Anti-Asian sentiment, as noted by Nora Cobb (87), "and specifically Japan-bashing, has a long, established history in the film industry." The depiction of Orientals and their culture in American film throughout the early years of the industry reflected what Cobb (87) calls a socially accepted set of stereotypes regarding the differences between Orientals, whether they be Chinese or Japanese and Americans. During World War II, Japanese-Americans were rounded up and interned for the duration of the war. Consequently, the movie studios "pumped up production of manifestly anti-Asian racist material, revising earlier Asian villains to fit the new concept of war" (Cobb 87).
This process of demonizing or diminishing Asians is not absent from the film industry in the United States. This report will explore this issue by comparing three films featuring Japanese subjects. The Cheat, Sayonara, and Rising Sun. These films are drawn from three different eras, but each in its own way tends to highlight the character of the Japanese as "others" whose customs, attitudes, and norms are radically different from those of Anglo America.
Cecil B. DeMille's 1915 film, The Cheat, has been praised as one of his masterpieces (Doherty 46). The film features a society wife who embezzles $10,000 from a Red Cross fund. When she loses the money through an investment, she is approached by a Burmese prince played by Japanese actor Sessue Hayakawa who attempts to seduce her. When she threatens to kill herself rather than sleep with him, he hands her a dagger and then brands his shoulder with his personal stamp. According to Tom Doherty (47), "DeMille recognizes cinematically, if not in intertitles, that a sexual tryst with Tori would not quite be a fate worse than death. Variety praised Hayakawa as 'one of the best yellow heavies the screen has seen.'" The very terminology indicates the attitude of critics at that time toward Japanese actors ...