The Purple Heart

After the opening credits of this film, a written prologue reads: "Let it be known that he who wears the military order of the purple heart has given of his blood in the defense of his homeland and shall forever be revered by his fellow countrymen-George Washington, General and Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, Aug. 7, 1782." Excerpts from the poems "How Do I Love Thee-Let Me Count the Ways," by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and "The Boys," by Oliver Wendell Holmes, are recited in the film.

       As noted in contemporary sources, the picture was a fictionalized account, based on facts known at the time, of the trial of eight American fliers captured after the April 18, 1942 bombing raid on Japan, which was led by James H. Doolittle. On April 20, 1943, the U.S. War Dept. issued an official statement that the heretofore classified raid had been launched from the U.S.S. Hornet, and that eight of the fliers were presumed to be prisoners in Japan. On April 21, 1943, President Franklin Roosevelt revealed that in March 1943, the Japanese government had confirmed that the eight captured aviators had been tried and convicted, and that an unspecified number of them had been executed. At the time of the production and release of The Purple Heart, the fate of all of the fliers was not known to the American public. [Contemporary sources discussing the film indicate that it was believed that four of the airmen had been executed, and the rest had died as a result of torture.] At the end of the war, it was learned that three of the Americans had been executed by the Japanese and one had died in captivity. The four survivors were rescued from prison by American troops in August 1945. For more information on the Doolittle raid, please see the entry below for Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo. Although most of the Japanese characters in the film are fictional, Mitsuru Toyama (1855-1944) was an influential politician and prominent member of the Japanese Black Dragon Society during the war.

       A June 25, 1943 Hollywood Reporter news item announced that Bryan Foy would be producing the film. August 1943 conference notes in the Twentieth Century-Fox Produced Scripts Collections, located at the UCLA Arts-Special Collections Library, indicate that William A. Bacher May have been scheduled to produce the picture with Foy. On September 29, 1943, Hollywood Reporter noted that Richard Loo had been tested for the role of "Tojo," although in the finished film, he plays "General Ito Mitsubi." October 1943 Hollywood Reporter news items stated that J. Edward Bromberg, Herbert Rudley, Michael Chekhov, Paul Gordon, Abner Biberman and Alan Napier were tested for the picture, and that Dave Willock was to be in the cast. According to information in the Twentieth Century-Fox Records of the Legal Department, also at UCLA, Biberman was definitely slated for a role, but was released when "it was decided to use all Oriental people in the picture." Farley Granger was borrowed from Samuel Goldwyn for the production, and Donald Barry was borrowed from Republic.

       At the time of the film's production, the War Dept. had recently decreed that no filmic depictions of Japanese atrocities could be produced. According to an February 18, 1944 NY World-Telegram article, "the ban was invoked because it was feared that such movies would provoke reprisals against other prisoners." NARS files contain a September 27, 1943 letter, to the Chief of the Feature Film Section, declaring that the Public Relations Bureau of the War Dept. had "no objection to the filming" of the script, providing that the "deleted references to Japanese torture of American prisoners of war" were observed and there would be "no other specific references to Japanese atrocities."

       Studio production chief Darryl F. Zanuck, who had returned from active military duty in the Signal Corps, decided to make the film anyway, according to contemporary sources, and kept the set closed to prevent any censorship or interference. His onscreen original story credit is under his frequent pseudonym Melville Crossman. The final script was not submitted to the War Dept. for approval or cooperation, according to letters in NARS. On January 27, 1944, the U.S. War and Navy Departments issued an official statement detailing the atrocities committed by the Japanese against thousands of American and Allied prisoners of war after the fall of Bataan and Corregidor. Following the government's official acknowledgment, the War Dept. lifted its ban and allowed films depicting wartime atrocities to be released. On February 1, 1944, a Hollywood Reporter article about the decision disclosed that Zanuck had been prepared to delay the film's release until after the end of the war, if necessary. The article also included the OWI's statement about the lifting of the ban: "We have been informed by Washington that convincing use of atrocity material will be useful overseas, especially after the war in Europe has ended, as a means of keeping alive an understanding of our enemy and the will to defeat him." A February 10, 1944 Hollywood Reporter news item noted that the War Dept. insisted that producers not "run wild on depicting tortures or brutalities," however, and that "any atrocities shown on the screen must be documented, or at least credible."

       The War Dept. maintained objections to The Purple Heart even after the ban was lifted, according to letters at NARS. Among the objections were the speculative nature of the story; the use of the words "purple heart" in the title, which some officials felt was misleading; and worry that the "general tenor of this horror story May have a bad effect on our recruiting program, especially for the seventeen-year-old boys in the cadet plan." The studio did seek official approval from the War Dept. in February 1944, and although the department refused to offer an opinion on the film's suitability for domestic distribution, it did approve the picture for export. The approval was subject to the studio establishing the fact that the film was "a fictionalized version," to "avoid the acceptance of the film as a truely [sic] factual story when the complete story is not yet available." To accommodate the War Dept., the studio agreed to insert the following foreword between its trademark and the picture's opening credits: "Out of the dark mists of the Orient have come no details of the actual fate of the heroic American aviators forced to earth in the bombing of Tokyo. Perhaps those details will never be known. The Japanese Government, in mingled hate and fear, announced only that some were executed. This picture, therefore, is the author's conception of what May well have happened, based upon unofficial reports." This foreword was not included in the print viewed.

       According to information in the MPAA/PCA Collection at the AMPAS Library, the PCA rejected an October 11, 1943 draft of the film's screenplay due to the killing of "Yuen Chiu Ling" by his son. The PCA stated: "The action of Moy in killing his father is unacceptable, as a murder of revenge....likewise the condoning of the act by the Americans." The film was later approved, however.

       Technical advisor Otto Tolischus, who is credited onscreen, was a New York Times and London Times correspondent stationed in Tokyo when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Tolischus was taken into custody and held as a prisoner for over five months before being allowed to return to the U.S. with a number of other journalists. In 1943, Tolischus published a book detailing his treatment and experiences during his captivity. In his book, Tolischus reveals that he heard the American bombing raid on Tokyo from his jail cell. Contemporary sources also note that Tolischus had been tried in the same courtroom as the American aviators. According to Hollywood Reporter news items, other technical advisors included Ernst von Harringa, who "spent a number of years in Japan in the import business," Alice Barlow, "an American who was raised in Japan," and Lt. Eugene D. Wallace, an Army Air Force pilot.

       In a February 1944 letter to a War Dept. official, Zanuck disclosed that one of his inspirations for the screen story was the experiences of another journalist, J. B. Powell. Like Tolischus, Powell, the editor of The China Weekly Review, was held prisoner by the Japanese. Zanuck's letter states that although he did not talk to Powell personally, he heard about Powell's stories of being incarcerated in a cell next to a group of the captured airmen. Several reviews of the film also mentioned Powell's assertion that he had heard the fliers being tortured. Powell suffered serious, permanent injuries during his months in captivity, and according to a modern source, one of the film's previews was held at Harkness Military Hospital in New York, where Powell was recuperating.

       The picture received many laudatory reviews upon its release. The New York Times reviewer called it "an overpowering testimonial," and declared: "Americans cannot help but view this picture with a sense of burning outrage-and hearts full of pride and admiration for our men who have so finely fought and died." According to a April 14, 1944 Hollywood Reporter news item, it took only seven weeks for the film to recoup its production, advertising and print costs. A September 1945 Hollywood Reporter news item announced that the film would be reissued "because of the timely confirmation of its torture story," and that "excerpts from statements by Gen. MacArthur, Wainwright and other Allied military authorities in the Far East" would be used in new advertising campaigns.