1944 WWII propaganda movie about the fliers who were captured after the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo Japan on April 18, 1942. Of the 80 US fliers involved 71 including Gen. Doolittle made it to safety and of the eight that were captured by the Japanese; three not all eight like in the movie "The Purple Heart" were executed.
Ridiculously played out in a Shang-Hai courtroom with the captured US fliers having the run of the courtroom. Breaking out with bombastic and patriotic laden speeches as the almost befuddled Japanese justices and military men stand open-mouth and stunned. Making it look like that they were so impressed by the Americans eloquent oratory that they were left completely speechless.
I doubt that this was in real life but in the movie the American fliers represent almost every nationality, with the exception of a black and Hispanic,that you can find. Understandingly back in 1944 the movie had to overdo the goodness of the captured US fliers and at the same time dehumanize the evil and treacherous "Japs", but was so outrageous that watching it now the movie almost made the "Japs" look good at the expense of the captured and heroic Americans. There was also a scene in the movie where it supported the killing of one's father by a son in favor of strangers, the Americans, who testified against them. This was like the movies made in the 1950's like "My Son John" were it was encouraged for parents to turn over their sons and daughters to the police or FBI if they suspected that they were communists. Even if they were not a threat to the countries security but only talked about how great it, communism, was.
One scene that seemed to be completely overlooked in the movie that the film makers put in trying to show how insane the Japanese were and how normal and feeling the Americans were was the comparison between Japanese Gen. Mitsubi, Richard Loo, and the US. Gen. MacAthur. Gen. Mitsubi shoots himself when he can't get the US fliers to admit that they came from the aircraft carrier Hornet, which they did, because he felt that he fell down on his job. This without getting anybody under his command killed or wounded. All Gen. Mitsubi wanted was to make a point and the general is made in the movie to look like a crazed lunatic. Earlier in the movie when it's reported that Corrigador fell to the Japanese and that Gen. MacAthur fled and left his troops behind the captured US fliers acted as if Gen. MacAthur did a great and heroic act. As pilot Capt. Ross, Dana Andrews, remarked:"The General did what he had to do and we'll do what we have to do" which was saying nothing to their Japanese captors about where they came from, the Hornet,and getting executed! Now that's whats meant by rank has it's privileges.
The Japanese judges tried very hard to prove that the Americans bombed Japanese civilian targets, and as far as I know about the Doolittle Raid they didn't, to make the US look bad to the world and trumped up evidence to make it look that way.In reality when we look back at the massive B29 fire-bombing attacks on Japan it should have been an open and shut case for them without making up the facts.
Hundreds of thousands of innocent Japanese were killed in fire bombing of Japanese cities that had nothing to do with the Japanese war effort but everything to do with terrorizing the Japanese population. An action that was condemned by the Nuremberg War Crime Tribune as a major war crime and had hundreds of German and Japanese officials who were convicted of it executed or jailed for life. Also the atomic attacks on Japan in August 1945 with the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagagsaki are now believed to have been totally uncalled for. Since we know now that Japan was secretly trying to surrender to the allies at the time and that even Gen. MacAthur and Gen. Eisenhower were against using them on Japan. It now turns out that the dropping of the atomic bombs was a political not military decision, to impress USSR dictator Joseph Stalin, by the then US President Harry S.Truman.
Ridiculously played out in a Shang-Hai courtroom with the captured US fliers having the run of the courtroom. Breaking out with bombastic and patriotic laden speeches as the almost befuddled Japanese justices and military men stand open-mouth and stunned. Making it look like that they were so impressed by the Americans eloquent oratory that they were left completely speechless.
I doubt that this was in real life but in the movie the American fliers represent almost every nationality, with the exception of a black and Hispanic,that you can find. Understandingly back in 1944 the movie had to overdo the goodness of the captured US fliers and at the same time dehumanize the evil and treacherous "Japs", but was so outrageous that watching it now the movie almost made the "Japs" look good at the expense of the captured and heroic Americans. There was also a scene in the movie where it supported the killing of one's father by a son in favor of strangers, the Americans, who testified against them. This was like the movies made in the 1950's like "My Son John" were it was encouraged for parents to turn over their sons and daughters to the police or FBI if they suspected that they were communists. Even if they were not a threat to the countries security but only talked about how great it, communism, was.
One scene that seemed to be completely overlooked in the movie that the film makers put in trying to show how insane the Japanese were and how normal and feeling the Americans were was the comparison between Japanese Gen. Mitsubi, Richard Loo, and the US. Gen. MacAthur. Gen. Mitsubi shoots himself when he can't get the US fliers to admit that they came from the aircraft carrier Hornet, which they did, because he felt that he fell down on his job. This without getting anybody under his command killed or wounded. All Gen. Mitsubi wanted was to make a point and the general is made in the movie to look like a crazed lunatic. Earlier in the movie when it's reported that Corrigador fell to the Japanese and that Gen. MacAthur fled and left his troops behind the captured US fliers acted as if Gen. MacAthur did a great and heroic act. As pilot Capt. Ross, Dana Andrews, remarked:"The General did what he had to do and we'll do what we have to do" which was saying nothing to their Japanese captors about where they came from, the Hornet,and getting executed! Now that's whats meant by rank has it's privileges.
The Japanese judges tried very hard to prove that the Americans bombed Japanese civilian targets, and as far as I know about the Doolittle Raid they didn't, to make the US look bad to the world and trumped up evidence to make it look that way.In reality when we look back at the massive B29 fire-bombing attacks on Japan it should have been an open and shut case for them without making up the facts.
Hundreds of thousands of innocent Japanese were killed in fire bombing of Japanese cities that had nothing to do with the Japanese war effort but everything to do with terrorizing the Japanese population. An action that was condemned by the Nuremberg War Crime Tribune as a major war crime and had hundreds of German and Japanese officials who were convicted of it executed or jailed for life. Also the atomic attacks on Japan in August 1945 with the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagagsaki are now believed to have been totally uncalled for. Since we know now that Japan was secretly trying to surrender to the allies at the time and that even Gen. MacAthur and Gen. Eisenhower were against using them on Japan. It now turns out that the dropping of the atomic bombs was a political not military decision, to impress USSR dictator Joseph Stalin, by the then US President Harry S.Truman.