Nothing Went Right During Production of This Japanese-American WWII Movie

The Big Picture

• Tora! Tora! Tora!
  is a 1970 American-Japanese war film that depicts the events leading up to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor during World War II.
• The film’s production team aimed for authenticity, using reconditioned and redesigned planes and battleships to replicate those used during the actual attack.
• Akira Kurosawa, who was initially hired as co-director, faced budget demands and creative differences with the producers, leading to his departure from the project.

Revisionist war films rip the shiny veneer off war, showing the grit, the moral ambiguity, and the devastating cost of war. Tora! Tora! Tora!, arguably one of the best World War II films for its exploration of multiple sides in the Japanese attack on America’s Pearl Harbor, had a challenging production, including a fatal accident on set. As per the Telegraph, then 20th Century Fox’s chairman Darryl Zanuck, wanted to make the most authentic epic film about the attack, making a movie that gave both the American and the Japanese perspective of the conflict. Together with his son Richard Zanuck (then Fox’s CEO) and his trusted collaborator, producer Elmo Williams (The Longest Day), they set up two production teams in the US and Japan, with each team providing the respective country’s version of these events.

The Japanese team was tasked with telling the story of the planning and the execution of the attack, with the Americans delving into the military activities at Pearl Harbor and the reaction from Washington. The US team was to be directed by Richard Fleischer, while the Japanese team was under the legendary Akira Kurosawa‘s vision. According to Historynet, from the outset, things were shaky, with Kurosawa being unimpressed by his US counterpart Fleischer’s resume. He stated that he had been told by Fox executives that David Lean (Lawrence of Arabia) would be his collaborator. Their first meeting was on the wrong footing, with Kurosawa appalled by the amount of ketchup Fleischer put in his food. But Tora! Tora! Tora!‘s real problems came during production. From conflicts over creative control, logistical challenges, casting, and death on the set, nothing went right during Tora! Tora! Tora!‘s production.

What’s ‘Tora! Tora! Tora!’ About?

For a movie that delves into what remains one of the most influential events in modern history, Tora! Tora! Tora! stands out for its historical accuracy. The title “Tora! Tora! Tora!” is derived from the code word used by the Japanese military to signal green-lighting the attack following a successful surprise. Unlike the fictionalized Michael Bay-directed Pearl Harbor, Tora! Tora! Tora! utilizes historical accounts, relying heavily on the events depicted in Ladislas Farago’s book The Broken Seal and Gordon W. Prange’s Tora! Tora! Tora!. Both accounts together make up the book At Dawn We Slept. The first half of the film leapfrogs between the simmering tensions in Japan and the U.S. ahead of the Pearl Harbor attack, while the second half is an action-packed showcase.

The events begin in Tokyo, where government and military officials are concerned about America’s sanctions as a measure to exert pressure on them to abandon their Imperial Empire’s expansionist agenda that threatens American interests. The Japanese are split on the right course of response, with some, particularly army chiefs, suggesting an attack against the U.S., while others, including the incoming Commander-in-Chief of the combined military, Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku (played by So Yamamura), prefer peaceful negotiations, citing the superior military prowess of the U.S. The signing of the Tripartite Pact exacerbates the situation. With the pro-war majority getting their way, Yamamoto decides to plan a surprise attack to demolish the U.S.’s Pacific fleet and carriers, believing it’s the only way the Japanese can stand a chance against the Americans.

Meanwhile, in the U.S., government officials are partly blindsided by a coy negotiation process by the Japanese despite the growing intelligence of an imminent attack. Part of what Darryl Zanuck wanted the film to achieve was to show that some of those implicated in dereliction of duty during the events leading to the Pearl Harbor attack had been treated unfairly. Among these was Admiral Husband Kimmel (played by Martin Balsam), who, as the Commander-in-Chief of the United States Pacific Fleet, not only lost his job but was held responsible for the attack. In Tora! Tora! Tora!, Kimmel is portrayed somewhat sympathetically, with the film focusing on details that contributed to the overall mistakes of omission and commission that led to the unpreparedness during the surprise attack. Throughout the movie, quotes attributed to the real-life people involved are used. A memorable one is by Kimmel himself, who, when he saw the bombardment at Pearl Harbor in the attack and survived a bullet that barely missed him, said, “It would have been merciful had it killed me.”

The Production of ‘Tora! Tora! Tora!’ Faced Financial and Logistical Challenges

Because the production team was obsessed with making an authentic movie, they wanted the planes, battleships, and other props used in the film to be copies of the ones used during the actual Pearl Harbor attack. It was particularly hard to assemble the Japanese fleet, with only one having survived the actual war. The Japanese Zero planes, which were a big deal during the attack, were also not available. Thus, planes used in the making of the film were mostly reconditioned and redesigned to capture the essence of World War II. The process took about eight months, as Fox faced financial pressures, delaying production. In addition, Kurosawa had made budget demands, like for a full-scale replica of the Japanese World War II battleship Nagato, that made the Fox executives nervous.

As per Historynet, working across two continents also proved to be a challenge, with some material being transported across the Pacific. Japanese uniforms used in the film, for instance, had to be shipped to Hawaii, while some film shot on the beach in Japan was flown to Hollywood via Japan Air Lines.

Akira Kurosawa’s Partnership With Fox on ‘Tora! Tora! Tora!’ Ended in Disappointment

Beyond budgetary challenges, Akira Kurosawa, who had been excited to expand his legendary filmography by breaking into Hollywood when producer Elmo Williams offered him the role of co-director for Tora! Tora! Tora!, which ended up being a regrettable choice for the producer. As per Historynet, Kurosawa had stated in an interview shortly after his hiring that, “This movie will be a record of neither victory nor defeat but of misunderstandings and miscalculations.” And indeed, while not what he meant, misunderstandings and miscalculations would define his relationship with the Hollywood producers he was partnering with. Their short journey together started on a rather positive note, with both Kurosawa and Fox executives agreeing that they needed to heavily invest in the main characters of the historical event, Kimmel and Yamamoto. However, just three weeks into filming, Akira Kurosawa’s working relationship with the Fox studio executives became untenable.

As per Historynet, the action master Kurosawa, who wasn’t used to studio supervision, hired non-professional actors, mostly business tycoons, to play army commanders, believing that their stoic looks would replicate the army men’s seriousness. The Zanucks and Williams were not impressed, partly believing that Kurosawa, whose popularity was waning in his home country at the time, was strategically positioning himself for the funding for his future films. His script was also far too long. The Fox executives were also furious that after three weeks of filming, Kurosawa only had six minutes of footage to show, which they judged to be unusable (only a scene he shot of the American ambassador in Tokyo was used in the film). To complicate matters, the non-professional actors, unsurprisingly, performed below expectations. This, coupled with Kurosawa’s reported erratic behavior on set, made the executives fire him. To deliver the news, Fox sent Williams to Tokyo. To Williams’ surprise, upon receiving the news, Kurosawa threatened to “hara-kiri” (die by suicide). As per The New York Times, Kurosawa would later state in his autobiography that his only regret was, ”I was unable to make the film Darryl Zanuck would have wanted. He was one of those rare true producers, a man who deeply loved movies, and now he is gone.”

In his assessment of Kurosawa, his initial co-director Richard Fleischer said of Kurosawa’s role in the film on the film’s DVD commentary, “I felt he was not only uncomfortable directing this kind of movie, but also he wasn’t used to having somebody tell him how he should make his film.” As per The New York Times, Kurosawa also stated that during the making of the film, he was battling “some kind of neurosis” and was diagnosed with gallstones, which might have affected his working relationships. This time around, there was no chance for a long winding route to Tora!‘s making like the laborious Seven Samurai.

‘Tora! Tora! Tora!’s Production Problems Persisted After Akira Kurosawa’s Departure

After Akira Kurosawa’s exit, Toshio Masuda and Kinji Fukasaku were brought on board to replace him. Finding a replacement for Kurosawa had not been easy for Fox, as no one wanted to offend Kurosawa by taking up the role. The two new directors brought in some changes, including new cast members, among them So Yamamura, who plays Yamamoto, as well as trimming Kurosawa’s script. While their working relationship with the Americans was much smoother, they also disagreed on some of the film’s creative direction, with the Fox executives feeling the Japanese actors overacted in some scenes and that the directors did not provide enough coverage footage to fill in such gaps. Fox sent a representative across the Pacific to supervise a re-shoot.

But these weren’t the only problems the filmmakers encountered during the making of Tora! Tora! Tora!. In a show of defiance, Darryl Zanuck, facing media reports of the problems the production was going through, was more determined to finish the epic blockbuster. He purchased as many vintage cars as possible from the period and had pilots receive daily briefings for the Pearl Harbor attack sequence. During a practice session before filming, a horrifying incident occurred where one of the planes, a dive bomber, malfunctioned, killing its pilot, Guy Strong, a former Navy pilot. But even before this accident, a technical consultant on the aircraft replicas named Jack Canary had lost his life after sustaining critical injuries while working on one of the planes. Yet, in another incident during the actual filming,a B-17 malfunctioned too, and as the pilot circled above to deplete its gas to minimize its explosion on landing, cameras were set up, and its frightening landing was captured. The footage, which shows crew members running for their lives, was actually used in the movie.

Beyond the creative production problems that Tora! Tora! Tora! faced, the producers also had to deal with public relations issues, including protests from a section of Americans who were against the film’s making because it reminded them of a dark period in the country’s history. The involvement of real-life former General Minoru Genda (played by Tatsuya Mihashi in the film) who designed the Pearl Harbor attack plan for the Japanese, as a consultant on the movie, provoked some resistance.

In the long run, Darryl Zanuck may have gotten his wish for an unforgettable epic war film given the success Tora! Tora! Tora! has had, including five Academy Award nominations and one win, but its making was another movie altogether.

Tora! Tora! Tora! is available to rent on Amazon in the U.S.

Rent on Amazon