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A history of anti-Asian racism and yellowface in Hollywood after the 1941 Pearl Harbor attack.
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00:28Transcription by CastingWords
00:58Transcription by CastingWords
01:28Transcription by CastingWords
01:28Hollywood has a bad track record from way back, of course, showing ethnic minority groups of all kinds.
01:34You know, Native Americans, African Americans were always caricatured, almost always.
01:40Japanese Americans, Chinese Americans.
01:56All these groups were depicted usually in stereotypical ways.
01:59There are a lot of exceptions, you know, some good films.
02:02But the Japanese character is somewhat stereotypical, you know.
02:07And it is controversial, of course, when you have what they call yellow face now with white actors doing Japanese
02:15parts.
02:26In Hollywood, white actors are really at the top of the food chain.
02:32They get access to all the lead roles.
02:35They are, they even can play, you know, characters of color.
02:40Lovely ladies, kind gentlemen.
02:43Pleased to introduce myself.
02:46Succine by name, interpreter by profession.
02:52That is very different from actors of color, especially Asian American actors who rarely even get to play themselves because
03:00white actors are sometimes taking that role.
03:03And so not only are Asian American actors not part of the lead and being able to kind of build
03:10their star power, so then it becomes this cyclical problem where they're not getting cast as leads, and so then
03:18they don't become A-list actors.
03:19So then people are thinking, oh, well, we can't cast an Asian to play this role because they're not A
03:24-list.
03:24They're not going to, you know, be able to draw any audiences.
03:26So let's cast an A-list white actor instead to play that.
03:30And that has been the historical trend amongst, amongst the casting of Asian actors compared to white actors.
03:39Marlon Brando spent two months with an interpreter and a tape recorder to acquire the Okinawan accent required for his
03:46comedy portrayal of Sakini.
03:49Recognize him?
03:55Sayonada.
03:58They're very open to casting white actors as Asian Americans because it's been done in Hollywood, even though it's been
04:04offensive.
04:05Now they do it in different ways, like, oh, well, let's just make that, all of a sudden make an
04:09Asian character.
04:10Not Asian, but sort of Asian.
04:12And that has happened in, for example, Doctor Strange, where they have the ancient one who was in the comic
04:19books written as a Tibetan man.
04:22And they cast Tilda Swinton as it.
04:25And then they said, oh, well, she's not, she's not Tibetan anymore.
04:27She's, she's Celtic, right?
04:30And except that when you watch the film, it's, it takes place in Tibet.
04:34She's wearing very Asian-esque clothing.
04:37And the entire scene is obviously set in Asia.
04:49And so, and also Scarlett Johansson, who was in Ghost in the Shell, and that was based on a Japanese
04:53manga.
04:54And that character was, is a, you know, is a Japanese character.
04:58And then they just, they started to say when there was some protest against this casting, that, oh, she's not
05:04really Japanese.
05:05But then if you watch the film, it's set in Japan, and it turns out, I think the, the kind
05:10of ending is that she really is Japanese.
05:20There is a strange tradition in Hollywood films.
05:23Of course, you know, when you look at old Hollywood films, that's kind of a sign of our cultural imperialism
05:29that we play all parts.
05:47In the very, very beginning, even before Hollywood, we can go back a little bit, minstrelsy was something that was
05:53a, a theatrical entertainment that was, you know, it was performed on the streets.
05:59And it was performed by white ethnic actors in black face and yellow face and red face.
06:12And so they portrayed characters of color in exaggerated, often demeaning and caricature ways.
06:21And it was entertainment.
06:23And so that carried over to Hollywood.
06:25That was a very, very popular form of entertainment, and it carried over to Hollywood in the early days.
06:46For example, in The Good Earth, that was a dramatic, you know, based on a Pearl S. Buck bestselling novel.
06:55And so they cast a, a, a, a white actor as the male lead.
07:04And at the time, there was this, um, production code called The Haze Code.
07:14according to the Hays Code you can't have the actors even if they're portraying Asian to have
07:21any kind of cross-racial romance right and so to be able to portray that at all it makes sense
07:28that
07:28they would cast white actors on screen people of color and whites were not allowed to have any kind
07:40of even romantic suggestions and that happened even when white actors are playing characters of
07:46color right so even if you have two Chinese characters if one of them was played by a white
07:51actor the other character could not be played by a Chinese actor because that would be because
07:57audiences would understand that that's actually a white actor and a Chinese actor and therefore
08:01they can't have any romantic relationships if you love me if I please you
08:13it shall be done anything that was an internal Hollywood code that was based on kind of morality
08:25as well as anti-miscegenation laws that were happening in the United States where you know
08:30people whites and people of color were not allowed to have marital or romantic relationships in you
08:54and so they did this in order to make sure that the audiences in the conservative areas especially the South
09:02would not boycott or protest they wanted to be able to
09:07reach these audiences that they knew would be against any kind of interracial romance or interracial relationship
09:24that was an institutionalized way of preventing Asian American as well as other actors of color from achieving stardom because
09:32hey you know there is going to be a role that's actually about an Asian American
09:37person and and yet we can't cast an Asian American actor to play that because of this code
09:43oh oh I come from the south from way down south where the coal and potatoes used to grow there's
09:55a great big elegant picture show and my old Kentucky home is a French Chateau
10:00there were laws though against intermarriage miscegenation and in 1949 California
10:07uh allowed miscegenation that was a landmark but it wasn't until 1967 that interracial marriages were legalized throughout the U
10:17.S.
10:17in the Loving versus Virginia case which was a black woman and a white man
10:30I feel like that's that's always been Hollywood's um rationale for racism because they always say that well it's the
10:39audiences
10:39that is something that is from historical from the institutionalization of the Hays Code all the way to today where
10:47there is no Hays Code anymore
10:49but there's still that catering to the conservative audience
11:06there are a lot of exceptions you know some good films Cecil B. DeMille made a film in 1915 called
11:11The Cheat
11:12which is a good film but the Japanese character is somewhat stereotypical
11:21so in the example of The Cheat I find that really interesting because uh Sesue Haikawa who was actually a
11:29a um he was a matinee idol
11:31so he was actually seen as kind of sexy and interesting for you know for for um audiences to come
11:37and see
11:37but that always he was seen as the enemy right he he branded a white woman in that movie which
11:44is just I mean it's uncalled for
11:46I mean it's it seems obviously very barbarous
11:59right and at the same time I think he was also exoticized and he was there was intrigue about him
12:04so it's so that really captured the threat of the Asian but also the kind of the draw and allure
12:11of someone who is so different from us right
12:25Frank Capra made a great film The Bitterty of General Yan in 1933 which is about a Chinese general who's
12:33in love with Barbara Stanwyck
12:34it's a daring film for its time because it's about interracial love which is a huge taboo in American films
12:39and he got away with it and uh the Chinese general is played by a Swedish actor
12:57and you know there were good Asian actresses around they could have made more effort to find them
13:03I mean Anna May Wong had some career
13:05I mean if you look back on Fu Manchu and Charlie Chan these were series of films and television shows
13:21that kind of defined Asian Americans for so long right
13:26they like and they have different they'll have different white actors actually switch in for those roles right
13:30and so it doesn't matter you can you can put in like a million different kind of white actors for
13:35the same role
13:36and yet they they continue to reproduce the same kind of stereotype
13:40Christopher Lee is the dreaded Doctor Fu Manchu
13:44Then Doctor Ingrid Koch will die an extremely painful death
13:48because he actually had prosthetics put in to make his eyes look more Asian
13:53and so so this is kind of a you know still an example of yellow face
14:04Humble self responsible for Tip noticed large increase in number of secret agents since Fleet ordered back to Pacific
14:12and you have someone like Charlie Chan who I think who I would argue is the predecessor to kind of
14:17the model minority of today
14:19the kind of very um non-expressive you know has has kind of these wise saying like fortune cookie sayings
14:26and is passive but um and so he he's he was a very popular um TV character
14:3470 75 I got to slow it down Mr. Chan
14:37Too bad I was in hopes soon to overtake other cars
14:42and so today you know we still have um in my interviews with a casting director
14:47one said that she said that it was common for casting directors think of Asian actors as not very expressive
14:53You two supposed to take baggage to a hotel
14:56We did Bob then we came looking for you you know we have to look after you
15:01Racism was so pervasive in American society a lot of people didn't even think about it
15:06In fact no trouble is too big for us
15:08Some of your trouble too big for me
15:11Come we must investigate slight case of murder
15:15Murder? Well here I come
15:17Here I go
15:18So that happened during you know throughout kind of um the wars with Asia
15:22So it's really easy to kind of um portray Asian you know threats right
15:28In the same time that you know that that Asia is seen as the enemy
15:31When uh the war came America was very slow to enter the war because we're
15:38Isolationism was very strong in America
15:41But Pearl Harbor galvanized people and um it is quite clear that Roosevelt wanted us to get into war
15:48He knew that we had to defeat fascism in Europe
15:51A state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire
16:03On December 7th 1941 Japan like its infamous Axis partners struck first and declared war afterwards
16:12Costly to our Navy was the loss of war vessels airplanes and equipment
16:16In immediately unifying America in its determination to fight and win the war thrust upon it
16:22And to win the peace that will follow
16:24The record of American films is just appalling in that period
16:28And uh the Purple Heart and uh other films just depict them as savages
16:33And you know certain caricaturistic physical traits that they love to harp on
16:40The Japanese will win
16:42He wears wood fiber clothes, cardboard shoes
16:45He carefully eats one third of his usual diet
16:48He works 14 hours a day, 7 days a week
16:53And our soldiers ask their troops at Bataan
16:56We do not leave any place that we want
16:58You must kill us
17:00We will win this war because we are willing to sacrifice 10 million lives
17:06How many lives is the white man willing to sacrifice?
17:11I just watched Know Your Enemy Japan again, Capra's outrageous film
17:15And it was just a nonstop parade of racist cliches
17:20He is prouder still of the fact that to be a soldier is the highest human achievement in Japan
17:25He has been trained to be a soldier almost from birth
17:28And into his tough little mind has been drilled and hammered the fanatical belief that Japanese are descendants of gods
17:35And destined to rule the earth and all who live on it
17:40To this end, treachery, brutality, rape and torture are all justified if used against non-Japanese
17:49And the films were made basically for two reasons
17:52One was to motivate them to fight
17:53Because a lot of Americans didn't know why, you know, why we were fighting
17:58And then the other was to educate them in the reasons for fighting
18:01He lives on rice
18:05Rice and fish, or occasionally rice and meat
18:07But often on rice alone
18:10And he's prouder
18:17So they would make these films to pressurize people to do things in those days
18:23And that's how it worked
18:24There wasn't television as much, but there were motion pictures
18:28They would show some of these in theaters
18:29There was an intentionality on the U.S. government to use Hollywood as propagandistic, right?
18:36So a lot of cartoons actually were used during World War II that portrayed the Japanese as enemies
18:43Help!
18:45Go to Tokyo! Help!
18:46Go to Tokyo!
18:50I actually saw one where it was Bugs Bunny
18:53It was called Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips
18:55And Nips was a derogatory term for Japanese
18:59And it portrayed them as
19:02It was interesting because it portrayed them with really big feet
19:05They were very animalistic, so they had the bug teeth and the glasses
19:08But they also had, they were barefoot and had these really big feet
19:13Like they were animals, right?
19:15So it's really easy, I think, to portray an entire race
19:20As animals, you know, in order to kind of then justify killing them, right?
19:26Justify marking them as an enemy, dehumanizing them
19:29Hurry, hurry, hurry, get around, they're cold
19:35Here, one for you monkey face
19:37Here you are slain eyes, everybody gets one
19:40I would argue that the entertainment is even more dangerous than the obvious propaganda, right?
19:47Because when you're watching something as entertainment, you're not even looking at it critically
19:51You're thinking, this is how it is, right? Because your filters are down
19:55And actually, in the war effort, that entertainment is the best way to do propaganda
20:12If you have Bugs Bunny, who's iconic, right? I mean, he was beloved
20:16If Bugs Bunny, you know, thinks the Japanese are enemy, then they must be enemies, right?
20:21So it's much more effective to have already established kind of movie stars or cartoon stars
20:28To kind of participate in the propaganda in ways that then the U.S. audience is going to consume without
20:37any filters
20:37And going to consume and believe that is real
20:54Even though Hollywood, you know, it's not like we can say Hollywood made the Japanese enemies
21:00It doesn't help when you have something going back to the cheat, right?
21:04You have something going back to Setsuo Hayakawa, who despite being a matinee idol
21:08Was branding white women, right? On screen
21:11And seen as a, you know, a barbarous other, right?
21:15Always seen as other, never seen as an American
21:19Even though, you know, we had all these Japanese Americans as farmers
21:23And, you know, they were very much incorporated into the United States
21:30And working really hard and contributing to society
21:35And yet, that was never seen on screen
21:42There were a lot of, really, slurs against Japanese Americans
21:45And basically portraying them all as spies and disloyal
21:55But a lot of the Japanese Americans were, they had been here a long time or at least a generation
22:02or two
22:14The whole country was galvanized into war
22:17And then Hitler declared war in the United States
22:21Two days after our Congress declared war in Japan
22:24But then, very soon after that, in early 42
22:29The planning started soon after Pearl Harbor to round up the Japanese Americans
22:34In California, especially in other western states
22:37And put them in detention camps
22:39As enemy aliens, you know, dangerous people
22:55They put them in buses and trains and took them to these camps
22:58And they were very minimal, way out in the middle of nowhere
23:09The terrible irony, of course, is that there wasn't a single Japanese American American
23:14Whoever was convicted of spying for the Japanese during the war
23:18It was an illusion
23:20And they rounded these people up and put them in camps
23:23And took their homes away and their farms
23:32And a lot of people think it was partly due to the racism of white farmers wanting their land
23:38Because these Japanese immigrants had done very well, as farmers especially, and had a lot of property and were prosperous
24:01And so they took their land away and they claimed they were going to save it for them and they
24:06didn't
24:06And a lot of them came back at the end of the war and they found they had no property
24:10left
24:16A number of Japanese were shot, trying to escape or killed for various reasons
24:26So my family, the Tomita family, was interned in Manzanar
24:39My family, they dressed up in their clothes to go to the assembly centre
24:46Thinking that they were going to some place special where they would be safe and protected
24:51They didn't know they were going to the horse stalls
24:53They didn't know they were going to be living in where the horse shit would be, where hay was
25:11They brought one suitcase each
25:15They had to make their own beds of hay
25:20One really great thing that I think my father and my uncles told me is that
25:24Because my grandmother and grandfather, my jichan bachan were farmers
25:30That they didn't know what they were going to
25:33That they brought seeds, packages of seeds
25:37Because they didn't know if they were going to get the kind of food they were going to be eating
25:42Japanese, they prepare their cabbage, they prepare their lettuce, they prepare their tomatoes in very simple ways
25:48They didn't know if they were going to get American food, which was in cans
26:00That was a really very small detail, how they went to the bathroom
26:08You know, there's no private toilets, there were just stalls for animals to go through
26:13There were no partitions, there were no doors for women to go to the bathroom
26:19There were these kinds of details that I asked my uncles, I asked so many people of, you know, of
26:25certain ages who went to camp
26:27How did they live? How did they survive? What are the details that they had?
26:34There's so many more stories that their farms were taken away, their houses were sold for $50
26:43All my family lost everything
26:47And the focus on proving themselves to be American is that they stopped speaking Japanese
26:57Because they didn't want to be seen as being the enemy
27:12There were 10 WRA camps, or relocation authority camps
27:19Spread out throughout the United States
27:21From Colorado, Macho, Colorado, Heart Mountain, Wyoming, Poston, Arizona
27:27California, Manzanar, Tule Lake, California
27:30Which eventually became a segregation camp for dissidents
27:34Heart Mountain, Wyoming, where my father was put in a camp
27:50They were American citizens
27:53Over 120,000 Japanese Americans were interned
27:57And two thirds of those people were born here in the United States
28:03So they were stripped of their civil rights
28:05And denied due process
28:08And basically imprisoned in barbed wire camps
28:20There were Japanese American boys whose families were interned
28:24They were going off to fight, right, on behalf of the United States
28:27So this kind of desire to prove their loyalty
28:31Despite the fact that their entire family was being, you know, was being imprisoned
28:43After the war and the release of the Japanese American internees
28:48Coming back to their hometown, so my family came back to Los Angeles
28:54And they were housed in temporary housing barrack at the airport
29:01But there were curfews in place
29:03Because there were still restrictions as to their movement
29:07That they couldn't
29:08I believe they were not allowed to assemble in more than groups of five
29:14If there were more than, and I come from a family of eight
29:17It's like if there was a group of five or more, they were suspicious
29:20So there were a lot of restrictions immediately after the war
29:25That Japanese Americans couldn't get together
29:30And to organize
29:31And to find a living
29:38After the war, things started changing, you know
29:40I mean, because we wanted to be friends with our former enemies
29:44Which was smart, because we learned a lesson from World War I
29:47When the Allies punished Germany after the war, that was a terrible mistake
29:55So the Japanese became our friends
29:57And that's one of the great ironies of the post-war world
30:06Also, they were demonizing the Russians because the Cold War was getting underway
30:11Because as World War II was winding down, they started focusing on Russia as going to be our enemy
30:20So there was a lot of paranoia
30:27The prevailing theory today is we dropped the atomic bombs in Japan
30:31Because we were trying to intimidate Russia
30:34We really didn't have to drop the bombs, Japan was basically defeated
30:38But the Russians were about to enter the war and we wanted to scare them off
30:45We wanted to be friends with Germany and Japan
30:49And of course, we ruled those two countries for years
30:54You know, we were the occupying forces
30:56And so we rewrote their constitutions
30:59And we ran those countries and changed their cultures and everything
31:03But what about the troops that are arriving on Okinawa today?
31:07What will they find on this, our most important military base in the Far East?
31:13They will find a modern community in many respects very similar to many communities in America
31:18They will find a place where they can make a home for their family
31:22And live as Americans are usually accustomed to
31:26In all this, the Okinawans have learned much of Western men
31:31They have learned new skills, discovered a higher standard of living
31:34And enjoyed new forms of recreation
31:37But how has all this activity affected the Okinawans?
31:41Under American guidance, the island has turned into a prosperous, modern community
31:46They started showing us the Japanese were like us, they're our friends, and they love baseball
31:52But the soldier didn't have to understand it all to appreciate it
31:56And in his appreciation of the things Japan had to offer
31:59He earned the goodwill of the Japanese people
32:02As well as finding pleasure himself in the enjoyment of new experiences
32:07All of a sudden, you know, Japan is now an ally
32:10And also, I think there's more understanding
32:13Also, it's interesting because I think that post-war, when the soldiers come back, right?
32:19So then they're starting to bring back knowledge of their time in Asia
32:24Or their time interacting with Asians
32:27That there's greater understanding
32:29And especially when the geopolitical movement changes and the tides shift
32:36When all of a sudden this group that was our enemy is now our ally
32:44The American army made a rather silly film around that time, which is somewhat similar
32:51It's called Japanese Bride in America
32:54And it's a propaganda film meant to show
32:57You know, it's an acted film with a good actress playing this Japanese bride
33:03Who comes home with a young American husband
33:08In 1945, after the war had ended, I met an American soldier named Walter Lutz
33:16We fell in love
33:19Everything is nice, everybody's nice
33:22The only thing that happens that's negative is they're walking down the street
33:25And some lady gives her a dirty look
33:27And then the narrator says, oh, well, she was upset
33:30But this woman's son had been killed in Iwo Jima, so
33:34My wife understood how she felt
33:37That's it, you know
33:39We did get a look of real resentment from one woman
33:44She had lost a son at Iwo Jima
33:48Miwako was disturbed
33:51But when I explained, she understood
33:55I knew she was still feeling a little strange
33:57And I thought some new clothes might make her feel better
34:02So we went shopping
34:04It was much worse in some cases for Japanese women trying to adapt
34:08They really tried to assimilate, but they weren't always accepted
34:13The Mrs. Ratz had become a second mother to me
34:28In Hollywood history, it's always about
34:34Fantasy
34:35It's about sexual fantasy
34:37It's about love fantasies
34:42How do you do and welcome
34:45My name is Mi Kotaka
34:48I have been asked to tell you about a motion picture called Sayonara
34:53Sayonara was photographed on actual location in Japan
34:59The word Sayonara means goodbye
35:03And yet it means so much more
35:05As you discover when you see this entirely different motion picture
35:10That wonderful romantic movie where an American soldier goes over and falls in love with a Takarazuka dancer
35:17It was a romantic film, you know, we have the true Romeo and Juliet kind of tragic history
35:26The story that happens between the Red Buttons character and the Miyoshi Umeki character
35:30But then you get the strong, handsome, heroic American soldier played by Marlon Brando
35:38Basically falling in love and being
35:42Falling in love and loving Japanese culture through Japanese women
35:47I have never been in love
35:49I have never been in love
35:50But I have dreamed about it
35:53And it's the fantasy of women in the beautiful geisha makeup
35:57And Takarazuka is a very, very high polished art form
36:04She's an entertainer, she's skilled in dance, she's skilled in singing
36:09And my mother still loves the fact that there was a Hollywood movie starring Marlon Brando
36:15And he falls in love with the geisha because it romanticizes Japan
36:20Sayonara
36:21Goodbye
36:24I'm sure we'll meet again soon
36:29They are not prostitutes
36:31They are not prostitutes
36:33Geishas do not equal prostitutes
36:36But somehow in 2018 it's still that kind of belief still exists
36:42That Japanese women dressed in the beautiful geisha with the white makeup and the painted red lips
36:48They are very small but very petite with the kimono, with the fan, with everything
36:53That's a very, very beautiful but it's a very specific type of Japanese cultured woman
37:02It seems to have impacted the impression of what Japanese women are
37:09The Barbarian and the Geisha, the horrible John Wayne movie
37:14Where again, the white man is going to rescue the Japanese woman
37:18And take the beautiful Japanese flower of a woman
37:21You know, to be his loving wife, to be his subservient wife
37:26America
37:29So far away
37:33Not so far away that I'll forget you
37:37Every time I see a woman with ornaments in her hair
37:41I'll think of Okichi with the yellow combs
37:45But, of course, the romanticization falls into cliché
37:50And it falls into prejudice
37:53It falls into not the racial kind of prejudice
37:56Where it's, you know, that Japanese women are
37:59It becomes, they're all delicate flowers
38:03That we all know how to dance
38:04That we all serve tea
38:06That we're all very genteel
38:13We need to tell a little bit more truthful portrayals of Japanese
38:18But also we just need to portray people who are just regular people
38:21Who have nothing to do with their culture
38:23It's like, I'm as an American as, you know, the girl next door
38:28There are some outrageous examples
38:30Probably the most extreme is Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany's
38:34Where he plays this very, very extreme, silly Japanese caricature
38:40And it's a good film
38:41And then he's, otherwise, suddenly he appears from time to time as Mr. Yunyoshi
38:47And it's really embarrassing today
39:01Won't you join me?
39:02Yes, join Audrey Hepburn as you've never seen her before
39:06Breakfast at Tiffany's
39:08I think that was one of the most popular movies of its time
39:11Audrey Hepburn's so glamorous
39:13Except that it's got one of the worst caricatures of Japanese Americans
39:18And Japanese people in the history of Yellow Face, right?
39:22So we have Mickey Rooney, who is a white, you know, very famous white musical
39:26You know, very huge star, playing a Japanese character
39:30And he's got the buck teeth, the black, you know, glasses
39:35And he's wearing a kimono, he's walking around really strange
39:38Bumps into things because, you know, Asians are clumsy or something
39:42So it's this, the kind of bumbling idiot, right?
39:46And also speaks with a very heavy, exaggerated accent
39:49But that was two weeks ago!
39:51You cannot go on or keep ringing my bill!
39:54It really makes me so angry
39:56It makes me so angry that the depiction of Mickey Rooney
39:59Who has since apologized, as well as Blake Edwards
40:03For that nasty impression of a Japanese man
40:07It just makes me so angry that that was deemed as funny
40:11That was deemed as hysterical, that was deemed as humorous
40:14And I saw it and I go, what the fuck is this?
40:18It was, this is a Japanese man
40:20He has nothing to do with what my father is
40:22Or my grandfather is
40:24Or so many Japanese or Japanese American men I know
40:28It was such an embarrassment
40:33The two examples of Marlon Brando in Tea House of the August Mooning
40:38Playing Sekini and Mickey Rooney
40:40Is that they're playing Japanese men
40:42Pulling their eyes into squinty
40:44Wearing bad yellow makeup
40:47And putting on a very, very, very bad accent
40:52Marlon Brando, whose talents have ranged from William Shakespeare to Damon Runyon
40:56Is out of this world as Sakini
40:59Sakini Hillwolf
41:00Don't ever put your finger on an officer
41:03It's a little confusing and disturbing
41:07But as long as we know that it's only a moment in time
41:12These Hollywood films take place
41:14It's a picture, it's a photograph, it's a Polaroid
41:18Of how we wanted to tell stories in that particular time and place
41:23Sakini!
41:24Yes, boss
41:25You are a civilian employee in the pay of the United States Army
41:29Man should dress accordingly
41:31Pull your socks up
41:33Very sorry boss, very sorry
41:36Socks up
41:38Anything warm, boss?
41:39That'll be all
41:42Is that as fast as you can walk?
41:44No, no boss, but to walk any faster, socks fall down
41:49And that's how I've always felt growing up and watching these old films
41:54Is that they didn't really understand who Japanese people were
41:58They didn't really understand who Chinese Americans were
42:00They just saw them as other
42:18The Korean War started to open up the world to more bigger audiences and that we want to see more
42:25stories dealing with these beautiful places because we've already championed them. We've won over, you know, the world's bigger.
42:32You know, the Japanese in World War II
42:34We won in the Korean War
42:35We won in the Korean War
42:37We won in the Korean War
42:37And we're entering the Vietnam War
42:39It's that we're trying to see how we're becoming a little bit more global, a little bit more educated
42:51And also I think greater recognition with getting closer to the civil rights era, that there is just more, also
42:59like during the civil rights era there was also a third world movement
43:02So as you're moving closer to the Vietnam War, the young people are starting to have a greater understanding of
43:10geopolitics and starting to rebel against kind of older sentiments of seeing these parts of the world as enemy, right?
43:19Or this group of people like people of color as enemy and women's rights
43:24And I think that there's just the beginning of kind of an awakening of, oh, we have issues
43:40So a lot of these race movies came out, so even kind of Crimson Kimono
43:45The sensational murder of Sugar Torch, Burlesque Queen, triggers a manhunt in the teeming streets of Little Tokyo in Los
43:51Angeles
43:52And fires a turbulent love story between an American girl and a Japanese boy
43:58You mean you want to marry her?
44:01You wouldn't have said it that way if I were white
44:03One of the most interesting films is Samuel Fuller's The Crimson Kimono, which came out in 1958
44:10It was about two policemen in Los Angeles investigating a crime in Little Tokyo, which is a part of downtown
44:18LA where a lot of Japanese people had lived and had businesses
44:22And one of these detectives and one of these detectives is Japanese American and one is white angle guy
44:29And the white woman in the film winds up with the Japanese American guy, she prefers him to the white
44:37guy
44:37And they kiss and that was a big deal and nobody else was doing that kind of thing
45:00Fuller was a tough-minded guy who understood social issues and he was not afraid of controversies and he loved
45:07plunging into controversies, very liberal guy, very democratic
45:13But it was a very personal movie to Samuel Fuller
45:17He wanted to show a romance between a Japanese American male and a white American female, which really hadn't been
45:28done before
45:37And he tried to sell the idea to Sam Briskin, who was the producer there
45:44And Sam, as to be expected in 1959, he wasn't exactly thrilled by the idea
45:51He was saying, well, you know, you're gonna have to make the white cop who's the third part of the
45:56triangle a bad guy
45:58But Samuel Fuller resisted, he wanted them both to be good cops
46:03Back in the 50s, this was a dicey thing
46:06Living with you here like this brings dishonor on them
46:12And they hate any of us who give that impression to foreigners
46:15Sam led the way with House of Bamboo
46:18He deals with complex relationships between Americans and Japanese after the war
46:25You don't tell them the truth, they're gonna get rid of me, understand?
46:28Now what's my name?
46:30Then he realizes there are issues that come up
46:32And conflicts and sexual conflicts and personal conflicts
46:36And so he deals with them honestly
46:37I don't want anything to happen to you
46:40But they're refreshing today because they seem much more modern like we think today
46:44Like, oh, okay, these are human conflicts
46:47And there's no bias that Sam had against any ethnic group or anything
46:53And that's so refreshing because, I mean, Hollywood has just a terrible history of mistreating ethnic groups of all kinds
47:141988 and 1989
47:16I had the great opportunity to film the piece, Come See the Paradise
47:21Written and directed by the British director Alan Parker
47:24No, no, no, no!
47:27Talk to me, Mama
47:28It was a depiction of a true story
47:33But based with fictional characters that Alan Parker was inspired to write about
47:39Dealing with the Japanese-American internment camps
47:42My wife is an American citizen, sir
47:45You think the camps are wrong?
47:47Yes, sir, I do
47:48Camp? You call this a camp?
47:51This is a damned outdoor jail!
47:54It was written and made and directed by a British director, Alan Parker
48:00Who was successful in getting 20th Century Fox to finance the film about a Japanese-American family
48:08And the girl of that family falling in love with a Caucasian union laborer played by Dennis Quaid
48:14And he saw that as an opportunity to tell a horrific chapter of American history
48:19And being a non-American, I think he had a very, a more objective point of view
48:25Looking at America as a nation of many cultures
48:30But that the government can do that to a certain group of people
48:34This is America, Basil, remember, you're an American
48:37We're at war now
48:38What are you talking about?
48:41Ain't you heard?
48:42The Japs just bombed Pearl Harbor
48:45Come See the Paradise is the only film on the Japanese-American concentration camps
48:51But, again, we also have to remember that it was made in 1990
48:56And so we are here in 2018
48:59And we can do better and hopefully it will provoke
49:03It will inspire, it will impact other filmmakers to make
49:07Not only films on Japanese-American internment
49:10But other historical events that really have
49:14Shaped our country's notion and impression of ourselves
49:19As well as around the world, so
49:22Jack, Jack, listen
49:23She's Japanese, Jack
49:24Yeah?
49:25We'll find you a nice American girl
49:26What I can never be
49:28Not ever
49:29Is Japanese
49:31But I couldn't love Lily more
49:36Yeah
49:37And partly the problem is there's just not enough representation
49:39Even during the Cold War era, we could still list like three or four, you know, movies at most, right?
49:44And so when we're, when people are basing those images, you know, their ideas of Japanese-Americans or Asian-Americans
49:52just on like four or five films
49:55It's problematic, right? Because those images can't stand in for the diversity of experiences
50:01I mean, if you think about Asia, it is a huge, huge region with so many different cultures, different languages
50:08I mean, in Asia, people don't think of themselves as Asian
50:11They think of themselves as Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Filipino
50:14A lot of people see, especially in Middle America, especially in pockets of the world where they don't get a
50:22chance to meet persons of a particular culture
50:26Film is that important, it's perhaps their own, their, their, their, their only education sometimes in, in introducing themselves to
50:34the world
50:47On August 15th 2018, Crazy Rich Asians is coming to the screen
50:52And that's going to be the first time in a long time where we get to see an Asian fellow
50:57fall in love with an Asian girl
50:59And that's kind of novel, especially for a Hollywood film
51:03So as persons of Asian descent, not only here in America, but we're looking forward to the success of that
51:11film because it's a little bit more real
51:24The Kevin Kwan, who is an Asian American author who wrote this, you know, New York Times bestseller book
51:29They, when he, when they decided to make a film adaptation
51:32People asked him if they could make the lead, who is an, who is a Chinese American woman who goes
51:38to Asia, right?
51:39Cause she's like, oh my gosh, these crazy rich Asians, I'm just Asian American, what is this about?
51:43They wanted to make her white, right?
51:45They asked if they could make her white, and he's like, you've missed the entire point of my novel
51:49And he, as an Asian American writer, can say like, no, I don't want that to be the adaptation of
51:55my story
52:04I mean, like growing up as a young person, and so it's, it's happening now that I'm older
52:09But I'm so glad that young Asian American women are going to be able to at least see one representation
52:13of themselves
52:25Asian stereotypes are probably one of the long, one of the long lasting ones from the beginning to now
52:30Where, um, it's only until recent, I think, that people are, are really seeing an uproar
52:35Um, and I think that it's because Asian Americans are really taking to social media
52:41They're starting to organize more, and they are, they are making a fuss
52:46And we have allies, right?
52:47From other groups of color who, who say, we don't want to see, you know, whitewashed characters
52:51We actually want to see Asian actors playing
52:53We want to see a Japanese actress play, you know, the major in Ghost in the Shell
52:58We don't want to see Scarlett Johansson, right?
53:07If you put all people of color together, they are actually an incredible, um, powerful audience that, that will make
53:14or break a show
53:14And also the idea that white audiences won't watch audiences, you know, with, uh, won't watch shows with people of
53:21color
53:21For example, Black Panther, I mean, that has done well internationally, right?
53:25So that's just not true, that's a, that's a lie that Hollywood still perpetuates, um, based on what it's believed
53:32in the past
53:40We are the leads of our own rom-coms, right? In our own lives
53:43But never seeing that on screen is really problematic
53:47And you, you just feel completely alienated, literally, right?
53:50We're seen as others, and we feel ourselves that we don't belong in the kind of fabric of, of, uh,
53:56the American narrative, so
53:58So
54:22It's really alright, thank you so much
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