Unlike the comparatively dramatic Pearl Harbor (2001), Tora! Tora! Tora! interprets events from both the U.S. and Japanese perspectives. Subtitled Japanese dialogue consumes a significant portion of the film. The Japanese major characters, based on their real-life counterparts, are surprisingly reluctant warriors. Yamamoto (Soh Yamamura) is in charge of the military operation, but he is fully aware of the impossibility of defeating the U.S. in a long-term war.
At one point, he tells a confidant about the futility of invading San Francisco with hopes of taking Washington, thousands of miles away. The war was lost for Japan before it began. Partially destroying the U.S. Navy at Pearl Harbor only bought time, and less time than expected since the aircraft carriers stationed there were sent into open sea a few days before the bombing. It took the U.S. only six months to turn the war around.
The Japanese ambassador to the U.S., Nomura (Shogo Shimada), is equally mortified at the prospect of war with an industrialized nation as large as the United States. But, of course, Japan has its hawks, who control the government. Principal amongst these is Tojo (Asao Uchida), the Minister of War, a ruthless man who has always seen aggression pay off. The Japanese airmen and sailors are equally eager for conflict. Backing down would lose face, and dying in battle is just the opposite, a great honor. But not as great an honor as wiping out the U.S. Navy caged at Pearl Harbor, a prospect that delights Lt. Fuchida (Takahiro Tamura), who leads the first wave of Japanese Zeros.
While the Japanese plan the bombing with the efficiency their country is known for, the Americans remain unprepared for the aerial assault that is coming. A Japanese sub is detected approaching Pearl Harbor, and a Navy radar station detects a large fleet of incoming planes. These warnings are reported, but are lost in the military bureaucracy, partly because it is Sunday morning. The American battleships are sitting ducks for the Japanese bombers. The American planes are packed close together on Air Force runways, and prove equally vulnerable to the surprise attack.
The senior U.S. Navy staff, here played by formidable veteran actors such as Martin Balsam, Joseph Cotten, E.G. Marshall, and Jason Robards, spend the first half of the film uselessly trying to prepare for the coming strike. They spend the final reels gaping in horror as Japanese Zeros swoop down to finish off the pride of the U.S. Navy.
How others will see it. Unsurprisingly, the film did better commercially in Japan than in the U.S. American heroism is limited to isolated incidents, such as black cook Doris Miller and injured sailor John William Finn manning machine guns in the face of the fearfully belligerent Japanese planes.
How I felt about it. From a dramatic perspective, there are too many officer American characters. It's difficult to tell exactly what the responsibilities of Balsam, Cotten, Marshall, Robards, etc. are. All seem to be doing the same thing, trying to avert a catastrophe, and all run into the same brick wall of American complacence: It can't happen here. Unfortunately, much that couldn't have happened actually did during World War II.
In a way, Tora! Tora! Tora! is two (and perhaps even three) different movies. Richard Fleischer directed the American scenes. The Japanese portions were supposed to be directed by the legendary Akira Kurosawa, but the marriage with Twentieth Century Fox went poorly, and the divorce brought in two Japanese directors to replace him. Fast worker Toshio Masuda filmed the indoor scenes, while a second crew led by action specialist Kinji Fukasaku completed the scenes staged the aerial and naval sequences.
Still, the vision of Fleischer and Fox held together. The budget reduced the Japanese attack from hundreds of planes to a few dozen, but the bombing is impressive nonetheless, especially since Industrial Light & Magic had nothing to do with it. The movie bravely faces a great human tragedy. If the invading Japanese planes had been stopped in 1941, perhaps there would have been no need for the U.S. to drop bombs throughout Japan in 1945, killing a half million civilians.