Q1: How does the film relate to the chapter in Foner?
Foner talks about the rising tensions between Japan and the United States because Japan decided to align itself with Germany. The US cut off oil supplies to Japan. The culmination of these tensions was the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The blow was unexpected and forced the US into the war. After the Japanese forced 78,000 Americans to surrender in the Philippines, “thousands perished on the ensuing “death march” to a prisoner of war camp, and thousands more of disease and starvation after they arrived” (804-805.) This gives some indication of how prisoners of war were treated by the Japanese. This relates to the movie because the film depicts eight soldiers held as prisoners of war. They are put on trial for murder, which breaks agreements about how prisoners of war are to be treated, and the whole thing is something of a three ring circus. The Japanese basically just want to get information out of the soldiers and have no interest in a just trial. The atrocities faced by real life soldiers match up with those of the film soldiers to some degree. Often, the soldiers are taken off camera and tortured in a manner unknown to the audience.
Q2: What can we learn about American culture during the time period by interpreting the film as a primary historical source?
Viewing this as a historical source tells us that Americans were widely afraid of the Japanese, most likely due to the attack on Pearl Harbor (which was the first attack on US soil since the war of 1812.) This fear is the reason the Japanese are portrayed as caricatures, a way to dehumanize them. Also because of this fear, “authorities removed over 110,000 Japanese men, women, and children – nearly two-thirds of them American citizens – to interment camps far from their homes” (823.) In contrast to the Japanese, the American soldiers are portrayed as heroes, which would suggest a strong support for the troops.
Q3: What does the film reveal about attitudes towards gender, class, and race?
Race is the most dealt with topic and it shows the overall fear of the Japanese people. Other than that, gender, class, and race don’t really play a role in the film.
Q4: What was the most important scene in the film?
The most important scene in the film comes right after the men put their wings in the cup. The wings symbolize whether to reveal the information that the Japanese want or to withhold it and face death. It is decided that if even one man wants to tell, than the others would comply. That one man simply needs to break his wings and put them in cup. The “judge” pulls the wings out one at a time, each fully intact. The captain rejoices in the fact that his men are still supporting each other even after the horror they have been forced to endure.
Review
I’ll give the film 3.5 out of 5 because I liked the overall concept. The fact that the movie was made and released before it became know that these events pretty much had happened was cool. But I felt like the film dragged at times. The caricatures of the Japanese were somewhat distasteful for me but I acknowledge that is because I wasn’t in the same mindset towards the Japanese as people were right after Pearl Harbor.
