Go For Broke

This is what we would call a “politically correct” movie today. It's about the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and it's like an apology for the various things the persons of Japanese Ancestry in the US had to suffer during the war.

The movie has a very respectful opening. Van Johnson plays a platoon leader who is white and who doesn't want to have anything to do with the Nisei. When he talks to another officer that has been there a while he gets a straightening out really fast.

He goes to a different officer and gets the same reaction; they like the Nisei soldiers, even if Grayson (Van Johnson) wants a transfer to a different outfit.

The movie brings up the internment camps, and how it was different for the persons of Japanese ancestry who were consigned to the camps and those who weren't. For example, one of the Nisei is sending food to people in the camp.

The film briefly mentions the Nisei who were used as interpreters in the Pacific theater, and a letter to one of the Nisei talks about how the 442nd was getting very good publicity in the states.

The movie also covers the rescue of the “Lost Battalion” of Texans, the welcome in New York for the 442nd, and their decoration by President Truman.

It's a very good movie as far as showing the contribution of the Nisei to the war effort goes. There is a very small amount of actual war footage in the film, and most of the combat footage that is acted out is very clean by today's standards; some men who are shot are killed don't bleed, etc.

Still, it's a pretty good movie and historically interesting.



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