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The Gruver-Han-ogi Romance Would not have survived real life.

posted 6 years ago by angelosdaughter (158)
5 replies | jump to latest

There is a scene where she is leaving to go to work (her dance company). She has to kiss him around his cigarette. He is sitting on the sofa in his robe, smoking with his feet up on the coffee table, just like any other man of his time, expecting the wife to do all of the work while he lounges. Even the Kelly-Katsumi marriage appears to be her being the good submissive little wife.
Gruver's offer to Hana-ogi is received by her with more sense, i.e. she has thought through the consequences of taking that step; he hadn't, but then the consequences would have been all hers. She would have had to give up dancing, and then there would be the effect on her family to whom her career had restored honor. All of those children he proposed to foist on her would have faced racial prejudice considering that they would be bi-racial in the time when there were laws here against bi-racial marriages. He would likely have been drummed out of the Air Force for breaking the rule, and possibly court-martialed.
In reality, Hana-ogi would have been better off rejecting Gruver.
In the USA, she would probably have had to work at whatever job she could get while he was in jail to support any kids he was able to give her, and watch them grow to try to distance themselves from a heritage that set them apart. She might have ended as a lonely old widow trying to fill her time. At least in her home country, she would have had some standing as a dance teacher.

I used to think this movie was so romantic. Age and wisdom have taught me that it is anything but.

[–] ElKabong1940 (323) 5 years ago

My, you are a real optimist! I see Gruver getting out of the Air Force and getting a job with a US airline and eventually make an excellent salary. He would be based on the West Coast at LA, SFO, or SEA where there are extensive Japanese communities. Maybe even Hawaii. Hanna-Ogi could make friends and associate with other Japanese people if she so desired. They could be very happy.

[–] ElKabong1940 (323) 5 years ago

[–] angelosdaughter (158) 5 years ago

I am a realist as Hana-Ogi is in the book. Look at the women in this movie. Katsumi is a dutiful little wife who lives to please her man. He refuses for her to have any symbols of her religion in the house. When she covers her mouth with her hand in embarrassment, he berates her and remarks that it is easier to train a dog.
Gruver's girlfriend from back home is expected to marry him and become a good American wife like her mother.

I don't know if you have read the book, but racism is the main reason that Kelly is unable to take his Japanese wife home. I don't know if you were alive in the 1950s, but racism was alive and well. Mixed race children were not well accepted. The future I envision for Hana-Ogi as Gruver's wife is very likely. As she is, Hana-Ogi unlike Katsumi who remains in the lower class in which she was born, has worked her way up after being sold to a dance company by her poverty-stricken parents to a position of respect. When her dancing days are over, she will still be respected as a teacher.
And then there is Gruver, who shows all the earmarks of being the typical American husband of the time expecting his wife to wait on him hand and foot.
Hana-Ogi chose the better part,in the book at least.

[–] liscarkat (18367) 3 years ago

Gruver would not have been in jail. He said he could resign from the Air Force. He could easily have got a job as a commercial pilot. She could most likely have got work as a performer and teacher in the U.S. One of my wife's uncles was an Air Force officer in the 1950s and married a Japanese woman. They had a long marriage in the U.S.

[–] angelosdaughter (158) 3 years ago

My wisdom takes into consideration a lot of factors that you do not.
Hana-Ogi had a respected profession before she met Gruver, and he showed all of the marks of the stereotypical American husband of the time who expected a submissive Japanese wife to bear his kids and wait on him. She also was able to observe Gruver's buddy and how he treated his wife to whom, even though loved her, he was patronizing.
Then there was the official military attitude toward soldiers marrying Japanese women and bringing them to America.
Back in America, many Japanese had been forced into internment camps.
Hana-ogi would be respcted in her old age as a teacher. She made a wise choice.