07 Oct Bridge to the Sun
(1961) Bridge to the Sun is the story of a young American girl from the South who marries Hidenari “Terry” Terasakia, a Japanese diplomat. They meet by chance at a diplomatic reception in Washington, D.C. (in 1935 in the film; in 1930 in real life.) Despite their family’s concerns they married soon afterward and moved to Japan.
The movie is based on the 1957 bestselling autobiography of the same name by Gwen Terasaki. When she and her husband moved to Japan it was interesting to see how tough it was for her to adapt to his family’s traditional ways. She was headstrong and used to speaking her mind. Not so in Japan. To make it worse she had to walk behind her husband and enter the car last, after all the men had climbed in.
Terasakia was against his country going to war. The couple were back in Washington when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. Despite State Department warnings, Gwen insisted on returning to Japan with her husband. Conditions were so bad there that the family nearly starved … by this time they had a daughter, Mariko.
Carroll Baker and James Shigeta did well in the starring roles. My favorite WWII-era New York Times critic, Bosley Crowther, was not impressed. I’m glad I watched it, primarily because I know it really happened.
As it turns out, at the end of the war Terasakia was an adviser to the Emperor and acted as interpreter for General MacArthur and Hirohito. This brought to mind Emperor, the other recent movie I watched about Hirohito.
Terry and Gwen’s daughter, Mariko Terasaki Miller, has had a long career in international politics and diplomacy. In 1995 the Government of Japan officially appointed her an Honorary Consul-General of Japan. You can read all about it at this website Bridge to the Sun.
Bridge to the Sun at amazon.com
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