A B-grade exploitation flick produced for $240,000, "Behind the Rising Sun" (1943) did A-level business at the box office, grossing $1.5 million. This was director Edward Dmytryk's second such hit for RKO that year, following the surprise blockbuster "Hitler's Children" (1943). Over the next four years Dmytryk gained the nickname "Mr. RKO" for consistently turning out profitable films for that studio.
The first of four collaborations between Robert Ryan and director Edward Dmytryk. Their other films were "Tender Comrade" (1943), "Crossfire" (1947), and "Anzio" (1968).
The scene with the child being thrown up into the air omits the follow-on shot of the child being bayoneted by a soldier - as was reported happening at the time. Audiences of the day would have known what happened next.
Tama is using a Western (or Latin) character typewriter, not a Japanese one, which is much different in design at the time from the familiar QWERTY keyboard. A Japanese typewriter from that time - before computerized word processing - had 2,400 different kanji characters to select from out of a large tray in front of the machine and was far more manually work-intensive.