Hard Soap

A TV series reopens old wounds

In terms of plot, the show is merely the stuff of any normal television soap opera: rape, plunder, anguish, despair. But the yearlong Japanese TV series Sanga Moyu is causing a real-life melodrama of its own. Based on a popular novel, Two Homelands by Toyoko Yamasaki, it is the story of the Japanese-American Amoh family, immigrants to the U.S. whose national loyalties are tested by World War II. The homeland they choose does not choose them, and the Amohs live through racist humiliation, imprisonment in a California relocation center and other indignities. The show has been so popular in Japan that its producers planned to offer it to Japanese-speaking Americans, but a controversy has arisen that may keep the series off U.S. TV.

Even before Sanga Moyu made its debut in Japan last January, there were grumbles among Japanese Americans, U.S. diplomats and Americans living in Japan. As early as last May, the Japanese Foreign Ministry received alarms from its embassy in Washington. The diplomats relayed fears of Japanese Americans that dredging up the anti-Japanese hysteria of 1942 would damage relations between the two countries, especially at a time of friction over Japanese-American trade. Mike Masaoka, a longtime Washington public relations man whose clients include large Japanese firms and American companies doing business in Japan, pointed out in a letter to Japanese officials: "It could jeopardize good relations on all sides. Why add to a delicate situation?"

In the U.S. an overwhelming wave of protest from Japanese Americans prompted the Japanese television network, Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHK), to postpone the American premiere of the series, originally scheduled for early March on Southern California's Japanese-language TV. Some Japanese Americans see the program as a distortion of themselves and a threat to their own fortunes in the U.S. Most of the criticism has come from the 32,000-member Japanese American Citizens League, the oldest and largest Japanese civil rights group in the U.S. Sanga Moyu portrays a dilemma of divided patriotism that most Japanese Americans say does not exist. "There are no torn loyalties," says J.A.C.L. National Director Ron Wakabayashi. "It gives a completely wrong impression." Adds Floyd Shimomura, the organization's president, "We spent three generations trying to prove our loyalties [to the U.S.]. I'd hate to see a TV show undo all of that."

To placate its critics, NHK added 16 episodes in the beginning of the series that provide a broad but dull view of modern Japanese history starting in 1936. In these segments the militarists prior to Pearl Harbor are depicted as deceptive, conniving scoundrels. NHK executives have even produced a pamphlet that outlines the changes made in the book's original story line, ones that improve the American image. The television version, they say, will enhance mutual understanding: instead of just dealing with unfortunate experiences, it will also show American good will and humane treatment of Japanese Americans. Says NHK Drama Director Ryo Okino: "Many of those who are protesting are doing so on the basis of the book, but we have made many changes. Their anxieties will evaporate once they have seen the drama."

Amid the continuing controversy over Sanga Moyu, broadcasters in Southern California, San Francisco, Honolulu and New York City have decided to postpone the series indefinitely. They say that when the show finishes its run in Japan next winter, they will reconsider that decision. Still, things could heat up again on April 22, when the series closes out its historical episodes and plunges directly into the bombing of Pearl Harbor.