Destination Tokyo (DVD WHV 269)

Where’s the dividing line between cinematic escapism and wartime propagandizing? Shouldn’t an effective—as in manipulative—piece of wartime propaganda inspire a citizenry to re-double their efforts to defeat the enemy du jour? And shouldn’t an effective—as in manipulative, again—piece of cinematic escapism temporarily lobotomize the viewer into a laconic stupor? They may seem like opposites a first—fervent vs. stupefied—but both share a common goal: beguiling the viewing into a state of non-reflexivity.

With Destination Tokyo (1943), propagandist and escapist tendencies merge for a jingoistic underwater adventure. In this, Cary Grant’s only wartime movie, the submarine U.S.S. Copperfin sets off from SF for a secret reconnaissance mission of Tokyo Bay. This mission, in turn, gives Doolittle’s Raiders the info needed to inflict maximum punishment on the Imperial Fleet. Through a combination of racist rhetoric, diminutive special effects, an essentialized crew (e.g., hothead, rookie recruit, womanizer), and bombs-bombs-bombs, an escapist/propagandist haze reigns that makes no mention, of course, of the estimated 250,000 innocent Chinese that were killed by the Japanese as a result of the raids, or of the six Japanese schools that were accidentally bombed by the Raiders. So why watch it? Will it provide a lens through which we can better focus on today’s escapist, propagandist, and non-reflexive cinematic consumables?