If you haven’t seen it yet, I highly recommend going to see Captain America: The First Avenger. It’s not a perfect movie but it is a fun one and it does a nice job of capturing the spirit of the character.
The purpose of this blog entry isn’t to review the movie. Rather my intent is to address a complaint I’ve been hearing from certain quarters that the movie doesn’t address racial realities of the time period. It’s certainly a valid topic of discussion and it has been the subject of films like The Tuskegee Airmen, Come See the Paradise, Only the Brave, and the upcoming Red Tails. So why doesn’t Captain America: The First Avenger also tackle the issue? Well let’s be honest. This is a popcorn movie. It’s not supposed to be deep or thought provoking. It’s supposed to be an amusing entertainment by which to pass a couple of hours. Trying to delve into the racism that would realistically be experienced by two minor supporting characters beyond the scene where Jim Morita is introduced would seriously sidetrack the movie. It’s sort of like complaining that Babe doesn’t spend enough time discussing animal cruelty.
Moviegoers should understand that the movie is just trying to reflect the comics on which the movie is based. Gabe Jones was a member of the Howling Commandos from the very beginning. Jim Morita didn’t come along until issue #38. Was it realistic to depict an integrated unit in a WWII comic book? No but do you really expect a high degree of realism from a comic book? Today people look at the character of Gabe and they think the creators of the comic book were trying to gloss over ugly aspects of the time period. They fail to see the context in which the character was created.
Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos was first published in May, 1963. The struggle for African-American civil rights was very much an issue of the time. The inclusion of an African-American soldier in Nick Fury’s unit was far from an attempt to gloss over racial issues of the day. On the contrary it served pretty much the opposite purpose. Had the men of the First Attack Squad all been white, accurately reflecting the realities of WWII, the book would have drawn no criticism in 1963 and could have completely avoided the issue of race. Making one of the Howling Commandos black, even though it was unrealistic to do so, brought the issue of racism into the book and it was a topic the book dealt with on occasion as Gabe would encounter racists from other units and when he did the other soldiers from his unit would have his back. There was a message there and it was an important message for the 1960s. It was that blacks were every bit as good as whites and the right thing to do was to stand up for them and help them in their struggle for equal rights. Comic books’ handling of race has been less than exemplary at times but the inclusion of Gabe Jones and Jim Morita in the Howling Commandos isn’t one of those times.
Unfortunately that message gets lost in the movie. Mainly because the title of the movie is Captain America: The First Avenger, not Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos. Which is why once they’re introduced the First Attack Squad spends all of their time standing around in the background while Cap leads the way. Perhaps someday they’ll make Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos and I’m sure they’ll touch on it then, especially since for the movies they’ve gone with the Ultimate version of Nick Fury which was based on Samuel L. Jackson.
What I find most disturbing about the charges of racism leveled at the movie is the degree of ignorance some people have displayed. These people find the inclusion of Jim Morita to be far more offensive than that of Gabe Jones. They believe that all Japanese-Americans were imprisoned in internment camps and none were allowed to serve in the military. This is very wrong. To those who were unaware that Japanese-Americans served as combat troops in the US military during WWII I suggest you familiarize yourself with the 100th Infantry Battalion, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, and the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion. Note that the 442nd is the most decorated unit for its size and length of service in the history of the US military. These were good men and they deserve to be remembered for what they did.
Haelllujah! I needed this?you’re my savior.