Was this consider risque when it was released?

Yes, it was. The studio had to cut much, and in some cases all, of the striptease routine in order for the movie to be shown in some areas (mostly the South, and mostly because of the hint of the possibility of interracial sex, as the strippers were Asian).

It was also considered "controversial" because of the realistic depiction of violence, especially in the hand-to-hand battle when the Americans and Japanese met on the slope. Up to that point battle deaths in war pictures were usually pretty neat and tidy and totally unrealistic--the fighting comes to a screeching halt while the young GI who'd just been shot is cradled in his buddy's arms, with a thin trickle of blood runnng down his chin, whispering, "Tell mom I love her!" before he closes his eyes and dies peacefully--but in this picture soldiers scream when they're hit, you can see them get stabbed, shot, clubbed, and in one scene a Marine shoots a Japanese soldier and you actually see--via squibs, of course--the bullets stitch across his stomach and blood pour out of the wounds; that particular scene caused a big controversy in some circles. I was 12 years old when it came out and my friend and I had to sneak into the theater because they wouldn't let us in to see it. We got in anyway, I liked it then and I like it now. It's a damn good picture.