‘Pearl Harbor’: Delicate Balance Between History, Sensitivity

I sympathize with the plight of the younger generation of Japanese Americans who are being thrust into the spotlight as a result of the movie “Pearl Harbor” and their discomfort with being the possible object of ridicule, ostracism or worse (“ ‘Pearl Harbor’ Making Its Marks,” by Erika Hayasaki, May 29). I hope and am confident that the vast majority of Americans have overcome their animosity toward the Japanese and realize that the Japanese actions in World War II were of a different time and mind-set.

However, I strenuously object to Hayasaki’s reference to the Japanese internment areas during the war as “concentration camps.” They were not. And to refer to them as such diminishes the true horror of the real thing. It depreciates the lives of millions of humans who were slaughtered in them and discounts the thousands of Americans and others who were killed trying to liberate them. You cannot rewrite history by conveniently changing the descriptions of events that happened only a generation ago.

KEN HIRSCH

Playa del Rey

*

So Evan Okamura is annoyed every time he passes a “Pearl Harbor” billboard depicting Japanese warplanes? Well, Evan, it was real annoying when the Japanese warplanes actually bombed Pearl Harbor. Just ask the relatives of the thousands who were killed there.

Are you to blame for it because you are of Japanese descent? Of course not! Should we never mention Pearl Harbor again so that we don’t annoy you? Of course not! It happened, it’s part of history, and no attempt at today’s political correctness is going to make it go away.

Trying to rewrite history so it doesn’t offend anyone is futile at best and tremendously unfair to those who suffered through those times.

GAIL FRAHM PERKINS

Costa Mesa

*

I have a few nits to pick about some of the details in Tony Perry’s article “A Joint Exercise” (May 28). Having directed “Tora! Tora! Tora!” and having had access to a stupendous amount of unassailable research, I offer the following observations:

Re Adm. Yamamoto’s line about having “awakened a sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve.” Your story puts forth the idea that these words were an invention created for “Tora!” and that they came to be accepted as real history. I wish we could take credit for that line, but those words are Yamamoto’s.

As far as portraying the Japanese pilots in “Tora” as being “mere youth going into combat for the first time,” nothing could be further from actuality. They were young, but highly experienced, top-of-the-line pilots. A considerable amount of footage in our film is devoted to their meticulous training for this event. Besides, all the film concerning the Japanese part of our story was shot in Japan by Japanese directors. What you see on the screen in our film is exactly how the Japanese want you to see them. Can you imagine them depicting this epic event being put in the hands of a bunch of inexperienced kids?

RICHARD FLEISCHER

Los Angeles

*

It’s bad enough that Kevin Thomas gave “Titanic,” I mean, “Pearl Harbor” (a mediocre film, at best) a favorable review (“The Day the World Shattered,” May 25). But to absolutely blubber on about what a triumph of filmmaking it was makes me question whether I should take anything he writes seriously. (The San Antonio Spurs got better reviews!)

This “review” couldn’t have been delivered any better by the Disney propaganda machine themselves. Where the hell is Kenneth Turan when you really need him?

DAVID PEREZ

Garden Grove

*

Re “60 Years Later, It’s a Sensitive Topic” (by Lorenza Munoz, May 22):

Who captured the first Japanese POW in World War II? A Japanese American member of the Hawaii National Guard right after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Japanese Americans served with Merrill’s Marauders as they fought the Japanese in Burma. A Japanese American fought as an aerial gunner in B-24 bombers over Europe. Japanese American infantrymen of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team actually captured a German submarine. That same unit served in North Africa, Italy and France, fighting battles that were as heroic and bloody as any fought by the U.S. military.

Yes, there are other sadder stories of the war that I could also tell, such as the losses that our family suffered after the destruction of the Japanese American fishing village at Terminal Island in San Pedro due to wartime hysteria, or the relocation camps at Manzanar and Tule Lake where my mother and father were incarcerated.

But, at least to this late baby boomer, I prefer to relate the stories that made me feel proud to be an American while growing up.

HUGH RYONO

Fullerton