- Japanese diplomat Tokoramo ( Sessue Hayakawa ), on a mission to Paris, begins a love affair with chorus girl, Helene ( Gladys Brockwell ), who subsequently rejects her American fiance, Richard Bernisky. When the Japanese discover the affair, they try to force Tokoramo to end it, but Helene refuses to stop visiting him. One night, during one of her visits, Bernisky comes to Tokoramo's apartment and, while Helene hides, rebukes her to her lover. After Bernisky leaves, Tokoramo orders Helene out, but when he realizes his love for her, he calls her back. Suddenly, she rejects and insults him to the point that he strangles her. Tokoramo wants to confess his crime, but he must complete his work, and so his countrymen sacrifice a boy, Hironari, who pleads guilty to the murder and eventually is executed. In the end, Tokoramo also dies and his colleagues burn his valuable papers in order to protect Japan.—Pamela Short
- Tokoramo has been sent to Paris by his country to secure the plans of the French military forces. His work is interfered with by the visits to his office of Helene, a chorus girl with whom he has fallen in love. Helene has heartlessly thrown over her fiancé Bernisky for the new and interesting Japanese person, and meanwhile Toko's countrymen in Paris have been informed by their spy of Helene's visits. Tokoramo endeavors to keep Helene from coming because he is working day and night, but to no avail. She continues to visit his apartments against his wishes, and one day while there her rejected sweetheart forces his way past the servant into Toko's room. Toko quickly hides Helene behind a curtain, where she listens to her own denunciation and exposure from the lips of the man she has so lightly deserted. When Bernisky departs, Toko brings Helene from her hiding-place and bids her go forever, but she pleads passionately to remain. Toko will not listen and demands that she leave at once. Helene starts, and Toko, realizing how much he cares for her, calls her back. Then she refuses to stay, and in vehement denunciation tells him she will go back to Bernisky and laughs at him, calls him a "yellow rat" and bids him return to his yellow country from whence he came. This enrages Toko, and he strangles Helene to death and leaves her lying lifeless on his bed. The remainder of the story shows graphically how Toko's countrymen rally for their country. Toko must do his work; one of them must plead guilty. This lot is chosen by Hironari, a mere boy, who is finally guillotined. In the end and as Toko has completed his work, he too dies, and the valuable papers are burned to escape detection just as the police are breaking into the apartment. The scene shows the vain sacrifice that has been made by the Japanese for the sake of Nippon.
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