WhatFinger


Hirohito, MacArthur, Japan, Marilyn Monroe

Emperor & Love, Marilyn



A new film called "Emperor" recently opened in Toronto. It is set in Japan immediately after that country capitulated, to end World War II, and was occupied by the American army. General Douglas MacArthur was appointed the supreme commander of the country.
When I first heard about the film I presumed that the term "Emperor" referred to MacArthur, who at that time had a great deal of discretion in how the Americans ruled Japan and had aspirations to become the next President of the United States. I was wrong. The term refers to the Emperor of Japan. Immediately after the Americans took control of Japan they began arresting the leaders of the Japanese military and political hierarchy with the intention of putting them on trial for war crimes.

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MacArthur's top Japanese expert was General Bonner Fellers who had studied in Japan before the war and had carried on a romantic affair with a young Japanese girl. MacArthur gave Fellers the job of researching Emperor Hirohito's role in the war and whether he should be removed from office and put on trial. Both MacArthur and Fellers knew that the Japanese considered their Emperor a God and that any attempt to remove him would probably result in a massive uprising that could threaten the safety of the American troops in Japan and could destroy any attempts by the Americans to rebuild the country after the vast devastation caused by American air raids and the American use of the atomic bomb. Most of the film deals with Fellers attempts to dig up the evidence and his search for his old girlfriend. I would have been much happier if the film had focused on MacArthur and if we would have been given some clue into MacArthur's thinking about Japan and the Japanese. The truth is that although MacArthur was somewhat of a megalomaniac, he also was very successful in the reconstruction of Japan. To me, this is where the film fails, although Tommy Lee Jones is outstanding in a relatively small part as General Douglas MacArthur. Matthew Fox plays General Fellers. Another small film to open recently is "Love, Marilyn", a documentary based on the recently discovered diaries and writings of Marilyn Monroe. There have been a lot of films made trying to uncover the secrets of our obsession with Marilyn but this one just doesn't cut it. In addition to Marilyn's own writings the filmmakers use the writings of other people who knew Marilyn and use film actors to read these lines. There is also a great deal of archival film and photographs, which are interesting in their own right, but I wasn't enchanted by the readings. Actually, I found this film boring and I would not recommend it.


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Larry Anklewicz -- Bio and Archives

Larry Anklewicz. B.A., LL.B., is a lawyer, writer and film and video reviewer.  Mr. Anklewicz is author of “A Guide To Jewish Films On Videos” and has been a columnist for Canada Free Press, the Canadian Jewish News, and other local newspapers.  Mr. Anklewicz worked with the Toronto Jewish Film Festival for thirteen years, the last eight years of which he served as Program Coordinator and Program Director.


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