山口淑子が戦後初めてアメリカ映画で主役を演じたキング・ヴィダー監督による戦争ドラマです。朝鮮戦争で負傷した米軍中尉と日本人看護婦が恋に落ち結婚します。ふたりは夫の故郷・カリフォルニアで暮らし始めますが…。差別や偏見に苦しむ戦争花嫁
の悲劇を描こうとしたのでしょう。日本を好意的に表現しているつもりでしょうが、日本人女性の仕草や心の動きに関してはアメリカ人の想像する姿に沿っている、奇妙な作品です。Japanese War Bride (also known as East is East) is a 1952 drama film directed by King Vidor. The film marked the American debut of Shirley Yamaguchi in the title role.
The film tells the story of a wounded Korean War veteran, Jim Sterling (Don Taylor), who returns to his California home with his Japanese wife. The couple had met and fallen in love in a Japanese hospital where Shimizu Tae (Shirley Yamaguchi) was working as a nurse. Back in America, the two face racism and bigotry from their neighbors and family, particularly their sister-in-law, Fran (Marie Windsor).
The widespread publicity surrounding the film's launch made Japanese wives increasingly visible in the United States. Along with The Teahouse of the August Moon and the more successful film Sayonara, Japanese War Bride was argued by some scholars to have increased racial tolerance in the United States by openly discussing interracial marriages.
Principal cast
Shirley Yamaguchi – Shimizu Tae, a nurse, wife to Jim Sterling
Don Taylor – Captain Jim Sterling, GI in the Korean War
Cameron Mitchell – Art Sterling, Jim's older brother
Marie Windsor – Fran Sterling, Art's wife
James Bell – Ed Sterling, Jim's father
Louise Lorimer – Harriet Sterling, Jim's mother
Philip Ahn – Shimizu Eitaro, Tae's grandfather
Lane Nakano – Hasagawa Shiro, the Sterlings' Japanese-American neighbour
May Takasugi – Emma Hasagawa, Shiro's wife
Sybil Merritt – Emily Shafer, a local girl
Orley Lindgren – Ted Sterling, Jim's younger brother
George Wallace – Woody Blacker, a friend of Jim Sterling
Kathleen Mulqueen – Mrs. Milly Shafer, a friend of Harriet Sterling
戦争花嫁
Hiroshima, año cero (El Mundo 紙) 広島への米国による原爆投下
Fuji Takeshi nació (1940) 藤猛誕生 puñatazos de martillos
-----In the early 1970s, when "Children Who Don't Know War" was released, the United States of America found itself in the midst of the Vietnam War. Though Japan wasn't directly involved in the conflict, the country allowed the stationing of American troops on Japanese soil, a decision which was met with internal criticism coming mainly from the country's intellectual elite, composed of academics and students, who upheld deep rooted anti-war beliefs, mainly due to Japan's experience during World War II.
Though the duo never bore any affiliation to the pacifist movement, the song, composed to express a mild anti-war message, but later regarded by Kitayama as a puerile effort to satirize, and rebel against, the contempt felt by older generations who experienced World War II for younger people born in the post-war period – who were denounced for weak-mindedness and lack of self-discipline – became indelibly attached to the movement and its title an iconic expression, used in sports, anime, magazines, books and newspaper articles.
