Wonderful historical view of post-war Japan

For any military history buffs, " The Bridges at Toko-Ri " provide an excellent and sentimental view of later post-war Japan in the 1950s. My own father was in the U.S. Air Force. He and my mom were stationed in Japan in 1957 so they experienced pretty much the same Japan as did the fictional Lieutenant Brubaker and spouse, Nancy. It's true that U.S. servicemen had a great attraction for the Japanese girls during that time period. Unlike today in 2007, it was relatively easy for an American serviceman to meet, court, and marry (after the bureaucratic red-tape) a Japanese girl in post-war Japan. And many did. Despite the great cultural and ethnic differences between white Americans and the Japanese girls during the late 1940s and 1950s, there was no great Japanese cultural inhibition preventing Japanese women from fraternizing, sleeping with, and marrying American G.I.s, Marines, Airmen, or sailors. Today's U.S. servicemen don't enjoy this luxury in the present combat regions.

" Toko-Ri " might be writer James Michener's play on the actual location name of, " Koto-Ri ". There really was an actual location named, Koto-Ri, and with some bridges as targets.

Astute military historians will immediately catch Rear Admiral Tarrant's comments to Mrs. Nancy Brubaker about Russian experts manning Russian-built military equipment in Korea during the 1950-53 conflict. It was a open secret that Soviet pilots and possibly Eastern Europeans were piloting the first MiG-15s agains the U.S. F-80s, F-84s, and then the superlative F-86 Sabres. For extreme political reasons of their own, Soviet premier Josef Stalin and U.S. President Truman kept this information secret from their respective populations. Both men did not wish to provoke a world war. Had it been public knowledge that Soviet and American pilots were engaged in a ferocious air war above the skies of northwestern Korea - MiG Alley - this could have had serious domestic and international repercussions. With the end of the cold war and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, retired Russian Mig-15 pilots have come forward to give interviews of their combat missions against U.S. jets during the Korean War. ( Some have bragged about bagging a number of F-86 Sabres and blowing B-29 superfortresses out of the sky ). Several American F-86 pilots during the Korean War flew so close to Mig-15 jets that they reputedly could clearly discern the Caucasian facial features of the MiG-15 pilots. The U.S. military authorities had these men swear on pain of severe disciplinary action, never to discuss these observations or even speak about Russian pilots in MiG-15s. As far as the U.S. military brass was concerned, the official story is that Korean War MiG-15s were piloted by Red Chinese and North Korean pilots. To this day the U.S. government sticks by that history version.

Aah, Grace Kelly, the epitome of Irish-American beauty. To this day, no other woman from the following generations has ever matched her ethereal beauty. She was so gentle, kind, and loving in, " The Bridges At Toko-Ri " that this is my only disagreement. The Nancy Brubaker character was, in my opinion, TOO kind and gentle, almost like a lamb. She seemed too passive. An American woman of 2007 would have really told off the Admiral in the lounge at the American officer's club restaurant in Tokyo. Nancy Brubaker takes the Admiral's kind but gruff comments and blunt observations all in gentle stride. Still, this is Grace Kelly looking her most beautiful for all of us Grace Kelly fans.