History Buffs: Tora! Tora! Tora!

[Music] hello and welcome history buffs my name is nick hodges and for a long time now many of you been asking me to review pearl harbor and each time i read one of your comments asking me to do so my immediate response was what why why would you want me to review pearl harbor i mean i think we all agree that movie is terrible and i really don't feel that there's much more i could add to the conversation that hasn't already been covered in other reviews often times far better than i ever could in fact i think the nostalgia critics review perfectly summed up my feelings towards pearl harbor you son of a [ __ ] but if you really want to know what i hate most about that film it's how it condescends and panders its american audience by taking every cheap opportunity to shove as much flag-waving [ __ ] on the screen as possible instead of being respectful and relying on the heroic deeds of american servicemen to speak for themselves they have to deep throat america's ego with lines like this a lot of people frown on the yanks for not being in this war yet i'd just like to say if there are many more back home like you god help anyone who goes to war with america on the other hand you are a bunch of [ __ ] for not having joined yet oh calm down it's a joke it's a joke anyway yes if i wanted to i could spend this entire review telling you how awful pearl harbor is or i could instead recommend to you the good pearl harbor movie an unappreciated american masterpiece that deserves your attention and needs to be watched and i'd like to add and i'm not saying this lightly this film is so good that i put it up there with waterloo this is torah torah torah torah torah torah these were the japanese code words announcing that they had achieved complete surprise on december 7th 1941 these words were cried out of the wireless as japanese squadrons began their approach over hawaii and it would mark a day that would live forever in infamy the attack on pearl harbor but how did it all begin why was america so unprepared and why was japan even willing to risk an all-out war with them well to gain a better understanding we need to go back to when the relationship between the united states and japan first began to decline arguably the first step was taken when on september 18th 1931 japan invaded the chinese province of manchuria the invasion was condemned by the western powers including the united states for disrupting world peace japan viewed this condemnation as little more than hypocrisy much of the far east had already been colonized by the west and japan wanted to build an empire of its own under the pretext that asia should be ruled by asians by 1933 the league of nations the equivalent of today's united nations concluded that japan was the blatant aggressor in this conflict and demanded their immediate withdrawal from manchuria instead japan shocked the world by withdrawing from the league of nations this was under the assumption that when push came to shove no other nation would interfere they were correct and manchuria became a puppet state and was renamed manchu the impotence behind the league of nations political power would soon encourage other acts of defiance italy would invade abyssinia in 1935 and germany re-militarized the rhineland in 1936 neither faced any profound consequences japan's thirst for expansion could not be stated for long eager to build up its empire it was in desperate need for natural resources and china was an inviting target it was in the middle of a brutal civil war waged by nationalists communists and various warlords each fighting for dominant power ripe for conquest japan invaded mainland china in 1937. its brutal and violent occupation would result in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of chinese citizens horrifying episodes like the nan king massacre swung public opinion in the west against japan again the west would condemn these actions but would not interfere militarily america with its isolationist policy wanted to avoid any chance of conflict but with great britain and france they provided the republic of china with weapons fuel and other types of aid these supplies would reach the chinese along routes like the sino-vietnamese railway or the burma road by 1940 the balance of power had shifted in europe after the official start of the second world war france had been soundly defeated and the southern half was reorganized into the vichy regime a client state of nazi germany vichy france continued to hold power to the former government's overseas territories but that would soon be challenged in an effort to cut off supplies to china on the 22nd of september 1940 japan invaded french indochina with little resistance shortly after japan signed the tripartite pact with germany and italy aside from being a defensive military alliance between the three nations germany and italy recognized japan's role as a power in greater east asia japan in turn recognized theirs in europe this agreement basically gave japan a free hand in southeast asia and this alarmed america greatly mostly due to its overseas territories in the philippines which now placed it on japan's doorstep so in response the united states great britain and free holland hit japan with an oil embargo and froze all their assets this hit japan hard as america supplied them with 80 percent of the oil they consumed japan now faced a crucial decision without any oil resources of its own and with less than two years worth of supplies remaining they either had to withdraw from their conquered territories or to keep up the offensive the dutch east indies were rich with oil and to take those abundant resources would mean war with the united states which is the choice they went with now american president roosevelt was aware of this possibility which is why he ordered the pacific fleet to move from their base in san diego to the hawaiian island of oahu at pearl harbor the purpose of such a move was to say to the japanese we have our eye on you but that was basically it the possibility of war reaching hawaii was far from anybody's mind it was thought more likely that if it happened at all the first target would be the philippines pearl harbor also had the strategic advantage with the shallow waters reaching only as far as 40 feet deep it was generally accepted that an aerial torpedo needed at least 70 feet to hit a ship but as fate would have it japanese plans to attack hawaii had already been set in motion the commander and chief of the japanese navy isuroku yamamoto had been preparing for such eventuality despite being opposed to war with america he felt that conflict between the two nations was inevitable and so he planned accordingly the idea was to hit and [ __ ] the american pacific fleet with squadrons of japanese bombers at the same time a massive oriental blitzkrieg would take effect throughout southeast asia with the japanese also striking at the dutch east indies malaya the philippines guam and hong kong but before any of that could happen the u.s pacific fleet had to be taken out to compensate for pearl harbor's shallow waters the japanese engineered a new type of aerial torpedo perfectly capable of working within these depths now whilst all this was being planned the japanese still had their envoys negotiating in washington they were trying to cut a deal stating that they would not go any further than indochina provided that the americans reopened free trade with them however these talks would fail as washington would not budge on their stance against japan's aggressive expansion the focus of japan's negotiations from then on was simply to buy time the envoys were later instructed to submit a formal declaration of war 30 minutes before the attack on pearl harbor it would be submitted two hours after the attack because of miscalculation on the 26th of november 1941 yamamoto strikeforce set sail for the hawaiian island of oahu it was composed of six aircraft carriers and over 400 aircraft in addition two battleships two heavy cruisers one light cruiser nine destroyers and three fleet submarines provided escort during the voyage its crews maintained strict radio silence and were not picked up by the americans at dawn on november 7th 1941 353 planes took off from the carriers the pilots were instructed that they felt they had achieved complete surprise in the lead-up for the attack to signal the code word over the radio torah torah torah an acronym for please excuse my poor attempted japanese totsuyaki rayaki which means lightning attack [Music] what foreign so now that you have a pretty good idea of what led up to the attack on pearl harbor let's dive into what really makes this film great the battle sequences it's no secret that i'm a huge fan of practical effects and torah torah torah has some of the best ever put on screen made in the golden era of war movies where everything had to be captured on camera that means no cgi no special effects everything you see is real in fact it's almost too realistic there are some incredible stunts in this movie that'll make your jaw drop one scene in particular comes to mind when the japanese are bombing an american airfield and we see one stunt that nearly went horribly wrong [Applause] if it looks like those guys are running for their lives that's because they were what happened is that the crew lost control of an electric unmanned p-40 it was rigged with explosives and instead of blowing up on the runway it veered off and hit the parked planes instead fortunately nobody was hurt but this complete accident resulted in one of the most spectacular scenes in movie history there's also this other amazing stunt where japanese plane crashes into a hangar so first off they do a bit of camera trickery here by making it look like this real plane is about to crash then the next cut they rigged a zero with explosives fitted it onto a shoot and fired it into a real hangar not a miniature not a model a real hangar these are just a couple of the amazing stunts sprinkled throughout this film and based on the other footage you are seeing right now you should get a real sense of why i love this movie so much so that begs the question why did this movie bomb it's completely ridiculous seeing how much talent and effort went into making this some of the bad reviews this film has is beyond astounding like for example the late film critic roger ebert gave it one star and said tora toratora is one of the deadest dullest blockbusters ever made it offers no suspense at all because we know the attack on pearl harbor's gonna happen and it does and then the movie ends what i'm sorry to say this because i know a lot of people love roger ebert but that doesn't make a lick of sense to me if that's your thinking then why watch historical movies at all why watch gettysburg we know the union army's gonna win why watch titanic we know the bloody ship is gonna sink but you know what really takes the piss it's the fact that he gave pearl harbor a higher rating than torah torah torah so why all the hate why is this film described as dull and boring i mean i'm willing to admit that has some problems but nowhere near as bad as pearl harbor you are so beautiful hurts it's your nose that hurts ah i think it's my heart did i mention that randall wallace wrote this so i think one reason some people find tora toratora to be dull is because for the first half of the film we are simply building up to the attack on pearl harbor we follow real historical figures and the roles in which they played that means a lot of scenes where we just see people talking and since this film is trying to be as historically accurate as possible that means the cast of characters have not been condensed down there are no real single serving protagonists in torah torah torah in a way this film reminds me of another world war ii classic which i highly recommend you watch called a bridge too far that movie follows the stories of multiple characters as well but what it gets right is the casting in a bridge too far we have james khan michael kane sean connery gene hackman anthony hopkins lawrence olivier and robert redford to name a few in tora toratora we have a cast of relatively unknown i mean they're not awful when they stretch the imagination but they don't possess that star quality but i think there's another reason why this film didn't do so well and it may be for political reasons rather than its overall quality one of the big attractions this film has for me is how it was shot half the film was shot by an american team and the other half by a japanese team presenting us with an unbiased portrayal of history from both japanese and american sides and a lot of people had a problem with that they complained that the film glorified japanese aggression and made the americans look unprepared get that guy's number dick i'll report it for safety violations but the reason why they were made to look that way is because for the most part they were the movie also highlights key mistakes made by the americans that might have averted this horrific attack in the first place like the scene where the radar site at opana point spots japanese planes heading for pearl harbor and cause hq sir this is private elliot upon a point there's a large formation of planes coming in from the north 140 miles three degrees east yeah well don't worry about it boys at upon a point must have picked up that flight of b-17s coming in from the mainland that is absolutely true by the way lieutenant kermit tyler failed to report in those planes but he was eventually cleared of wrongdoing by the naval board of inquiry if he had followed procedure then it might have given the americans a fighting chance here's another scene where captain earl is told about a japanese sub that had just been cited in the harbour entrance all right read it to me have dropped depth charges on sub operating in our security zone yeah but we've had so many of these false sightings kaminsky but this is the real thing sir closer than any previous sighting just off the harbor influence yeah but you know as well as i do that this skipper that destroys a green kid i'll pass it on to admiral block with all due respect sir i think we should alert all commanders confirmation kaminsky i want confirmation you want a confirmation captain take a look there's your confirmation now i haven't been able to find out if kaminsky or earl are based on real people but it's true that a japanese sub had been sighted and sunk just over an hour before the attack began by the time the message reached admiral kimmel the commander-in-chief of the u.s pacific fleet it was 7 30 am the attack began at 7 55 am so clearly torah torah torah is not a romanticized version of american history but the unfortunate truth mistakes were made and lives were lost but the hard lessons learned that day changed the nation and prepared them for a war against a formidable enemy when the movie shows the us military as short-sighted and careless it's because they were they underestimated the japanese and their capability but the movie also shows just how much the japanese underestimated america especially with what yamamoto makes a reference to at the end of the film which i'll cover in the next part now as awesome as tora toratora is no historical film is perfect inaccuracies are always bound to slip through the cracks even as one as meticulously crafted as this my problem with inaccuracies most of the time is when there is a distinct lack of effort which is usually a result of the filmmakers not being truly invested in the history they're trying to tell and that's what really gets me pissed off because if they're not invested then why should i be fortunately torah torah torah is a film that really cares about being historically accurate it actually cares so much that it's making my job that much harder to find things that are inaccurate and many of the ones i'll point out you'll know that be thinking hey nick you're kind of reaching for it there and that in turn should tell you how brilliant this movie is so let's begin one of the big themes running through the film is how the japanese surprise attack was even possible seemingly isolated incidents that all contributed to america being unprepared one scene in particular we see the military debate over where to install their radar tower general radar should do the job well what's it doing here why isn't it set up we were about to truck it up that mountain general that peak up there is the ideal spot to put our main radar post at that height be clear of all interference now in the movie they can't get permission to install it up there because it's protected by the hawaiian national park leaving them the less desirable choice of installing the radar site at opana point but even if they did have permission it probably still wouldn't be an ideal location for them from what i've been able to research those mountains make up the kulau range of the hawaiian island of oahu they are very hard to climb let alone to try trucking up an entire radar installation that peak he's pointing at is called um you know what it's probably best if i don't try to pronounce its hawaiian name so here it is in text basically it's one of the highest steepest and inaccessible peaks in hawaii so to try and put a radar up there is a little impractical so moving on this next inaccuracy involves that very nail-biting scene where those b-17 bombers are trying to land one of them malfunctions when a wheel becomes stuck forcing the pilot to make an emergency landing with only two wheels but before i continue i'd just like to point out that there was a bunch of websites saying that this was an accident during filming and they kept it in i'm not 100 convinced that it was though i mean if you listen to what the director has to say in the dvd commentary it seems more likely that this was all staged and is just another example of this film's quality stunt work so this this scene that we just saw with the um the plane coming down on one wheel uh that that's not stock footage that was shot for this picture the wonderful pilot to be able to do that but he did he landed on one wheel and and how many cameras did you have covering that that landing well we had five cameras and on all of these shots we used on virtually every shot we have action like that we covered it with five cameras as great as our stunt is though i've been unable to find any evidence suggesting that any of the real b-17s had lander gear problems there's also this other bit that kind of confuses me where we see another b-17 trying to land a b-17 there's a jab on your tail get out of here he's telling him to take off why i don't get it i mean like how does he expect a b-17 to evade a japanese zero especially if he's damaged and low on fuel i mean like if you're that close to the tarmac already isn't it simply much better to land and just run like hell another bit i'd like to mention is where we see the japanese squadrons begin their approach to pearl harbor and they are spotted by a flight instructor now this is all true the woman's name was cornelia fort and she was one of the first witnesses to the japanese attack in the movie we see the japanese fly up behind her but in real life those planes were coming straight at her she had to take over the controls from a student and steer the plane out of the way now if they shot it exactly the way it happened i think it would have made this scene that much more ominous but since they're using real planes i'm guessing they did it this way for safety reasons in the end i'm just happy they included this historic moment and not resort to using the boy scouts of america and a little league team to manipulate the audience's emotions yeah real subtle pearl harbor sorry sorry so sorry i just i just really hate that film so moving on uh here's another inaccuracy that i believe to be forgivable but it's definitely worthy of a mention it takes place a few hours before the attack on pearl harbor when an american destroyer called the uss ward spots a japanese [ __ ] submarine the uss ward sees the japanese sub telling an american cargo ship the uss ward opens fire on the sub and then drops depth charges to finish it off all of this is absolutely true what you see on the screen is pretty much how it all went down except for one pretty big detail this is not what the uss ward would have looked like here is the real uss ward as you can see from the smokestacks it's a very old ship first commissioned in 1918 to be used in world war one now obviously when they shot tora toratora they couldn't use this discontinued model of destroyer they had to make do with a more modern ship that was at the time anyway nevertheless it's still really good to see the uss ward be shown in this movie its historical importance is without question one of the first american shots of the war were fired by this ship speaking of historical importance here's an inaccuracy you probably didn't know was one it takes place after the attack on pearl harbor when the japanese are patting themselves on the back but they soon subside when they notice their commander in chief yamamoto is not sharing their enthusiasm and what follows is one of the most recognizable quotes associated with the second world war [Music] this is a quote i feel that most of us are familiar with it's right up there with winston churchill's we'll fight them on the beaches to fdrs a date which will live in infamy but apparently yamamoto never said that there's no evidence he made that statement or he ever wrote it down he certainly felt that way though the quote is definitely justified as yamamoto didn't believe that japan could win a long drawn-out war with america even though he masterminded the attack on pearl harbor he always believed that would only buy japan time roughly only about several months or something in any case elmo williams the producer of the film claimed that he found the quote in yamamoto's diary but this is the subject of much controversy amongst historians as he couldn't remember what happened to the diary it's entirely possible that this was simply an invention of hollywood fiction but regardless it's still a bloody good quote though i mean so much so that it even made another appearance in pearl harbor and to a lesser extent george bush used it after 9 11 but he's clearly paraphrasing and for this final inaccuracy it's uh it's clearly a mistake but just for one moment in the film it changes everything it's that very iconic moments where we see the japanese planes fly over the valley preparing to attack pearl harbor but right in the very center of the screen you could see a giant white cross and what's important to know about that white cross is that it's a memorial to the attack on pearl harbor so uh so it's almost as if the japanese have somehow traveled into the future and are attacking pearl harbor in modern times and if that's the case i'd love to see how long these japanese zeroes last against the full might of america's oh my god that is awesome splash the zeros i say again splash the zeros yes sir oh my god is the coolest thing i've ever seen in my life oh my god [Music] yes usa got him you've got him wait what the hell am i doing i'm supposed to be reviewing torah toratora well i suppose this is a good spot as any to give my closing thoughts so as you could see i really couldn't find any unforgivable inaccuracies and that should tell you something this film is awesome and i can't praise it enough it's such a shame that i didn't receive the recognition it deserves and i really hope that by the end of this review you will also want to get yourself a copy i imagine that if you're watching a youtube channel called history buffs then you would appreciate a film that goes out of its way to be as historically accurate as possible whilst the same time executing some of the best action-packed battle sequences that have ever been put on screen i'll say it one more time if you really consider yourself to be a history buff if historical accuracy means anything to you then watch torah torah torah you won't be disappointed and for those of you who want to see me pick apart the movie pearl harbor i hope you understand why i chose to cover this film instead but if you still really want to know how historically inaccurate pearl harbor is then i highly recommend you check out cipher's review from the cynical historian there's a link to his video in the description box below well that about wraps it up my name is nick hodges and thanks for watching history buffs and remember if you like the show help the channel grow if you wish to support history buffs then you can now do so at patreon and as always let me know in the comment section what you thought about torah torah torah and of course what historical movie should i review next in the meantime check out the history buffs twitter and facebook page for new updates until then i'll see you next time [Music] you

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Views: 2,277,687

Rating: 4.9003267 out of 5

Keywords: History Buffs, Tora! Tora! Tora!, WWII, World War 2, Japanese pilots, inaccuracies, Isoroku Yamamoto, Japanese Empire, Pearl Harbor, Historical moves, Historical Film Reviews, accuracy

Id: 9PfdQod8HTw

Length: 26min 32sec (1592 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 21 2017