Forfaiture (1915) was re-issued by Paramount on November 24, 1918, at which time the character played by Sessue Hayakawa was called Burmese and renamed Haka Arakau. The change of the character's name and nationality were done because Japan was an American ally at the time (during World War I) and the fact not as many Burmese are likely to protest. After the original release, a Japanese newspaper in Los Angeles, Rafu Shimpo, and the Japanese Association of Southern California waged a campaign against the film and heavily criticized Sessue Hayakawa's appearance, calling it "sinister."
The surviving copy is from the 1918 re-release, and so the date on the check and the date in the newspaper have been altered from 1915 to 1918 in an attempt to make it seem like a contemporary film.
Camille Erlanger's "La Forfaiture," based on this movie, was the first opera written which was based on a motion picture.
Included among the American Film Institute's 1998 list of the 400 movies nominated for the Top 100 Greatest American Movies.
This film was originally banned in Australia and Great Britain, for fear that its blatant racism would offend Japan. However, the film was a massive hit in France at the time. After the 1918 re-release and, despite the changes, the film was banned in the United Kingdom and was never released in Japan.