June 8, 2013

An ambitious attempt to describe a very important problem facing MacArthur when he became Supreme Commander over Japan: should he drag the emperor to a war crime tribunal in order to appease politicians back home in the US who felt that the voters wanted it, or should he be more concerned about restoring Japan as quickly as possible to ensure that communism didn't get a foothold there?<br/> Unfortunately, the story misses many opportunities to mo… read the rest.

An ambitious attempt to describe a very important problem facing MacArthur when he became Supreme Commander over Japan: should he drag the emperor to a war crime tribunal in order to appease politicians back home in the US who felt that the voters wanted it, or should he be more concerned about restoring Japan as quickly as possible to ensure that communism didn't get a foothold there?<br/> Unfortunately, the story misses many opportunities to more deeply explore cultural differences and moral dilemmas, and instead is filled with several distracting short scenes and sidelines that confuse rather than enlighten.<br/>
It could have been a great film, but now it's just decent.

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