Tora! Tora! Tora!
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is a 1970 film that dramatizes the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the series of American blunders that unintentionally improved its effectiveness. The title is the code-words that were used by the Japanese to indicate that complete surprise was achieved. (Using a repetition of the Japanese word for tiger, though whether this meaning was specifically intended is unknown.) At the time it was released into theaters, it was a financial disaster 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) as well as its almost documentary accuracy. Its most famous line, however, though widely assumed to be a quotation, turned out to be 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. While later research has proven many beliefs of the time to be incorrect, nothing in the film was disproved. The commanders in Hawaii, General Short and Admiral Kimmel, though scapegoated for decades, are accurately portrayed as taking the best defensive measures possible for the apparent threats, and not being warned of the increasing risk of aerial attack, obvious in Washington but invisible in Honolulu.
In the film, the shallow water of Pearl Harbor is identified as a natural defense against aerial torpedoes. Unmentioned in the final film is the fact that the Imperial Japanese Navy modified its torpedoes so as to not dive so deeply.
Storyline
The film opens aboard the Japanese battleship Nagato, flagship for Admiral Yamamoto. Soon he orders the planning of an attack on American forces, and we follow this through the various stages. After a look at the state of American defenses in Hawaii, we look into the American intelligence efforts in Washington, where the Japanese Purple Code has been broken.As the Japanese prepare for the attack, Admiral Kimmel and General Short do their best to enhance defenses. 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 who are sent to Haliewa.
Once the attack is launched, American response is desperate and only partially effective. In addition, the earlier aircraft precautions prove a disastrous mistake that allows the Japanese aerial forces to destroy the US fighters on the ground with ease, thereby crippling an effective counter-attack.
At the end, with US base in flames, Yamamoto 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.
Production and filming
The film was created in two separate productions, one based in the United States, directed by Richard Fleischer, and one based in Japan. The Japanese side of the production was initially directed by Akira Kurosawa, but after two years of work with no useful results, 20th Century Fox turned the project over to Kinji Fukasaku who completed it.The screenplay was written by Ladislas Farago, Larry Forrester, Ryuzo Kikushima, and Hideo Oguni, based on the book by Gordon W. Prange. Charles Wheeler, the cinematographer, was nominated for an Oscar. The film contains second unit and miniature photography, shot by Ray Kellogg. The film score composer was Jerry Goldsmith.
The "Japanese" aircraft and carrier used in the film were actually modified American ones, such as the training carrier USS Lexington.
Cast
The film had an "all-star" cast, including- Martin Balsam as Admiral Husband Kimmel, Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Fleet
- Soh Yamamura as Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, Commander-in-Chief, Combined Fleet
- Joseph Cotten as Secretary of War Henry Stimson
- Tatsuya Mihashi as Commander Minoru Genda, Air Staff, 1st Air Fleet
- E.G. Marshall as Lt. Colonel Rufus S. Bratton, Head of Army Intelligence's Far Eastern section
- James Whitmore as Vice Admiral William Halsey, Commander, Task Force 2
- Wesley Addy as Commander Alwin D. Kramer, ONI Far Eastern section
- Eijiro Tono as Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, Commander-in-Chief, 1st Air Fleet
- Jason Robards as Lt. General Walter Short, Commanding General United States Army in Hawaii
- Leon Ames as Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox
- Edward Andrews as Admiral Harold Rainsford Stark, United States Chief of Naval Operations
- George Macready as Secretary of State Cordell Hull
- Keith Andes as General George Marshall, Chief of Staff of the United States Army
- Takahiro Tamura as Commander Mitsuo Fuchida, Commander, Air Group
- Robert Karnes as Admiral James Richardson, outgoing Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet
- Meredith 'Tex' Weatherby as Joseph C. Grew, American Ambassador to Japan
- Shogo Shimada as Admiral Kichisaburo Nomura, Japanese Ambasador to the United States
- Koreya Senda as Prince Fumimaro Konoe, Prime Minister of Japan
- Asao Uchida as General Hideki Tojo, Japanese Minister of War
- Kazuo Kitamura as Yosuke Matsuoka, Japanese Foreign Minister
- Neville Brand as Lieutenant Kaminsky, the duty officer who continually notifies the higher authorities about the impending attack and becomes furious at his commanding officer when it happens.
- Richard Anderson as the Naval captain who refuses to call an alert without verification
Screenshots
See also
External links
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