While I enjoyed the first part of this documentary and thought that for the most part it gave a fair view, I must speak up about what was happening during WWII - both in the west AND the East, as well as one of the people who for some very bizarre reason is even featured to give a 'better understanding' of either history, or worldview; someone by the name of Joseph McBride, who I'll speak Ankur towards the end.
What Ms Yang Wen says - and the makers of this documentary - gives a very one-sided view.
The simplest question is why is there time devoted to anything but the portrayal and presentation of Asians in media?
During the entire part of this informative film, we're told about the campus Asians were sent to during the war and their representation in - admittedly propogandistic cartoons.
I'm not excusing the actions of the American government, but - when speaking about a war, it's VERY important that BOTH sides of the conflict are explained and shown.
That doesn't happen here.
Prior to the militarisation of Japan, it was a very Western-influenced society, but, afterwards, there were propaganda films made - which can by easily seen by anyone, nowadays. In one film, the Western-acting (Japanese) are ridiculed - viciously (both men AND women are scorned).
This is supposedly a documentary about the history of how the Asians have been portrayed, and it suddenly veers into a very myopic view of the treatment of Japanese - and only Japanese - during WWII.
Before anyone reading tries to label me as something I'm not, it's important to understand that what had so far up to this point been - as is clearly and repeatedly said, Hollywood's portrayal of Asians and other Pacific islanders, wrongly becomes a blistering attack on how the American government (mis)treated (just the) Japanese.
Without context things which were meant for a specific, and no longer current use - are misunderstood.
Such is the case with the cartoon she refers to - Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips.
This was one of several cartoons which weren't made for general audiences, but were, instead made for military troops.
This was not solely Warner Bros idea; it was commissioned by the War office, and there were other cartoons from Warner's as well as Disney and other studios.
They only ended up in general circulation long after the war, when they were packaged for TV syndication.
She incorrectly describes the soldier in the animated short as being 'portrayed with really big feet', and 'animalistic', (even as we, the viewer can clearly see that's not accurate), and goes on to say that it's thereby 'easy to portray an entire race as animals in order to... justify... killing them'.
This WAS during a war, and this cartoon, was, as I've already said, NOT made for general audiences, and - yes, I also remember seeing it during my local TV station's Bugs Bunny show, there's a couple of things to point out; kids view the works differently, in fact, as one grows up, their a person's worldview constantly changes.
Additionally, while I find censorship abhorrent, I think that cartoons, such as this one - should be shown in either context, or with examples from the opposite perspective.
There IS a flip-side; just as this cartoon might be categorised as being 'racist'it's important to remember that Japan - as well as other nations (on both sides) made propoganda materials, and I wish that in terms of this terrible war, both sides were held accountable, and not just one.
It's also very important to note that the atrocities committed by the Japanese military - both against westerners (the terrible treatment of captured soldiers is well-documented) AND their infamous horrifying treatment of the Chinese - esp during the rape of Nanjing (and the barbaric actions of unit 731 had no equals. Even Nazi Germany was horrified.
There is another voice in this film - that of a gentleman named Joseph McBride, who's IMdB page calls him a 'writer and actor', but - I'll give him a taste of his rules - appears as a cliché of a typical professorial-type.
As I didn't read this initially - and went just by appearance, and thought he WAS some sort of a scholar, It's misleading, then, to hear him spouting such things as how America's 'imperialistic', and then further on - in the aforementioned WWII-part, gives ANOTHER slap against America, when he describes how America was beginning to 'demonising the Russians' because the cold war was starting - and as everyone knows it was all the 'evil imperialistic' US' fault - as the Soviet Union was a peace-loving nation ... excluding their crushing of the 'spring'of Czechoslovakia, the millions killed under Stalin, attempts to put nuclear missiles in Cuba, Kruschev telling the west, 'we will bury you' (I guess he meant at the Olympics), and, they're just misunderstood.
Right?
(I almost had to laugh - at his utter non-scholarly-ness, when he says, 'the prevailing theory today is we dropped the atomic bombs on Japan because we were trying to intimidate Russia'. There's NOTHING cited to back this up. Nothing. His comments sounds as ridiculous to me as the old commercials, one of which had a man say, 'I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV', and those old cigarette ads, in which doctors - yes, supposedly real doctors - 'recommend' smoking a specific brand of cigarette because of its filter and cool taste.
While utterly ridiculous, there's many people who are now dead and or dying because they believed those 'doctors'.
Anything said but this McBride individual is dangerously tainted by a very myopic, and even less educated education about world history. It's very important to understand amongst this gentleman's' prestigious' career, there's little - ZERO - in terms of having ANY background in education, collegiate or otherwise, but he did act as an extra in Cannonball.
NOT someone who should be given ANY screen time about historical events.
On the whole, I agree with what's said - about Asians and film, but feel that an updated version which would include corrections, and give equal time to the acts committed during war by both sides be added should be released.
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