Essay, Research Paper: Tora Tora Tora (movie)

CAST OF CHARACTERS
Produced by:
20th Century Fox
Language:
Japanese
Genre/keyword:
War / wwii
Sound Mix:
Mono
Directed by
Richard Fleischer
Kinji Fukasaku
Toshio Masuda
Cast (in credits order)
Martin Balsam....Admiral Husband E. Kimmel
Soh Yamamura....Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto
Joseph Cotten....Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson
Tatsuya Mihashi....Commander Genda
E.G. Marshall....Lt. Colonel Bratton
James Whitmore....Admiral William F. Halsey
Eijiro Tono....Admiral Chuichi Nagumo
Wesley Addy....Lt. Commander Alwin D. Kramer
Shoga Shimada....Ambassador Nomura
Frank Aletter....Lt. Commander Thomas
Leon Ames...Frank Knox
Richard Anderson (I)....Captain John Earle
Kazuo Kitamura....Foreign Minister Yosuke Matsuoka
Keith Andes....General George C. Marshall
Edward Andrews....Admiral Harold R. Stark
Neville Brand....Lieutenant Kaminsky
Leona Dana....Mrs. Kramer
George Macready....Cordell Hull
Norman Alden....Major Truman Landon
Walter Brooke....Captain Theodore Wilkinson
Rick Cooper....Lieutenant George Welch
June Dayton....Miss Ray Cave
Jeff Donnell....Cornelia
Richard Erdman....Colonel Edward F. French
Jerry Fogel....Lt. Commander William Outerbridge
Carl Reindel....Lieutenant Kenneth Taylor
Jason Robards....Gen. Walter C. Short
Hank Jones
Karl Lukas
Ron Masak
rest of cast listed alphabetically
Susumu Fujita
Tosio Hosokawa
Kazuko Ichikawa
Bontaro Miyake
Shunichi Nakamura....Captain Kameto Kuroshima
Kan Nihonyanagi
Ichiro Reuzaki
Edmond Ryan....Rear Admiral Bellinger
Koreya Senda....Prince Konoye
Robert Shayne
Takahiro Tamura....Lt. Commander Mitsuo Fuchida
Hisao Toake....Saburo Kurusu
Asao Uchida....General Hideki Tojo
Junya Usami....Admiral Yoshida
Written by
Larry Forrester
Ryuzo Kikushima
Hideo Oguni
Cinematography by
Osamu Furuya (AAN)
Sinsaku Himeda (AAN)
Masamichi Satoh (AAN)
Charles F. Wheeler (AAN)
Music by
Jerry Goldsmith
Production Design by
Richard Day (I) (AAN)
Taizoh Kawashima (AAN)
Yoshiro Muraki (AAN)
Jack Martin Smith (AAN)
Film Editing by
Inoue Chikaya (AAN)
Pembroke J. Herring (AAN)
James E. Newcom (AAN)
Produced by
Otto Lang (associate)
Elmo Williams
Other crew
L.B. Abbott....special effects (AA)


SYNOPSIS
The movie begins with Lieutenant Commander Fuchida, destined to lead the
attack on Pearl Harbor, speaking about his hopes that the new Commander- In-
Chief isn't the coward that everyone says he is. Another says that Yamamoto
is exactly what they need because he believes in the value of the airplane.
Then a few speak about why he was chosen and give a few reasons. Soon,
Yamamoto gets on the vessel and they begin to play music as a type of
inauguration. Then, Vice- Admiral Zengo Yoshida, the outgoing Commander- In-
Chief, salutes the new one. They go downstairs to sign documents and talk
about the war.
The Prime Minister, Minister of War, and others discuss the United States's
feelings on what they are doing and speak about European fighting and also
what they should do about the U. S. moving fleets from San Diego to Pearl
Harbor. The Secretary of State and Secretary of War speak with a Japanese
war negotiator.
The Japanese are testing torpedo planes at sea. The Commander- In- Chief
wants to commend Fuchida on the planes. He then wonders whether or not these
planes could be used on the ships at Pearl Harbor. He also states that
Japan's only hope is to wipe out the U. S. 's Pacific fleet. They then talk
about this proposal saying that Pearl Harbor is too shallow to use torpedo
planes. He says, the British did it to the Italians in a similar port. They
immediately summoned a master strategist named Minoru Genda. Captain Kameto
Gandhi Kurojima loves Genda's plan for attacking Pearl Harbor. He says that
it is foolproof. He adds that Genda thought of everything and they should
attack on a weekend.
Two American officials attempt to figure out when the best time to attack
would be. They believed it would be at dawn on a weekend. The U. S. had a
new radar system that would see ships and planes.
Many Japanese officials get together to plan this attack. They wonder about
things such as fuel and also the element of surprise. The Commander- In-
Chief says that they will attack, but they must first find the best way to do
so. They said that on November 26, the Japanese will sail from Hiltakopu.
The confirmation code that was set would be "Climb Mount Niitaka". Their
tentative date set for attack would be Sunday, December 7, at dawn, Hawaiian
time. He tells them that if something is worked out for peace before then,
they would not attack.
Stimpson thinks that the Japanese will attack on Sunday, November 30 because
he has pieced together secret messages. The Navy Department takes total
control of the situation. General Marshall wrote up an alert before he went
on army maneuvers because he suspected an attack.
The Japanese were at sea when the attack code came in. They would be
attacking Pearl Harbor on December 7. The U. S. sends out some ships and
planes to probe the Pacific. Just before the Japanese attack, they tell the
men the importance of the mission. Yamamoto gives the men a sort of "pep
talk" to get them ready for battle. The U. S. gets one last message saying
they need a reply from Washington by precisely one o'clock P. M. on December
7, which is about dawn in Hawaii. All of the Japanese soldiers are preparing
for war. The U. S. knows that they are going to get attacked early Sunday
morning on December 7. They try to contact General Marshall and others but
can not get through to them. Admiral Stark recommends that they warn Admiral
Kimmel in Hawaii.
The Japanese are now getting into their planes to attack Pearl Harbor. The
U. S. attack a submarine operating in their area. Officials think it is a
false alarm and refuse to acknowledge it. The Japanese are almost there.
They attacked! No one was expecting it. The Japanese got the element of
surprise, and the U. S. paid for it. All of their ships were destroyed or
beyond repair. The soldiers tried to fight back, but they didn't stand a
chance. When the planes come back to the carrier, Genda wonders why the
second attack hasn't left yet. He is told by Yamamoto that they have
accomplished their mission and must return to base safely. Genda is outraged,
but Yamamoto knows that they are in trouble because the declaration of war
did not get to the Americans until fifty five minutes after the attack began.
His last thought was, "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant
and fill him with great resolve."



WHAT I LEARNED
There is reason to believe that, based on the facts of the movie and other
sources, not everyone that should have known about this crisis actually knew
about it. There is a lot of supporting information about this in various
points in the movie. One of the key parts is when Lieutenant Commander Alwin
D. Kramer, dealing with the possible upcoming war for the United States,
comes into the secret room that only a select group of people are allowed in
to. There, he speaks with Lieutenant Colonel Rufus Bratton, another official
with whom he will be working on the assignment, where he is told about who
has the command on the war. It is held in the hands of twelve men. Kramer
refers to them as the "Twelve Apostles." He is one of the only ones who has
a key to a special closet in this room. Inside of it there is a list of
people, and Bratton wonders why a few key people, such as the chief of the
Air Corps and many over seas commanders are not told about anything that is
going on. Kramer then shows Bratton the United States's machine that they
use for decoding messages that the Japanese send between themselves and other
nations. He adds that only these twelve men are allowed to view these
messages after they've been decoded and if they feel necessary, may give it
to anyone they feel needs to know this information. This foreshadows that
there will be a communications problem between the army in the near future as
the war approaches. At this point, it was easy for me to make the prediction
that the United States would be attacked unknowingly.
Another sort of communications problem that I learned about from watching
this movie was that many of the army officials were ignorant about reports
that were sent in at various times. One example is when ships were
patrolling just outside of the harbor when they spotted a submarine between
one of their ships and a target raft that it was towing. They fired at it at
first, and then alerted the ship and the ship sent depth charges, which are
bombs dropped of the back of a ship and are scheduled to explode at a certain
depth. The submarine was not seen again after that. The ship reported it to
headquarters but the general said that he wanted a confirmation on it because
he would not take their word on it because many false reports were sent in
that same week. At another point in the movie, the two privates that were
placed at the radar tower saw a large group of planes heading south towards
the island. They were a little bit worried, so they called headquarters and
reported it. The man that they spoke with, Lieutenant Tyler, said not to
worry about it and hung up. In my opinion, this is considered insanity. He
believed that it was just the flight of B- 17 's that they requested from the
mainland just in case a war broke out. My feeling is that some of the blame
for the United States not knowing about the attack should be put on
Lieutenant Tyler.
Another thing, although shocking, is something I did not previously know.
This was the fact that the Japanese delivered the ultimatum for war fifty
five minutes after the Japanese began their attack on Pearl Harbor. This is
why the United States's naval fleet was practically destroyed. At the end of
the movie, Yamamoto knows that what he has done is going to bring about big
problems between them and the United States. His last quote of the movie is
very truthful: "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and
fill him with great resolve." This means that they caught us off guard and
when we are ready, we will be extremely angry and will lay our vengeance upon
them. My feeling is that if we knew that they would be attacking, although
we may not have destroyed Japan's attack, we might have been able to salvage
some of our ships.