Mr. Moto: Improbable International Man of Mystery
In: Journal of American-East Asian RelationsSearch for other papers by Michael A. Schneider in
Current site
Google Scholar
Mr. Moto, a fictional Japanese detective, achieved mass popularity through a series of 1930s films starring Peter Lorre. Moto was the creation of successful writer John P. Marquand (1893–1960), whose novels depicted a Japanese international spy quite different from the genial Mr. Moto of film. Revisiting the original Mr. Moto novels illuminates a Japanese character who rationalized Japan’s 1930s continental expansionism in ways that might have been acceptable to many Americans. Although Marquand intended to present Mr. Moto as a “moderate” and reasonable Japanese agent and generally present East Asians in a positive light, it is difficult to see the novels as doing anything more than buttressing prevailing racial and ethnic stereotypes.
Purchase
Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Institutional Login
Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials
Personal login
Log in with your brill.com account
-
2
David Mura, Song for Uncle Tom, Tonto, and Mr. Moto: Essays and Interviews on the Relationship of Color and the Literary Canon (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2002); Jessica Hagedorn (ed.), Charlie Chan is Dead: An Anthology of Asian American Fiction (New York: Penguin, 1993); Helen Zia, Asian American Dreams: The Emergence of an Asian American People (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2001).
-
13
John P. Marquand, “These Are People Like Ourselves,” Asia (July 1941): 361–64.
-
15
Ibid., p. 149.
-
16
Ibid., p. 167.
-
17
Ibid., pp. 130–31.
-
18
Ibid., pp. 172–73.
-
19
John W. Dower, War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War (New York: Knopf, 1986), 344–45.
-
23
Takashi Fujitani, “The Reischauer Memo: Mr. Moto, Hirohito, and Japanese American Soldiers,” Critical Asian Studies 33, no. 3 (September 2001): 379–402.
-
24
Quoted in ibid., p. 383.
-
25
Theodore Strauss, “GOODBYE MR MOTO: John P. Marquand Sends an Old Friend Back to His ‘Honorable’ Ancestors,” New York Times, 14 December 1941, p. X7.
| All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 376 | 63 | 5 |
| Full Text Views | 204 | 2 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 12 | 0 | 0 |
Mr. Moto: Improbable International Man of Mystery
In: Journal of American-East Asian RelationsSearch for other papers by Michael A. Schneider in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Mr. Moto, a fictional Japanese detective, achieved mass popularity through a series of 1930s films starring Peter Lorre. Moto was the creation of successful writer John P. Marquand (1893–1960), whose novels depicted a Japanese international spy quite different from the genial Mr. Moto of film. Revisiting the original Mr. Moto novels illuminates a Japanese character who rationalized Japan’s 1930s continental expansionism in ways that might have been acceptable to many Americans. Although Marquand intended to present Mr. Moto as a “moderate” and reasonable Japanese agent and generally present East Asians in a positive light, it is difficult to see the novels as doing anything more than buttressing prevailing racial and ethnic stereotypes.
| All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 376 | 63 | 5 |
| Full Text Views | 204 | 2 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 12 | 0 | 0 |