Whitewashing anger over casting Zach McGowan as Hawaiian WWII hero

A new whitewashing row has erupted, following news that actor Zach McGowan is to play Hawaiian war hero Benehakaka ‘Ben’ Kanahele in a new movie.

The ‘Black Sails’ and ‘Shameless’ star will play Kanahele in the upcoming World War II-set drama ‘Ni’ihau’.

It will tell the remarkable story of what became known as the ‘Ni’ihau incident’ in 1941, when a Japanese pilot who had participated in the Pearl Harbor bombing crash landed on the Hawaiian island of Ni’ihau.

The pilot banded together with three locals of Japanese descent and took hostages. Following a struggle, Kanahele and his wife killed the pilot, and he – though not his wife – was decorated for his bravery.

However, the incident also prompted President Franklin D. Roosevelt to issue an executive order to place thousands of Japanese-Americans in internment camps.

But despite McGowan’s tweeting his ‘excitement’ about the project, he was soon dealing with withering criticism over his casting.

It’s not the first time that there’s been controversy over casting white actors in Hawaiian roles, notably the baffling casting of Emma Stone as a half-Hawaiian, half-Chinese character in the Bradley Cooper box office bomb, ‘Aloha’.

Recently there’s also been anger over Tilda Swinton’s casting as a Tibetan mystic in ‘Doctor Strange’ and Scarlett Johnasson playing the lead in the remake of classic Japanese Manga ‘Ghost In The Shell’.

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