Doolittle Raid: Movie Analysis

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The 2001 war film Pearl Harbor (Bay) concentrates on the Japanese bombing of the United States Naval Base of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii and the subsequent retaliation in the form of the Doolittle Raid. When the Japanese army drop their bombs on the largest American naval fleet at Pearl Harbor they “awaken a sleeping giant” (Bay). American President “Franklin Roosevelt wanted to retaliate” (Kane) and thus immediately announced a “state of war” (Franklin D. Roosevelt: For a Declaration of War). “Lieutenant Colonel James "Jimmy" Doolittle, U.S. Army Air Forces” (Doolittle Raid) was subsequently enlisted to head a top secret mission, of which his crew were later informed encompassed a morale boosting attack on Japan. The overall historical inaccuracy …show more content…
However, there is not a single reference to this action throughout the entire movie. Under this order, “112,000 people of Japanese descent were sent to internment camps and 70,000 of those were US citizens” (Brennen 5). The manner in which the media at the time wrote about this is enlightening and also parallels Pearl Harbor in showing how information does not necessarily need to be falsified in order to sway an audience or a nation, but instead vital details can simply be omitted. The New York Times helped to shape Americans’ view on the potential Japanese “threat” (Brennen) within their own country. “Apart from an overarching emphasis on issues of national security, specifically what constitutes “selected” or “key” Japanese citizens is not addressed in the coverage” (Brennen 6), thereby allowing the reader’s mind to wander and develop a cautious attitude toward those with Japanese heritage. Although initially defending Japanese Americans, the newspaper soon shifted tone; “themes of pragmatism in the face of serious threats emerged and the Japanese were depicted (usually quoting official government and law enforcement personnel) as dangerous, ticking time bombs” (Brennen 5). Naturally, the difference between the film Pearl Harbor and the New York Times is that the latter …show more content…
However, “in truth, while she knew Danny and Rafe were taking part in a secret mission, she had no way of knowing its purpose or date. Roosevelt himself did not receive all the details until a few days before the launch. Moreover, Doolittle had ordered the long-range radios removed from the bombers to save weight” (Suid). Furthermore, the raid began prematurely after being spotted by a Japanese fishing boat (Bay), thus proving that the integrity of the events were compromised to create a dramatic film that would sell tickets. Unlike media portrayals at the time, Pearl Harbor was not in a position to overly criticise the Japanese and perhaps this is why there is no trace of Japanese American internment in the film. “After all, Disney had to think of the ramifications of that truth on the box office in Japan”