Pearl Harbor Movie Analysis
The Japanese officers had sat down to eat when they realized one of their own was gone. One of them left in search for “Gandhi”. He was found sitting, shirtless, in a dark room, planning on how to destroy Pearl Harbor using planes and torpedoes.
I do believe this person, along with his role, existed. He was portrayed as slightly insane in the movie, but extremely smart.
Yamamoto Isoroku was the mastermind behind the attack on Pearl Harbor. Before the declaration of war, he did not feel as though war with the United States would be a good idea for the Japanese. After the declaration, he believed that if the United States lasted longer than a year, the Japanese would lose. In the movie, a radar was going to be placed on a mountain top where …show more content…
there would be no interference. This was prevented by the Hawaiian government because the mountain was in the Hawaiian National Park. After a location was found for the radar, untrained men were posted there with no easy access to a phone.
I do not believe this happened. During a time of high tension, it would be for the protection of the people, to allow a potentially life saving device to be installed on protected lands. This did happen. I misinterpreted the movie thinking that the antenna was not placed on the peak. The antenna for the radar was placed on Opana Point, on the island of Oahu. Untrained men were placed in charge of reading the radar. This lead to “Don't worry about it” being said about the group of Japanese planes.
After the “magic” translator’s ability was shown off, a list of names was mentioned. This list of names included the people who were allowed to see the translated documents. A little later in the movie, Colonel Bratton was seen scribbling out the president's name. He claimed that their intelligence people found a copy of the translated documents in a trash can violating security. I do not believe this actually happened. The consequences do not last thought out the entire movie. Later in the movie the president is put back on the list. While researching I have found no information supporting or disproving the movie. I am assuming this was added for comedic effect to lighten the movie. Franklin Roosevelt was on the list and could have known of the attack on Pearl Harbor before the attack.
During the movie, it was made clear that the Emperor of Japan did not wish to start a war with America. It was stated that he had wanted to solve their differences with the people at Washington to reach a peace agreement. The Cabinet had decided for him that there was to be a set date on which peace or war would be stated. He said this poem to his ministers to show how he felt about the decision, “If all people are brethren, then why are the winds and the waves so restless?”
I do believe this to have happened. It seems like a lot of times in history people are used as puppets for power, and the emperor could be one of them.
Whether this is true or not is still up in the air. After the war, Hirohito portrayed himself as being helpless in making decisions about peace with America, but many scholars believe he had an active part in the war and was trying to disconnect himself from the destruction Japan wrought.
During the movie, using the “magic translator” Colonel Bratton discovered that the Japanese were going to send 14 documents to the embassy. All but the last document arrived during the night. The last document was received on Sunday morning. The last document said to destroy the decoding machines at one.
I believe these documents existed. It would make sense to tell your embassy in the nation that you're about to go to war with, what's going on.
These documents did exist. The Japanese embassy had problems translating the documents leading to their late delivery to the White House. The news of the attack on Pearl Harbor had reached the White House before the declaration of war.
The documents sent before the attack on Pearl Harbor where sent Saturday night, and Sunday morning. Because of its time of arrival the Colonel had a hard time getting anyone to read it. When General George Marshall finally reads it and decides that something is going on, he decides to not call Pearl Harbor, but instead, the president.
I do not believe this part of the movie stayed true to history. During a time of high tension, with a nation that was starting to conspire with Germany, to have no one else want to look at the documents right away sounds absurd to me. The fact that Pearl Harbor was not contacted immediately, was seems like a way to add more drama into the situation.
The Japanese planned their attack, and war declaration, on a Sunday because they knew many Americans do not work on Sundays. It is also true that Franklin Roosevelt learned of the possible attack on Pearl Harbor before Pearl Harbor did. There are many conspiracy theories about how he used this as an opportunity to create an excuse to join the fight in Europe.
In the movie, a Japanese submarine is destroyed right outside of Pearl Harbor. Captain Earl is informed of the sub, but believes it to be another false alarm. Because of this he doesn't have the rest of the captains notified leaving them unsuspecting and vulnerable.
I do believe this to be true. For Pearl Harbor to be as successful as it was for the Japanese, the Americans would have needed to be completely unaware that an attack was coming. If he had notified each captain as the communications officer wanted, the result would have be drastically different.
This event is true. The fact that their were submarines were not taken seriously by the commanders. The news did not reach Admiral Kimmel until two hours later.
The main Japanese pilot uses the honolulu on the radio to determine what direction to fly to get to the harbor.
Radio signals can be used to find directions. I do believe that the Japanese pilots could of used radio signals from the islands to determine their directions.
This was used as a form of a compass during this time. Both the Japanese and the Americans used this. “I had a friend who was a bomber pilot, and he told me, anytime that they play this Hawaiian music all night long, it is a very good indication that our B-17s were coming over from the mainland, because they use it for homing.” - Lt. Kermit Tyler
When the Japanese air force flies by one of the islands, there is only one other plane. It was flown by a student until his teacher takes over.
The Japanese attempted to destroy the Nevada as she was trying to escape out to the sea. The ship was badly damaged and the captain, knowing that the ship would not survive the trip into the ocean, beached the the ship to prevent it from blocking the channel. I do think this happened. It is a good strategy to prevent the rest of your prey from escaping. In this case it was to prevent the anyother functional ships from making it into the ocean. The Nevada was bombed repeatedly while attempting to escape. She was beached in shallow water instead of blocking the channel. Whether or not the beaching was intentional can be questioned still.
There was a second wave of planes ready to takeoff for Pearl Harbor, but the captain stopped them. His thinking was that the carriers, their goal, were not there, so they should not waste fuel to look for them. There would also be enemy submarines looking for the fleet of ships. Following the rest of the movie, I think this is true.
The goal for the Japanese was to destroy the carrier ships which were supposed to be held at Pearl Harbor. If they stayed and searched for the ships, they would eventually be found and destroyed. There was a sound wave in the fleet of planes, but unlike in the movie, they take off and join the attack. It contained 35 fighters, 54 high altitude bombers, and 78 dive bombers.
At the beginning of Tora! Tora! Tora! a picture of text appears on the screen. At the bottom it reads “All of the events and characters depicted are true to historical fact.” After watching this movie, I agree with this statement. Throughout the entire movie, the mistakes by both sides are made very obvious and the movie does not try to hide them. Unlike most movies, Tora does not show the movie from one character’s point of view, but multiple people from both America and Japan. There is not an added romance or survival story using the bombing as a setting.
Tora! Tora! Tora! can, and should be used in a classroom environment to explain the events leading up to Pearl Harbor and the shear destruction caused. By watching this movie I learned a lot more about Pearl Harbor then what I have been previously
taught.
I do believe this person, along with his role, existed. He was portrayed as slightly insane in the movie, but extremely smart.
Yamamoto Isoroku was the mastermind behind the attack on Pearl Harbor. Before the declaration of war, he did not feel as though war with the United States would be a good idea for the Japanese. After the declaration, he believed that if the United States lasted longer than a year, the Japanese would lose. In the movie, a radar was going to be placed on a mountain top where …show more content…
there would be no interference. This was prevented by the Hawaiian government because the mountain was in the Hawaiian National Park. After a location was found for the radar, untrained men were posted there with no easy access to a phone.
I do not believe this happened. During a time of high tension, it would be for the protection of the people, to allow a potentially life saving device to be installed on protected lands. This did happen. I misinterpreted the movie thinking that the antenna was not placed on the peak. The antenna for the radar was placed on Opana Point, on the island of Oahu. Untrained men were placed in charge of reading the radar. This lead to “Don't worry about it” being said about the group of Japanese planes.
After the “magic” translator’s ability was shown off, a list of names was mentioned. This list of names included the people who were allowed to see the translated documents. A little later in the movie, Colonel Bratton was seen scribbling out the president's name. He claimed that their intelligence people found a copy of the translated documents in a trash can violating security. I do not believe this actually happened. The consequences do not last thought out the entire movie. Later in the movie the president is put back on the list. While researching I have found no information supporting or disproving the movie. I am assuming this was added for comedic effect to lighten the movie. Franklin Roosevelt was on the list and could have known of the attack on Pearl Harbor before the attack.
During the movie, it was made clear that the Emperor of Japan did not wish to start a war with America. It was stated that he had wanted to solve their differences with the people at Washington to reach a peace agreement. The Cabinet had decided for him that there was to be a set date on which peace or war would be stated. He said this poem to his ministers to show how he felt about the decision, “If all people are brethren, then why are the winds and the waves so restless?”
I do believe this to have happened. It seems like a lot of times in history people are used as puppets for power, and the emperor could be one of them.
Whether this is true or not is still up in the air. After the war, Hirohito portrayed himself as being helpless in making decisions about peace with America, but many scholars believe he had an active part in the war and was trying to disconnect himself from the destruction Japan wrought.
During the movie, using the “magic translator” Colonel Bratton discovered that the Japanese were going to send 14 documents to the embassy. All but the last document arrived during the night. The last document was received on Sunday morning. The last document said to destroy the decoding machines at one.
I believe these documents existed. It would make sense to tell your embassy in the nation that you're about to go to war with, what's going on.
These documents did exist. The Japanese embassy had problems translating the documents leading to their late delivery to the White House. The news of the attack on Pearl Harbor had reached the White House before the declaration of war.
The documents sent before the attack on Pearl Harbor where sent Saturday night, and Sunday morning. Because of its time of arrival the Colonel had a hard time getting anyone to read it. When General George Marshall finally reads it and decides that something is going on, he decides to not call Pearl Harbor, but instead, the president.
I do not believe this part of the movie stayed true to history. During a time of high tension, with a nation that was starting to conspire with Germany, to have no one else want to look at the documents right away sounds absurd to me. The fact that Pearl Harbor was not contacted immediately, was seems like a way to add more drama into the situation.
The Japanese planned their attack, and war declaration, on a Sunday because they knew many Americans do not work on Sundays. It is also true that Franklin Roosevelt learned of the possible attack on Pearl Harbor before Pearl Harbor did. There are many conspiracy theories about how he used this as an opportunity to create an excuse to join the fight in Europe.
In the movie, a Japanese submarine is destroyed right outside of Pearl Harbor. Captain Earl is informed of the sub, but believes it to be another false alarm. Because of this he doesn't have the rest of the captains notified leaving them unsuspecting and vulnerable.
I do believe this to be true. For Pearl Harbor to be as successful as it was for the Japanese, the Americans would have needed to be completely unaware that an attack was coming. If he had notified each captain as the communications officer wanted, the result would have be drastically different.
This event is true. The fact that their were submarines were not taken seriously by the commanders. The news did not reach Admiral Kimmel until two hours later.
The main Japanese pilot uses the honolulu on the radio to determine what direction to fly to get to the harbor.
Radio signals can be used to find directions. I do believe that the Japanese pilots could of used radio signals from the islands to determine their directions.
This was used as a form of a compass during this time. Both the Japanese and the Americans used this. “I had a friend who was a bomber pilot, and he told me, anytime that they play this Hawaiian music all night long, it is a very good indication that our B-17s were coming over from the mainland, because they use it for homing.” - Lt. Kermit Tyler
When the Japanese air force flies by one of the islands, there is only one other plane. It was flown by a student until his teacher takes over.
The Japanese attempted to destroy the Nevada as she was trying to escape out to the sea. The ship was badly damaged and the captain, knowing that the ship would not survive the trip into the ocean, beached the the ship to prevent it from blocking the channel. I do think this happened. It is a good strategy to prevent the rest of your prey from escaping. In this case it was to prevent the anyother functional ships from making it into the ocean. The Nevada was bombed repeatedly while attempting to escape. She was beached in shallow water instead of blocking the channel. Whether or not the beaching was intentional can be questioned still.
There was a second wave of planes ready to takeoff for Pearl Harbor, but the captain stopped them. His thinking was that the carriers, their goal, were not there, so they should not waste fuel to look for them. There would also be enemy submarines looking for the fleet of ships. Following the rest of the movie, I think this is true.
The goal for the Japanese was to destroy the carrier ships which were supposed to be held at Pearl Harbor. If they stayed and searched for the ships, they would eventually be found and destroyed. There was a sound wave in the fleet of planes, but unlike in the movie, they take off and join the attack. It contained 35 fighters, 54 high altitude bombers, and 78 dive bombers.
At the beginning of Tora! Tora! Tora! a picture of text appears on the screen. At the bottom it reads “All of the events and characters depicted are true to historical fact.” After watching this movie, I agree with this statement. Throughout the entire movie, the mistakes by both sides are made very obvious and the movie does not try to hide them. Unlike most movies, Tora does not show the movie from one character’s point of view, but multiple people from both America and Japan. There is not an added romance or survival story using the bombing as a setting.
Tora! Tora! Tora! can, and should be used in a classroom environment to explain the events leading up to Pearl Harbor and the shear destruction caused. By watching this movie I learned a lot more about Pearl Harbor then what I have been previously
taught.