Director Michael Bay film orchestrates a forty-minute battle sequence depicting the Japanese assault on the Pearl Harbor naval base. My eyes meet his as we walk past one another on a street in San Francisco. I finally realize what he wants. I went on my way. This sort of thing happens to me every once in a while, even though I live in San Francisco, where 30 percent of the population is Asian American.
Some people just see an Asian face and start assuming things.
You just have to let it slide. But this Memorial Day weekend is making me think a lot about ignorant episodes like the one I just went through. American and Japanese directors collaborated in the filming of Tora , which portrays the conflict from both sides. Critics have widely panned the film's weak plot and hackneyed dialogue, and it's unclear whether Pearl Harbor will be the Titanic -esque smash that its studio, Disney's Touchstone Pictures, is banking on. But for me, the crucial question is what the film will do to the public perception of Asian Americans.