This film is based on a true story of a U.S. serviceman recognizing his former sadistic Japanese POW camp guard on a street in Los Angeles. The guard, who had been born in the US, and therefore was an American citizen, had moved to Japan before the war and returned to the US afterwards. He was convicted of treason.
Bill Williams (Jim Fletcher) and Barbara Hale (Martha Gregory), were married in real life, and were the parents of actor William Katt.
When hiding in the apartment of the Japanese woman, Bill Wiliams mentions the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, a fighting unit composed almost entirely of second-generation American soldiers of Japanese ancestry (Nisei) who fought in World War II. Their story was told in the movie, Tout ou rien (1951), starring Van Johnson. "Go For Broke" was their motto.
Jim was held at the infamous Cabanatuan POW camp run by the Japanese Army on the island of Luzon. Its liberation by U.S. Army Rangers, Filipino Scouts and guerrillas is depicted in the film Le Grand Raid (2005).
While featuring Richard Loo as a Japanese villain worthy of World War II propaganda, the film also tries to achieve some balance by including a sympathetic Japanese-American war widow played by Marya Marco whose husband was a member of the storied 442nd Regimental Combat Team. Her husband is shown as receiving one of the 52 Distinguished Service Crosses awarded to members of the Unit.