John Wayne in Japan: International Production, Global Trade, and John Wayne’S Diplomacy in the Barbarian and the Geisha

John Wayne in Japan: International Production, Global Trade, and John Wayne’s Diplomacy in The Barbarian and the Geisha At the beginning of the 1958 John Wayne historical romance The Barbarian and the Geisha, Okichi—the geisha of the film‟s title who provides the film‟s voice-over narration— insists that, “This is my story too” while the film lyrically captures images of traditional Japanese culture pre-western contact. This forceful assertion of narrative centrality and Okichi‟s powerful position as narrator in the film challenge many of the masculine and western privileges normally associated with Hollywood films, particularly those of John Wayne. In Wayne‟s cinematic world he is most often the center of the narrative whose subjectivity dominates the audience‟s perspective, privileging his position (and the position of white males in general) over those of the women and people of color he dominates. Yet in Barbarian, although Wayne still dominates the narrative, Okichi‟s voice over establishes that the film is from her point of view, contesting the centrality of Wayne‟s (and the West‟s) perspective of the story. From the start, then, the film establishes itself as a site of negotiation about whose film it really is and whose perspective is privileged, for although it stars Wayne and Sam Jaffe, it was filmed in Japan with a largely Japanese cast and crew and doesn‟t use English subtitles when characters are speaking Japanese. If this is Okichi‟s story too, a story about Japanese engagement with US culture rather than simply an American story about the exotic “Other,” then The Barbarian and the Geisha explores the possibilities of local cultures asserting their centrality to the dominant narratives about global cultural exchange and cross cultural engagement. Okichi‟s assertion of narrative centrality, therefore, complicates a film that seems a classic example Hollywood‟s racist and imperialistic construction of the non-western world. The film tells the story of Townsend Harris, a US diplomat who in 1858 traveled to Japan to open the country‟s ports, which had been closed to foreigners for over 200 years. Landing in a small fishing village in the province of Shimoda, Harris must first win over the small community before the hostile local officials agree to take him to the capitol to speak before the Shogun. All the while, Okichi the geisha is sent to stay with Harris and spy on him, but she develops respect for Harris and his American ways, as does the governor of Shimoda, who must choose between adherence to traditional beliefs and his growing respect for Harris. The film‟s narrative, therefore, exemplifies many of the tropes of cinematic imperialism: it presents an exotic spectacle in which the western male must navigate the alien spaces of a foreign culture while asserting his mastery over the sexualized and racialized woman who stands in as a reductive representative for the culture as a whole. Moreover, the film‟s use of CinemaScope widescreen technology only emphasizes Hollywood‟s spectacular construction of exotic locales for the visual pleasure of western audiences, participating in Hollywood‟s Orientalist construction of Asia in the 1950s. To interpret Barbarian solely within the framework of western imperialism and Orientalism, however, oversimplifies the film‟s complicated depiction of US-Japanese relations within the context of global capitalism. After all, the film was released in a unique historical moment in which two formal imperial rivals must renegotiate their relationship to one another within a globalizing economy and the need to “contain” communism. With the “loss” of the Chinese to communism, the US government shifted focus in the 1950s onto rebuilding Japan into the ally and trade partner that China now could not now become (Dudden 191-213). Meanwhile, during and after the 1945-1952 occupation of Japan by the US military, the Japanese began to recognize the necessity of cooperation with their former enemies in order to revitalize the Meeuf-2 nation‟s economy and status in the world community. This rather swift reconsideration of their relationship on the part of both the US and the Japanese, moreover, meant a substantial revision of the cultural stereotypes and racism within both cultures that resulted from years of dehumanizing propaganda leading up to and during WWII (see, for example, Dower). Thus the negotiation of the 1858 US-Japanese trade agreement dramatized in Barbarian can be seen as an apparent allegory for the 1950s re-negotiation of the Japanese as strategic allies and friends in both the American and Japanese cultural imaginations. John Wayne at first glance seems an odd choice as an arbitrator of these negotiations. After all, Wayne is most often associated with American militarism and patriotism; Wayne‟s brand of rugged and violent masculinity can rarely be termed diplomatic. And yet, as the world‟s most popular star in the 1950s who represented not just Hollywood‟s vision of the US but also a modern, capitalist masculinity being consumed around the world (see, for example, Meeuf), Wayne in many ways is the perfect diplomat to oversee the integration of localities into global capitalism. Moreover, Barbarian‟s unique production history complicates any attempts to see the film in simple terms of cultural domination—just like Townsend Harris, Wayne and the US crew travelled to Japan in what was publicized as an attempt to foster cross-cultural understanding between the two nations. While such grandiose claims clearly obscured Hollywood‟s need to turn a profit off of funds stuck in Japanese banks, it is nevertheless fruitful to see the film and Wayne‟s performance within these dynamics of cross-cultural exchange. To that end, this essay explores John Wayne not as a dominating and violent American but as a diplomat negotiating the entrance of Japan and alternative forms of modernity into the structures and worldview of global capitalism. Mirroring the film‟s narrative in which Harris encourages the Japanese to enter into international trade agreements despite Japanese concerns with cultural contamination, Wayne‟s performance showcases the delicate cultural negotiations in which Japan can embrace a kind of US-led global capitalism that leaves open the possibilities for uniquely Japanese modernities. Relying on (and at times modifying) the international cultural meanings surrounding John Wayne, The Barbarian and the Geisha dramatizes the necessity of reciprocal trade and mutual cultural understanding rather than a straightforward affirmation of imperialist domination. In this way, the film showcases the important role of Wayne as a transnational star in managing certain kinds of historical tensions; at this crucial moment of geopolitical and cultural redefinition for both the US and Japan, it is the complex construction of the John Wayne persona that can assuage anxieties while affirming the spectacle of a new economic and cultural order. A Picture Made “In the Japanese Manner” Wayne‟s performance in The Barbarian and the Geisha takes on added significance for understanding US-Japanese relations in the context of global capitalism due to the film‟s unique position within Hollywood‟s increasing internationalization, particularly Hollywood‟s growing investment in international production and various international film industries. Throughout the post-WWII years Hollywood increasingly turned its attention to exploiting film production around the world in regions where production costs could be kept lower than in the US, where the industry could spend its money that had been blocked from leaving the country, and where co-productions could qualify for government subsidies for local film production (see, for example, Guback). As a result, the number of films shot internationally rose dramatically in the 1950s, primarily focusing on production in Europe but reaching around the world to Africa, Asia, and South America. In fact, the director of The Barbarian and the Geisha, John Huston, Meeuf-3 was “the most traveled filmmaker in the period,” making The African Queen (1951) in the Belgian Congo, Moulin Rouge (1952) in Paris, Beat the Devil (1954) in Italy, Moby Dick (1956) in Ireland, Madeira, and the Canary Islands, Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957) in Tobago, and The Roots of Heaven (1958) in French Equatorial Africa, Uganda, and the Belgian Congo in addition to filming The Barbarian and the Geisha in Japan (Lev 151). So while Huston was considered a top “Hollywood” director, he “rarely set foot in Los Angeles” in this time period, traveling the world exploiting the Hollywood studios‟ increasing attention to international production. Barbarian, therefore, is one example of these Hollywood production trends in the post- war years. 20th Century Fox reportedly had over $100,000,000 of blocked funds in Japan that the studio was trying to spend on Japanese productions and invest in the Japanese film industry (Beech). The $3,500,000 Fox spent on the production of Barbarian was part of that effort and made Barbarian the most expensive film ever made in Japan at that time, perhaps because it was the first period piece attempted by Hollywood in Japan, requiring the elaborate transformation of a modern Kyoto into a 19th Century Japanese fishing village (Scheuer). For Huston, however, the production of The Barbarian and the Geisha was about engaging with Japanese culture and the Japanese film industry more than simply exploiting Japan as an exotic locale for the consumption of Western audiences, or at least that is how he sought to construct his efforts on the film in the press. As he told the Japan Times in 1957 as he prepared to shoot the film, “the „Townsend Harris Story‟ [Barbarian‟s working title at the time] will not be just another American movie produced in Japan. I hope to make a Japanese picture in Japan, not an American one” ("Harris, Okichi Story Plans Aired by Huston").

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