Later-blacklisted Edward Dmytryk directed the film,[3] and it stars Margo, Tom Neal, J. Carrol Naish, Robert Ryan and Gloria Holden.

Back in 1936, Taro Seki returns to Japan after studying in America, with plans to work for an American engineer, Clancy O'Hara.

Sara Braden is an American reporter in China as well as Clancy O'Hara's girlfriend, and she complains to Taro about the violence that the Japanese soldiers are showing towards others.

Tama and Reo receive news that Taro is coming home and arrange for a celebration with Clancy, Boris and Max.

Clancy warns Tama that Sara was right, Taro has changed but she has arranged an outing to the countryside to see her parents for the last time before her adoption.

Back in the countryside, Taro has now heard news of the attack on Pearl Harbor and the Emperor's call to all his men and leaves the country home.

A year later, Taro, now in the air corps regiment, testifies against Tama, Clancy and Sara saying that he was "suspicious of them from the first time he met them".

Reo repudiates the Emperor and then commits suicide through seppuku/hara-kiri (stomach cutting) in hope that his own death will bring the people of Japan back to their senses.

Edward Dmytryk wrote "We bought a book for its title... Then we concocted a story based largely on incidents as they had been reported from the Orient before Pearl Harbor.