TiC’s Random Thoughts
Various war-based movies have been churned out by Hollywood over the decades but for all their technical wizardry and slick packaging, none comes remotely close to matching the stunning realism of “Tora! Tora! Tora!” (1970). It is a true re-enactment of the terrible events of December 7, 1941, and the tension filled weeks leading up to that fateful day. The movie is based on two books, “Tora! Tora! Tora!” by Gordon W. Prange and “The Broken Seal” by Ladislas Farago.
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor has for long been disparagingly spoken about. President FDR called it ’’a day which will live in infamy forever.’’ I wouldn’t fault him for not having the ability to fathom future events, but find it amusing when the US unfailingly attacks weaker nations (Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Yemen, Vietnam, Cambodia, etc. in the past and Iran, Syria and a few potential African targets in the pipeline) without provocation or even without first declaring war against them. Talk of questioning the global policeman!
TTT remains possibly the best ever war movie to be made because of its sincerity in recreating the events that led to that terrible day. The Japanese and US sides are given equal footage and the story flows as the real life events happened, not as a figment of some hyper-artistic script writer’s imagination.
Why was Pearl Harbour attacked?
The roots of the Jap attack were born out of the years of global depression that threatened its very survival. The US threatens to cut off supplies of oil, steel, rubber and other natural resources desperately needed by Japan to continue their 5 year long Chinese invasion. That prompts it to opt out of the newly formed “League of Nations” and join “The Axis” along with the fascist-minded Italy and Germany.
The US threats are taken seriously by the Japanese imperial government and prompts it to decide on striking a fatal blow on the US naval fleet so that they (Japan) can conquer nearby countries (including India) to milk the rich natural resources. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto has just taken over as the Admiral of the Japanese Imperial Fleet and proposes a daring air strike against the US by destroying its Central Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbour, Hawaii. The logic being that if the attack is successful, nearly half the US naval fleet in the pacific region would be destroyed, thus crippling it severely.
The Catastrophe
The movie realistically depicts the unalterable collision path of the diplomatic initiatives between the two countries. A major portion is dedicated to showing the immaculate Japanese preparations for the attack. The Japanese were highly informed and perfect in their final plans as was borne by their idea of using “air power”.
They also deployed different kinds of aircraft for the operation to avoid undue losses of any one kind, timed the attack on a Sunday, attacked PH from the North rather than the west (this side was awfully guarded) and PH did not have a Radar system at that time. Moreover, the US aircraft were all tethered together in one corner of the harbour so that the local Japanese population did not sabotage them, thus unwittingly making the planes “sitting ducks” for the Japanese aircraft.
The saddest part was the dogmatic attitude of the US bureaucracy. The espionage warnings were blatantly ignored and there was no contingency plan to save the battleships and planes in the harbour. Reflective of a weird irony, the attack on PH occurred nearly an hour before it was supposed to. The attack was intended to take place after its ambassador had handed over an ultimatum to the US Secretary of State threatening to wage war. Unfortunately, the ultimatum was not translated and delivered until after the attack commenced.
On hearing of this fiasco, Admiral Yamamoto remarks ruefully, ’’I can’t think of anything that will infuriate the Americans more. All we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve’’. How prophetic those words were to ring, considering the important role played by the US in deciding the outcome of WWII.
The Aftermath
Though by no means fully successful, the attack had a substantially debilitating effect on the resources and morale of the US naval and air forces. The Japanese attack was spearheaded by 353 aircraft manned by Kamikaze pilots (trained to be suicidal). The Pacific Fleet was devastated in a twin pronged air battle that lasted a little more than 1 hour. The US lost 21 ships out of the 90 odd that were at the harbor. 3 aircraft carriers, The West Virginia, The Oklahoma and the Arizona were sunk. 180 aircraft were destroyed and more than 160 were damaged. Though the correct figure will never be known, the final body count was more than 2300 including some 100 odd civilians.
Thus Spake TiC
The last forty-five minutes of TTT document the actual attack on Pearl Harbor with amazing realism. It is to be borne in mind that the movie was shot in an era when the concept of CGI and SFX was unknown. The technical team used full-scale mock-ups and miniatures during the filming of the battle scenes. The Japanese “Zeros” were re-built from out-dated US AT-6 and BT-3 planes and the US planes destroyed at the harbour were full-scale models, as was Yamamoto’s battleship. As and when you watch the movie, if you catch sight of a Japanese aircraft narrowly miss killing a US sailor, remember that you’re watching the real action.
The cast and crew was a mix of American and Japanese artistes. Interestingly, the legendary Akira Kurosawa was initially signed on to direct the Japanese half of the movie but was eased out because of the unreasonable freedom he sought. The screenplay still remained what was originally written by him and if one notices carefully, the Japanese portion of the movie (with sub-titles) has more punch and leaves a more lasting impression than the American half.
Its rare to come across a movie that attains the distinction of educating and entertaining at the same time. Most filmmakers tend to flex the plots to include an angle of romance or spend a long time in developing the characters, which, thankfully is not the case here.
Martin Balsam, Soh Yamamura, Joseph Cotton, Tatsuya Mihashi, E.G. Marshall, James Whitmore and Takahiro Tamura comprise the main cast and do an excellent job. Jerry Goldsmith’s background fits the movie like a glove. Special mention must be made of the terrific editing for not once does the viewer realize that the movie is actually 2 different parts, shot with different cast and crew in different locations. Amazing!
Incidentally, the movie earned an Oscar in 1971, for Special Visual Effects and was nominated in 4 other categories (Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing and Best Sound).
PS: Tora! Tora! Tora! (Tiger! Tiger! Tiger!) was the code signal radioed back to the Japanese fleet from the commander of the Japanese aircraft to signify that they had achieved their mission.