While the passing of Yoshiko "Shirley" Yamaguchi this week was noted around the world, few accounts mentioned her role in introducing the war bride to America -- on the silver screen.
Yamaguchi made her Hollywood debut playing a nurse's aide who falls in love with an American lieutenant, and the racial prejudice she endured in California. "Japanese War Bride" (1952) was originally titled the more anodyne "East is East." But by the 1950s, test screenings showed American audiences more sympathetic to the subject matter - at least at the movies.
Yamaguchi made her Hollywood debut playing a nurse's aide who falls in love with an American lieutenant, and the racial prejudice she endured in California. "Japanese War Bride" (1952) was originally titled the more anodyne "East is East." But by the 1950s, test screenings showed American audiences more sympathetic to the subject matter - at least at the movies.
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