First Yank into Tokyo
Encyclopedia
First Yank into Tokyo is a 1945
United States
war film
; it takes place within World War II
. It was directed by Gordon Douglas
.
ese; Ross had lived in Japan and is well versed with Japanese culture. The government assigns Ross to rescue Lewis Jardine, a scientist bearing valuable secrets about the atomic bomb. Ross is also driven by the knowledge that his one true love, Abby, was captured by the Japanese and "is in their hands". Both Abby and Ross's former college roommate, the treacherous Hideko Okanura, are now at the same prison camp where Jardine is being held. Abby (Barbara Hale), does not recognize Steve but senses something strange about the new Japanese soldier from Korea. She detects something about him that makes him different from all the other Japanese who are uniformly portrayed as crazed sadists who, when not busy committing war crimes and stealing, drink themselves into a stupor and then give free rein to their insatiable lust for American women. Okanura, now a colonel in the Japanese army (after attending American universities to steal industrial secrets and plan sabotage), also detects something strangely familiar about his new NCO. In addition to committing acts of non-stop savagery, Okanura enjoys driving his subordinates to suicide and leering at Abby. He then sees a dog chase Major Ross across the prison yard and he remembers where he last saw such "superb open field running". It was in a college football game where Steve Ross excelled. Okanura (played by Richard Loo) also remembered that his American roommate displayed a nervous thumb gesture identical to the one seen in the mysterious new NCO. In the film's "exciting climax", Major Ross places a bomb in the prison camp's factory (where Allied prisoners are being worked to death by vicious Japanese guards who then steal their food). Just as Okanura is on the verge of exposing him at a banquet where movies are shown that were taken by Okanura during his American treachery (including films of Ross playing football), the bomb goes off and throws the camp into confusion. Ross kills Okanura with his bare hands, frees Abby and Jardine and then leads the group to a rendezvous with an US submarine just off shore. At the last second, Steve realizes that he cannot go back to the States "looking like a Jap" and bundles his charges into a boat and then staying behind to help some Korean prisoners kill some more of the "yellow monkeys".
occurred during production of the film; the producers subsequently altered the plotline.
1945 in film
The year 1945 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Paramount Studios releases theatrical short cartoon titled The Friendly Ghost, featuring a ghost named Casper.* With Rossellini's Roma Città aperta, Italian neorealist cinema begins....
United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
war film
War film
War films are a film genre concerned with warfare, usually about naval, air or land battles, sometimes focusing instead on prisoners of war, covert operations, military training or other related subjects. At times war films focus on daily military or civilian life in wartime without depicting battles...
; it takes place within World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. It was directed by Gordon Douglas
Gordon Douglas (director)
Gordon Douglas was an American film director, who directed many different genres of films over the course of a five-decade career in motion pictures. He was a native of New York City.-Hal Roach and Our Gang:...
.
Plot
In the film, the U.S. government assigns Major Steve Ross to receive plastic surgery to appear JapanJapan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese; Ross had lived in Japan and is well versed with Japanese culture. The government assigns Ross to rescue Lewis Jardine, a scientist bearing valuable secrets about the atomic bomb. Ross is also driven by the knowledge that his one true love, Abby, was captured by the Japanese and "is in their hands". Both Abby and Ross's former college roommate, the treacherous Hideko Okanura, are now at the same prison camp where Jardine is being held. Abby (Barbara Hale), does not recognize Steve but senses something strange about the new Japanese soldier from Korea. She detects something about him that makes him different from all the other Japanese who are uniformly portrayed as crazed sadists who, when not busy committing war crimes and stealing, drink themselves into a stupor and then give free rein to their insatiable lust for American women. Okanura, now a colonel in the Japanese army (after attending American universities to steal industrial secrets and plan sabotage), also detects something strangely familiar about his new NCO. In addition to committing acts of non-stop savagery, Okanura enjoys driving his subordinates to suicide and leering at Abby. He then sees a dog chase Major Ross across the prison yard and he remembers where he last saw such "superb open field running". It was in a college football game where Steve Ross excelled. Okanura (played by Richard Loo) also remembered that his American roommate displayed a nervous thumb gesture identical to the one seen in the mysterious new NCO. In the film's "exciting climax", Major Ross places a bomb in the prison camp's factory (where Allied prisoners are being worked to death by vicious Japanese guards who then steal their food). Just as Okanura is on the verge of exposing him at a banquet where movies are shown that were taken by Okanura during his American treachery (including films of Ross playing football), the bomb goes off and throws the camp into confusion. Ross kills Okanura with his bare hands, frees Abby and Jardine and then leads the group to a rendezvous with an US submarine just off shore. At the last second, Steve realizes that he cannot go back to the States "looking like a Jap" and bundles his charges into a boat and then staying behind to help some Korean prisoners kill some more of the "yellow monkeys".
History
Originally the film centered around Ross helping to acquire a new kind of gun. The atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and NagasakiAtomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
During the final stages of World War II in 1945, the United States conducted two atomic bombings against the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, the first on August 6, 1945, and the second on August 9, 1945. These two events are the only use of nuclear weapons in war to date.For six months...
occurred during production of the film; the producers subsequently altered the plotline.
Cast
- Tom NealTom NealThomas Neal was an American actor best known for appearing in the critically lauded film Detour, a tryst with Barbara Payton and later committing manslaughter.-Career:...
- Steve Ross - Barbara HaleBarbara HaleBarbara Hale is an American actress best known for her role as legal secretary Della Street on more than 250 episodes of the long-running Perry Mason television series and later reprising the role in dozens of made-for-TV movies....
- Abby Drake - Keye LukeKeye LukeKeye Luke was a Chinese-born American actor. He was the first Chinese-American contract player signed with RKO, Universal and, later, MGM and is generally acknowledged as the leading Asian-American actor of this era of American cinema.-Background:...
- Haan-Soo - Leonard StrongLeonard StrongLeonard Alfred George Strong was an English writer, known as a novelist, journalist, poet and director of the publishers Methuen Ltd.- Life :...
- Nogira - Richard LooRichard LooRichard Loo was a Chinese American film actor who was one of the most familiar Asian character actors in American films of the 1930s and 1940s. A prolific actor, he appeared in over 120 films between 1931 and 1982....
- Hideko Okanura
External links
- First Yank into Tokyo (Amazon.comAmazon.comAmazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
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