Tora! Tora! Tora! (film)
Tora Tora Tora
Tora! Tora! Tora! is a 1970 American-Japanese film that dramatizes the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the series of American blunders that unintentionally improved its effectiveness. It won an Academy Award for best special effects.
Plot
The film opens with a change-of-command ceremony aboard the Japanese battleship Nagato, flagship for the newly appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto; he takes command from Zengo Yoshida. The two discuss America's embargo against Japan and its starving them of raw materials needed to fight the war. Both agree that a war with the United States would be a complete disaster for Japan, but army hotheads and politicians push through the alliance with Germany and start long term planning, believing the U.S. to be pre-occupied with the war in Europe. The U.S. has also moved their Pacific fleet to Pearl Harbor, which Japanese officials regard as a "knife to the throat of Japan". Soon Yamamoto orders the planning of a pre-emptive strike on American forces in order to give the Japanese Navy a chance of defeating a more powerful enemy. Yamamoto believes Japan's only hope is to annihilate the American Pacific fleet at the outset of hostilities. Pearl Harbor commanders debate their exposure to a torpedo attack but realize that torpedoes dropped from a plane will fall at least 75 feet below the surface. Since Pearl Harbor is only 40 feet deep, they feel they have a natural defense to torpedoes. But the Japanese have a plan to overcome this obstacle.
In a major intelligence victory, American intelligence in Washington manages to break the Japanese Purple Code allowing the United States to intercept radio transmissions the Japanese think are secret. American intelligence in Washington is seen collecting increasingly threatening radio intercepts and conveying their concern to a White House staff that seems strangely unresponsive. The American response to high-quality intelligence in general appears lax although Pearl Harbor does increase air patrols and goes on full alert well before the raid.
Japanese commanders call on the famous Air Staff Officer Minoru Genda to mastermind the attack. As the Japanese prepare for the attack, Admiral Kimmel and General Short, although hampered by a critical intelligence report about the attack fleet being too slow coming to them, do their best to enhance defenses. General Short calls for aircraft to be concentrated in the middle of their airfields to protect them against sabotage. A few are moved to outlying airfields, including two young Army lieutenants (Ken Taylor and George Welch) who are sent to Haleiwa, a subsidiary airfield. A more prudent move by Short is his placement of new radar stations including overcoming bureaucratic obstacles to their locations. Yamamoto is portrayed pressing Japanese authorities to try to avoid war and blaming the Japanese Army command for pushing hard for war when peace is still an option. Yamamoto stresses that the United States is a mighty foe who would be extremely dangerous to provoke. In order to defeat the United States, Japan will have to invade the mainland and dictate terms of U.S. surrender on the White House steps, an eventuality Yamamoto clearly sees as impossible to achieve.
It was fortunate timing that the U.S. sent its two operational Pacific aircraft carriers, USS Enterprise (CV-6) and USS Lexington (CV-2) on plane delivery duty to Western Pacific islands not long before the Pearl Harbor Raid. Though this reduced the number of fighter aircraft available at Pearl Harbor, it may have saved the carriers. If they had been lost at Pearl Harbor, it would have been much more catastrophic for the Americans. Japanese commanders should have considered aborting the mission. Their intelligence revealed the carriers had left Pearl Harbor. (But they had made a political decision to go to war that these factors could not disrupt.)
Diplomatic tensions increase between the US and Japan as the Japanese ambassador to the United States is seen asking Tokyo for more information to aid in negotiations to avoid war but getting little or nothing to work with in return. Army General Tojo is depicted as adamantly opposed to any last minute attempts at peace. The Japanese commence a series of 14 radio messages from Tokyo to the Japanese embassy in Washington that will conclude with the declaration of war. But the Americans are translating the radio messages faster than the Japanese embassy. Hence, the Americans know of the attack before the Japanese ambassador informs them. American intelligence officers are seen trying in vain to inform Defense Department and White House staff of the growing threat, but getting little reaction.
On the morning of December 7, decision makers in Washington and Hawaii are seen enjoying a leisurely routine while American intelligence works feverishly to interpret the coded transmissions and learns the final message will be received precisely at 1:00pm Washington time. American intelligence notes that the final message instructs the Japanese Ambassador to destroy their code machines after they de-code the last of the 14 messages, an ominous point. Attempts to convey this message to American commanders fail because they are enjoying a Sunday of playing golf and horseback riding. Finally, Admiral Stark is informed of the increased threat, but decides not to inform Hawaii until after calling the President, although it is not clear if he takes any action at all.
Finally at 11:30am Washington time, Col. Bratton convinces army Chief of Staff Marshall that a greater threat exists and Marshall orders that Pearl Harbor (and all other Pacific installations) to be notified of an impending attack. An American destroyer also notes a Japanese submarine trying to slip through the defensive net and enter Pearl Harbor, sinks it, and notifies Pearl Harbor. The Captain at Pearl Harbor dismisses the report thinking the new commander of the destroyer must have been over-excited. Just after 7am the two airmen posted at the remote radar unit spot the incoming Japanese aircraft and inform the Pearl Harbor Information Center, but the Lieutenant in charge dismisses the report, thinking it is a group of American B-17 planes coming from the mainland and frankly too tired to care (he simply said in a tired voice, "Don't worry about it," then hangs up the phone.)
The Japanese intend for their declaration of war to be issued at 1pm Washington time, 30 minutes before the attack. However, the typist for the Japanese ambassador is slow, and cannot de-code the 14th part fast enough. A final attempt to warn Pearl Harbor is stymied by poor atmospherics and bungling when the telegram is not marked urgent; it will be received by Pearl Harbor after the attack. The incoming Japanese fighter pilots are pleasantly surprised when there isn't even any anti-aircraft fire as they approach the base. As a result, the squadron leader radios in the code phrase marking that complete surprise for the attack has been achieved, "Tora, Tora, Tora."
Once the attack is launched, America's response is desperate and only partially effective. Upon seeing the Japanese low-level bombers, an American officer instructs his colleague to get the tail numbers so the pilot can be reported for safety violations; he thinks they are American planes. The sight of the offending plane then deliberately dropping a bomb on the base dispels that misconception. The scene switches to a band playing the National Anthem aboard the USS Nevada (BB-36) as Old Glory is raised. Noticing the large amount of Japanese planes, the band hastily finishes the song before manning their battle stations, finishing just as a bomb lands close to the ship. Anti-aircraft weapons are engaged, which includes seaman Doris Miller using an unattended gun, but with limited success. The actual B-17 pilots coming in from the mainland, un-armed and out of gas, are a bit surprised to fly into a war, but are able to land safely despite friendly fire from American anti-aircraft guns. The aircraft security precautions prove a disastrous mistake that allows the Japanese aerial forces to destroy the US P-40 Warhawk fighters on the ground with ease, thereby crippling an effective aerial counter-attack; All the planes on the runways at the major airfields were destroyed either as they took off or while they were still parked. Two American fighter pilots (portrayals of second lieutenants Ken Taylor and George Welch) race to Haleiwa and manage to take off, as the Japanese have not hit the smaller airfields. The catastrophic damage to the base is well detailed, with sailors fighting as long as they can and then abandoning sinking ships and jumping into the water with burning oil on the surface. There are also scenes where the Japanese fleet commander, Admiral Nagumo, refuses to launch the third wave of carrier planes out of fear of exposing his six unescorted carriers to increased risk of detection and destruction. Through the years, this action has been debated as having given the Americans a major break in their efforts to recover from the attack. A third wave would have likely struck the large oil tanks as well as destroyed the dry docks and repair facilities which proved to be of great value in the early part of the war.
At the end, with the U.S.
base in flames, its frustrated commanders finally get the telegram warning them
of the danger. In Washington, the distraught Japanese ambassador, helpless to
explain the late ultimatum and the unprovoked sneak attack, is bluntly rebuffed
by the Secretary Of State, Cordel Hull, who coldly replies to the final Japanese
communique, "In all my long years in public service, I have never seen a
document so fraught with lies and deliberate distortions that, until this day,
I would have thought no nation on earth capable of uttering them!" Finally,
Admiral Yamamoto is seen lamenting the fact that the Americans did not receive
the declaration of war until 55 minutes after the attack started and noting that
nothing would infuriate the Americans more. He is quoted as saying "I fear
that all we have done is awakened a sleeping giant, and filled him with a terrible
resolve." While this indeed reflects what Yamamoto felt, the quote is now
believed to be a fabrication.
Cast
Martin
Balsam - Admiral Husband E. Kimmel, Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet
Sô Yamamura - Vice-Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto (as Soh Yamamura)
Joseph
Cotten - Henry L. Stimson, U.S. Secretary of War
Tatsuya Mihashi - Commander
Minoru Genda, Air Staff Officer, Japanese First Fleet
E.G.
Marshall - Colonel Rufus S. Bratton
James Whitmore - Admiral William F. Halsey
Takahiro Tamura - Lt. Cmdr. Fuchida
Eijirô Tono - Admiral Chuichi
Nagumo (as Eijiro Tono)
Jason Robards - Lt. General Walter
C. Short, Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Army Hawaii
Wesley Addy - Lt. Cmdr. Alvin
D. Kramer
Shogo Shimada - Ambassador Kichisaburo Nomura
Frank Aletter
- Lt. Commander Thomas
Koreya Senda - Prince Funimaro Konoye, Prime Minister
of Japan
Leon Ames - Frank Knox, U.S. Secretary of the Navy
Junya Usami
- Vice-Admiral Zengo Yoshida
The title is made up
of the code-words that were used by the Japanese to indicate that complete surprise
was achieved (? tora is Japanese for "tiger", but in this case, "To"
is the initial syllable of the Japanese word totsugeki, meaning "charge"
or "attack", and "ra" is initial syllable of raigeki, meaning
"torpedo attack"). At the time of its initial movie release, it proved
to be a major box office flop in US theatres--although it was a major hit in Japanese
movie theaters--but over the years, video releases allowed a profit. The movie
was critically acclaimed for its vivid action scenes (in fact several later films
relating to World War II in the Pacific would use footage from Tora! Tora! Tora!
including The Final Countdown and Midway) as well as its almost perfect documentary
accuracy. Its most famous line about "awakening a sleeping giant", however,
though widely assumed to be a quotation, may have been fictitious.
The film is a dramatization based upon the actual history of events leading up to the attack, to the extent these facts were known at the time of production. The commanders in Hawaii, General Short and Admiral Kimmel, though scapegoated for decades, are portrayed as taking defensive measures for the apparent threats, including relocation of the fighter aircraft at Pearl Harbor to the middle of the base, in response to fears of sabotage from local Japanese insurgents. They received limited warning of the increasing risk of aerial attack, which was better understood in Washington than in Honolulu.
Film Errors
A few film errors are made in Tora! Tora!
Tora!. One mistake involves the model of the Japanese aircraft carrier Akagi.
In the film, Akagi's bridge island is positioned on the starboard side of the
ship, which is typical on most aircraft carriers. However the aircraft carrier
Akagi was an exception--its bridge island was on the port side of the ship. Despite
this, the bridge section appeared accurately as a mirrored version of Akagi's
real port-side bridge. Secondly, all the Japanese airplanes in the footage bear
the markings of Akagi's aircraft (a single vertical red stripe following the red
sun symbol of Japan), even though five other aircraft carriers participated, each
having their own markings. In addition, the markings do not display the aircraft's
identification numbers as was the case in the actual battle.
Parts of the film showing the takeoff of the Japanese aircraft, are displaying an Essex-class aircraft carrier, USS Yorktown (CVS-10), which was commissioned in 1943 and modernized after the war to have an angled flightdeck. The ship was leased by the film producers, who needed an aircraft carrier for the film; Yorktown was scheduled to be decommissioned shortly afterward. It was used largely in the takeoff sequence of the Japanese attack aircraft. The sequence shows interchanging shots of the more accurate models of the Japanese aircraft carriers and the Yorktown. It does not look like any of the Japanese carriers involved in the attack, due to its large bridge island and its angled landing deck. The Japanese carriers had small bridge islands, and angled flightdecks were not invented until after the war.
The ship which portrays USS Ward (DD-139) is also inaccurate. The movie used a newer destroyer than that of the Ward. Ward was an old destroyer commissioned in 1918, which looked far different than the destroyer used in the movie.
The large scale model of the stern of USS Nevada (BB-36) shows the two aft gun turrets with three gun barrels in each; in reality, Nevada's two heightened fore and aft turrets had two barrels each while the lower two turrets fore and aft had three barrels each. Another model of Nevada, used in the film to portray the whole ship, displays the turrets accurately. It should be noted that the reason for this anomaly is because the aft section model was used in the film to portray both USS Nevada and USS Arizona (BB-39). The ships looked remarkably similar except that Arizona had four triple turrets and a slightly different stern section.
The film has a Japanese Zero fighter being damaged over a Naval base and then deliberately crashing into a Naval Base hanger. This is actually a composite of two incidents at Pearl Harbor attack: in the 1st wave a Japanese Zero crashed into Fort Kamehameha ordance building; in 2nd wave a Japanese Zero did deliberately crash into a hillside after being damaged at Naval Air Station at Kane'ohe Bay by US Navy NCO John William Finn.
During a number of shots of the attack squadrons traversing across
Oahu, a small cross can be seen on one of the mountainsides. The cross was actually
erected after the attack as a memorial to the victims of the attack.
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