Just because it was ok at the time doesn't mean you have to shrug it off now. Do you laugh when seeing blackface in old movies?

I've a pure Asian pedigree as well, and I've lived in Asia since I was born, and I do NOT deem it offensive but amusing. I would've bemoaned it if it was done with bad intentions, but it was not. Hence, it did not offend me at all.
One day in the year of the fox came a time remembered well

Interesting points. I think it would've been funnier if an Asian actor portrayed the character like Jack Soo did in "Thoroughly Modern Millie."
Otherwise I can see how some people are offended by Rooney's characterization. I didn't find it upsetting being Asian myself.
But'Cha Are, Blanche! Ya'Are In That Chair!

Dollars to Doughnuts you are NOT a millennial.

the coins in the jar are for charity,

I am asian too and I love the film but Mickey's character made me extremely uncomfortable. His character looked grotesque and not even human. His appearance was very similar to those yellow peril propaganda. And his character was pretty much irrelevant to the overall plot of the film.

"Full-bloodied Asian". I had no idea we were a monolith.

As an Asian you may not have any problems but I guess many other Asian and non Asian people do.
Its that man again!!

I just wish they'd cast an actual Japanese(?) ethnic to portray the character. I read that the producer wanted to do that, but the director kept Mickey Rooney on, I guess for the comedy factor.
~ I've been very lonely in my isolated tower of indecipherable speech.

When I was a kid in the 70s I rather liked him in the "Andy Hardy" movies made in the 30's - although I find it hard to sit through any of them now. And then there was his role in
Boy's Town
starring Spencer Tracy.
Rooney sporting those exaggerated buck teeth in BAT is what made the portrayal of Mr. Yunioshi seem like it was mocking Japanese men in general. Or was the intention for just Mr. Yunioshi
the character
to be mocked? - like some of the silly people at Holly's party or Holly Golightly herself for that matter? Was Yunioshi simply a super goofy character who just happened to be Japanese? Because there isn't anything about his reactions to Holly's disturbances that are intrinsically Asian or Japanese.
To be honest the character didn't personally offend me, a non-Asian, to the point that it took anything away from this delightful movie as a whole, although I think it would have been less offensive to most if the role had been played by an Asian actor without any exaggeration of his features.
There were a few Yunioshi moments that I did find funny and enjoyable:

• the way he says in his first scene, "Some day, Ms. Golightly! Some day."
• "You got to have a key made!"
• when Holly is in the hallway with Jose the wealthy Brazilian and Yunioshi is just glaring down at them with water dripping from his face onto the bannister.
• "I'm going to call the police on
  you!"
• when Yunioshi is pointing out "that woman, there!" in Holly's apartment when the police arrest her and Paul and then he was still fussing self-righteously after they all had gone.
  Beyond this I don't see the role as Oscar-worthy and I'm surprised that anyone else did.
  Btw, Yunioshi was the landlord? I confess that as many times as I've seen the film I missed that little fact!

Mickey Rooney was annoying in this role
but as I think of it, when was Mickey Rooney ever NOT annoying in a role?

Says the douche redneck who was not the one being mocked in this movie

If Rooney didn't win an Academy Award for this, he should have. People these days are too easy offended.

While I too am full-blooded Asian (born in the US), I cannot say that the Mickey Rooney character does not offend and embarrass me. Even though I was born long after the racism uneashed by the bombing of Pearl Harbor, I know full well what my parents had to endure and caricatures such as this simply fed the fires of post-war prejudice.

It just seemed that, since it was filmed only 15 years after WWII, that it created a very mean-spirited Japanese character. The bumbling was angry, and every interaction he had was fuming. Maybe you're okay with it due to not being Japanese?
Oh look, it's the lay-a-turd-and-run-away-from-the-thread troll!

This message has been deleted.

I don't think that was offensive at all.you guys are being stupid.I myself didn't laugh because he was asian.I laughed at his attitude.like hitting his ead to the wall,etc
you guys are overreacting to this beep was nothing racist in this movie.I hadn't even thought about it in that way until I saw your post here.
I loved his character.It was so funny.asians are cool.I don't have any problems with them and this doesn't make them all stupid O_O.
what is wrong with the world..damn

Personally that scene did not tug at my heart. What bothered me was that the poor cat was thrown at a wall, left and abandoned on the street in the rain, and not even given a name. It's like he had no feelings or rights in this movie. That's not even racist, that's speciist!
This is Mike. He saves ghettos.