Awhile back, I wrote about the whole white-washing controversy of casting Scarlett Johansson in “Ghost in the Shell," and white-washing the Tibetan monks in “Doctor Strange." And unfortunately, Hollywood continues to whitewash East-Asian characters with movies like “The Great Wall." Amidst all of this, though, we have the upcoming movie “Suicide Squad,” where they casted Karen Fukuhara, a Japanese-American, to play Tatsu Yamashiro, better known as DC’s Japanese hero, Katana.
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Tatsu Yamashiro, in case you don’t already know, debuted in “The Brave and Bold" No. 200 as a normal Japanese girl who happened to be proficient in martial arts. Two brothers fell in love with her, Maseo and Takeo, and both tried to win her hand in marriage. Tatsu chose Maseo, which led Takeo to join the Yakuza. Years later, Takeo returned, after Tatsu and Maseo built a family for themselves, and murdered her husband (his brother) with a mystical sword called the Soul Taker. Tatsu was able to disarm Takeo and take the Soul Taker for herself. Takeo set the house on fire and escaped while Tatsu Yamashiro tried to save her children, whom perished in the fire.
Having then trained as a samurai, Tatsu came to America, where she would ultimately become the hero Katana to search for Takeo. The sword she yields gives her the ability to absorb the souls of those she kills and talk to anyone who has been slain by it, including her husband. Katana has appeared alongside the likes of Batman, hero teams like “The Outsiders,” “Justice League of America,” and “The Birds of Prey." Although in the comics Tatsu has never appeared along with the Suicide Squad, she was persuaded by Amanda Waller to work for the Justice League for valuable information on Takeo. Maybe something along those lines, mixed with discussion that she and Rick Flag’s story lines are interlocked, would help explain her appearance in a movie full of villains doing good.
However, as a side note, there are a lot of mixed feelings about Katana’s costume. The main negative feelings comes from her wearing a tank top, an extremely form-fitting costume, when in the comics she is always wearing armor. Although, in my opinion, the costume designer should be praised for the inclusion of the Tasuki in her costume. Specifically because it is tied cross-style and it's red, reminiscent of part of the samurai garb to help tuck in their sleeves. Of course, they kept her mask with the Japanese flag, which has been in many current iterations of her character, which isn’t all that bad as she is the flagship superhero for Japan in the DC universe. Which, in comparison, we have Wonder Woman in American flag-like garb in many iterations of her costume (or at the very least, the patriotic red, white and blue).
Karen Fukahara on the other hand, is a Californian-born American who currently resides in Toronto, Canada. She is a first-generation Japanese-American, and this movie is her big screen debut. She talks about how excited she is to get the part, as parts cast for people of color are hard to come by -- especially considering the audition required her to not only read lines, but show off her martial arts skills and swordplay. She more than deserves this role, if you ask me. Before the role, she wasn’t much of a comic book fan, but it should be commended that she has done her homework and read Katana comics from the “Brave and the Bold” to her solo “Katana” series. Hopefully this will be the career break that she needs, which, in turn, may open the door for other East Asian-American actors and hopefully show Hollywood that you can, in fact, have nonwhite leads and still be successful -- and, while they're at it, maybe make a solo "Katana" movie. (Hint, hint.)
