Tuesday, December 17, 2024

Go For Broke! (1951) Japanese-Americans killing Nazis


Van Johnson stars as lieutenant assigned to the 442nd Regimental Combat Team made up mostly of Japanese-American volunteers. We see one of the men mailing food and other supplies to his family in an internment camp. Another mentions family members in the U.S. threatened with lynching. 

Some of the actors had been in the regiment themselves. I don't know how they felt about it. Men get killed unexpectedly but it wasn't a big gore fest like Saving Private Ryan. 

The movie was fairly successful in its day. You'd think it would have taught Hollywood the advantages of not using white actors to play Asian characters. 

Four years before Bad Day at Black Rock. There was a 1945 radio drama from just after World War Two dealing with anti-Japanese racism in the U.S.

The movie is public domain. I saw it on Pub-D-Hub but it's probably available elsewhere. 

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