“Breaking” Hollywood’s Stereotype
of the Japanese American:
The Significance of the Film Go for Broke!
Once the United States became involved in World War 11, Hollywood
made numerous films about the “barbaric” and “savage” side of the Japanese (Dick).
But in 1951, almost 10 years after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Metro-GoldwynMayer produced a movie that would remind the nation that Americans of Japanese
descent also had a part in winning World War 11.
This article focuses on the first Hollywood film to tell the story of the
Japanese American soldier. Go For Broke!, which premiered in May, 1951. Written
and directed by Academy Award winner Robert Pirosh, the 92-minute black-andwhite film told the story of the most heavily decorated U.S. Army units of World
War 11, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and 100th Infantry Battalion, comprised
of Japanese Americans.
Here we examine Go fo r Broke! as a popular culture artifact that provides
not only a history lesson of the Japanese American role during World War 11, but
also a message of racial tolerance, of importance almost a half-century after its
release. We also explain the film’s significance in terms of Hollywood’s portrayal
of Asian Americans, as it redefines the image of Japanese Americans in the post
war years.
Japanese American Internment and Formation of the 442nd
The December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor had repercussions for more
than 120,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry living on the West Coast of the United
States. Pre-existing stereotypes and racism combined with wartime hysteria fostered
an extreme distrust of Japanese Americans (Mackey and Hunzicker). As Daniels
notes, “The war time abuse of Japanese Americans, it is now clear, was merely a
link in a chain of racism that stretched back to the earliest contacts between Asians
and whites on American soil” (3).
By February of 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive
Order 9066, authorizing the Secretary of War or any military commander to establish
military areas and exclude any or all persons. The first Japanese Americans were
evacuated to 10 sites in California, Arizona, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado,
and Arkansas. Forced to leave behind the jobs, homes, property, and possessions
they had worked hard to attain, the Japanese Americans were incarcerated in
internment camps. Their loyalty was questioned, but few chose to oppose the
evacuation. Renteln, in “A Psychohistorical Analysis of the Japanese American