Little Tokyo, U.S.A.
A movie made just months after the attack on Pearl Harbor as method of Anti-Japanese propaganda.
The storyline is simple. An American police officer, Steele, follows the investigation of criminal activity in the Japanese American community. The investigation leads to Takimura, who turns out to be an American-born spy for Tokyo. Takimura cooks up a plan to plan a staged murder onto Steele. The plan is successful as he is arrested but later escapes after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Steele eventually manages to get Takimura's gang and his spies to expose their crime. All Americans of Japanese descent are then forced to their designated internment camps, leaving Little Tokyo more or less deserted.
What better way to ensure national security than by interning all "suspicious" individuals regardless of their background or service to the country? All that matters is the "ethnic" blood streaming through their veins. The movie is straight up bigoted and provides no room for their audience to think for themselves. Especially during the end of the movie where it flat out narrates (through a radio talk show) how all Japanese people must suffer in order to protect the country.
Though the movie was produced in the heart of all the chaos and fear instilled upon Americans after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, it was an excellent strategy to produce this movie during this time to express their racist and narrow minded ideals to the rest of the country.
The storyline is simple. An American police officer, Steele, follows the investigation of criminal activity in the Japanese American community. The investigation leads to Takimura, who turns out to be an American-born spy for Tokyo. Takimura cooks up a plan to plan a staged murder onto Steele. The plan is successful as he is arrested but later escapes after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Steele eventually manages to get Takimura's gang and his spies to expose their crime. All Americans of Japanese descent are then forced to their designated internment camps, leaving Little Tokyo more or less deserted.
What better way to ensure national security than by interning all "suspicious" individuals regardless of their background or service to the country? All that matters is the "ethnic" blood streaming through their veins. The movie is straight up bigoted and provides no room for their audience to think for themselves. Especially during the end of the movie where it flat out narrates (through a radio talk show) how all Japanese people must suffer in order to protect the country.
Though the movie was produced in the heart of all the chaos and fear instilled upon Americans after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, it was an excellent strategy to produce this movie during this time to express their racist and narrow minded ideals to the rest of the country.
Written by Natalie Yip
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