Although Hayakawa primarily played “villainous” roles in a majority of his films where he was eventually “defeated” by the hands of a white character in each of his featured films, the portrayal of his characters were sadly, nonetheless “improvements” from the typical roles Asian actors were assigned because of the “Americanization” of his characters. Since Japan’s victory over Russia in the Russo-Japanese War in 1905 and subsequent modernization and Westernization during its aftermath, the public perception of Japanese people shifted from “primitive” to “more advanced” than other “primitive” cultures (Miyao, 9). Essentially, because Japan was undergoing modernization and as a result becoming more Westernized, the people of Japan were considered the “closest to the Caucasian race” (Miyao, 9). In the eyes of Hollywood, and more notably, The Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company, the agency which Hayakawa was signed under, the “closer to the Caucasian race,” the better, which meant that the Americanization of ethnic characters was frequently seen on-screen (10). The Japanese became what we now call the “model minority,” and the “Americanization” of Hayakawa in film was one of the mechanisms Lasky used Hayakawa to promote to propagate the model minority myth.
As observed in his second feature film The Cheat (1915), Hayakawa’s Americanized persona was not only allow for white audiences to empathize with, but for Asian audiences to follow as a model for their assimilation (Miyao, 88). Tori, Hayakawa’s character in The Cheat, was shown to be wearing a Japanese gown over a Western-style tuxedo (Miyao, 40). Hayakawa was shown with two ornaments of clothing as opposed to one in order to represent the fact that as a Japanese man living in America, he needs to assimilate to American culture to be accepted, but as a Japanese man, will never be fully considered American. They are still trying to “other” him. This reiterates the notion that the “Japanese” were considered to be the “middle-class,” in between “colored” and “white,” but neither one or the other and still below white (Miyao, 15). Recurring subtleties such as these in occur regularly in Hayakawa’s films, which depict the idea that Asians belonged in the “middle class” in the grand scheme of white hegemonic society . Unfortunately, Hayakawa’s representation as somebody who could never fully be “up” the status of “white” was still considered to be an improvement with regards to the treatment of Asian Americans as well as Asian immigrants, who were to reiterate, previously grouped in the “colored” category for years prior to the The Cheat (1915). In another scene, Hayakawa’s character Tori, was seen as wearing a “white duster, cap, casual tweed suit, and bow tie… as a person who has been assimilated into Long Island high society,” which is another prime example of the intentional and continual efforts by Hollywood to promote Westernization (35). Essentially, Hollywood managed to sidestep yellow facing, but white-washed Hayakawa’s characters, which was the only way Asians were “accepted” and treated with a modicum of “respect” by American society. Racist Love.
Another example of Hayakawa’s Americanization occurs in The Tong Man (1919), where Hayakawa plays a “romantic genteel hero” who was “detached from the stereotypical images of savage Chinese people” (187). Once again, referring back to the notion of Americanization (white-washing) and the Japanese being perceived as “better” than the rest of the “colored,” Hayakawa was designed to be less of a threat due to the Americanization of his character. Americanizing Hayakawa, who by default represented Asians as one of the few Asians in the media, temporarily dispelled the irrational “Yellow Peril” ideologies of the past, which to a certain extent, tempered the negative perception of Asian residents in America. Although his roles were far away from ideal, they were necessary to counteract the otherwise Hollywood enemy-imaging.
In An Arabian Knight (1920), Hayakawa played the role of Ahmed, an “adventurous hero, with the feminine quality of ‘to-be-looked-at-ness,” a sex symbol (Miyao, 193). Hayakawa’s masculinity, albeit an element of his Americanization, was another reason for his ascent to his stardom. In the words of famous Japanese photographer Miyatake Toyo, “Sessue Hayakawa...The greatest movie star in this century...White women willing to give themselves to a Japanese man...dozens of female fans surrounding his car...Never again will there be a star like Sessue” (Miyao, 1). Hayakawa was a powerful sexual entity that almost single-handedly changed the perception of Asian males, who were typically typecast to play a “asexual eunuchs,” who resort “rape” in racist Hollywood (Marchetti, 2).
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