Gil Asakawa's Nikkei View | pearl harbor
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December 10, 2013

hawaii-five-0 We're fans of the CBS series "Hawaii Five-0" for lots of reasons, including the fact that it's a showcase for Asian and Pacific Islander actors such as Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park, and the entertaining "bromance" relationship between Steve McGarrett (Alex O'Loughlin) and Danny "Danno" Williams (Scott Caan). I always loved the original series that ran from 1968-1980, and think it's great that this reboot uses pretty much the same arrangement for the theme song, and even uses quick-cut images that evoke the look and feel of the intro sequence from the earlier Five-0. And finally, who can't love a show that celebrates the coolest and best-looking of all the United States, with loving b-roll shots of both its glistening city life and its incredibly beautiful natural scenery? This week, we get a whole new reason to appreciate "Hawaii Five-0" and tune in regularly. The producers are focusing on an aspect of American history that still remains under the radar of most mainstream American pop culture: The American imprisonment of people of Japanese ancestry in the wake of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor.
December 8, 2011

This about takes the cake for lame-ass non-issues. WUSA9, Gannett's DC affiliate (and sister station to Denver's KUSA 9News, the top-rated station in Denver and home to Adele Arakawa, the Japanese American top-rated anchor), posted this video and text followup about the Obama girls' private school serving Asian food on Dec. 7: "Sidwell Friends School, Sasha and Malia Obama's School,...

November 19, 2009

"The Goods" is now available on DVD, with an offensive racial scene intact."Before the Paramount comedy "The Goods: Live hard, Sell Hard" was released in August, the Asian American blogosphere was abuzz over the extended online trailer for the movie, which showed a disturbing scene with Ken Jeong being beaten up by fellow car salesmen just for being Asian, when star Jeremy Piven gets them all worked up over the memory of Pearl Harbor. The bloggers, including Angry Asian Man and 8Asians as well as Nikkei View, covered the issue enough that it led to protests and meetings between AAPI groups with Paramount studio execs. Those meetings led to a public apology from Adam Goodman, President and CEO of Paramount. The timing was terrible, because the trailer was airing just before the anniversary of the murder of Vincent Chin, who had been beaten to death in 1982 by laid-off auto workers who blamed Japanese cars for losing their jobs. The racist scene was edited out of the trailer. However, the scene, which includes Jeong getting beaten up and then Piven joking about covering up the hate crime, remained in the theatrical release because it was too late to pull from the movie. The leaders of AAPI organizations who met with Paramount also believed that the offensive scene would be edited like the studio was able to do with the trailer (the revised preview takes out the most obnoxious elements, including the use of the word "Jap," even though it keeps Jeong's beating intact). But the DVD was released this week and is available in stores nationwide with the offensive scene still in the movie. The studio claims the production of the DVD was too far along to change the scene.
August 22, 2009

Sometimes, protesting works. It took about a week of buzz on the blogosphere to get the attention of Paramount Studios for the obnoxious racism disguised as satire in the trailer for the comedy starring Jeremy Piven, "The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard." The scene shows car salesmen worked up by the thought of Pearl Harbor being attacked by the Japanese and chanting "never again," until they all pounce on an Asian character in the film. Piven's character then tries to make light of the hate crime by trying to blame the Asian. It's a clumsy reprise of anti-Japanese sentiment from 70 years ago, with a scary flashback of the 1982 murder of Vincent Chin, who was beaten to death by two Detroit autoworkers who thought he was Japanese (he wasn't) and somehow directly responsible for them losing their jobs. Well, enough outrage over this scene built thanks to coverage from Asian American blogs including Minority Militant, Angry Asian Man and 8Asians, that the JACL released a statement expressing outrage a couple of days ago, and several national organizations announced a protest yesterday. (There were also letters of protest sent around by individuals like actor Ken Narasaki and Soji Kashiwagi.) The protest was held yesterday, and though I haven't noticed if national mainstream media had picked up on the issue, Paramount has heeded the protest. A little while ago, I received this email from JACL:
PARAMOUNT APOLOGISES TO THE JACL Los Angeles -- The Japanese American Citizens League (JACL), the nation's largest and oldest Asian American civil rights and community advocacy organization, welcomed Paramount Pictures' apology for "racially demeaning language" in its recently released film, The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard.
August 8, 2009

The Minority Militant blog posted this (R-rated) trailer for the new Jeremy Piven comedy about car salesmen, "The Goods: Live Hard Sell Hard." Towards the end of the trailer are two segments showing an Asian character played by Ken Jeong. In the first scene, which we've seen in the G-rated TV version of the trailer, he opens a bank bag a customer paid him for a car, and his face gets covered in the blue dye they put in stolen money. Ha ha, make fun of the short Asian dude who can't catch a clue. I can live with that, though it makes me squirm a bit. In the second scene, which ends the R-rated version of the trailer, Piven's character, an uber-salesman, is motivating the sales force (which includes Jeong's character) by citing Pearl Harbor. "The Japs... flying in low and fast," he says. "We are the Americans, and they are the enemy." Huh? Is this about the art of war applied to the art of sales? Or is it about Japanese cars vs. American cars? "Pearl Harbor. Never again! Pearl Harbor. Never again!," Piven screams and gets the others to yell along, even the Asian guy. But one of the older Caucasian guys starts eyeing the Asian guy and then shouts, "Let's get him!" A free for all ensues, and all the salesmen kick and pummel the Asian guy.
December 7, 2006

I grew up being apprehensive every December 7. I'm Japanese American, and was born long after Pearl Harbor was bombed in 1941, but for a long time I felt an inescapable sense of responsibility for the attack. My early years were spent in a military environment -- my dad was in the U.S. Army. But I still felt... guilty every December when people started mentioning "Pearl Harbor Day" and when I started to hear comments and sometimes jokes about those "sneaky Japs. " Being Japanese American means feeling an ambivalence because for many Japanese Americans, 120,000 of them, December 7, 1941 wasn't just the day Pearl Harbor was bombed and drew the United States into World War II. Japanese Americans were just as outraged at the attack as everyone else in the U.S. -- Daniel Inouye, the senior senator from Hawaii and a WWII veteran and medal of honor recipient, tells the story of being a young man in Honolulu that day, and shaking his fists at the Japanese planes and screaming, "damn Japs!" There's another side to this story.