By Terry Watada<\/p>\n
2017 is the 75th<\/sup> anniversary of the Japanese North American internment.\u00a0 Much has been said about the experience in those years.\u00a0 The first utterances came out after 1970, more than 25 years after the fact.\u00a0 Shizue Takashima\u2019s A Child in Prison Camp<\/em> was published in 1971; Ken Adachi\u2019s Enemy that Never Was<\/em> in 1976; Obasan<\/em> by Joy Kogawa 1981; and Toyo Takata\u2019s Nikkei Legacy <\/em>1983.\u00a0 And film \u2013 mostly American and not until the late 1980s into the 1990s and 2000s (with some exceptions) \u2013 Come See the Paradise<\/em> (1990); Snow Falling on Cedars<\/em> (1999); Day of Independence <\/em>(2003); Only the Brave<\/em> (2006); and Under the Blood-Red Sun<\/em> (2014) to name a few.\u00a0 There is Go for Broke<\/em> (1951), a film that featured the men of the 442, except the star was Van Johnson.<\/p>\n In Canada, the films Images of the First 100 Years<\/em> by the Powell Street Revue 1983 and Watari Dori<\/em> by Jesse Nishihata 1973 explored the history and identity of Japanese Canadians. \u00a0But there was little else.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n So it was rather remarkable that in 1971, If Tomorrow Comes<\/em>, a movie-made-for-television, appeared on a major television network.\u00a0 The story revolves around the secret marriage between a white American high school girl and a Japanese American boy just before Pearl Harbor.\u00a0 The film depicts the racist feelings within a small California coast town. \u00a0The \u201cJaps\u201d mostly keep to themselves to practice their religion and customs, though there was some confusion to my mind since the protagonists celebrate Obon<\/em> yet they say grace before dinner.\u00a0 In general, they are portrayed as a people caught between two cultures: they wear kimono<\/em> during the festival, they eat Japanese food (mistakenly called Chinese food by the white folk) and the Nisei<\/em> \u201cswing\u201d to big band music.\u00a0 The traditions are deemed too \u201cJapanesy\u201d but David Tayanaka, the high school boy, is an All Conference Basketball Guard, honor student and Eagle Scout.\u00a0 He is played by Frank Michael Liu.\u00a0 Totally miscast, he mispronounces Obon<\/em> as Oban<\/em>. Still, the point is made: he is \u201cnothing but a Jap\u201d to the townspeople.<\/p>\n Into this milieu wanders Eileen Phillips played by Patty Duke.\u00a0 After making some stereotypical blunders (she thinks he speaks \u201cgood English … I mean American\u201d) she falls for young David, despite his ethnicity.\u00a0 The all-American girl-next-door has a dyed-in-the-wool racist father, played by the veteran actor James Whitmore (some called him a \u201cpoor man\u2019s Spencer Tracy\u201d).\u00a0 She also has a hate-filled brother (Harlan played by Michael McGreevey) who eventually beats David\u2019s brother (notably played by Mako) to death; David in turn beats Harlan to death.\u00a0 After a trial, David is exonerated, but Aileen\u2019s father\u2019s heart cannot forgive.\u00a0 A Jap is a Jap and should die for killing his son.<\/p>\n The plot then revolves around the secret marriage of Eileen to David.\u00a0 They seek the advice and solace of a minister and the neighbour, Ann Baxter, but cannot tell each other\u2019s parents.\u00a0 Everything comes to a head when Pearl Harbor is bombed.\u00a0 David\u2019s father is arrested and taken to a detention center.\u00a0 Then comes Executive Order 9066, which condemns all Japanese Americans to internment and concentration camps.<\/p>\n In the meantime, the couple decide to run away to Bakersfield to live in peace.\u00a0 So Eileen fakes her death by drowning unbeknownst to David.\u00a0 When he finds out he goes to the beach and commits hara kiri<\/em> (really?). \u00a0The plot descends into Romeo and Juliet.\u00a0 The film ends with Eileen mourns her loss by washing David\u2019s body (a \u201cJapanese tradition\u201d).\u00a0 It is disappointing to me that Eileen is not pregnant with David\u2019s baby, lending some hope to the situation.\u00a0 But no.<\/p>\n Others in the cast include Pat Hingle as the understanding town sheriff and Anne Baxter as the neighbour who is an ally of the Tayanaka family.\u00a0 Unusual casting since James Whitmore many times played the tolerant one and Pat Hingle played the racist.<\/p>\n What inspired Patty Duke to take on the role is anyone\u2019s guess.\u00a0 She won an Academy Award at the age of 16 for her role as Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker<\/em> (1962).\u00a0 She found success in The Patty Duke Show<\/em> (63-66) and the Valley of the Dolls<\/em> (1967).\u00a0 Perhaps she was trying to venture into a career with more mature roles by the early 1970s.<\/p>\n And what possessed Aaron Spelling, veteran producer of such series as Charlie\u2019s Angels<\/em>, The Love Boat<\/em> and Dynasty<\/em>, to green light a project like If Tomorrow Comes<\/em>.<\/p>\n In the end, If Tomorrow Comes<\/em> featured good to bad acting, stilted dialogue and a plot that was clich\u00e9 driven \u2013 the Romeo and Juliet motif was rather strained.\u00a0 That being said, the TV movie did shine a light on the racism against the Japanese in America and the paranoia that imprisoned thousands of US citizens in camps across the interior.\u00a0 Perhaps foretelling the America of today.<\/p>\n Editor\u2019s note: Terry Watada begins his annual summer hiatus with this column.\u00a0 He will return in October.<\/small><\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Terry Watada 2017 is the 75th anniversary of the Japanese North American internment.\u00a0 Much has been said about the experience in those years.\u00a0 The first utterances came out after 1970, more than 25 years after the fact.\u00a0 Shizue Takashima\u2019s A Child in Prison Camp was published in 1971; Ken Adachi\u2019s Enemy that Never Was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8969,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/najc.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7521"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/najc.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/najc.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/najc.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/najc.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/najc.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/najc.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/najc.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/najc.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/najc.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}