RHS 114 & 202

Assignment on film, "Tora, Tora, Tora.:

The Walt Disney release in May, 2001 of the film "Pearl Harbor" has rekindled interest in what President Franklin D. Roosevelt called "the date that will live in infamy." Questions abound as to how the United States managed to be successfully attacked by the naval forces of Japan. The initial conclusion was that this was a "sneak attack," inferring that the US was harboring no belligerent motives against Japan and was totally surprised by the attack. However, subsequent research has revealed that neither inference is correct.

The first inference - that the US was caught completely unaware and hence off guard, is no longer accurate. The second, that the US was pacific and committed no act of aggression against Japan that would justify the attack, is increasingly coming under scruitiny.

Then there is Hollywood, which represents a media that looks not so much for historical accuracy as attendance at motion picture theaters when it crafts a film. Thus while critics have panned the recent Disney production of "Pearl Harbor" they have also conceded it is likely to be a box office success.

Your job is to evaluate an earlier Hollywood production of the attack at Pearl Harbor titled "Tora, Tora,Tora," and compare it to an article by a recent (but not definitive) account by an historian.

Having viewed the film and reading an article by James Perloff, Pearl Harbor: The Facts Behind the Fiction, you are to First: assess the accuracy of the film in light of the subsequent revelations as given by Perloff. Second, state your conclusions as to whether the US government had adequate warning of the impending attack sufficient to prevent it from realizing its goals, and were the actions of the administration in Washington, D. C. in response to the information it possessed done in the best interests of this country?