The movie opens with the two Tennessee boys Danny Walker and Rafe Mccawley pretending to be fighting the Germans. The year is 1923 and World War One just finished. Danny’s father fought in world war one fighting the Germans and he never wants the two boys to ever witness the horrors of war.
In 1940 the two boys end up in the military. Danny is in the United States Army Air Corp and Rafe volunteered to be in Royal Air Force Eagle Squadron in England as did thousands of other Americans. He was shot down over the English Channel and was held in occupied France for a period of time. When he got back to the Pacific theater, he realized Danny and his girl friend/nurse had got together. Danny and Rafe get a fight in the bar Saturday night.
The morning after Danny and Rare fought, the Japanese attacked with bombers and torpedoes. The ships in the harbor that got sunk were the USS Arizona and the USS Oklahoma and other nearby vessels. Danny and Rafe get into their aircrafts and shoot down seven Japanese planes that were attacking Pearl Harbor. The Presidential Address to Congress of December 8, 1941 was delivered 12:30 the day after Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Japanese Empire and within an hour of speech, congress passed a formal declaration of war against Japan. The United States was in World War 2. The survivors of the attack attend a memorial service for all the victims after the U.S. declaration of war on Japan. Danny and Rafe end up getting a promotion for their acts in the attack and are now Captains and awarded the Silver Star.
Danny, Rafe and many others were ordered to fly bombers from the aircraft carrier to do a bombing mission in Japan. They end up not having enough fuel to return back and had to crash land their planes into a rice field in China that the Japanese were occupying territory. After they crash the Japanese soldiers crowd around the crashed planes. Rafe makes a move and shoots many of the