Center for Labor Education & Research, University of Hawaii - West Oahu: Honolulu Record Digitization Project
Honolulu Record, Volume 9 No. 15, Thursday, November 08, 1956 p. 2
Remember "Big Jim Mclain" [clip of movie]
Mike Fern editor of the Garden Island, is to be complimented on the campaign he started on Kauai against a movie which would otherwise have perpetuated an old libel on Americans of Japanese ancestry on Hawaii—that they aided the forces of the Japanese Empire in World War II All residents of Kauai and of the whole Territory be they AJA or not owe him a debt of thanks for his stand.
The producers of ' Jungle Heat," the movie Fern attacked owe him thanks also, if they are farsighted enough to realize it even though they had referred their script to the Defense Department which did not "disapprove."
Honolulans can hardly fail to be reminded, by contrast, of the weak-kneed attitude of most editors on Oahu in 1951 when another movie, equally libelous and more damaging because of the Korean War, got nothing but huzzahs and the red carpet treatment when made in this city in 1951. That movie was "Big Jim McLain," which starred John Wayne in a wholly imaginary story of "Reds" who plotted to overthrow the government, who sabotaged war work through labor unions, and even raised cultures of germs by which to spread the bubonic plague.
Instead of being blasted for proposing a movie that purported to show the vilest treachery in the shadow of Diamond Head and behind Waikiki Beach, John Wayne and his team received the praise and participation of such citizens a[s] Dr Joel Trapido, University of Hawaii Red McQueer, Advertiser sports columnist, P Y Chong, the restaurateur, Lucky Luck, the radioman, Ralph Honda, the businessman and Akira (Sunshine) Fukunaga, once an important figure in the 442nd Club.
John Wayne even got the fullest cooperation from Chief Dan Liu who put the police department and its facilities at the disposal of the movie-makers without even showing the script to the police commission Dan Liu saved the movie-makers thousands of' dollars in their production of a vicious libel on the people of Hawaii, and lent further credence to their libel by appearing in the show himself.
There were those who saw the matter in its true light and spoke out against it, but the dailies were too fascinated by the idea of having movies made in Hawaii, or too petrified by hysteria of the time, to hear them. Even the Star-Bulletin, which has made the welkin ring for years on the statehood issue, couldn't see editorially how the picture would hurt Hawaii's changes in Congress.
The late John H Wilson, then mayor of Honolulu, saw clearly. He said, “If I were a Congressman and saw a movie like that, I would vote "against statehood.”
Even Oren E Long, then Governor of Hawaii, never quick to take a strong view of a hot issue, answered a complaint by saying he was "disturbed" by what he heard of the movie, and Sam King, then serving on various commissions, said unfortunately, a community can't sue for libel.
But the dailies couldn't hear these dissents and they were reported only in the RECORD. There were voices from those in less powerful positions, too, but of course the dailies couldn't hear them either.
Dr. H. I. Kurisaki, blasted the police commission for okaying movie like that without knowing anything about it and he blasted over his Japanese-language radio program. Two units of the 442nd Club passed resolutions against the movie and sent copies to county and territorial officials concerned. So did the Kahhi-Palama Community Council, and so did the Hawaiian Homesteaders Improvement Club of Kalawahine.
But their protests were reported only in the RECORD. The dailies of Honolulu had no editors with the courage and vision shown by Mike Fern on Kauai last week. As might be expected, “Big Jim McLain” turned out to be a very poo[r] movie by anyone's standard It was slapped by Mainland critics and theatergoers stayed away in droves.
Maybe Mike Fern has taught Honolulu editors something, as he has moviemakers The dailies, at least, have come to their senses enough to report the facts of his campaign, and the makers of "Jungle Heat" have agreed to leave out the libel and keep their movie closer to believable situations.
It is only common humanity to feed the hungry. If our hospitals are too big, too complex, too impersonal to do these small kindnesses for the sick, something is very wrong.