No one can deny that Adolf Hitler wrote MEIN KAMPF, and spelled out his anti-Semitism, his plans for German domination of at least Europe and possibly the globe, and his desire for the destructions of Jews, Slavs, and other "undesireables" in his world view. It is there in full print, and one can still read it. Moreover Nazis and their supporters boast of the book's brilliance and clarity. So nobody denies that book and it's authorship.
But other political writings have a less stable provenance. For instance, the Zinovieff letter of 1924. It was supposedly written by Gregory Zinovieff, one of the leading figures of the Soviet Government of that day, and it was supposedly advising Russian communists to support the reelection of the Ramsay MacDonald Labor Government. The letter suggested that support for Labor would lead to a Sovietized Britain. As a result of the publication of the letter, MacDonald's minority government lost reelection and Stanley Baldwin's Tories took control for five years. It is now certain that the letter was not written by Zinovieff, but by anti-Soviet Russians living in exile in France, and that the Tories used it unscrupulously but successfully, to win the election.
Similarly we have the "maguffin" of this film: "The Tanaka Memorial".
Baron Tanaka was a leading Japanese political figure who supposedly wrote this fanatical piece about the need for Japan to expand in Asia, at the expense of the colonial empires of France, Britain, Holland, and Portugal, and the United States. The story went that this paper was meant for the loyal members of the army and navy of Japan, but it got out to non-fanatics who threatened to publish it. And the result was that Tanaka was disgraced, and committed suicide (he did commit suicide, but we don't really know the reason).
Historians are mostly skeptical about the truth regarding this document, though a few still insist it was a blueprint for Japanese expansion and aggression. In actuality, given the paucity of needed natural resources in Japan, aggression against neighbors like China, Korea, Russia, Indonesia, the Philippines makes sense without the need for a formal document stating their need to expand. But the story spread, and given the anti-Japanese mood of the Americans in 1945 a film based on the publication of the document was inevitable.
Because several figures in the film (John Emery as Tanaka, and Marvin Miller as the head of the Tokyo Police Department) are occidentals performing as Japanese there is a feeling that the the film is racist. Actually it isn't - in fact it is rather the reverse. In 1945 it was rare to have a film where Germans (aside from refugees, who were probably Jewish) were good people. An exception is that marvelous Spencer Tracy movie THE SEVENTH CROSS. As the country that had sent the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, and caused the Bataan Death March, it was even harder to be friendly to Japan. But this films reminds us that Tanaka and those fanatics were not all the Japanese. Many opposed the militarists, and tried to keep their nation in line with the U.S. and Britain (one of the moderates, by the way, was Admiral Yamamoto, who knew how powerful the U.S. was having been military attaché in Washington - ironically in this film he is painted as a vicious militarist planning to attend the surrender of the United States in the White House). Unfortunately the militarists used political assassination throughout the late 1920s and 1930s to force the politicians into silence or acquiescence to their aggressive policies. Few Americans realized this, especially after the anger that arose after December 7, 1941.
James Cagney was remarkable for his willingness to be different in choosing material for his films and for doing odd bits in them. He did mostly melodramas, but he varied them with Shakespeare (his Bottom in A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM), westerns (THE OKLAHOMA KID), musicals (FOOTLIGHT PARADE, YANKEE DOODLE DANDY - his Oscar winning part), and comedies (THE BRIDE CAME C.O.D.). In the film TAXI (a melodrama about a gang trying to dominate the taxi industry in New York City) Cagney added a gag scene where he talked fluent Yiddish to a Jewish passenger. Imagine Bogart or even the Jewish Edward G. Robinson doing that - only Cagney could get away with it.
In an independent film musical he made in the 1930s, SOMETHING TO SING ABOUT, Cagney had several scenes with Philip Ahn playing Ito, his valet. When he first shows up (Ahn has been hired for Cagney, sight unseen) he speaks a pidgin English. But as soon as Cagney shows he is a realist, Ahn thanks him for allowing him to speak like a normal person (Ahn is a college graduate). It may have been the first time an Asiatic was played as an intelligent (and non-belligerent) human being.
Similarly here Cagney (and his brother William, who produced his films and helped choose his properties) are fair to the bulk of the Japanese, who were normal people like ours. He paints the militarists as foolish villains, but he reminds us that they were only more unscrupulous and better organized. With a little bit of real luck they might have been kept under control. Tragically they weren't.
But other political writings have a less stable provenance. For instance, the Zinovieff letter of 1924. It was supposedly written by Gregory Zinovieff, one of the leading figures of the Soviet Government of that day, and it was supposedly advising Russian communists to support the reelection of the Ramsay MacDonald Labor Government. The letter suggested that support for Labor would lead to a Sovietized Britain. As a result of the publication of the letter, MacDonald's minority government lost reelection and Stanley Baldwin's Tories took control for five years. It is now certain that the letter was not written by Zinovieff, but by anti-Soviet Russians living in exile in France, and that the Tories used it unscrupulously but successfully, to win the election.
Similarly we have the "maguffin" of this film: "The Tanaka Memorial".
Baron Tanaka was a leading Japanese political figure who supposedly wrote this fanatical piece about the need for Japan to expand in Asia, at the expense of the colonial empires of France, Britain, Holland, and Portugal, and the United States. The story went that this paper was meant for the loyal members of the army and navy of Japan, but it got out to non-fanatics who threatened to publish it. And the result was that Tanaka was disgraced, and committed suicide (he did commit suicide, but we don't really know the reason).
Historians are mostly skeptical about the truth regarding this document, though a few still insist it was a blueprint for Japanese expansion and aggression. In actuality, given the paucity of needed natural resources in Japan, aggression against neighbors like China, Korea, Russia, Indonesia, the Philippines makes sense without the need for a formal document stating their need to expand. But the story spread, and given the anti-Japanese mood of the Americans in 1945 a film based on the publication of the document was inevitable.
Because several figures in the film (John Emery as Tanaka, and Marvin Miller as the head of the Tokyo Police Department) are occidentals performing as Japanese there is a feeling that the the film is racist. Actually it isn't - in fact it is rather the reverse. In 1945 it was rare to have a film where Germans (aside from refugees, who were probably Jewish) were good people. An exception is that marvelous Spencer Tracy movie THE SEVENTH CROSS. As the country that had sent the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, and caused the Bataan Death March, it was even harder to be friendly to Japan. But this films reminds us that Tanaka and those fanatics were not all the Japanese. Many opposed the militarists, and tried to keep their nation in line with the U.S. and Britain (one of the moderates, by the way, was Admiral Yamamoto, who knew how powerful the U.S. was having been military attaché in Washington - ironically in this film he is painted as a vicious militarist planning to attend the surrender of the United States in the White House). Unfortunately the militarists used political assassination throughout the late 1920s and 1930s to force the politicians into silence or acquiescence to their aggressive policies. Few Americans realized this, especially after the anger that arose after December 7, 1941.
James Cagney was remarkable for his willingness to be different in choosing material for his films and for doing odd bits in them. He did mostly melodramas, but he varied them with Shakespeare (his Bottom in A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM), westerns (THE OKLAHOMA KID), musicals (FOOTLIGHT PARADE, YANKEE DOODLE DANDY - his Oscar winning part), and comedies (THE BRIDE CAME C.O.D.). In the film TAXI (a melodrama about a gang trying to dominate the taxi industry in New York City) Cagney added a gag scene where he talked fluent Yiddish to a Jewish passenger. Imagine Bogart or even the Jewish Edward G. Robinson doing that - only Cagney could get away with it.
In an independent film musical he made in the 1930s, SOMETHING TO SING ABOUT, Cagney had several scenes with Philip Ahn playing Ito, his valet. When he first shows up (Ahn has been hired for Cagney, sight unseen) he speaks a pidgin English. But as soon as Cagney shows he is a realist, Ahn thanks him for allowing him to speak like a normal person (Ahn is a college graduate). It may have been the first time an Asiatic was played as an intelligent (and non-belligerent) human being.
Similarly here Cagney (and his brother William, who produced his films and helped choose his properties) are fair to the bulk of the Japanese, who were normal people like ours. He paints the militarists as foolish villains, but he reminds us that they were only more unscrupulous and better organized. With a little bit of real luck they might have been kept under control. Tragically they weren't.