like a Chinaman."

Notwithstanding the financial success and filmic popularity of

Chinatown, one Asian observer lamented:

The film does not deal with Chinatown as a community

where people live and struggle with family and urban
problems like other communities. The only Asian actors
in the film are stereo-typed into the servants-gardener
roles in which they are made to mispronounce even the
449
simplest lines.

448
See: Film and Script, pp. 20-21.
449
C.N. Lee, "The Two Tragic Worlds of 'Chinatown',
B ridge, Volume 3, Number 4, 1975, p. 17.

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 -217-

In a seemingly total disregard of Asian sensibilities, the new

American films of the mid-1970's treating of Asians and Asian

Americans had with perhaps greater deliberateness than those

of earlier decades served to alienate Asian Americans and non-

Asian Americans from one another. Against the backdrop of

anti-Asiatic racism, the distorted and exploitative relation­

ship between a film like Chinatown and the racial ghettos known

as American Chinatowns was spoken to and the American film in­

dustry's practices questioned:

And, indeed, Chinatown and the kind of ghetto it rep­

resents — the underbelly of bourgeois society — will
always be precisely the other place, a place outside
of the universe of bourgeois discourse. In this sense,
the film is only giving eloquent, if silent testimony,
to its own limits as bourgeois art in its non-represen­
tation of the Chinese ghetto.
So, when the film finally brings us to Chinatown, it
is not to see what the place looks like or to learn the
customs of the natives Hchinese3> it is rather to wit­
ness a scene of final destruction which affects the char­
acters we have followed throughout, and leaves the Chinese
faces in the background. (Italics added

450
James Kavanagh, "Chinatown* Other Places, Other
Times," Jump C u t , A Review of Contemporary Cinema, No. 3, Sep-
tember-October, 1974, p. 8. It should also be acknowledged that
the film Chinatown, despite its racialist overtones toward the
Chinese, was one of the top financial grossers of 1974. Indeed,
1974 was itself a high year for the industry, topping the pre­
vious record of $1.7 billion set in 1946, with audience sales
reaching $1.9 billion, according to Jack Valenti, president of
the Motion Picture Association of America. See: The New York
Times Index 1975, Volume II, Mo to Z, p. 1480.

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 -218-

In addition, the 1973 version of Lost Horizon revealed

the industry's continued practice of displacing Asian actors,

particularly on the major role level, with cosmetized whites.

As mentioned above, the major roles of High Lama and Chang

were filled by Sam Jaffe and H.B. Warner, both of whom were

whites in cosmetics, in the first and original production of

Lost Horizon in 1936. In the 1960 "Hallmark Hall of Fame"

television production of the story, the top role went to a

white actor in cosmetics, Claude Rains. The latest produc­

tion of Lost Horizon featured Charles Boyer as the High Lama

and John Gielgud as Chang. Reacting to the industry's con­

tinued displacement of Asian performers vis-a-vis the use of

racist cosmetics— in an era of awakened racial and ethnic pride

among minorities— Asian American artists severely criticized

the practice, especially the "casting [of] Sir John Gielgud

[a white Englishman] in the role of Chang, one of the key parts

451
of 'Lost Horizon.'" Japanese American actor James Shigeta

was able to secure the comparatively minor role of Brother To-

452
Lenn. In his own defense- producer Ross Hunter argued that

"that particular character is an Oxford-educated man, part

English, part Oriental, but the British accent is imperative

453
m the role." Paradoxically, Hunter suggested that he had

451 . .
J. Bacon, Citizens League, L . A . Herald Examiner,
April 4, 1972, MPAS Collection.
452
In the review of the new Lost Horizon, the white
actors were given a "very good" rating, but James Shigeta was
not mentioned. See: QP H e rald, March 10, 1973, p. 5.
453
Bacon, o j d . c i t ., MPAS Collection. As do most acting

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 -219-

454
"offered the part to Toshiro Mifune," a Japanese national,

but because of a previous commitment the actor could not take

the part. The imperativeness of the British accent to the

Eurasian character, Chang, was largely fictional, for not only

was Japanese Mifune's primary tongue, but English— given the

past difficulties encountered by Mifune with that language—

was clearly not his secondary tongue. Any number of American

Asian actors might have filled the role and simulated the Bri­

tish accent without complications. Doubtless more to the point,

and speaking to the issue of white film-makers' reluctance to

employ Asians in significant capacities, the industry has never

allowed a full Asian actor, male or female, to portray a Eur-

455
asian in the motion pictures. Cumulatively, the films of

the mid-1970's, in addition to an absolute decrease in the

frequency with which Asians and Asian themes were treated, had

retained the fundamental industry traits responsible for dis­

torting the image of Asians as well as delimiting the professional

freedom of Asian actors and actresses.

In continuing with the tabulations, the motion picture

industry has presented Asian groups to the audiences in roughly

the degree and extent to which the United States has been in­

professionals, Asian routinely practice dialects, and other nec­

essary artistic essentials, as part of their overall training. To
assert that there are no Asians capable of demonstrating a British
accent manifests a definitive ignorance of the Asian American
acting community.
454
Bacon, op. cit. , MPAS Collection.
455
The Eurasians will be discussed shortly.

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 -220-

volved politically and militarily in Asia, accompanied by the

domestic, social implications of the involvement. In times of

relative peace, the Chinese have been America's Asians. The

1930's decade concerned itself almost exclusively with the

Chinese (See: Table 7) as the representatives of Asians per s e .

The Chinese were depicted as the prime group in 15 films (88.2

percent), while Vietnam and the Vietnamese were an all-purpose

background for Indo-Chinese themes, constituting 1 (5.9 percent).

World War II accounted for the sharp increase in the Japanese as

the prime group during the 1940's, with 18 (64.3 percent) films.

Although there was a significant degree of overlap between the

Japanese and Chinese, the Chinese declined to 15 (53.6 percent).

The Filipinos, as allies of the United States, made their show

at 3 (10.7 percent), with overlap in those films depicting the

Japanese in the Pacific but exclusive of the Chinese overlap.

The Vietnamese remained low at 1 (3.6 percent). Beginning the

1950's decade, the Korean Conflict brought the Chinese and the

Japanese to near parity at 14 and 16 (42.4 and 48.4 percent)

films respectively. Although the Koreans had been left out

of the American feature films during the first two decades, the

1950's witnessed their introduction at 6 (18.2 percent), w i t h

some overlap with both the Chinese and the Japanese. The Viet­

namese remained constant at 1 (3.0 percent). The Filipinos were

phased out. The most diverse decade, marking the general thin­

ning out of genres and groups, was the 1960's. With the Second

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 -221-

TABLE 7

FILM LIST OF PRIME GROUPS BY DECADE

Chinese Japanese Korean Vietnamese Filipino

1930-1939 15a 0 0 1 0
88.2 5.9

1940-1949 15b 18 0 1 3
53.6 54.3 3.6 10.7
[23] "23"
"24c [24]
"27] "27c
"291 29"
"34] 34=
I35J ’35"
=36" [36]
'37 [37]
[43] [43]

1950-1959 14 16 6 1 0
42.4 48. A 18.2 3.0
[52] "52"
63^
[74] _74~
[76] .76"

1960-1969 18C 9 2 1 3
62.0 31.0 6.9 3.4 10.3
l82l [82]
[83] [83] [83]
rR9 i
[94 j [9 4 ]
[101] [ioi] [1 0 1 ]

1970-1975 10 2 0 1 0
55.6 11.1 5.6
[121] [121]

Total 72 45 8 5 6

aTibetans were counted once (5.9 percent).

Brackets indicate overlap by film number.
''Mongols were counted twice (6.9 percent).

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 -222-

World War and the Korean Conflict articles of the past, the

Chinese rose to 18 (62.0 percent), their highest point since

the 1930's decade, reflecting perhaps that, save extraordinary

conditions, when the American film industry thought of Asians

at all, it was the Chinese who came to mind. The Vietnamese

continued to be low at 1 (3.4 percent) because of the unpop­

ularity of the Vietnam Conflict. The Koreans in the 1960's

made their presence felt only indirectly at 2 (6.9 percent),

as did the Filipinos at 3 (10.3 percent). In the mid-1970's,

the Chinese had maintained their prime position at 10 (55.6

percent), despite the fact that some of the newer genres and

themes did not treat of Chinese as an identifiable group even

though Chinese actors were employed in the films. The Japanese

continued their decline to 2 (11.1 percent). The Koreans and

Filipinos had disappeared from American screens. Including the

overlap of groups by film, the Chinese were the prime group 72

times, the Japanese 45, the Koreans 8, the Filipinos 6, and

the Vietnamese 5.

In tabulating the films for specific propositions, the

first two decades (the 1930's and 1940's) from which the film

sample was selected did not produce explicit sex between the

Asians and whites, thereby restricting the actual frequency

of the phenomenon. The Hays Office, the governing body which

had established the "do's and don'ts" of the self-regulating

motion picture industry, was largely responsible for the pro­

hibitions against the depiction of miscegenation and inter­

racial sex, and a multitude of other things, on the screen.

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 -223-

In fact, explicit sex of any kind, regardless of the race of

the partners— and other socially traumatizing topics— -was dis­

couraged by such influential lobby groups as the Catholic League

of Decency. In looking at the first proposition, which stated

that as the degree of explicit sexuality rose so would the pro­

bability that the male character's actual race be white and the

female's Asian, it was found that implicit, interracial sex pre­

dated the explicit variety by two decades. The 1930's showed 2

(11.8 percent) films which had implied sex. The 1940's, not­

withstanding the dynamic presence of the growing war genre, pro-

456
duced 1 (3.6 percent) film depicting implicit interracial sex.

In each of the three films, the implicit nature of the sexual

relationship involved actual white males with actual Asian females.

The 1930's decade likewise produced 2 (11.8 percent) films which

depicted implicit sex between a Eurasian male and a white female.

In both motion pictures, the Eurasian characters were actual white

males in cosmetics, and the females characters were actual white

457
females. Notably, there were no occurrences of Asian males

in roles of implicit sex with white females. From a conceptual

perspective over time, while there is literally nothing in the

456
Daughter of the Dragon (1931), Shanghai Madness
(1933), and Remember Pearl Harbor (1942) depicted implicit
interracial sex between Chinese females and white males in the
first two instances and a Filipina female and a white male in
the third.
457
The white men in cosmetics portraying the Eurasians
were Charles Boyer in Shanghai (1935) and George Raft in Lime-
house Blues (1935).

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 -224-

history of Hollywood that would indicate the industry's, encour­

agement of productions treating of interracial sex or marriage

between whites and Asians, it is strongly suggested that when

the industry did in fact begin to present the topic to the

viewing audience, it did so in a fashion conforming to the

sexualization-of-race policy established by the ideology of

white racism. Within the cautious treatment of the topic, the

industry cinematically presumed that white males should be de­

picted as having free sexual license with Asian females, whereas

Asian males as sexual partners for white females remained the

epitome of the sexual threat to white males. Hence although

the issue of interracial sex— especially explicit sex— came

late to the American motion picture industry, Hollywood dutifully

set its film productions to the task of satisfying America's

white racist standards. To all intents and purposes, the 1950's

was the watershed decade for the depiction of explicit sex between
458
the whites and Asians. According to the sample, the industry

produced 2 (6.1 percent) occasions for explicit interracial sex.

458
Two films not part of this study's sample reveal the
continuing ambivalence of the industry toward the presentation
of interracial sex during the 1950's, notwithstanding the fact
that the males were white and the females Asian. In speaking to
The Barbarian and the Geisha (1958), Variety, September 30, 1958,
reported that contrary to what would appear to be the logical ex­
pectations from the context of the film, "there [was] no explicit
romance_between [John] Wayne [who portrayed Townsend Harris] and
Miss [Eiko] Ando [who portrayed Okichi the geisha]. In looking at
South Pacific (1958), Michael Wood, in America in the M o v i e s , o p .
ci t ., p. 130, noted that: "while full of the most liberal attit-
udes on the subject, the movie stays safely away from showing
anything resembling miscegenation. John Kerr, who was supposed
to marry France Nuyen, is conveniently killed."

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 -225-

459
In both instances, the males were white and the females Asian.

Implicit sex rose to 3 (9.1 percent), with all of the partners

being white males and Asian f e m a l e s . G i v i n g play to the

racist sexuality in the industry, the single picture of the

decade in which there was implied sex between an actual Asian

male and an actual white female was developed in the context

of an attempted rape of a white woman by a Communist soldier

(the 1954 production of The Shanghai S t o r y ) . While the spectre

of the Asian male as a rapist was successful, the rape itself

was unsuccessful and the white female's virtue thereby guarded

filmically. In depicting explicit sex between a Eurasian male

and a white female, the film industry produced 1 picture (3.0

451
percent). In keeping with its own tradition, while depicting

the Eurasian as a would-be rapist, the explicit sex was in fact

an illusion from a racial perspective because the character was

452
portrayed by an actual white male. In Love and War (1958), no

doubt showing the other side of Hollywood's ambivalence, saw an

actual Eurasian female [France Nuyen[| in explicit sexual scenes

with an actual white male. The 1955 production of Love Is A Many

Splendored Thing, while depicting a Eurasian female in love with

459
The Bridges of Toko-Ri (1955) and The Quiet American
(1958).
^ ^ M i c k e y Rooney and Audie Murphy and unknown females.
461Five Gates to Hell (1959). Neville Brand in racist
cosmetics portrayed the Eurasian guerrilla, Chen Pamok.
452
Augmenting Brand's cosmetized portrayal, a white
woman was sexually threatened by an actual Asian actor, echoing
the Shanghai S tory.

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 -226-

a white male, was not counted because Jennifer Jones (a white

actress) was cast in the role of the Eurasian. The film was

important, however, insofar as it served to displace both Asian

463
and Eurasian actresses as candidates for the major role. The

1960's decade solidified the industry’s sexual partnership be­

tween white males and Asian females. A new high of 5 (17.2 p er­

cent) films had explicit sex scenes between white males and

Asian females: Marines, Let's Go (1961), The Sand Pebbles (1965),

Once Before I Die (1965), Kill a Dragon (1967), and the satire,

Alice's Restaurant (1969). Yet by the 1960's, the industry still

was reluctant to initiate a trend in which explicit, or at least

non-rapacious implicit, sex would be depicted between an actual

464 . . . .
Asian male and an actual white female. Coincidentally, implicit

sex had given way to explicit sex (See: Table 8), with literally

no occurrences of implicit sex between Asian females and whites.

463
An actual Eurasian female, Dr. Han S u y m , wrote the
original novel.
^ ^ Bridge to the Sun (1961) depicted explicit sex between
an actual Asian male and an actual white female. The film was not
an American product, however. The French film company, Cit£, Pro­
ducer Jacques Bar and Director Etienne Perieer were responsible
for the film. The Japanese government, too, was involved in its
production, mostly to place the blame for American-Japanese hos­
tilities on the militarists. Yet there was no mention of the
brutal atrocities against the Chinese, Koreans, and others, by
the Japanese; nor was there an attempt to even apologize for the
Japanese aggression in Asia against Asians. The Crimson Kimono
(1960), while not a part of this study's sample, did treat of the
miscegenation theme. See: Film and "Hollywood Goes East," C u e ,
March 12, 1960, p. 9. Kimono, however, was from every indication
an exception to the rule and is mentioned to acknowledge its ex­
istence only. There is no evidence that the Asian male/white
female association has received nearly the attention that the
white male/Asian female association has by the industry over
time. Kimono was not a trend-setter.

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 -227-

INTERRACIAL SEX BY DECADE

ESI ES2 IS3 IS4 ES5 ES6 IS7 IS 8

1930-1939 0 0 2 0 0 0 2 0
11.8 11.8

1940-1949 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0
3.6

1950-1959 2 0 3 1 1 1 0 0
6.1 9.1 3.0 3.0 3.0

1960-1969 5 0 0 1 1 3 0 2
17.2 3.4 3.4 10.3 6.

1970-1975 2a 0 lb 0 0 0 0 0
11.1 5.6

Total 9 0 7 2 2 4 2 2
ESI: Explicit Sex, White Male/Asian Female.
E S 2 : Explicit Sex, Asian Male/White Female.
IS3: Implicit Sex, White Male/Asian Female.
IS4: Implicit Sex, Asian Male/White Female.
E S 5 : Explicit Sex, Eurasian Male/White Female.
ES6: Explicit Sex, Eurasian Female/White Male.
IS7: Implicit Sex, Eurasian Male/White Female.
IS8: Implicit Sex, Eurasian Female/White Male.

aThe actual total of explicit sex scenes was 3 (16.7

percent), including Kwan's sex with the Black in The McMasters.
However, because the study was set up to look at whites and
Asians, the Kwan film was not counted.
^Similarly, the implicit sex was dropped from The Losers
because of the Black male/Asian female (played by a Filipina) re­
lationship. Skullduggery was not counted because of its peculiar
characteristics.

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 -228-

Implicit sex between Asian males and white females appeared at

1 ("'.4 percent) showing. The Asian characters, however, were

cosmetized whites with one cosmetized Black in the film Seven

465
Women (1966). In a similar fashion, although scenes of ex­

plicit sex were depicted between a Eurasian male and a white

female in A Girl Named Tamiko (1966), setting that category at

1 (3.4 percent), the Eurasian was portrayed by a white actor*

namely, Laurence Harvey. Explicit sex between Eurasian females

and white males rose to 3 (10.3 percent), including The World

of Suzie Wong (I960),466 Arrivederci, Baby! (1966), and The

Wrecking Crew (1969). Up to and including the first half of

the 1970’s, 28 films treated of some aspect of explicit or im­

plicit sex between whites and Asians. On the explicit level,

Asian males were not once represented as sexual partners with

white females, while 9 films did depict sex between white males

and Asian females. Implicit sex between Asian females and white

males occurred 7 times. In those instances in which implicit

465
Mike Mazurki (a white) played Tungakhan, and Woody
Strode (a Black) portrayed the Warrior.
°It was suggested that the emphasis upon Asian women
was partially a product of white males in Asia during the war
years. Joe Hyams in "Hollywood's New Lotus Blossom Look," in
This Week Magazine, June 17, 1962, p. 17, said with respect to
the 1960's decade: "Literary agents say the writers are still
pouring out their wartime experiences in the Pacific, creating
a raft of Oriental roles. Producers say the Orient has exotic
flavor." So, too, while Suzie Wong may have popularized the
racist image of the Asian woman as an exotic prostitute, it was
not well-received in all quarters of America, particularly among
some white females. For example, Adelaide Comerford in Films in
Review, December, 1960, Volume XI, No. 10, p. 615, called it an
"absurd pro-miscegenation" film which made "Hong Kong whoredom
seem so pleasant," and "the who r e . ..as innocent and cute as a
well-cared for Pekinese." "What ignorance of Hong Kong whores,
what cultural illiteracy!"

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 -229-

sex was depicted between Asian males and white females, the

industry used either a cosmetized white male in the role or

established a rape context if an actual Asian male were in

the role. In its original form the proposition concerning

interracial sex is valid. There was a one-to-one relation­

ship between white male characters' being actual white males

and the Asian female characters' being actual Asian females

in explicit sex scenes. While no actual Asian males were in

explicit sexual contact with actual white females, the implicit

treatment of sex between Asian males and white females was

completed with either a cosmetized white male or a rapacious

Asian male. It is reasonable, longitudinally, to assert that

the American motion picture industry has sustained its policy

of 1) prohibiting actual Asian males from explicit sex with

actual white females, while 2) simultaneously allowing actual

white males to engage in explicit sex with actual Asian females.

Consequently, in depicting romance between whites and Asians,

the film industry has consistently adhered to a double sexual

standard, with emphasis upon the assumed free sexual license

of white males.

Furthermore, Hollywood has supported its sexual p r o ­

hibition against actual Asian male/actual white female sex

through its depiction of descent lines of Eurasian characters

in the motion pictures. As a second line of defense against the

spectre of interracial sex between Asian males and white females,

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 -230-

the industry had designed the lineage of the depicted Eurasian

characters to coincide with the system of double standardized

miscegenation. Despite the fact that in none of the films was

there a visual presentation of the parents of the Eurasian, each

of the films was manifest in specifying by spoken lines that the

male parent was white and the female parent Asian. Consequently,

of the 12 Eurasian characters who appeared in the film sample,

11 of them, regardless of gender, were by context and content

said to have had white fathers and Asian mothers (See: Table 9).

The one exception in which a Eurasian was said to have had an

Asian father, Love Is a Many Splendored Thing, was based upon

a novel written by an actual Eurasian female whose father was

in fact Chinese. Thus at risk of falsifying a well-known novel,

the industry could not rearrange the character's lineage and

was forced to deal with an essentially non-industry product.

Eurasian males and females were depicted 6 times each. All of

the Eurasian male characters were played by white males, and

5 of the female Eurasian characters were played by white fe­

males. There was only one instance in which an actual E u r ­

asian actress portrayed a Eurasian character, that is, France

Nuyen in In Love and W a r . Neither full Asian males nor full

Asian females were allowed to portray Eurasian characters in

the films. Interestingly, of the actual Eurasian actresses

in the industry, each has played full Asians or Eurasians but

not full whites. By specifying the descent line of Eurasians,

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TABLE 9

EURASIAN CHARACTERS BY DECADE, DESCENT LINES,

SEX, AND RACE OF ACTOR/ACTRESS

White Father/Asian Mother Asian Father/White Mother Sex Race

1930-1939 Shanghai Express 0 Male Whitea
Shanghai 0 Male White
Limehouse Blues 0 Male White
Lady of the Tropics 0 Female White

1940-1949 The Shanghai Gesture 0 Female White

Saiqon 0 Male White

-231-
1950-1959 Fair Wind to Java 0 Female White
0 Love Is a Many Splendored Female White
Thing
In Love and War 0 Female Eurasian
Five Gates to Hell 0 Male White

1960-1969 A Girl Named Tamiko 0 Male White

The Seventh Dawn 0 Female White

1970-1975 0 0 - -

Total 11 1

aThe names of the actors and actresses are in respective orders Warner Oland,
Charles Boyer, George Raft, Hedy Lamarr, Gene Tierney, Luther Adler, Vera Ralston,
Jennifer Jones, France Nuyen, Neville Brand, Laurence Harvey, and Capucene.
 -232-

the industry had found a way of treating indirectly of the

miscegenation theme while concurrently fulfilling the white

racist standard which disallowed the manifestation of Asian

male/white female sexual or marital unions. Whether reaching

back to the parents of a Eurasian character (the existence of

whom is made more bearable to racist sensibilities by the belief

that the father was whit e ) , or treating of interracial marriage

or sex as conditional factors in the creation of Eurasians, the

industry has adhered to the double standardized miscegenation

formula which, on the one hand, argues against interracial sex

of any kind, while determining that if there is to be inter­

racial sex, it should take place, on the other hand, between

467
white males and Asian females.

In further tabulating the sample, the film industry's

system of major/minor role stratification and its linkage to

the usage of racist cosmetics was brought into sharper relief.

467 . . .
Melford S. Weiss, m his "Selective Acculturation
and the Dating Process: The Patterning of Chinese-Caucasian
Interracial Dating," Journal of Marriage and the Family, May,
1970, pp. 278 and 275 respectively, asserts that Asian males
have been seen as a greater sexual threat to whites than have
Asian females. There have been greater efforts in the ideol­
ogy of white racism to characterize negatively Asian males.
With respect to Asian males and females, "sex-linked American
discriminatory practices have contributed to a male-negative/
female-positive dichotomy." Weiss also suggests that Asian
females, notably Chinese, have essentially internalized the
negative image of Chinese males established by white racist
forces. Hence "the most illustrative example of the Chinese-
American^females' acceptance of American sex-linked discrim­
ination is the Chinese-American girl dining with her Caucasian
date who just can't help staring at the Chinese bey and his white
girlfriend and wondering what in the world she sees in him."

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 -233-

Of the 125 films, Asian males had secured major roles in only

three films (See: Table 10): 1 (5.9 percent) for the 1930's

in Daughter of Shanghai; 1 (3.6 percent) for the 1940's in

Three Came H ome; and 1 (3.4 percent) for the 1960's in the

Flower Drum S o n g . ^ ^ jn each instance, the Asian males por­

trayed Asians. Contrariwise, white males had assumed major

469
Asian roles in twenty-nine films. The 1930's represented

the highest decade at 8 (47.1 percent), The number decreased

to 5 (17.9 percent) during the 1940's. Both the 1950's and

1960's saw rises to 7 (21.2 and 24.1 percent respectively).

In the first half of the 1970's decade there were 2 (11.1

percent) films in which white males displaced Asians by the

470
usage of racist cosmetics at the major role level. While

the absolute number of films with male Asian roles declined

over time, the two 1970's films which did in fact have roles

of major proportions for Asians saw white men in racist cos­

metics displacing Asian males. There were no instances in

which actual Asian males were allowed to portray white char­

acters, regardless of the role level. In minor roles, Asian

Chin Yang Lee wrote the original novel. Flower

Drum Song marked the second instance of an Asian writer of an
original novel but not of the screenplay.
469
The film numbers were in respective order: 2, 3, 7,
8, 12, 13, 15, 16, 21, 25, 35, 36, 39, 50, 56, 59, 64, 68, 69,
71, 87, 88, 90, 92, 96, 101, 105, 120, 124.
470
The films were Lost Horizon and One of Our Dino­
saurs Is Missing. Of the latter, one reviewer remarked on
the whites’ (notably Peter Ustinov and Clive Revill) use of
"Charlie Chan make-up." See: Motion Picture Product Digest,
Volume 3, No. 2, June 25, 1975, p. 6.

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TABLE 10

MAJOR/MINOR ROLES OF ASIANS AND

COSMETIZED WHITES BY DECADE

MiAM MjWM MiAM MiWM MiAF M iWF MiAF MiWF AEx

1930-1939 1 8 7 0 4 0 2 1 15
5.9 47.1 41.2 23.5 11.8 5.9 88.2

1940-1949 1 5 11 0 0 2 0 0 26
3.6 17.9 39.3 7.2 92.9

1950-1959 0 7 16 0 0 3 5 0 30

-234-
21.2 48.5 9.0 15.2 90.9

1960-1969 1 7 10 1 5 1 9 0 23
3.4 24.1 34.5 3.4 17.2 3.4 31.0 79.3

1970-1975 0 2 5 0 0 0 10 0 9
11.1 27.8 56.6 50.0

Total 3 29 49 1 9 6 26 1 103
2.4 23.2 39.2 0.8 7.2 4. 8 20.8 0.8 82.4

MjAM: Major Role, Asian Male. MjWM: Major Role, Cosmetized White Male.
MiAM: Minor Role, Asian Male. MiWM: Minor Role, Cosmetized White Male.
MjAF: Major Role, Asian Female. MjWF: Major Role, Cosmetized White Female.
MiAF: Minor Role, Asian Female. MiWF: Minor Role, Cosmetized White Female.
AEx: Asian Extras of Either Gender.
 -235-

males were represented forty-nine times: 7 (41.2 percent) of

the minor roles were in the 1930's; 11 (39.3 percent) in the

1940's; 16 (48,5 percent) in the 1950's; 10 (34.5 percent) in

the 1960's; and 5 (27.8 percent) in the 1970's. The number

of minor roles for Asian males decreased over time, with the

exception of the 1950's and the abundance of war-related films,

as had roles for Asians in general. White males displaced the

Asian males in minor roles only once during the 1960's decade:

1 (3.4 percent). There is little doubt that the second p r o­

position, which argued an increase of displacement of Asian

males by cosmetized white males at the major role level of

development, is valid in its original form. Of the entire

sample of 125 films, white males displaced Asian males 23.2

percent of the time. Of the 23.2 percent, each of the dis­

placements was at the major role level. On the minor role

level, white males displaced Asians only 0.8 percent of the

time, measured against the entire sample. Asian males, in

keeping with the industry's role segregation system, did

not displace white males at either the major or minor role

level.

Asian females had a total of nine major roles. The

1930's witnessed 4 (23.5 percent) major roles, with all four

going to Anna May Wong. There were no cosmetized white fe­

males. The 1940's and 1 9 5 0 's saw the displacement of Asian

females by cosmetized white females in The Shanghai Gesture

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 -236-

(1940), The Story of Dr. Wassell (1944), Love Is a Many Splen-

dored Thing (1955), Battle Hymn (1956) and The Quiet American

(1958) at 2 (7.2 percent) and 3 (9.0 percent) by respective

decade. In the 1960's decade, however, a high point had been

reached for Asian females in major roles at 5 (17.2 percent).

Noting Asian female sexuality and its relationship to white

males, in four of the five films the Asian actresses engaged

471
m explicit sex with white males. So, too, Eurasians held

the major roles in all five films. There was only one white

female's displacement of an Asian female, namely, in Fifty-Five

Days at Peking (1963). By the mid-1970's, however, major roles

for Asian females had disappeared from films. On the minor role

level, the 1930's produced 2 (11.8 percent) openings for the

Asian females with only one displacement by a white. The 1940’s

was an empty decade for Asian females. By the 1950's decade,

the number of minor roles for Asian females began to increase

to 5 (15.2 percent), including The Bridges of Toko-Ri, Joe

Butterfly, Stopover Tok y o , In Love and W a r , and Five Gates to

He l l . The increase in minor roles for Asian females continued

47?
into the 1960's, rising to a total of 9 (31.0 percent). A

471
The films were: The World of Suzie W o n g , A Girl
Named Tamiko, Arrivederci, Baby'. (Kwan was identified only as
"Baby" in the film), and The Wrecking C r e w . The 1960's was
the biggest decade for the two Eurasians, Nancy Kwan and France
Nu yen.
472
The World of Suzie W o n g , A Majority of On e , Fifty-
Five Days at Peking, Cry of Battle, The Sand Pebbles, Once Before
I D i e , Kill a D ragon, The Green Berets, and Alice's Restaurant.

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 -237-

new high of 10 (55.6 percent) was reached during the mid-

473
1970’s decade for Asian females m minor roles. Major

roles, however, had disappeared. Measured against the entire

film sample, Asian females secured 9 (7.2 percent) major roles

across the decades. They were displaced by cosmetized white

females 5 (4.0 percent) times at the major role level. In

minor roles, Asian females established a total of 26 (20.8

percent), with increases starting during the 1950's decade

and continuing into the mid-1970's. Only 1 (0.8 percent)

occurrence of a displacement at the minor level was observed

(Evelyn Selbie played Fai Lu in The Return of Dr. Fu M a nchu) .

Lastly, Asian "extras," combining the sexes, were used with

the highest degree of consistency: 15 (88.2 percent) for the

1930’s; 26 (92.9 percent) for the 1940's; 30 (90.0 percent)

for the 1950's; 23 (79.3 percent) for the 1 960’s; and 9 (50.0

percent) for the mid-1970's. Measured against the whole sample,

Asians as "extras" in the industry were used in 103 productions

or 8 2.4 percent of the time.

The continued tabluation of the films revealed that

the third proposition was likewise valid. The depicted death

of Asian males was heavily bound to the war genre. The genre

itself comprised, as was earlier stated, 36 percent of the

total films treating of Asians. Of the five decades examined,

473
The films were: The Losers, The McMasters, Little
Big M a n , Skullduggery, One More Train to R o b , McCabe and Mrs.
M iller, The Big .ne, Battle of the Planet of the A p e s , Airport
1975, and China!jwn.

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 -238-

the 1940's, 1950's and 1960's represented the decades in which

the war genre was developed. Although the American motion pic­

ture industry was not averse to including obvious propagandistic

elements in its films regardless of whether the enemy was white

or non-white, its treatment of Asian belligerents was laced with

racism (See: text, pp. 155-157). Thematically considered, while

the film industry covered the violence of the war and the nature

of the enemy in Europe, it made a significant effort to portray

the white peoples of Europe as human beings engaged in a human

drama through materials based on "resistance and activities

474
behind the enemy lines." Consequently, the treatment of the

European theater extended beyond the portrayal of violence and

established the human dimension of the struggle itself, often

depicting the enemy as a respectable rival, however misguided.

The Pacific theater, contrariwise, "provided most of the battle

475
themes" and almost none of the human themes. In many of the

films dealing with Asians, physical violence constituted the

prime ingredient of the cinematic story. Thus with at best

a limited emphasis upon the development of Asian characters as

human beings, whether as the enemy or as allies, the industry

used violence and death as the substantive visual elements re-

476
lated to the depiction of Asians, usually directing story

^74
Scheuer, The Movie B ooh, o p . c i t ., p. 236.
475
Ibid., p. 236.
476
Even films made as many as twenty years after the
War included essentially the same racial fascination with death
themes and kill ratios as those made during the War. The visual

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 -239-

content to the white characters. The policy of sloughing over

the human element in Asian war films was incorporated as part

of the standard format and procedure in productions concerning

subsequent conflicts in Asia. Although the absolute number of

films treating of the Korean and Vietnam Conflicts was not so

large as that of the Second World War, the inherent cultural

racism against Asians, even against those who were supposedly

suffering under the dictatorial regimes in the Communist states,

has been reflected in the industry's failure to develop multi­

dimensional human settings:

There have been almost no films about the Communist-

occupied nations, especially those nonwhites living
under the Red flag. There are many reasons for this:
lack of U.S. interest in, and audience identification
477
with, Asiatic peoples....

Instead, the industry has adhered to a fetishistic system of

displacing substantive story development with images of human

waves, suicide squads, faceless hordes, and savage phalanxes.

More importantly, the industry's outstanding practice of em­

phasizing the Asian death theme has come by way of kill ratios

and filmic body counts. The assumed cheapness of Asian life,

as an integral part of America's cultural perception of Asia,

depiction of the death theme, with a sizeable kill ratio being

an inherent element, was written into the film First to F i ght,
for example: "(EXT. Angle on River Sandbar. Day. Slow panning
shot. There are literally hundreds of dead Japanese in sight. On
the sandbar, some half buried in sand, others floating in the
river)," See: Film and script, p. 10 (L 36).
477
Kagan, The War F i l m , o p . c i t ., p. 54.

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 -240-

has been visually institutionalized by kill ratios. The death

of Asians as the enemy has been augmented by the belief that

death itself means less to Asians, even friendly Asians, than

it does to -white Americans. Thus in looking at the films, the

1930's decade, as was mentioned earlier, did not produce actual

war genre films. The 1940's, however, initiated the genre. In

keeping with the death theme, 12 (42.9 percent) of war films

showed the Asian kill ratio higher than the white. There was

1 (3.6 percent) instance in which the ratios were equal; 2

(7.1 percent) in which the American was higher than the Asian;

and 2 (7.2 percent) films in which death was not depicted on

478
screen. In the 1950's, the figure rose to 16 (48.5 per­

cent) Asians higher than white; 2 (6.1 percent) equal to, and

no instances in which Asians were lower than whites. A total

479
of 3 (9.1 percent) films did not show death on either side.

The 1960's, following the general de-emphasis upon war films,

saw 7 (24.1 percent) occurrences of higher Asian kill ratios,

no doubt psychologically touching the American viewing public

aware of the Vietnam kill ratio and body count syndrome on TV.

There were no occurrences of equal to or higher than for the

whites. In those films produced during the 1960's, there were

no instances in which death of Asians was not depicted. The

mid-1970’s decade did not see the war genre. In considering

478
The films were: The Story of Dr. Wassell (no enemy
deaths depicted) and Three Came H o m e .
479 . . . . .
The Shanghai S t o r y , The Bamboo P r i s o n , and Time Limit:
each dealt with "brainwashing" techniques rather than combat.

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 -241-

the films as a whole, 35 (77.8 percent) showed the death of

Asians as representing substantial kill ratios to whites. In

many instances, the ratios exceeded 50:1. Minimal ratios were

in the category of 3:1. The average kill ratio stabilized at

10:1. Only 3 (6.7 percent) films showed equal kill ratios; 2

(4.4 percent) kill ratios higher for the whites; and 5 (11.1

percent) no death themes for Asians (See: Table 1 1 ) . It

is worthy to note that all the deaths concerned Asian males,

481
given the nature of the genre.

At the same time, however, the death theme occurred

frequently in those films of the non-war genre. Of the 80

films of mixed genres excluding war, the death theme was tab­

ulated. Although the kill ratios were lower because of the

character of civilian films, 30 (37.5 percent) of the films

portrayed the death of Asians. Not only had over one-third of

the films showed Asian deaths, but the emphasis also continued

to be on Asian males. In the 1930’s, 10 (58.8 percent) of the

Asian deaths were male and 2 (11.8 percent) female. The 1940's

decade saw a drop in the civilian theme at 2 (7.1 percent) for

the males and 1 (3.6 percent) for the females. The 1950's

Often times the deaths were noticeably bloody and

realistic-looking. From a statistical point of view, the war
genre and higher Asian kill ratios had a Pearson correlation
coefficient of .7057 at the .001 level of significance.
481 . . . .
Asian females were killed m Five Gates to H e l l .
Because they were allies, they were not counted.

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 -242-

decade represented 3 (9.1 percent) deaths of Asian males and

none for Asian females. In the 1960's, deaths for Asian males

in civilian films was equal to the kill ratio in the war genre's

higher-than category, at 7 (24.1 percent) each. The mid-1970's

saw 3 (16.7 percent) deaths for Asian males and 5 (6.3 percent)

for Asian females. As a particularly small minority in the

motion pictures, Asians in all film genres have consistently

been the targets for death themes (See: Table 12).

Accompanying the visual racialist belief in the death

theme has been the verbal verification vis-a-vis the usage of

racial slurs against the Asians. As was suggested earlier, one

of the unique characteristics of anti-Asiatic racism in the

United States is its relationship to the defense of the State.

Unlike racism against other racial minorities, the anti-Asiatic

variety has been closely related to American military involve­

ment in Asia. The nationalistic and patriotic contexts in

which racial slurs, in combination with kill ratios, have been

used justify the usage of the slurs themselves, with the actual

racialist implications relegated to secondary importance on a

human level. Thus while racial slurs against other groups are

perceived as socially controversial, slurs against Asians are

institutionally condoned as part of the moral and social sup­

eriority of the democratic way of life over the despotic Asian

hordes, whether they be Communist or non-Communist, who threaten

the fundamentally white societies of the West. The racial slurs

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 -243-

TABLE 11

WAR GENRE KILL RATIO OF ASIAN TO WHITE BY DECADE

Higher Than Egual To Lower Than No Death

1930-1939 0 0 0 0

1940-1949 12 1 2 2
42.9 3.6 7.1 7.1

1950-1959 16 2 0 3
48.5 6.1 9.1

1960-1969 7 0 0 0
24.1

1970-1975 0 0 0 0

Total 35 3 2 5
77.8 6.7 4.4 11.1

TABLE 12

NON-WAR GENRE DEATH THEME OF ASIAN MALE

AND FEMALE BY DECADE

Asian Male Asian Female

1930-1939 10 2
58.8 11.8

1940-1949 2 1
7.1 3.6

1950-1959 3 0
9.1

1960-1969 7 1
24.1 3.4

1970-1975 3 1
16.7 5.6

Total 25 5
31.3 6.3

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 -244-

have also served to dehumanize Asians, thereby making their

deaths less related to human beings and more to animals. At

the same time, the slurs have a non-war, domestic base and

are not the products of simple nationalism. All of the racial

slurs used against Asians have their roots of usage in the

United States’ anti-Asiatic heritage prior to formal military

involvement in Asia. Historically and conceptually, American

racism against foreign Asians as verbalized in racial slurs is

an undeniable reflection of American racism against the Asian

American minority. The linkage between the two was filmically

expressed within the industry by the famed Chinese American

actor Richard Loo's having to "tell producers and directors

482
that ’Chinaman’ was not an acceptable term" when referring

to Chinese [especially while making pro-Chinese films during

the Second World War], Consistent with the United States'

racist intensity against Asians in general, the war genre films

made especially generous usage of racist language. Racial slurs

483
were used m 43 of the war films. The number does not refer

to the absolute numerical count, but rather to the occurrence of

at least one racial slur per film. The decade in which, a given

film was made did not necessarily dictate the numerical frequency

with which racial slurs were used. Consequently, by comparison,

48 2
Leslie Radatz, '"No, 1 S o n ’ Is Now 'Master P o 1," m
TV Guide, o p . cit., p. 32.
4RS
The film numbers were: 2, 4, 7, 10, 12, 21, 23, 24,
26, 27, 28, 29, 32, 34, 35, 36, 37, 43, 44, 45, 48, 51, 52, 54,
56, 57, 58, 61, 70, 74, 77, 81, 82, 89, 93, 94, 102, 105, 106,
111, 112, 115, 121.

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 -245-

Winq and a Prayer which was released in 1944 had a count of 9

uses of the racial slur "Jap(s)." A full eight years after

the Japanese had surrendered, however, the same racial slur

was used a total of 19 times, in addition to 3 usages of the

term "Nip(s)", in Destination Gobi (1953). Because of their

institutionalized condition, anti-Asiatic racial slurs used

by the film industry cut across wartime and peacetime eras.

Likewise, albeit less frequently, racial slurs were employed

in films in which there was either no depiction of the enemy

or even battle scenes. The Gallant Hours (1960), despite the

fact that it was one of very few motion pictures which treated

of the Japanese militarists less emotionally than was the in­

dustry rule, included 5 counts of "Jap(s)" while there were

484
"no battle scenes." The most commonly used slurs were
485
"Jap(s)", "Chinaman(m e n )/Chink(s)", and "Gook(s)". The

usage of anti-white slurs, interestingly, occurred only twice,

and then only by cosmetized white males.486

484
See film and The Green Sh e e t , May, 1960, p. 1.
485
For example, Pork Chop Hill (1958) was designed to
use the term "Chink(s)" liberally. Reflecting the politics of
the times, anti-Asiatic language was mixed with political terms
such as "Commies" and "Reds". In Bataan (1943), "no-tail baboons"
was used as a variation. In Once Before I Die (1965), "little yel­
low devils" and "little brown devils" were used. Additionally, the
actor Richard Jaekel made slant-eyed gestures by pulling back the
corners of his eyes with his thumbs, emphasizing the white racist
concentration upon the epicanthic fold, as well as skin color. In
one film, First to Fight (1966), racial slurs in the script were
omitted from the film. For instance, "five hundred yards through
Japs at night" in the script was changed to "five hundred yards
through unfriendly neighborhood" in the film. See: Film and the
script, p. 3.
Oland in The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu and Brand in
Five Gates to Hell.

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 -246-

The death theme and the liberal use of anti-Asiatic

racial slurs have been forceful devices established by the in­

dustry to express its cinematic version of America's racial and

487
cultural perceptions of Asia and Asians. The high correlation

between the killing of Asians and the accompanying racist lan­

guage suggests that the motion picture industry, reflecting the

greater society, has not been satisfied with explaining the p ol­

itical and ideological reasons behind hostilities between East

and West. While sympathy may be given to certain of the pro-

pa gandis tic elements in the films, if only because propaganda

not racism has been a universal trait among film-makers, the

deliberate inclusion of racist elements speaks to a far deeper

social problem both in the film industry and America. In res­

pect of that assertion, the Asian American acting community

was surveyed and asked to opinionize on the state of the filmic

art and the role Asians have been allowed to play in it.

487 . . . . .
Even m films m which there was a decided anti-war
current and anti-racist undercurrent white cultural racism reared
its head. In The Hook (1952), "Gook” was used 26 times, "Jap" 2
times and "savage" 1 time. Peculiarly, while the film was designed
to be sympathetic toward a Korean prisoner of war at the hands of
his American captors, the story was structurally based upon the
assumption that Asians did not care about life. The filmic demon­
stration of the assumption, and an important element in the story,
resided in the contextual forfeiture of the North K orean’s life by
a South Korean. The Americans were given the order to "get rid of
that prisoner" by a South Korean Army Major, Lu Nan. The entirety
of the film then revolved around the Americans' dilemma of whether
or not to execute the prisoner. In effect, the white characters
were depicted as the ultimate victims of one Asian's disregard for
another Asian's life. The star of the film, Kirk Douglas, summar­
ized the story's foundation in the lines: "Human life means nothing
to them. Not even their own'." See: Film and script, p. 37.

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 CHAPTER V

CONCLUSION: INTERVIEWS WITH ASIAN AMERICAN

ACTORS AND ACTRESSES

The Asian American acting community has grown con­

siderably in size through the years. In approaching the com­

munity as a primary source of information and experience, it

was decided that the Southern California-Hollywood area was

as richly suited as any for the concluding segment of this

study. Members of the community were especially generous

with their time and assistance. As is true of most studies,

the pincer-like constrictions of time and money, among other

things, did not permit of a survey of the total artistic res­

ources available. The performers who were interviewed, however,

represented a cross section of Asian American talent. The levels

of experience ranged from the relatively young and hopeful to

the eternally durable "pioneer actors"488 in the film industry.

So, too, both sexes were equally counted, as were the major

ethnic groups within the Asian American acting community itself.

The term "pioneer actors" was used to describe the

cinematic achievements and contributions of Chinese American
actors Keye Luke, Victor Sen Yung, and Benson Fong, at an honors
benefit given by the Chinese Historical Society of Southern
California, on November 5, 1977, at the Golden Palace Restaurant
in Los Angeles’ Chinatown.
-247-

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 -248-

All twenty-odd interviews were conducted in person and recorded

on cassette tapes. Likewise, although individual meetings were

arranged, at least one group interview was held at the East West
489 .
Players. A list of introductory questions served as a basic

framework within which the interviews were conducted (See: A p ­

pendix C ) . In practice, however, every effort was made to en­

courage the actors and actresses to associate freely with the

motion picture industry and their status in it. In a word, the

interviews were designed to explore the Asian artists' own per­

ceptions of where they stood in relation to the film industry.

It was on that basis, disregarding otherwise commonplace and

. . . 490
traditional beliefs about external control of the industry,

that the interviews were conducted.

While the body of this study has concerned itself with

motion pictures— primarily to focus on one area of the American

mass communications complex that is old enough to reflect the

489 . . .
In addition to cultivating the professional talents
of Asian American performers, as well as encouraging Asian talent
to express itself in a setting unrestiicted by the institutional
biases of the white-dominated film, television and theater in­
dustries, the East West Players serves "to promote and extend
cultural understanding by encouraging the search for similarities
in...various cultures and to develop an awareness of their com­
mon elements without disparaging the differences." East West
Players is, in fact, "a unique concept amalgamating the thea­
trical principles of the East and West." See: Citizen N e w s ,
"Oriental Co. Given Big Ford Grant," July 23, 1968. MPAS Col­
lection.
490
"Attempts to control either the content of, or the
audiences for, the public arts are as old as the media. In the
motion picture industry threats of censorship and the origins of
self-regulation extend to its infancy.... Government regulations
can be traced back to 1909,..." See: Patricia Robertus and Rita
James Simon, "The Movie Code: A View from Parents and Teenagers,’
Journalism Quarterly, Volume 47, No. 3, Autumn, 1970, p. 568.

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 -249-

actual historical importance of Asians and Asian Americans— the

influence of the performing arts industries taken together has

been an undeniable and substantive factor in developing the im­

plications inherent in any given aspect of any given industry.

In particular, the television industry bears an extraordinarily

close relationship to the movie industry. Both motion pictures

and television have "combined visual-auditory stimulation [and]

491
produced an overwhelming lmpression-and-image-creatmg force."

As a comparatively newer medium, television began its rise in

the late 1940's and had begun to supplant "cinema as the uni-
492
versal entertainment medium" during the 1950's. By the 1 9 6 0 's,

television had significantly larger audiences than the motion

picture theaters. The relationship between the two industries

was initially believed to be conflictive. For. the most part,

the relationship was conflictive, with television capturing an

increasingly greater portion of the viewing audiences, although

493
other factors created difficulties for the movie industry.

491 . .
Herbert I. Schiller, Mass Communications and American
Empire (Boston, Massachusetts: Beacon Press, 1971), p. 27.
492 . .
John Baxter, Hollywood m the Sixties (New York: The
International Film Guide Series, The Tantivy Press, A.S. Barnes
C o . , 1972), p. 8.
493
Television did drain off a considerable amount of
the movie industry's strength. But the film industry began to
encounter serious problems other than those presented by T.V.
In 1939, independent motion picture exhibitors filed an anti­
trust suit against the film companies’ practice of block-booking
(forcing exhibitors to purchase a group of films in order to get
perhaps only one or two films in which they had an actual interest),
blind selling (the companies' policy of insisting that exhibitors
not be allowed to preview new films before they had been bought),
and a kind of company nepotism, whereby studios would sell their

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 -250-

In the long run, however, television "far from destroying the

movie industry [as many had believed] supplied one third of its
494
domestic revenue” by the late 1960's. In fact, the "TV n et­

works turned to motion pictures as a basic staple of their

495
prime-time program fare." The 1970's have fused the motion

picture-television link together with a particular intimacy.

The "major new source of revenue for feature films lies in

their distribution on network television, or on cable tele-

496
vision or cassettes." Understandably, then, Asian actors

and actresses tended to speak of motion pictures and television

as two faces of the same coin. The image-making power of the

television medium, coupled with the absolute number of persons

it reaches and its occupational and programmatic diversity, is

of special import when treating of the Asian racial minorities.

filmic products and productions to their own affiliated theaters

on especially favorable terms. After several years of court
battles--interrupted only by the real hostilities of the Second
World War— the Supreme Court in its Consent Decree in 1946 ruled
that the motion picture companies were engaged in unfair practices.
Block-booking and blind buying were prohibited by the Court. More
importantly, perhaps, the company nepotism (near monopoly) of con­
trolling production, distribution and exhibition of motion pictures
was broken up. The companies, it was ruled, could engage in any
two but not all three. Most companies opted for the production
and distribution sectors.
494
Richard Griffith and Arthur Mayer, The Mov i e s , o p .
c i c ., p . 430.
495
Robert H. Stanley and Charles S. Steinberg, The Media
Environment (New York: Hastings House, Publishers, 1976), p. 75.
496
David Gordon, "Why the Movie Majors are Major," in
Tino Balio (ed.), The American Film Industry (Wisconsin: The
University of Wisconsin Press, 1976), p. 467.

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 -251-

While it was mentioned in an earlier section that anti-Asiatic

racism has been both perpetuated by and reintroduced to new gen­

erations of Americans vis-a-vis older motion picture re-runs

(almost all of which have been delivered by way of television),

the television medium has largely neglected the Asians on the

one hand and especially delimited them on the other. As an

example, two television series of proved success— Bonanza and

Hawaii Five-0— speak to the 1) relative non-treatment or uni­

dimensional non-dcvelcpment of Asians (as well as real under­

employment of Asian performers); 2) delimiting and negative

imagery (often times the product of historical and contemporary

ignorance of the Asian peoples); and 3) mass dissemination of

the former two not only in America but also abroad (thereby

internationalizing the United St a t e s ’ heavily biased procliv­

ities in the performing a r t s ) . Of the series proper it has

been remarked:

One of the most successful American programs was 'Bonanza'

which, while topping the rating charts during its peak
years in the United States, was also seen by tens of
millions of foreigners.... Among the most popular has
been 'Hawaii Five-0,’ a police-action adventure series
set in the exotic Hawaiian Islands, which in 1972 was
497
being sold m fifty-six countries.

Ignoring the more dynamic and diverse aspects of the early

497 .
William H. Read, America's Mass Media Merchants
(Baltimore, Maryland: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976),
p. 24.

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 -252-

Chinese males in the American West, the Bonanza series extended

the film industry's concentration on the Chinese as basically

inarticulate cooks and domestics and projected that extension

to the world. Similarly, the Five-0 series retrogressively de­

picted Asians in the context of assorted villainy and illegality,

498 ,
without intentionally trying to denigrate Asians per s e . Thus

against the long-standing history of negative Asian imagery, tel­

evision has depauperated conditions that might have accounted for

a substantive restructuring (or at least a balanced structure) of

Asian imagery. Given the film industry's traditional policies

toward Asians and Asian artists and television's utilization of

motion pictures, the actual closeness of the film and television

mediums is exemplified by the fact that the latter has enabled

"audiences to see many of the same performers work in both film

and TV, [and] has made more movies available to Americans than

have the [motion picture] theaters. So, too, television's

own policy (not completely dissimilar from the film industry's)

of treating of Asians on a constricted quantitative basis and on

a foreshortened qualitative basis has shaped the Asian artists'

perception of the medium. Consequently, although the film in­

dustry has undergone change^*"* and television has developed its

498
The Rung Fu series, while it lasted, portrayed the
Chinese comparatively fairly. Nonetheless, the institutional
system of racist cosmetology was demonstrated in the leading
character's being played by a white actor.
499
Read, America's Mass Media Merchants, o p . c i t ., p. 37.
~^°The days of the large motion picture studios are for
the most part gone. The legal activities of theUnited States Sup-

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 -253-

own unique facets, both mediums have to all practical intents

and purposes merged into a single entity with respect to the

Asian American minority.

In surveying the attitudes and opinions of the Asian

American acting community, it was found that there was a sig­

nificant degree of homogeneity in the response to the questions

that were raised directly as well as to those questions and

topics that were considered during the course of conversation.

None of the artists, regardless of age, experience or sex, felt

that the Asians had been in the past or were in the present being

adequately represented in the motion picture industry. Nor did

anyone agree that there had been sufficient opportunities, in

general, for Asians either to develop or to express their pro­

fessional talents. The core of the problem overall, with only

slight variations, was attributed to the American society's

racialist underpinnings. More specifically, and in effect.

reme Court and increased taxation on personal income forced real

change on the industry. In order to survive, the system of in­
corporating the film industry was begun. Many production com­
panies today are in fact facades behind which well-known p e r ­
formers are able to function. For example, Batjac productions
is synonymous with John Wayne; Jalem with Jack Lemmon; Cooga
Mooga with Pat Boone; Pennebaker with Marlon Brando; and Byrna
Productions and Joel Productions with Kirk Douglas: See Griffith
and Mayer, op. c i t ., p. 440. So, too, conglomerates such as
Transamerica Corporation have purchased United Artists studios,
Gulf and Western, Paramount Pictures; and Warner Brothers (now
Warner Bros.-Seven Arts, Ltd.) by a Canadian company. As Gordon,
o p . cit., in Balio, p. 459, states: "And now, the major film
companies have ail been taken over by conglomerates that are
more interested in funeral parlors and life insurance than in
films, and are no longer of any consequence.” Additionally, the
independent film producers have attempted to assert themselves,
even against heavy odds: "In 1970, for instance, independents

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 -254-

the two-category system of the white racist ideology was suc­

cinctly referred to by veteran actress Beulah Quo:

...America is so colored-conscious. Whether you are

Yellow, Brown or Black, America has never really
accepted people for what they are. . . we ^Americans]]
really judge people on the color of their skins....
and we've never completely gotten away from t h a t . ^ 1

There was a consensus among the performers that racism in

the greater society had penetrated the film industry, and

that in fact there was racial discrimination against the

non-white minorities in general and the Asian minorities in

particular. Although the manifestations of the industry's

racism were diverse and had been demonstrated to different

individuals differently (with some universal manifestations),

all of the actors and actresses believed that racism per se

was institutionalized. Institutional racism was perceived

as a function of the industry as a whole, that is, of the

ambiguous, on-going phenomenon of racial discrimination as

a pervasive condition endemic to the motion picture industry.

Individual racism, although doubtless a problem within the

industry, was not seen by the performers to be as serious a

problem as the institution itself that is the industry. It

was established, in fact, that discrimination against Asians

represented 43%, while Hollywood companies constituted 57% of

film output. The number of independently produced films ex­
panded from 19 in 1958 to 107 in 1972." See: Diane Jacobs,
Hollywood Renaissance (Cranbury, New Jersey: A.S. Barnes and
Co., 1977), p. 15.
501
Interview with Beulah Quo, on 10/17/77.

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 -255-

as perceived by Asian artists -was institutionalized. Rather

than being a deliberate, intentional system in which racism

was practiced for the sole purpose of treating Asians as in­

feriors, institutional racism and discrimination were con­

sidered to be a generally unintentional demonstration of ig­

norance and possible fear of Asian performers inside the in­

dustry and Asian peoples outside the industry. The overall

effect of the phenomenon called institutional racism in the

film industry, the roots of which lay in the fact that, as

502
Sumi Haru pointed out, "white men run the industry," was

encapsulated by James Ishida: "You [as an Asian artist] know

..503
your place."

The importance of the white-dominated character of

the motion picture industry continued to be emphasized in the

interviews. Keye Luke delineated the racialist barriers within

which Asian performers were forced to operate individually and

collectively:

We're living in a white civilization. Anything the Ori­

ental does— in pictures, for instance— is always in a sub­
ordinate role. Once in a while he gets the lead— I'm not
saying that he doesn't ever get a lead— but generally these
things [motion pictures] are made for a white audience.

More specifically, stratification of roles as defined in earlier

sections of this study was factored in as an undeniable aspect

S02
Interview with Sumi Haru, on 9/27/77.
503Interview with James Ishida, on 9/13/77.
504
Interview with Keye Luke, on 11/14/77.

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 -256-

of the film industry's policies toward Asians. According to

Philip Ahn, lead roles for Asian males was the one unquestioned

"thing that's lacking"505 with respect to the employment of

actual Asian males. The industry's traditional attitude on the

matter of using Asian males in leading roles was elaborated on

by Quo:

When it comes to a lead role, they [the white executives]

d o n ’t trust an [actual] Asian actor. They have to get
somebody [a non-Asian] and slant his eyes up.506

The discriminatory base and justification for using cosmetized

white males (a practice that has decreased in absolute terms

only because the absolute number of films with leading Asian

character parts has decreased over time) are housed in racist

assumptions inherent in the decision-making sectors of the film

industry. The racialist belief that Asians (especially Asian

males) lack desirable human qualities, which are viewed as

marketable commodities by white executives, was set forth by

Pat Li:

[Whites have decided that] we're not tall enough, good-

looking enough, net talented enough, not emotional enough,
that we are too inscrutable, and that we d o n ’t have the
charisma [to qualify for leading roles on screen].507

To a large extent, the industry's utilization of the no-charisma

clause when sidestepping Asian actors as marketable material is

as old as the film industry itself. Literally all racial min­

505Interview with Philip Ahn, on 11/9/77.

500Q u o interview.
507Interview with Pat Li, on 12/2/77.

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 -257-

orities have at one time or another been discounted as lead-

role potential on the basis of the industry's assertion that

they lack charisma. Although the industry has not defined

charisma on a consistent plane, it is generally understood

that charisma is largely a function of race and marketability

of racial qualities. According to the industry, Asians because

of their racial characteristics are non-marketable, whereas the

same is not true for whites. Furthermore, whites in the decision­

making positions have excluded Asian actors in keeping with their

own racialist criteria, for the executives who argue that Asian

males lack charisma are the same persons who define charisma as

a non-Asiatic characteristic. Consequently, a sealed tauto­

logical circle obtains with respect to the industry's relations

with Asian males. Operationally, the film industry has main­

tained its role stratifying policy. Even in the mid-1970's,

as Mako states, the industry routinely evades the possibility

of considering Asian males in leading roles:

There is still that thinking that whenever a leading role

comes up they [the industry executives] say: 'Where are
we going to find the Orientals [to play the leading roles]?'
We still hear this today — now.'

The fact that there is a greater number of experienced, qualified

Asian actors in the film industry today seems not to have altered

the industry’s fundamental attitude toward Asian acting talent.

Ironically, the history of American film itself stands in sharp

508Interview with Mako, on 9/13/77.

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 -258-

contrast to the industry's rationale on the question of charisma

and market. Forty years ago, despite more conspicuous anti-Asian

racism in the greater American society, "Sessue Hayakawa was a

509
top star" m the eyes of American white women, and Anna May

Wong had successfully filled "lead role"^10 openings in many

films. That Asians have demonstrated charisma despite their

racial characteristics was manifest in the early years of the

motion picture industry. So, too, Asians as performers could

sell the cinematic product profitably in a time when the actual

Asian population, and its consequent buying power, was far less

than it is today. The outstanding longitudinal paradox is the

fact that (excluding the general treatment of Asian subject

matter) in the early years of Hollywood there was less industry

discrimination against Asian performers while there was more

discrimination against Asians in American society. By the mid-

1970's, however, the opposite condition seems to have arisen: the

greater American society has lessened its anti-Asian proclivities,

while the film industry has heightened its discriminatory practices

Asian females, likewise, have been increasingly limited

by the American film industry. As had been suggested earlier,

the greater willingness of the industry to treat of interracial

sex or marriage in the context of white males and Asian females

509
Interview with Clyde Kusatsu, on 9/13/77.
510
Quo, op . cit.

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 -259-

was a filmic interpretation of America's double sexual standard.

Even predating the United States' military adventures in Asia,

with only its degree of explicitness circumscribed by the Hays

Office, "Asian women [were] always thought of as loose, or as

using American men to make an income [as prostitutes]."^11 The

sexual license of white males over all women of color became the

situational backbone of Asian females in American films. With

only minor variations, the Asian female has been depicted as the

assumed "exotic flower, the mysterious sex object of a Caucasian

512 . .
hero." Filmically and socially, Asian females because of their
513
gender were, and continue to be, "less of a threat” to white

males both inside and outside of the motion picture industry. The

industry's belief in the ultimate conguerability of women on the

basis of gender, race notwithstanding, has accounted for the flu­

idity with which Asian females have been integrated into sexual

and marital unions with white males. Because of white society's

acceptance of the double standardized miscegenation construct,

the penalties incurred by the industry as a result of prostituting

women of color are minimal when measured against the product pro­

fitability. The sexually exploitative and racially manipulative

nature of the motion picture industry is manifestly noticeable

where Asian females are concerned. Equally important is the

'‘"tSumi Haru interview, op. c i t .

512
Interview with Benson Fong, on 11/18/77.
513 . .
Pat Li interview, op. c i t .

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 -260-

realization that the cinematic longevity of Asian females seldom

surpasses the "ingenue" status as defined and determined by white

males in the industry. Acting talent that is devoid or depleted

of youthful sexuality is tantamount to an artistic surplusage and

514
is passed to the opposite extremum of m o t h e r l m e s s . Hence the
515
"sexual connotations" peculiar to Asian female characters and

the racial burden placed upon Asian female actresses is largely

responsible for the fact that once an Asian actress ages beyond

ingenue status, "there are few roles that are significant"516for

her in the American motion pictures. Far more true for women of

color than for white women, sexuality is the yardstick by which

the female is measured in the film industry. Sexism against the

Asian female ranks second only to white racism. Consequently,

both sexism and racism have been blended together to produce the

sexualization of white racism— with its emphasis upon the neg­

ativity of Asian males and positivity of Asian females— whose

filmic institutionalization was expressed by Momo Yashima Brannen:

Asian men [in explicitly sexual roles] with white women

is still very taboo, while Asian women [in explicitly
sexual roles] with white men is considered in vogue. The
Yellow man/white woman thing is viewed differently.^1"^

514
It was generally remarked that Asian females were
bifurcated into the very young or the very old, with no middle-
years area. In a sense, the industry’s sexist treatment of Asian
females is analogous to the boy-uncle syndrome that has been used
in response to non-white males. Males have been considered "boys”
(young) or "uncles" (old), wit h no intermediate "man" category.
515^
Quo, 0 £. c i t .
516 , .
Ibid.
517
Interview with Momo Yashima Brannen, on 9/13/77.

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 -261-

The area of outstanding concern in the minds of the

Asian American artists was the system of role segregation and

the racial and professional complexities it incorporated. The

segregation of Asians into an Asian-role category posed both a

theoretical and practical dilemma for males and females alike.

On the theoretical level, Asians as professional actors whose

only substantive reference point was the continued development

of their art of acting— whether in films, television or on the

stage— saw race per se as an artificially imposed constriction

that interfered with the demanding business of performing in

the visual arts. They believed that all roles should be open

to all performers, providing experience, talent and other cre­

dentials were in order. The belief that all roles be open to

all performers explicitly presented the conviction that the

Asians be allowed to assume "non-Asian roles" with the same

degree of frequency with which white performers have been able

to assume Asian roles. In effect, then, rather than supporting

the practical demand that white performers not displace Asian

performers vis-a-vis the use of racist cosmetics, the theoretical

suggestion was that there were no objections to the assumption of

Asian roles by white performers— providing that the practice was

519
not a "one-way street," that is, only if there were complete

reciprocity throughout the practice, whereby Asian performers

'’'^Quo interview, op. c i t .

519
Mako m t e r v i e ’ op. c i t .

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 -262-

could displace white performers on any level. Consequently,

it was the non-reciprocal practice of cosmetized displacement

that accounted for practical objections. The reciprocity of

displacement would in actuality provide Asian American actors

and actresses freedom of horizontal movement in the industry.

Perhaps more importantly, the Asians felt that— with the ex­

ception of very specialized instances— role segregation with

or without the use of cosmetics was superfluous both racially

and culturally. Excluding specifically designed Asiatic pro­

ductions, Asian Americans as Americans should be allowed to

be portrayed as Americans culturally, historically and socially,

totally negating the segregative Asian-role category in the films.

It was argued that Asian Americans, in the minds of many whites

in the industry, were considered non-Americans, foreigners, and

that to all intents and purposes whites did not differentiate

520
between "Asian Americans and Asian Asians." In speaking to

the point, Benson Fong asserted:

We want to let the rest of the American people know that

we are Americans, and that we are no longer the ching-chong
Chinamen who sat on the fence. I don't want to be told I'm
Chinese. I know that I ’m Chinese. You resent the fact
that when you work for the film industry and right away the
Director or the assistant Director treats you like a Chinese
[and not like any other Americanj

Similarly, Yuki Shimoda insisted that the fact that one's "face

520
Quo interview, op. c i t .
521
Fong interview, op. c i t .

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 -263-

522 . . . . . .
is Oriental" is sufficient indication of one's descent lines,

and that save exceptional attempts to re-create Asian settings

for historical or cultural purposes, the Asiatic paraphernalia

that is so often supplied by whites in the industry is not only

unnecessary but is also affected in the case of Asian Americans.

On a practical level, Asian performers have been made

constantly aware of the film industry's arbitrary foreignization

of Americans of Asian descent and the intrinsic limitations that

are associated with the Asian-role category. Sumi Haru put the

issue in brief terms:

We're always thought of [by the whites] as being foreign.

So, therefore, we're seldom cast in [average] American roles.
523
We're not considered for the American roles.

American roles are equated with white roles or with white char­

acter parts by the film industry. Because the American roles or

white character parts are synonymous with white actors, Asian

performers are literally excluded from serious consideration by

the industry. Contemporaneously, Asian roles, whether foreign

or American in context, are not synonymous with Asian actors.

The system of role stratification, constricting vertical move­

ment of Asian artists, tends to retain Asian performers on the

minor-role level of development, regardless of experience and

talent. Thus Asians not only have to compete with one another

for the comparatively few Asian roles on all levels, but have

522
Interview with Yuki Shimoda, on 12/7/77.
523tt . ^
Haru interview, 0 £. c i t .

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 -264-

to compete with white performers for Asian roles, especially

on the major-role level of development. Hence even within the

Asian-role category, opportunities for Asian performers become

fewer and fewer as the importance of the role rises. As Quo

stated:

It is very difficult to get a major role for an Asian

because you're competing against a white actor when it
i
comes to a major role. 524
Despite the theoretical belief that all roles should be open

to all actors and actresses race notwithstanding, the Asian

performing artists are faced with the practical realization

that they must concentrate upon securing Asian roles only,

for 1) American roles, which have been arbitrarily classified

as white by the industry, are off limits to Asians, and 2) even

Asian roles, which often serve to foreignize Asian Americans,

are by no means guaranteed to Asian performers, particularly

if the roles are of substance. The seeming preference for

Asian roles expressed by Asian actors and actresses is not so

much a function of racial or cultural gravitation to those roles

as it is an act of personal survival. Ironically, given the

racist constraints under which Asian performers must operate,

even those roles depicting Asians in a biased or racist setting

have become expediters of survival, for the exploitative and

manipulative antennae of the industry are in attunement with

the performers' most immediate dilemma: If the industry’s pol­

524
Quo interview, 0 £. cit.

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 -265-

icies with respect to Asians and Asian themes are taken to task

by the small Asian minority, whose traditional position within

the industry has been tenuous, "what are the actors going to do
525
for their next meal" when the film industry retaliates.

The film and television industries have through their

discriminatory practices against and limitations of the Asian

acting community demonstrated a profound detachment with American

society and the place Asian Americans have in fact established

within it. Because of the almost non-existent contact between

the Asian communities and the media industries as a whole, the

commonly held belief that Asian Americans are an alien collective

living within a white American sea has become a popular cliche

of self-perpetuating dimensions. The fact that Asian Americans

are Americans who "think like most Americans, regardless of race

526
or color," has been lost sight of. Largely by way of its

own unexamined assumptions concerning the Asian Americans, the

industry has consistently ignored the most fundamental message

that Asian Americans have articulated both in words and deeds:

"We want to be represented as Americans. We are Americans. And

527
we're good Americans." Although there remains a long way

for American racial minorities to travel before they have com­

pletely integrated the mainstream of American life, the Asian

American minorities have penetrated everyday America to a far

525 . . .
Linda Iwataki, "Interview with Jeanne Joe," Gi d r a ,
Volume IV, No. 4, April, 1972, p. 7.
526 .
Ahn interview, o p . c i t .
527
Fong interview, 0 £. c i t .

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 -266-

greater extent than the industry is willing to acknowledge.

Fong, for instance, argued that the white executives in the

industry and in the sponsoring sectors seemed "unaware of the

Chinese in politics, as professors in leading universities, as

research scientists, doctors, lawyers, corporate executives,

[most of whom are] second-, third-, and fourth-generation

American Chinese."528 Luke, too, asserted that: "There are

more young Chinese now who have been through the school system
. . . 529
and are very qualified to do a lot of things." Although the

non-white minorities as a whole continue to remain on the per­

iphery of affluent America, the increased diversity of min­

orities in American society has established an undeniable p r o o f :

On literally every level of social analysis Asians are today

a part of America. They can be found in all of the professions

and in all of the occupations that comprise American society.

They are represented in all economic brackets, and they have

participated in all of the cultural facets of American life.

Save their non-white physical appearance, Asians are as American

as the whites. Perhaps as a racial minority that has had to over

excel in order to achieve recognition by the greater white m aj­

ority, the Asians are even more indicative of the white American

social ideal than are many of the whites who stand in their

judgment. Specifically for the benefit of the television and

film industries (and generally for all media), the belief that

529
Luke interview, op. c i t .

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 -267-

the media industries do not "have enough work for [Asians]"5"^0

is a definite indication that the industries rather than viewing

Asian Americans as Americans have stagnated on race-specific and

culture-conscious characterizations of peoples whose assumed

racial and cultural affinities are based on descent lines only.

The pernicious Asian-role category line of reasoning by the

industries has exposed Asian performers to the erratic cres­

cendoes and diminuendoes that are conducted by fad more than

by on-going social substance. The extent to which Asian sub­

ject matter is fashionable or unfashionable dictates the ex­

tent to which Asian performing artists work largely because the

segregation of roles permits of Asian role-playing in the context

of the fashion only. Hence the industries' unwillingness to see

Asian Americans as Americans who reflect the total social div­

ersity of the American people is almost solely responsible for

the popular belief that Asian American artists must perform as

an exoticized, alien element specially designed to complement

the fluctuations of the Asian fad. In reality, however, exclu­

ding their ra c e , Asian Americans in general and Asian actors and

actresses in particular do not need, or necessarily even want,

race-specific/culture-conscious roles to play. They are the

average American people. And the average "American is every

531
color." Presumably, then, if the industries were to square

their assumptions with reality, any role or part to do with

530
Rocky Chin and Eddie Wong, "An Afternoon with James
Wong Howe," Bridge, Volume 2, No. 5, June, 1973, p. 14.
531 • ■
Haru interview, 0 £. c i t .

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 -268-

American characters has to do with Asian Americans as Americans.

Paradoxically, the industries' rule of employing Asian American

performers in race-specific characterizations is at variance

with the fact that race-specific subject matter is the exception

in the industries. Hence it is the industries' reluctance to

depict Asian Americans as a part of the mainstream of American

life that perpetuates the belief that Asian Americans are simply

racial and cultural enclaves in the body of America. In a word,

special Asian roles, save case-specific re-creations of foreign

Asian cultural, social, or historical events, need not be the

limitation for Asian performing artists. Any role from its in­

ception is potentially an Asian American role. As Li argued:

There are a lot of television scripts, for instance, where

there are [numerous] racially non-descript [or non-specific]
roles that we [non-whites] can all play, whether we be Black,
532
Yellow, or Orange.

The industries' purposeful reflection of minorities as Americans

of diverse social backgrounds and occupations can and has been

carried on with substantial success (although not without con­

tinued and determined pressure from the minority groups). For

example, it has been found that:

in studying children’s perceptions of blacks presented on

television,...many children, especially those living in
rural areas [[presumably heavily white], cited television
as a source of information about how individuals of other
races talk, look and dress. Also, when asked to name
television characters they would most like to be like,

532 . .
Li interview, op. c i t .

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 -269-

43% of the white children cited at least one black

character. (Italics added.)

The industries’ integration of Asian Americans visually and

artistically into motion pictures and television programming

would not only provide a more accurate depiction of Asians as

Americans, regardless of racial characteristics and descent

lines, but would also introduce the white majority— most of

whom have not had occasion to meet Asian Americans socially

because of limited numbers and distribution— to the Asian min­

orities on the basis of mutual American identity. At the same

time, the institutional barriers that have segregated Asian

performers into specialty roles as Asians (characters specially

created for their supposed Asianism) would be removed, and the

business of allowing Asian performing artists to compete on

fair and equal grounds with their white counterparts for the

racially non-specific roles, all American roles, would be invoked.

That the industries can successfully treat Americans of Asian

descent as Americans and not as foreigners or as conspicuous

minorities has been proved vis-a-vis the industries’ treatment

. . . . . 534
of other minorities "without a display of self-consciousness."

Churchill Roberts, "The Presentation of Blacks in

Television Network Newscasts," Journalism Q uarterly, Volume 52
No. 1, Spring, 1975, p. 50.
534
Royal D. Colle, "Negro Image m the Mass Media: A
Case Study in Social Change," Journalism Quarterly, Volume 45,
No. 1, Spring, 1968, p. 57. Also see: Herbert C. Northcott,
John F. Seggar, and James L. Hinton, "Trends in TV Portrayals
of Blacks and Women," Journalism Q uarterly, Volume 52, No. 4,
Winter, 1975, notably, p. 741.

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 -270-

Added to the film and television industries’ need to

integrate racial minorities as average Americans "so that all

Americans in all groups will be accurately portrayed as they

535
appear in American life," efforts should be made openly to

encourage the growth of minority writers. If the widely held

belief that the "main problem in American films is still with

material"536 is true as applied to whites, then the material

as applied to non-whites constitutes a still greater problem.

Because the Asian minorities have been omitted from the over­

whelming majority of material produced by the white writers

and excluded from racially non-specific roles (American roles),

the dearth of employment opportunities is compounded. Thus the

industry reality, supplied by Keye Luke, which stipulates that

"unless you have a script, you have nothing: the play is the
537
thing," is uncompromisingly constrictive of the Asian actors.

The Asians, as minorities, stand in essentially the same re l ­

ationship to the majority society as do other racial minorities,

and their frustrations as minorities— historically attributed

to white racism— are of equal intensity. The connection between

535 . . .
Sumi Haru, "Minorities Committee," Screen A c t o r ,
Volume 19, No. 1, January-February, 1977, p. 12.
53oStephen Farber, "The Writer in American Films," Film
Quarterly, Volume XXI, No. 4, Summer, 1958, p. 3. As of this
writing, only one Asian American writer is a member of the Screen
Writers' Guild of America. Furthermore, of the entire 125 sample
films in this study, none of the screen plays or scripts was writ­
ten by an Asian. None of the joint scripts had an Asian writer
directly or indirectly involved. The correlation coefficient between
negative Asian imagery and white writers was literally 1.0.
53"^Luke interview, op. cit.

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 -271-

the Asian minorities' anger and frustration and the creative

arts is expressed in the assertion that "unless the Asian riots,

there [is] no other way to get his ideas and frustrations across

to the public except through w r i t i n g . H o w e v e r , writing as

a vehicle through which Asians might augment and expand the

539
process of creating "quality parts for Asian American actors"

and integrating Asian Americans as Americans has been institu­

tionalized in the person of the powerful Screen Writers' Guild

of America. The Writers' Guild, in the tradition of most in-

540
stitutions, is dominated by white males. And institutional

barriers have been significant factors in stemming the rise

of Asian Americans as writers. To a large extent, "there are

very few Asian [American] playwrights [and writers in general]

. . 541
because there have been so few opportunities." Speaking to

the Chinese minority in particular but representing the Asians

as a whole, Stanford Lyman remarked:

Chinese a r e ... underrepresented in the fields of art, letters,

and theater. A Chinese American literature is now emerging
out of a phase of autobiography and partial stereotypy, rec-

538Paik, "The East West Players...," [Norman Cohen quoted],

o p . c i t ., p, 35.
539
Interview with Dorn Magwili, on 9/13/77.
540
Paul R. Reynolds, "The Hollywood Screen Writers," m
The Movies: An American I d i o m , Arthur F. McClure (ed.) (New
Jersey: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 197.1), p. 296. For
greater background information on the Guild, see: Christopher
Dudley Wheaton, "A History of the Screen Writers' Guild (1920-
1942): The Writers' Quest for a Freely Negotiated Basic Agreement,"
(unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Southern California,
Mass Communication, 1974).
Quo interview, ojd. cit.

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 -272-

ognizing a Chinatown culture that is independent of both

America's and China's and representing 'a unique Chinese-
American literary sensibility'.... However, it is still
difficult for Chinese American authors to find a publisher;
542
playwrights, a theater; and actors, a stage.

As an especially crucial aspect of the Asian American racial

and cultural relationship with the majority white society, the

practice of speaking out against racial and cultural injustices

was discouraged among the Asians by the white majority. Perhaps

to a greater extent than any racial minority— notably because of

their limited numerical representation and the social instability

that small numbers emphasized— the Asian minorities learned that

silence while not necessarily blunting racial discrimination did

not invite it. Early in the history of Asian America quietude

was the only viable alternative for survival:

Asian experiences with that racist society [America], a

society that punished those who dared to speak out or call
attention to themselves, has shown that self-expression
often only arouses enmity [from the majority].

So, too, because of the racist restriction and Exclusion Laws

that accounted for an uneven development of native-born Asians

and accompanying linguistic shortcomings and ambivalences, the

Asians traditionally felt more secure in those occupations that

did not require communication, or substantive contact, with white

542
Lyman, Chinese A mericans, o p . cit., p. 144.
543
Colin Watanabe, "Self-Expression and the Asian-
American Experience," Personnel and Guidance Journal, Volume 51,
February-June, 1973, pp. 390-391.

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 -273-

544
Americans. Increasingly, however, the Asian Americans have

begun to realize that silence can often be mistaken for social

complacency by the majority, and that so long as Asians fail to

give account of themselves, neither the whites nor the other min­

ority groups can or will do it for them. Somewhat promisingly,

greater numbers of Asians are learning that, in American society

at least, one must speak out and attempt to correct practices

that have intentionally or unintentionally, individually or in­

stitutionally, served to create misleading imagery of the Asians

among the white majority. That American society and the Asian

American minorities have grown more mature with respect to one

another is encapsulated in the growing belief that whatever the

media injustices of the past may have been, America is ready to

agree with those who insist that "we [Asians] must call attention
545
to ourselves."

One of the progressive ways in which Asians can call

attention to themselves, and in the process upgrade and balance

Asian imagery, is through the visual media. The nature of the

source material from which the media draw their power must be

changed not by wishful and non-participative thinking, or by

544 . .
In addition to the historical fact that Asians were
forced into non-competitive fields as a result of racial violence
and intimidation, Asians because of language barriers entered the
professions and occupations that required "dexterity, artistry,
design, and tactile skills." See: Lyman, op. cit., p. 135.
545
Fong interview, op. cit. For some of the cultural
and identity problems that still plague Asian writers in the
Western world, see: Wakayama Group, "Why Are There So Few Sansei
Writers?" Bridge, Volume 2, No. 1, September/October, 1972, par­
ticularly pp. 18-19.

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 -274-

relying upon the assumption that white writers will of their

own volition or capabilities modify traditional image-making

practices with respect to Asians, but rather by direct and

creative intervention on one's own behalf. As it has been

suggested, within the totality of American society's racial

prejudices against its non-white citizens, the actual "crux of

546 . . . .
the whole" visual media dilemma for the Asians lies m either

biased or otherwise uninformed writings about them by the whites.

Until such time as white writers are provided the incentive to

learn of the Asians before they write about them, it will to a

large extent remain for the Asians themselves to provide the

source materials. Besides the institutional diversions and

barriers extant to prevent the final incorporation of racial

minorities as equals in American society, the paradox obtains

in the fact that if Asian American minorities were accepted as

Americans, the entire issue of creating edifying and creative

materials on Asians would be unnecessary. Yet the realities

of social segregation between the Asian American minorities

and the white majority argue that, despite real progress uver

time, if the Asians are not going to be treated as an integr­

ative part of the whole, then they should at least be treated

intelligently and accurately, reflecting both their virtues

Interview with James Hong, on 12/16/77. Hong argued

that white writers are themselves victims of America's biased
thinking about Asians, reaching into the early years of their
childhood. Because of social segregation, Hong asked: "What
background does [any] particular [white] writer have on Asians?"

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 -275-

and shortcomings, in the context of their minority status in

American society. That the Asian American minorities, unlike

the larger minority groups, cannot exert substantive social

pressure on the institutions that discriminate against them is

manifest if only on the basis of the recurring haunt of small

numbers and the political and economic— and especially for this

study the boxoffice and media market— powerlessness that have

547
become the legacy of America's anti-Asiatic Exclusion Laws.
548
Nevertheless, by "joining hands with other people of color,"

the Asians can increase their numbers and, consequently, their

power to turn the film and television industries around. For

so long as one racial minority group suffers at the hands of

the media industries, all minority groups ultimately suffer in

kind. In the last analysis, the extent to which the Asian min­

orities truly desire change in the treatment of Asians by the

media industries will dictate the extent to which that change

takes place. It is the Asian minorities who must speak out

and call attention to themselves, and offer on-going alternative

materials to those institutions that have consistently fabricated

547
Blacks, for instance, have been "estimated to be as
high as fifty-three percent of the total" boxoffice audience.
See: Murray, To Find an Image, o p . c i t ., p. 111. Also, because
of their great numbers, "Hollywood has discovered that Black
movie goers in Central Cities are today’s BIG FACTOR IN PROFIT
MARGINS," see: QP Herald, February 24, 1973, p. 19. In contrast,
the Asian Americans (and Native American Indians) are indicative
of the opposite extremum of conspicuously small numbers.
548_ . .
Li interview, op. c i t .

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 -276-

misleading, and often times unconscionably offensive, images

of Asians. Perhaps ironically, the biased strengths of the

industries lie in the weaknesses of the Asian American com­

munities. White racism, whether individual or institutional,

can be condemned in the film, television and other visual media

only so far as it is allowed to go unchallenged by the persons

against whom it has been directed. Opposition to white racism

has never been an easy undertaking. Nor has it been conducted

successfully without great sacrifice by those who oppose it.

Yet if opposing white racism is worthwhile, then it is worth­

while to oppose it completely regardless of sacrifice. The

Asian American performing artists, augmented by concerned mem­

bers of non-performing occupations, have begun the first round

of opposing white racism in the film and television media by

forming groups such as Asians for a Fair Media and Association

of Asian/Pacific American Artists. If they are to be effective,

however, they must be supported and joined by the Asian American

communities across the nation. In turn, those communities must

unite with the other non-white communities. And those communities

must join and unite with the majority of white Americans who are

the substance of the viewing audience, a substance that will not

be unsympathetic to the plight of the Asian American minorities.

Indeed, when the product fails to satisfy the audience, even the

sinews of white racism can be broken.

E.F.W
December 25, 1977.

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 APPENDIX A

General Film List

1930;
Dangerous Paradise— Paramount
New Adventures of Dr. Fu Manchu— Paramount
Outside the Law— Universal
Son of the Gods— First National
The Benson Murder Case— Paramount
The Return of D r . Fu Manchu— Paramount

1931;
Charlie Chan Carries On— 20th Century Fox
Daughter of the Dragon— Paramount
Gun Smoke— Paramount
The Black Camel— 20th Century Fox

1932;
Charlie Chan's Chance— 20th Century Fox
Madame Butterfly— Paramount
Red Dust— MGM
Roar of the Dragon--RKO
Shanghai Express— Paramount
The Hatchet Man— First National
The Mask of Fu Manchu— MGM
The Miracle M an— Paramount
War Correspondent— Paramount

1933;
A Study in Scarlet— 20th Century Fox
Charlie Chan's Greatest Case— 20th Century Fox
C ocktail Hour— Columbia
Hell and Highwater— Paramount
International House— Paramount
King Kong— RKO
Shanghai Madness— 20th Century Fox
Son of Kong— RKO
The Bitter Tea of General Y en— Columbia
The Son-Daughter— MGM

-277-

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 -278-

1934;
A Lost Lady— First National
Before Midnight— Columbia
Charlie Chan's Courage— 20th Century Fox
Charlie Chan in London— 20th Century Fox
Come on, Marines— Paramount
Kiss and Make-up— Paramount
Limehouse Blues— Paramount
Murder at the Vanities— Paramount
Search for Beauty— Paramount
Take the Stand— Liberty
The Painted Veil— MGM
We're Rich Again— RKO

1935;
Charlie Chan in Egypt— 20th Century Fox
Charlie Chan in Paris— 20th Century Fox
Charlie Chan in Shanghai— 20th Century Fox
China Seas- -MGM
Chinatown Squad— Universal
Java Head— First National
Mad Love— MGM
M r . Ruqqles of Red Gap— Paramount
Oil for the Lamps of China— Warner Brothers
Sequoia— MGM
Shanghai— Paramount
Sing Sing Nights— Monogram
The Mysterious Mr. Wong— Monogram

1936;
Charlie Chan at the Circus— 20th Century Fox
Charlie Chan at the Opera— 20th Century Fox
Charlie C han at the Race Track— 20th Century Fox
Charlie Chan's Secret— 20th Century Fox
King of Burlesque— 20th Century Fox
Libeled Lady--MGM
Night Waitress--RKO
One Way Ticket— Columbia
Panic on the A ir— Columbi a
Petticoat Fever— MGM
Stowaway— 20th Century Fox
The General Died at Dawn— Paramount
The Leathernecks Have Landed— Republic
The Mandarin Mystery— Republic
Yellow Cargo— Pacific Grand National
White Hunter— 20th Century Fox

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 -279-

1937;
Charlie Chan at Monte Carlo— 20th Century Fox
Charlie Chan at the Olympics— 20th Century Fox
Charlie Chan on Broadway— 20th Century Fox
China Passage— RKO
Daughter of Shanghai— Paramount
Lost Horizon— Columbia
Roaring Timber— Columbia
Secret Valley— 20th Century Fox
Shadows of the Orient— Monogram
Something to Sing About — Grand National
The Good Earth— MGM
Think Fast, Mr. Moto— 20th Century Fox
True Confession— Pa ramount
We Who Are About to D i e — RKO
Wee Willie Winkie— 20th Century Fox
Wells Fargo— Paramount
West of Shanghai— Warner Brothers

1 938;
Charlie Chan in Honolulu— 20th Century Fox
Hawaii Calls— RKO
International Settlement— 20th Century Frx
M r . Moto *s Gamble— 20th Century Fox
Mr. Moto Takes a Chance— 20th Century Fox
Mr. Wong, Detective— Monogram
Sinners in Paradise— Universal
Shadows over Shanghai— Grand National
Thank You, Mr. Moto--20th Century Fox
The Adventures of Marco Polo--United Artists
Too Hot to Handle— MGM
When Were You Born?— Warner Brothers

1 939;
Barricade--20th Century Fox
Charlie Chan at Treasure Island— 20th Century Fox
Charlie Chan in City of Darkness— 20th Century Fox
Charlie Chan in Reno— 20th Century Fox
Disputed Passage— Paramount
Honolulu— MGM
Hollywood Cavalcade— 20th Century Fox
King of Chinatown— Paramount
Maisie— MGM
Mr. Moto in Danger Island— 20th Century Fox
Mr. Moto Takes a Vacation— 20th Century Fox
Mr. Moto*s Last Warning— 20th Century Fox
Mr. Wong in Chinatown— Paramount

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 -280-

North of Shanghai— Columbia

Six Thousand Enemies— MGM
The Mystery of Mr. Wong— Monogram
Torchy Blane in Chinatown— Warner Brothers
20,000 Men a Year— 20th Century Fox

1940:
Burma Convoy— Universal
Charlie Chan at the Wax M u seum— 20th Century Fox
Charlie Chan in Panama— 20th Century Fox
Charlie C h a n ’s Murder Cruise— 20th Century Fox
Doomed to Die— Monogram
Moon over Burma— Paramount
Murder over New York— 20th Century Fox
Phantom of Chinatown— Monogram
Sued for Libel— RKO
The Fatal Hour— Monogram
The Fighting 69th— Warner Brothers
The Letter— Warner Brothers
The Marines Fly High— RKO

1941:
Bowery Blitzkrieg— Monogram
Charlie Chan in R io— 20th Century Fox
Dead Men Tell— 20th Century Fox
Ellery Queen's Penthouse Mystery— Columbia
International Sguadron— Warner Brothers
No Hands on the Clock— Paramount
Parachute Battalion— RKO
Singapore Woman— Warner Brothers
The Phantom Submarine— Columbia
The Shanghai Gesture— United Artists
You're in the Army Now— Warner Brothers

1942:
A Yank on the Burma Road— MGM
Across the Pacific— Warner Brothers
Bombs over Burma— Producers Releasing
China Girl— 20th Century Fox
Destination Unknown— -Universal
Escape from Hong Kong— Universal
Flying Tigers— Republic
Half Way to Shanghai--Universal
Invisible Agent— Universa1
Little Tokyo, U .S.A.— 20th Century Fox
Manila Calling— 20th Century Fox

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 -281-

Mr. and Mrs. North— MGM

Moontide— 20th Century Fox
North to the Klondike— Universal
Prisoner of Japan— Producers Releasing
Remember Pearl Harbor— Republic
Rubber Racketeers— Monogram
Secret Agent of Japan— 20th Century Fox
Some-where I'll Find You— MGM
Spy Ship— Warner Brothers
The Falcon’s Brother— RK0
The Hidden Hand— Warner Brothers
The Road to Morocco— Paramount
Time to Kill— 20th Century Fox
To the Shores of Tripoli— 20th Century Fox
Unseen Enemy— Universal
Wake Island— Paramount

1943;
Bataan— MGM
Behind the Rising S un— RKO
China— Paramount
Corregidor— Producers Releasing
Cry Havoc— MGM
Destination Tokyo— Warner Brothers
Flight for Freedom— RKO
G-Men vs the Black Dragons--Republic
Guadalcanal Diary— 20th Century Fox
Gung Hoi— Universal
Lady from Chungking— Producers Releasing
Mission to Moscow— Warner Brothers
Night Plane from Chungking— Producers Releasing
The Falcon Strikes Back— RKO
They Got Me Covered— RKO
We've Never Been Licked— Universal

1944;
Back to Bataan— RKO
Black Magic— Monogram
Charlie Chan in the Secret Service— Monogram
Dragon Seed— MGM
Jack London— United Artists
Laura— Paramount
So Proundly We Hail--Paramount
The Chinese Cat--Monogram
The Fighting Seabees— Republic
The Keys of the Kingdom— 20th Century Fox
The Purple Heart— 20th Century Fox

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 -282-

The Story of Dr. Wassell— Paramount

Thirty Seconds over Tokyo— MGM
Three Men in White--MGM
Wing and a Prayer— 20th Century Fox

1945;
Betrayal from the East— RKO
Blood on the Sun— United Artists
China Sky— RKO
China's Little Devils— Monogram
First Yank into Tokyo— RKO
God Is My Co-Pilot— Warner Brothers
Nob Hill— 20th Century Fox
Objective Burma— Warner Brothers
The Jade Mask— Monogram
The Red Dragon— Monogram
The Scarlet Clue— Monogram
The Shanghai Cobra— Monogram
They Were Expendable— MGM

1946;
Dangerous Millions— 20th Century Fox
Dangerous Money— Monogram
Dark Alibi— Monogram
Deception— Warner Brothers
Shadows over Chinatown— Monogram
The Trap— Monogram
Tokyo Rose— Paramount
Ziegfield Follies— MGM

1947;
Black Gold— Allied Artists
Calcutta— Paramount
Dark Delusion— MGM
Singapore— Universal
The Chinese Ring— Monogram
The Crimson Key— 20th Century Fox
The Lone Wolf in London— C olumbi a

1948;
Boston Blackie's Chinese Venture— Columbia
Docks of New Orleans— Monogram
Fighter Sguadron— Warner Brothers
Intrigue— Star Films
Jungle Patrol— 20th Century Fox
Rogues' Regiment— Universal

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 -283-

Saigon— Paramount
The Golden Eye— Monogram
The Lady from Shanghai— Columbia
The Miracle of the Bells— RKO
The Shanghai Chest— Monogram
To the Ends of the Earth— Kennedy-Buchman Pictures

1949;
Chicken Every Sunday— 20th Century Fox
Chinatown at Midnight— Columbia
Impact— United Artists
Sky Dragon— Monogram
State Department-File 649— Film Classics
The Feathered Serpent— Monogram
The Sands of Two Jima— Republic
Tokyo Joe— Columbia

1950:
American Guerrilla in the Philippines— Republic
A Ticket to Tomahawk— 20th Century Fox
Captain China— Paramount
Fancy Pants— Paramount
Malaya— MGM
Panic in the Streets— 20th Century Fox
The Big Hangover— MGM
The Breaking Point— Warner Brothers
There's a Girl in My Heart— Allied Artists
Three Came Home— 20th Century Fox
Woman on the R u n — Universal

1951;
A Yank in Korea— C olumbi a
China Corsair— Columbi a
Fixed Bayonets--20th Century Fox
Go for Broke 1— MGM
Hong Kong— Pa ramount
I Was an American S py— Allied Artists
Operation Pacific— Warner Brothers
Peking Express— Paramount
Purple Heart Diary— C olumbi a
Smuggler's Island— Universal
The Flying Leathernecks— RKO
The Frogmen— 20th Century Fox
The Groom Wore Spurs— Universal
The Halls of Montezuma— 20th Century Fox
The House on Telegraph Hill— 20th Century Fox

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 -284-

The Steel Helmet— Lippert Brothers

The Thing— RKO
The Wild Blue Yonder— Republic
Tokyo File 212— RKO

1952:
A Yank in Indo-China— Columbi a
Battle Zone— Allied Artists
Flat Top— Allied Artists
Japanese War Bride— 20th Century Fox
Macao— RKO
Okinawa— Columbia
One Minute to Zero— RKO
Retreat, HellI— Warner Brothers
Secrets of Monte Carlo— Republic
South Sea Sinner— Universal
Submarine Command— Paramount
The Big Hangover— MGM
The Hook— MGM
Torpedo Alley— Monogram
Westward the Women--MGM

1953:
Above and Beyond— MGM
Cease Fire:— Paramount
China Venture— Columbia
Combat Squad— C olumbi a
Destination Gobi--20th Century Fox
Dragon's Gold— United Artists
Fair Wind to Java— Republic
Invasion U.S.A.— Columbia
Mission over Korea— Columbia
South Sea Woman— Warner Brothers
Take the High Ground— MGM
Target Hong Kong— Columbia
The Glory Brigade— 20th Century Fox

1 954:
Athena— MGM
Battle Circus— MGM
Beachhead— United Artists
Dragonfly Squadron— Allied Artists
Forbidden— Universal
Hell and High Water— 20th Century Fox
Hell's Half Acre— Republic
His Majesty O'Keefe— Warner Brothers
I Was a Prisoner in Korea— Columbia

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 -285-

Men of the Fighting Lady— MGM

Miss Sadie Thompson— Columbia
Prisoner of War— MGM
Shanghai Story— Republic
The High and the Mighty— Warner Brothers
The World for Ransom— Allied Artists

195 5 ;
Battle Cry— Warner Brothers
Blood Alley— Warner Brothers
Conguest of Space— Paramount
Escape to Burma— RK0
House of Bamboo— 20th Century Fox
Love Is a Many Splendored Thing— 20th Century Fox
Soldier of Fortune--20th Century Fox
Target Zero— Paramount
The Bamboo Prison— Columbia
The Bridges at Toko-Ri— Paramount
The Eternal Sea— Republic
The Left Hand of God— 20th Century Fox
The Magnificent Matador— 20th Century Fox
Three Stripes in the Sun— Paramount
Unchained— Warner Brothers

1956:
Around the World in 80 Days— United Artists
Away All Boats— 20th Century Fox
Between Heaven and Hell— 20th Century Fox
Flight to Hong Kong— United Artists
Jump Into Hell--Warner Brothers
The Congueror— RKO
The Rose Tattoo— Paramount
The Teahouse of the August Moon— MGM
Tribute to a Badman— MGM

1957;
Battle Hell— Distributors Corporation of America
Battle Hymn— Universal
China Gate— 20th Century Fox
Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison— 20th Century Fox
Hold Back the Night--Allied Artists
Joe Butterfly— Universal
Man of a Thousand Faces— Universal
Men in War— United Artists
Sayonara--Warner Brothers
Stopover Tokyo--20th Century Fox
The Bridge on the River Kwai— Columbia
Time Limit— United Artists

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 -286-

1958;
Auntie Mame— Warner Brothers
China Doll— United Artists
Hong Kong Affair— Allied Artists
Hong Kong Confidential— United Artists
In Love and War— 20th Century Fox
Tarawa Beachhead— C olumbi a
The Barbarian and the Geisha— 20th Century Fox
The Geisha Boy--Paramount
The Quiet American— United Artists

1959;
Five Gates to Hell— 20th Century Fox
Green Mansions--MGM
Pork Chop Hill--United Artists
South Pacific— 20th Century Fox
The Battle of the Coral Se a — C olumbi a
The Crimson Kimono--Columbia
Tokyo After Dark— Paramount

1960;
Hell to Eternity— Allied Artists
Never So Few— Universal
Portrait in Black— Universal
The Gallant Hours— United Artists
The Mountain Road— Columbia
The World of Suzie Wong — Paramount
Walk like a Dragon--Paramount

1961;
Battle of Bloody Beach— 20th Century Fox
Bridge to the Sun— MGM
Cry for Happy— Columbia
Flower Drum Song— Universal
Marines, Let's Go— 20th Century Fox
Operation Bottleneck— United Artists
Sniper's Ridge— 20th Century Fox
The Great Impostor— Universal
The Last Time I Saw Archie— United Artists
The Savage Innocents— Paramount
The Steel Claw— Warner Brothers

1962;
A Ma jority of One— Warner Brothers
Experiment in Terror— Columbia

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 -287-

Lonely Are the Brave— Universal

Merrill's Marauders— Warner Brothers
My Geisha— Paramount
Satan Never Sleeps— 20th Century Fox
The Horizontal Lieutenant— MGM
The Manchurian Candidate— United Artists
War Hunt— United Artists

1963:
A Girl Named Tamiko— Paramount
China Clipper— First National
Confessions of an Opium Eater— Allied Artists
Cry of Battle— Allied Artists
Diamond Head— Columbia
Fifty-five Days at Peking— Allied Artists
Flight from Ashiya— United Artists
PT-109— Universal
Shock Corridor— Allied Artists
The Main Attraction— MGM
The Ugly American— Universal
Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed?--Paramount

1964:
A Yank in Vietnam— Allied Artists
Fate Is the Hunter— 20th Century Fox
Honeymoon Hotel— MGM
Man in the Middle— 20th Century Fox
McHale's Navy— Universal
The 7th Dawn— United Artists
The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao— MGM
The Troublemaker— Janus Films

1965:
Genghis Khan— Columbia
In Harm's Way— Paramount
None but the Brave— Warner Brothers
Once a Thief— United Artists
Once Before I Die— Seven Arts
Return of Mr. Moto— 20th Century Fox

1966:
An American Dream— Columbia
Arrivederci, BabyI— Paramount
Lt. Robinson Crusoe, U.S.N.— Walt Disney
Paradise, Hawaiian Style— Paramount

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 -288-

The Art of Love— Universal

The Sand Pebbles— 20th Century Fox
The Silencers— Columbi a
Walk, Don't Run— Columbi a

1967;
A Countess from Hong Kon g — Universal
Ambush Bay— United Artists
Beach Red— United Artists
First to Fight— Warner Brothers
Red Line 7000— Paramount
Thoroughly Modern Millie--Universal
To'Kill a Dragon— United Artists

1968;
Nobody's Perfect— Universal
The Destructors— Allied Artists
The Green Berets— Warner Brothers
The Private Navy of Sgt. O'Farrell— United Artists
The Shoes of the Fisherman— MGM

1969;
Alice's Restaurant— United Artists
Hell in the Pacific— Cinerama Releasing
M*A*S*H*— 20th Century Fox
The Chairman— 20th Century Fox
The Great Bank Robbery— Warner Brothers-Seven Arts
The Wrecking Crew— Columbia
True Grit— Paramount

1970;
Husbands— C olumbi a
Kashmiri Run— MGM
The Hawaiians— United Artists
The Losers— Fanfare Films
The McMasters— Chevron
There Was a Crooked Man— Warner Brothers
Tora'. Torat Torai— 20th Century Fox
Skullduggery— Universal

1971;
Dreams of Glass— Universal
Little Big Man— Cinema Center-Fox
McCabe and Mrs. Miller— Warner Brothers
One More Train to Rob--Universal
Which Way to the Front— Warner Brothers

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 -289-

1972;
The Big Game— Atlantic
The Carey Treatment— MGM
The Hunting Party— United Artists
Welcome to the C lub— Columbia

1973;
Battle for the Planet of the Ape s --20th Century Fox
Charley Varrick— Universal
Lost Horizon— Columbia
That Man Bolt— United Artists

1974;
Chinatown— Paramount
Island at the Top of the W orld— Walt Disney
The Man with the Golden Gun— United Artists

1 975;
Airport 1975— Universal
Marne— Warner Brothers
One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing— Buena Vista
S *P*Y*S— 20th Century Fox
The Man with the Golden Gun— United Artists
The Terminal M a n — Warner Brothers
The Trial of Billy Jack— Taylor-Laughlin
The Yakuza— Warner Brothers

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 APPENDIX B

Film Sample

1930:
1) The Benson Murder Case
2) The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu

1931:
3) Daughter of the Dragon

1932:
4) Shanghai Express
5) Red Dust

1933:
6 ) King Kong
7) Shanghai Madness

1934:
8 ) Limehouse Blues

1935:
9) Oil for the Lamps of China
10) Shanghai

1936:
Trie Leathernecks Have Landed
_ L i)
12) Lost Horizon
13) The General Died at Dawn

1937:
14) Daughter of Shanghai

1938:
15) Charlie Chan in Honolulu

1939:
16) King of Chinatown
17) Lady of the Tropics

-290-

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 -291-

1940;
18) Moon over Burma

1941;
19) A Yank on the Burma Road
20) Mr. & Mrs. North
21) Secret Agent of Japan
22) The Shanghai Gesture

1942;
23) The Flying Tigers
24) Remember Pearl Harbor
25) Invisible Agent

1943;
26) Bataan
27) Night Plane from Chungking
28) GuadalcanalDiary
29) China
30) Gung Ho?

1944;
31) Laura
32) Wing and a Prayer
33) Keys of the Kingdom
34) The Story of Dr. Wassell

1945;
35) First Yank into Tokyo
36) Back to Bataan
37) They Were Expendable
38) Nob Hill

1946;
39) Ziegfield Follies
40) Deception

1947;
41) Calcutta

1948;
42) Saigon

1949;
43) Malaya
44) Three Came Home

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 -292-

45) Sands of Two Jima

1950:
46) A Ticket to Tomahawk
47) Panic in the Streets

1951;
48) Flying Leathernecks
49) Fixed Bayonets
50) Smuggler's Island
51) The Frogmen
52) Wings Across the Pacific
53) House on Telegraph Hill

1952;
54) The Hook

1953;
55) Mission over Korea
56) Destination Gobi
57) Miss Sadie Thompson
58) Battle of the Coral Sea
59) Fair Wind to Java

1954;
60) Shanghai Story
61) Beachhead
62) Bamboo Prison

1955;
63) The Bridges of Toko-Ri
64) The Left Hand of God
65) Love Is a Many Splendored Thing

1956;
6 6 ) Battle Hymn
67) Between Heaven and Hell
68 ) Teahouse of the August Moon

1957;
69) Joe Butterfly
70) Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison
71) Time Limit
12) Stopover Tokyo

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 -293-

1958;
73) Auntie Mame
74) Pork Chop Hill
75) The Quiet American
76) In Love and War

1959;
77) Submarine Seahawk
78) Five Gates to Hell

1960:
79) Portrait in Black
80) The World of Suzie Wong
81) The Gallant Hours

1961:
82) Battle of Bloody Beach
83) Marines, L e t ’s Go
84) One-Eyed Jacks
85) Flower Drum Song

1962:
8 6 ) A Girl Named Tamiko
87) A Ma jority of One

1963:
8 8 ) Fifty-five Days at Peking
89) Cry of Battle

1964:
90) The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao
91) The Seventh Dawn

1.Q6 5 ?

92) Genghis Khan

93) The Sand Pebbles
94) Once Before I Die

1966:
95) First to Fight
96) Seven Women
97) Destination Inner Space
98 ) Arr.ivederci , Baby!

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 -294-

1967:
99) Kill a Dragon
100) Thoroughly Modern Millie

1968:
101) The Destructors
102) The Green Berets

1 969:
103) The Great Bank Robbery
104) The Wrecking Crew
105) Kashmiri Run
106) True Grit
107) Alice's Restaurant

1970:
108) The Losers
109) Husbands
110) The McMasters
111) Skullduggery
112) There Was a Crooked Man

1971:
113) Little Big Man
114) One More Train to Rob
115) McCabe and Mrs. Miller

1972:
116) The Big Game
117) The Carey Treatment

1973:
118) Battle of the Planet of the Apes
1 19) Charley Varrick
120) Lost Horizon

1 974:
121) Chinatown
122) Island at the Top of the World

1 975:
123) Airport 1975
124) One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing
125) The Terminal Man

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 APPENDIX C

Sample Questions

Do you feel that Asians are being adequately represented

(on camera) in the motion picture industry? Have you been pro­
vided opportunities to maximize and develop your professional
capabilities? Are there particular handicaps to being an Asian
in your profession? What are the advantages?

Some minority groups have alleged that there has been

racial discrimination toward minorities by the film industry. Do
you tend to agree or disagree with such an allegation?

If you feel that there is discrimination in the industry,

who is responsible for its practice? Is it, generally speaking, a
function of the individuals in the industry or is it institutional?
Are there unique characteristics to discrimination as it is applied
to Asians?

From your observations, how does the Asian minority com­

pare with other minorities in the industry? Assuming that job
hiring practices and filmic portrayals have improved for other
minorities, can conditions be said to have improved for Asians,
too?

Are Asian females treated differently by the industry

because of their sex? That is to ask, are all Asians treated in
like fashion regardless of gender?

In terms of talent and potential, how do you feel the

film industry reacts to Asians? All things being equal, do you
feel that Asian artists can compete favorably with non-Asians in
the industry?

If someone in the industry were to suggest that the

Asian acting community lacked the necessary talent, experience
and cinematic charisma with which successfully to vie for jobs
in motion pictures, would you agree or disagree? If you were
to disagree, what would you say to convince that person of his
or her misconception?

-295-

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 -296-

H o w do you feel about the assumption of Asian roles

by non-Asians who use cosmetics designed to make them appear
to be Asians? If racial cosmetics must be used, do you feel
that all actors and actresses should be allowed to use them
and in the process be permitted to portray all racial groups?

When looking for work, does your agent tend to seek

out those roles that are specifically Asian? Do you try to
read for roles that are n o ’ specifically race-oriented?

To what extent do you believe that Asians are hired

or not hired on the basis of race? Do you think that the in­
dustry sees you as a racial representative before it sees you
as a professional? If so, what effect does that have on youx
career?

How do you react to the assertion that the American

viewing audience is not enthusiastic about seeing Asians in
leading roles? Do you think the industry is prepared to use
Asians in leading roles on a consistent basis?

If someone argued that there was no market demand for

Asians in the motion picture or television industries, and that
market— not race— was the final determinant in the hiring or
non-hiring of Asians, would you agree or disagree?

As a minority, what kind of power do Asians have in

the film industry? Is there a bargaining position that Asians
can assume? Are you taken seriously by the industry? When you
speak, does the industry listen?

Has the industry's depiction of Asians and Asian themes

been accurate and fair? Have you noticed any changes in the por­
trayal of Asians and Asian themes?

Do you think the negative portrayal of one identifiable

Asian group spills over to all Asian groups? Is the same true
of positive portrayals?

W hy do you think an Asian actor or actress would accept

a role that is patently unflattering to the image of Asians? Do
you feel that as performers actors and actresses have a moral
obligation to improve, that is, balance, the Asian image?

Has the industry paid greater, lesser or equal attention

to Asian American or foreign Asian themes?

How important are writers to your profession? Do you

feel that there is a sufficient number of Asian writers in the
film and television industries?

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 -297-

Do you think non-Asians can -write works that adequately

reflect the feelings, culture, life-styles, and general substance
of Asian Americans?

To what extent are Asians represented in the executive

sector of the industry? How many Asian Producers or Directors
are there in the industry?

Is the industry justified in using stereotypes of any

kind? Do stereotypes play a legitimate role in the film in­
dustry? How would you deiine a stereotype?

Are positive stereotypes harmful? If there were no

stereotypes, would there be ethnic and racial equality in the
industry?

If someone argued that negative and stereotypical

imagery were used against Asians in the films in order to
re-create historical accuracy, and that the use of racial
slurs— among other things— was a natural concomitant, how
would you respond?

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

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30, 1973.

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 -316-

Sacramento, California. Chinese Immigration. The Social, Moral

and Political Effect of Chinese Immigration. Policy
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relating to Chinese,' with his objections thereto."

U.S. Congress, Senate, Japanese in the City of San Francisco,

California, Message from the President of the United

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 -317-

States, transmitting The Final Report of Secretary

Metcalf on the Situation Affecting the Japanese in
the City of San Francisco, California. Sen. Doc.
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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
 ON VISUAL MEDIA RACISM: ASIANS IN THE AMERICAN MOTION PICTURES

An Abstract of a Dissertation

Presented to

The Faculty of the Graduate School of International Studies

University of Denver

In Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree

Doctor of Philosophy

by

Eugene Franklin Wong

December, 1977

-321-

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
 An Abstract of a Dissertation

ON VISUAL MEDIA RACISM: ASIANS IN THE AMERICAN MOTION PICTURES

The purpose of the study was to make a historical

survey of the treatment of the Asian minorities in the American
feature films from 1930-1975. An investigation was conducted
into anti-Asiatic racism in the American motion picture industry
against the background of actual race relations in the United
States as well as in the United States' international relations
with Asia.
Prefaced by a brief note on the nature of America's
domestic and foreign race relations with the Asian minorities,
anti-Asiatic racism is defined in its institutional form as
applicable to the American motion picture industry. Filmic
equivalencies with American society's racist constructs and
attitudes, especially as influenced by white America's national
and international race relations with Asians, art located and
identified and operationalized. A total of 125 feature films
were viewed and analyzed, incorporating all written materials
attendant and available, for the purpose of determining the
dependability of certain propositions established for testing
prior to the viewings.
Although in context wider scope was given to anti-
Asiatic racism in American society and in the American motion
picture industry, the racist properties of role segregation,
major/minor role stratification, stereotypical delimitations,
death themes, and double standardized miscegenation were ex­
plored. Interviews, concomitantly, were conducted with Asian
actors and actresses in the Los Angeles-Hollywood area in order
to secure an interpretation of their views on the motion picture
industry's treatment of Asian performing artists and domestic
and foreign Asian subject matter..
It was concluded that, based upon both the analysis
of films and live interviews, institutional anti-Asiatic racism
in the American motion picture industry remains persistent over
ti m e .

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.