I wouldn't call it an ending full of hate. It was made in wartime, and was a propaganda film. It has to be viewed in that context.
I would, however, call it an ending (and film) full of inaccuracies.
First of all, the way they specifically claim that Japanese civilians in Hawaii actively attacked American installations. That was blatantly false. There was no sabotage by Japanese-Americans during the Pearl Harbor attack. If anything, civilians of Japanese descent assisted the military authorities in whatever way they could. (One civilian witness to the attack, Daniel Inouye, later won the Medal of Honor in Italy, at the cost of his right arm.)
Then, it showed the B-17 being sent on to the Phillipines. Of the surviving B-17's that arrived at Hickam during the attack (several were destroyed on the ground, although the crews escaped serious injury), they were kept in Hawaii. With the Army Air Forces essentially wrecked (along with Navy and Marine Corps airfields), flyable planes were a desperately needed commodity. They were kept for searches of the ocean areas around Hawaii in an attempt to catch the retreating Japanese strike force. Again, the film shows the gross lie of the B-17 crew being attacked by Japanese civilians on other islands.
In the Phillipines, there are the scenes of John Garfield single-handedly firing a .50 caliber machine gun from the hip and shooting down a Japanese plane. There's a reason weapons of that caliber are tripod mounted. It weighs about 84 pounds. With the ammunition and vibrations from the recoil, he would have been flat on his back in about one second.
There's the bit where the crew of the "Mary-Ann" is shooting down Japanese fighters like it's a video game. They grab a gun, fire a few bursts and the Japanese fighter explodes. They turn on back and exchange wise-guy quips. There was a reason why bombers needed fighter escorts. Fighters usually made mincemeat out of unescorted bombers. A fighter could go in fast enough to evade the bomber's guns and use its longer range cannon to cut a bomber to pieces before it could come within range of the gun turrets. Plus, in real combat, targets would be flashing by VERY fast; and be much harder to hit.
Next, the scene of the Battle of the Coral Sea. That had to be one of the most glaring historical inaccuracies in the entire film. First of all, the Army Air Force played NO part in the Coral Sea. That was entirely done by the U.S. Navy. Second of all, it wasn't the grand tactical and strategic victory that seemingly turned the war around. The Coral Sea was more realistically a tactical draw, if that. (The U.S. and Japanese each lost one carrier, with another damaged. The problem was, the U.S. had far fewer to lose at this stage of the war.) It was, however, a strategic American victory, with the Japanese invasion force bound for Port Moresby (New Guinea) being turned back. Far from being a smoothly executed American slaughter of Japanese ships, it was a battle marked by blunders caused by inexperience in carrier warfare. (i.e. Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher sent his aircraft after the small carrier Shoho, and perhaps missed his chance to sink the two bigger enemy carriers Shokaku and Zuikaku.
Then, it showed the "Mary-Ann", faultlessly dropping its bombs right on the Japanese ships, sending them to the bottom. A B-17 was designed as a strategic bomber, not as an anti-shipping weapon. At Midway, B-17's attacked the Japanese fleet. Not one bomb came close, and the Japanese were not surprised. They likened the attack to trying to drop a ball on a scurrying mouse from the top of a ladder. Hitting a ship from a high-level bomber was difficult, if not impossible.
Someone mentioned that the USS Arizona was sunk by a level bomber. Yes, it was. However, the Arizona was securely stopped and anchored in Pearl Harbor. It wasn't maneuvering freely on the open sea. That makes a BIG difference.
Finally, there's the scene at the end, where the bomber crews are briefed for a mission over Tokyo. Excuse me? That sounded like it was taken from some movie about the European Theatre, where the mission is to bomb Berlin. Aside from the Doolittle Raid in April of 1942, no U.S. bombers flew over Japan until late in 1944. Before that, there were no bases that allowed American planes to reach Tokyo and make it back safely. It wasn't until the Marianas were taken that the U.S. had such bases. And what was that briefing? Clearly whoever wrote the script hadn't listened to the technical advisors about what happened in a real briefing (targets selected, weather, routes in and out, etc).
So, I didn't mind the "hate" in the film -although it's glaringly dated now. I did, however, mind the extreme historical and technical fallacies the film showed.
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robertsull
16 years ago
Dear Sir
I beg to differ with you on a couple of things. My uncle was on board one of the B17s that made it to HI that day in 1941 and they were sent to the PI from there, They were told to bypass Wake and all. They landed in Midway to refuel or maybe Wake I am not sure of this but one of the two. They made it to the PI where after a few weeks they were sent to Aus where there ship was finally declared to worn out for further war use. He survived the war and came home in 45 as a Major. The second point is the 50 cal ma duece weighs 84lbs and the base plate weighs 44 lbs. The early ones and some of the early aircraft ones weighed less but they were quickly removed from service due to overheating and breakage being lite only like 45 to 55 lbs and all.No I dont think you could if you wanted to fire it like Garfield did bt the 30 cal yes if you were big enuff to do so it weighed in at 31 lbs he wasnt he was about 5ft nothing and weighed less than my dog LOL I myself have fired the M60 it weighs 24 lbs and also the BAR at 19.5 lbs from the hip and from what we used to call the John Wayne or Audie Murphy position when I was in the Army and as for the rest of it remember we were at war and till midway we were getting the hell kicked out of us and beaten at every turn till we became as Yamato feared the sleeping giant who woke up THEN WE KICKED HELL OUT OF THEM AND THE GERMANS. Just remember it is a hollywood film from the time and raised moral when we needed it most. My father was also in the war along with 7 uncles and my mother also sorry to rant but it was a film that had to be shown to help the home front
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