Ken Watanabe to Direct “Go For Broke” Movie?

With TBS working on a mini series about Japanese American internment camps during the war, I think it’s a great time for this topic to be explored. I watched the 1951 movie and was surprised at how it did actually confront the racism that was directed towards the Japanese, albeit in the Paternal White Man saves face type of way.

As someone who had two granduncles who served in the 442nd, I find myself slightly uneasy with this new “Go For Broke” movie.

1. The level of realism needed to be a modern, gritty war film was really pushed to a new level with Saving Private Ryan. It makes other films, from The Sands of Iwo Jima to Windtalkers and Miracle at St. Anna look like cartoons in comparison. If Ken Watanabe isn’t willing to step up to that level, I’d rather he not make it at all.

2. I would prefer the film to not be too didactic. The story is told by the fact that these guys were there, in Sicily, Italy, and France, while their families were in places like Tule Lake and Poston. Yes, I understand their backgrounds. My entire family was there. I just don’t want to see the point belabored.

3. There are not a lot of Japanese American actors out there who are of age to play soldiers. And to be perfectly honest, I would rather have Japanese American actors. This is our story, and to paraphrase Frank Knox, it will define Japanese Americans for the next 500 years. If this turns into another Memoirs of a Geisha, Japanese Americans are going to be up in arms.

4. Describing the missions the 100/442 undertook as “suicide missions” makes it sound as though they were considered expendable and implies that their lives were worth less than white men. While I and many Japanese Americans have issues with General Dahlquist and some others in the Army chain of command, it was not Army policy that they were to be sent on “suicide missions”, and many white units sustained casualties comparable to those of the 442nd.

I just don’t want to see a poorly made cheesy melodrama made about the 442nd. The Go For Broke movie made in 1951 is actually very good for its time. Let it stand.

1) While fighting needs to be depicted reasonably, Saving Private Ryan doesn’t need competition. A good story needs to be told. I’d rather not sit through another lame and gruesome depiction of people heroically maintaining their human identity whilst living inside a cloud of violence and death.

2) Like you, however, I want a good movie – not a moralizing documentary.

3) Is there some reason _not_ to hire Japanese, or other people who look close enough and can pass for Japanese-Americans( Koreans, Filipinos, Mexicans, etc… anyone) and can adequately fake a Japanese-American accent? Personal history and American history are ultimately World history anyway and not just because the film will probably a hit world-wide either. It’s all anthropology. It’s part of the story of mankind so it’s everyones story.

4) I’ve heard this too from Japanese-American WWII soldiers and internees in Japantown San Jose and in Mountain View.

It would be great to have a movie about the 442nd RCT, if done properly.  Most people assume that only Japanese Americans served in the 442nd RCT, if you check the membership rolls of the 442nd RCT, you will see a large number of other ethnic Asian Americans groups who served with them to include Chinese-Americans, Filipino-Americans, and Hawaiian-Americans.  When the unit was first formed, the majority of the 442nd were Americans of Japanese descent, but casualties dictated inclusion of other Asian ethnic groups as replacements.  I know this from experience, as a couple of uncles served in this unit.