If Tomorrow Comes

Underrated, and understated, this short (1 hour and 16 minutes) film says more in that length of time than many of today's bloated features do in twice the time.

One particularly funny (though it may not have been intentional) scene featured an "Okie" challenging a Nisei to a fight with a baseball bat. The Nisei said something like, "Ah, you know KENDO, Okie?" After that, you knew that the "Okie" had made a bad mistake...

It's a romantic movie with a deeper message, not often found in 1970s TV movies turned out weekly with low production values and retread actors. Love transcends race, community bigotry, hate... but always at a steep price. When I watched it on my parents' living room floor with my siblings and folks, the idea of America interning citizens in concentration camps was new to our Midwestern naive world: Sure, Nazis did that, but us? The guys fighting in Nam to free an Asian people? It wasn't a topic in our history books, it wasn't a topic at the dinner table. We knew Dad served in the Pacific with the Marines... knew the stories... Mom followed him to boot camp in Chicago & San Diego. When he left for Guadalcanal in the Solomons, she returned to her parent's farm because she was pregnant. He marched through the campaign hitting all the battles & got taken out in Iwo Jima with shrapnel from a Jap gernade. But internment camps for American families based on race? How could that happen? They tried explaining it all during commercials... and afterwards for days.

The most poignant moment in the film comes when Patty Duke's character has to prepare his body for burial. I haven't seen the film in 40+ years but the emotional triggers thinking of that scene, are still as strong as they were for that 7 year old kid on his parent's living room.

This movie aired a week after the original Brian's Song movie in 1971. I remember I missed Brian's Song and everyone was talking about it at school the next day, how they cried etc. I thought this movie was a great consolation prize for having missed Brian's Song. It too was a tear jerker in some ways. I often wonder why can't they make TV movies like this any more. I was very moved by it. I watched it every time it was rerun in the 1970s. It's based on an old theme - Romeo and Juliet but that always seems to work well. Many years later I saw it again and now it seems like Westside Story, substituting Japanese for Puerto Rican, and cutting the music/dance numbers. Still a very good picture. An above average made for TV movie and I certainly recommend it. A few questionable details regarding some parts of the story. Why were they able to find a priest to marry them on a Sunday while her family was away at church? Wouldn't that priest have been saying mass at that time? Seems strange he'd be available to perform a shotgun wedding on a Sunday morning (Dec 7th 1941 of course) especially while everyone else was at church. Other interesting aspects that hint at the political correctness that was to come in the following decades: When Eileen happens upon the Japanese family who are holding their traditional observance, they are all dressed in Japanese garb, except of course for David who is dressed in a suit and tie. I wonder what ever happened to Frank Liu? He did a very good job in this picture. Despite these insignificant details it is still a very moving story with some very emotional scenes - the scene where Eileen (Patty Duke) is sitting alone crying in the arbor, not knowing why David has not shown up (Because "The Japanese aren't allowed out after 6 0'clock, now that's a brand new law" David is informed). It seems older TV movies are seldom aired but if you see it in your local listings, it is definitely worth watching. It's also possible to get it on DVD as it is included the 2005 compilation 'Women of Courage.'

This was an acting job like none other I've seen from Patty Duke. I remember the first time I saw the movie, it just blew me away. We need to keep these types of movies in circulation so that we as a people don't forget how bad prejudice is in time of war. The funny part, is it happens over and over again and we just don't learn the lesson. Would love to have a copy of this move. If you ever see it being shown on TV, by all means sit down and watch it from beginning to end.

TV movies back in the 70s were, well they were TV movies. Some good, some silly, some not so good. This was an excellent movie. When it came out in 1971, I was 15 going on 16 girl. The movie was done with compassion and let those who did not live it, the realization of what transpired in the US during WWII. Is is so relevant in this day an time when so much is spinning the world out of control again. Those that are old enough to remember that time have warned us this is what it felt like back then. This movie has stuck with me all my life. Years later after I left the Army I came home back to Sacramento and I had two good friends, one Japanese, one Chinese. I learned both sides of the story of WWII. May's parents immigrated from Hong Kong. Her mother absolutely hated Japanese for her whole family was wiped out during the war. Erin's parents were just kids when they were moved and put into the camps here in the US. I also worked with a gentleman who was one of the Japanese men allowed to be in the military. He had fought in Italy. I am a history buff and that era, and especially the war, has intrigued me. To think that a hundred million people died in the last century due to the prejudices of all the races. You would think by now that man would have gotten past all this.

Now I am reading a free book I bought on my Kindle. It is "It Had to Be You" by Cheryl Bolen. It and the movie now playing with Claudett Colbert called "Three Came Home" brought this movie back into my mind. The other book is about a couple who marry right before WWII and she goes with him to the camps. This one is the story of a woman living in a camp in the East Indies. I do wish they would air the TV movies again, especially this one. The current generation should be able to see what the world was like and what it could be again if we do not learn from it.