Movie: Emperor

Emperor: a movie based upon actual events.  Tommy Lee Jones plays General Douglas MacArthur and the place is Japan right after the WW II surrender.  The question the movie presents is whether Emperor Hirohito should be charged as a war criminal along with Japan’s political and military elite who were responsible for the Pearl Harbor bombing and subsequent events.  Matthew Fox is General Bonner Fellers, the individual MacArthur assigned to investigate whether the Emperor should be charged.  General Fellers is quite favorably portrayed and is given a love interest.  The favorable treatment  I found quite interesting as the real Gen. Fellers was a major figure in the John Birch Society in the 1950/1960s.  He also was unwittingly the person whose messages to General Marshall  while being assigned as Military Attaché to the U S Embassy in Egypt in 1941 had been compromised by both the Germans and the Italians leading to Alley losses: but I’m going off subject.  The film shows how devastated Japan was from the fire-bombing that occurred before Hiroshima.  The film also clearly sets forth the reality that a significant part of the military command was not ready to surrender despite the bombing destruction.  Gen Fellers’ report accurately stated that it is impossible to determine whether the Emperor could have stopped the war machine and the decision to bomb Pearl Harbor but he clearly was the key person in the surrender of Japan without a land invasion.   I believe the first time the Japanese public heard the voice of Emperor Hirohito was when he announced over the radio that Japan surrenders.  The fact that an attempt was made to assassinate him before the address was played is portrayed in the movie.  The romantic parts of the movie are the fiction although there is a factual base.   Gen Fellers did meet prior to the war a Japan female national attending college in America.  The sequences involving Aya (Eriko Hatsume) and her family raise the film beyond being a well done piece for the History Channel.  I enjoyed the scenes with Aya’s military uncle.  The Japanese characters are fully developed and not portrayed as stereotype figures.   Takataro Kataoka plays Emperor Hirohito.   The movie is directed by Peter Webber working off a quality script by David Klass and Vera Blasi.   The Japan occupation is one of the few things General MacArthur did right in my opinion and I don’t mind that Jones gives another excellent performance portraying him in a favorable light.  I enjoyed this 106 minute film and I was educated about the historical background as to the wise decision not to have prosecuted the Emperor.