| Bridge to the Sun | |
| Director: | Etienne Périer |
| Producer: | Jacques Bar |
| Screenplay: | Charles Kaufman |
| Starring: | Carroll Baker James Shigeta Tetsurō Tamba Sean Garrison |
| Music: | Georges Auric |
| Cinematography: | Bill Kelly Seiichi Kizuka Marcel Weiss |
| Editing: | Robert Isnardon Monique Isnardon |
| Studio: | Cite Films |
| Distributor: | MGM |
| Runtime: | 113 minutes |
| Country: | France United States |
| Language: | English |
| Budget: | less than $100,000[1] |
Bridge to the Sun is a 1961 film directed by Etienne Périer and starring Carroll Baker, James Shigeta, James Yagi, Tetsurō Tamba and Sean Garrison. It is based on the 1957 autobiography Bridge to the Sun by Gwen Terasaki, which detailed events in Terasaki's life and marriage.[2]
Gwen Harold, an American woman from Tennessee, meets Hidenari Terasaki (called Terry by his friends and family), the secretary to the Japanese ambassador, while attending a reception at the Japanese embassy in Washington, D.C. They share a moment while Terry is showing her the antique Japanese artworks on display in the embassy, and after some reluctance, she agrees to allow him to call on her.
They begin dating and they quickly fall in love, even though Terry occasionally has fits of anti-Western sentiment. When Terry asks her to marry him, she agrees, but the Japanese ambassador calls on Gwen and attempts to dissuade her from accepting, claiming that it would hurt Terry's career by giving him an American bias.They eventually marry despite the obstacles and, when Terry is recalled, travel to Japan by ship.
Arriving in Tokyo, Terry begins to treat Gwen much differently, expecting her to behave according to beliefs of contemporary Japan, such as being silent among men, entering doors after the men and virtually bending to every whim of Terry and her male relatives. After having a fight one night when a general says that Terry should be proud that he may have a son to die for the emperor, they make up and she reveals that she is pregnant. The baby daughter is named Mako.
By November 1941, Terry has been reassigned to the embassy in America. World War II embroils the world around them and the U.S. is one of the few powers of the world still at peace. Sensing that it may be the last chance for peace between the U.S. and the Empire of Japan, Terry attempts to go over the heads of his superiors and have a cable sent directly to President Roosevelt, alerting him to cable the Japanese emperor to seek to preserve the peace. Terry's effort is in vain, as December 7th comes.
Gwen decides to accompany Terry back to Japan, as he is due to be deported in an ambassador exchange. In Japan, a nationalist anti-American hatred is present among the citizens. Terry is less enthusiastic about the war, and attempts to be a mediator for peace, which is dangerous because of the prevailing sentiment and the secret police. .
Terry reveals that he is under suspicion for being disloyal because he has an American wife, does not belong to any patriotic clubs, and speaks out against the war. Soldiers enter and search the house, and while they don't arrest him, it is clear that he and his family are going to have a rough time as long as they stay in Tokyo. They agree to stay at a friend's empty house outside of the city.
They arrive at their new home and meet the young girl who lives there. Terry reveals that he is going back to Tokyo, and that he did not tell her earlier because she would not have gone to stay without him. He offers to arrange her passage back to the U.S., but she refuses, wanting to be close to her husband.
As the war continues, food shortages and widespread damage make it clear that things are going against Japan. As the years go on, Terry visits less and less, and Mako grows up not knowing any other existence other than one of perpetual war. Later on, the surrender of Nazi Germany, Japan's main ally, is also announced, and it is clear that the invasion of Japan is coming soon.
One day, the entire village arrives at their house, as it is the only one with a radio, for the emperor's radio address. The emperor has never spoken in public before, so they realize he must have major news, possibly of a surrender. As the village listens to the emperor's voice for the first time, the speech starts:
With the war over, Terry asks Gwen to return to her home of Johnson City, Tennessee to put Mako in an American school while she is young and can lose her prejudices against America. Gwen vehemently refuses to leave him. Later on, she finds Terry, who has been overworked, malnourished and ill for many months, standing over his parents' graves. She recalls a speech that he once gave her about visiting the graves of ancestors at times of marriage, birth, and death.
Days later, after Gwen agrees to Terry's final wish for her and Mako to depart for America, he sees her and their daughter off at the dock. They kiss and embrace for the last time, and Gwen reassures Terry that they will be expecting him soon, knowing that she will never see him again. The film ends with Gwen and Terry lovingly meeting each other's gaze for the final time. Gwen holds her composure until he is out of sight, and then breaks down and begins crying.
The memoir narrates the life of Gwen Harold (1906 - 1990), an American from Tennessee who in 1931 married Hidenari "Terry" Terasaki (b.1900), a Japanese diplomat. He was first secretary at the Japanese embassy in Washington, D.C., in 1941 when Pearl Harbor was bombed, was one of the staff who helped translate the Japanese declaration of war and delivered it (late) to the U.S. government and (as Gwen Terasaki wrote in her memoirs) earlier sent secret messages to Japanese pacifists seeking to avert war. The couple and their daughter Mariko were, like all Axis diplomats, interned in 1942 and repatriated via neutral Angola later that year. Terasaki held various posts in the Japanese foreign affairs department up to 1945 when he became an advisor to the emperor, and was the official liaison between the imperial palace and General Douglas MacArthur, the Supreme Allied Commander.
Mariko and her mother left Japan in 1949 so that Mariko could attend East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, Tennessee. Terry died in 1951 in Japan at the age of 50.
During the scene in which the Japanese ambassador tries to persuade Gwen to call off the marriage, he seems to hint at a possible conflict between the two countries. However, it is unlikely that he would have been aware of any definitive war aims in 1935, as Japan was still at peace with China. Soon after, Japan would declare war and, in protest against its actions, the United States would issue an oil embargo against Japan, escalating the disagreement between the two and paving the way for war.
The speech that Hirohito gives on the radio at the end of the film is a part of the actual recording of the speech that was played to announce plans of surrender. However, Terry's translation for Gwen is actually only bits and pieces of the much longer speech, but it sounds as though he is translating it word for word.