December 7th (film) (Photos Added)

[gwb123]

I was home today and TMC ran the full version of this, which is a full hour and a half long. (82 min)

(There is a shorter 35 min version of this film that was officially released without much of the following).

 

 

 

 

I had been wanting to see it for some time as a lot of clips from it are used to illustrate later documentaries about Pearl Harbor. That and it had been put together by Greg Toland and John Ford.

 

Produced in 1943, it was commissioned by the US military to "document" the events of the Pearl Harbor attack.

 

Fair enough, and I was expecting something along a wartime version of Tora, Tora, Tora going straight to scenes about the military on Oahu.

 

Instead, the first 45 minutes is this surreal sequence where Uncle Sam is vacationing in Hawaii, only to be interrogated by a character "Mr. C", who turns out to be his Conscious (nothing like a narrative by a fictional character haunting a fictional character).

 

Uncle Sam is supposed to be the embodiment of 183 million Americans who are being encouraged to see things a certain way by Mr. C.

 

Lost yet? It gets worse.

 

A good portion of this first part of the movie is Uncle Sam defending the Japanese-Americans living in Hawaii as loyal citizens. History would prove this point of view to be correct, as not one act of local sabotage was ever recorded during the entire war. Mr. C. on the other hand gives every reason why the viewer should believe that the Japanese-Americans living in the islands were part of a Fifth Column that provided as steady stream of intelligence to the Japanese consulate. This included families living along the shore line at Pearl Harbor to fishermen, to dance hall girls and beauticians.

 

For anyone who knows the history of the islands, this is pretty hard to swallow, let alone watch for the better part of an hour. There were Japanese spies operating before the attack, but they had all been sent covertly by Japan.

 

Oddly, the film mentions a German operative, and strangely enough, this was apparently true. However the film greatly exaggerates his importance.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuehn_Family

[gwb123]

So as far as the first part of the film goes, I would only watch it if you were interested in the culture of Hawaii prior to WWII. It does feature footage of the Japanese owned shops, schools, churches of various faiths, etc. I liked the part where Japanese-American kids were singing patriotic songs while wearing their period Girl and Boy Scout uniforms.

 

One thing I should note is that while I have used the term Japanese-Americans here, the film simply refers to them as Japanese. Despite repeated references to thousands who had actually been born in Hawaii, they just could not bring themselves to call these citizens anything other than Japanese.

 

Be warned, apparently due to a shortage of Japanese speaking actors for the dramatic portions, there are some really cheesy, if not racist performances.

 

I strongly recommend if you find this film to get a DVD version or watch it on Youtube so that you can skip this part if you want.

[gwb123]

The middle part of the film is the part that is actually about the attack and the aftermath.

 

It is a mix of actual footage, made up drama sequences, model ships and airplanes, and US aircraft done up with Japanese markings.

 

Some of these are very familiar to those who watch documentaries on the History Channel. The scene where the sailors are attending Church Call by the beach when they suddenly go running for their battle stations is one of them. Another is US SBD Dauntless aircraft diving out of the sky sporting Japanese rising sun markings painted on them, as well as exploding and burning aircraft hangers.

 

There is some good vintage content here if you are willing to sift through it. There are scenes of the Hickam and the other bases before and after the bombing, as well as some of the local towns.

 

If you have an interest in the salvage operations, there is a fair amount of footage of that as well as the ships being repaired and returned to active duty. There is a sequence where the raised Minetender Ogala is shown repaired and sailing out to the fight.

 

As worthy as this section is, it still has its low points. When it shows how the local population lined up to donate blood, the narration makes a point of "even the Japanese (Americans) gave blood".

 

Photos:

http://pellicolerovinate.blogosfere.it/post/344984/7-dicembre-1941-pearl-harbor-il-documentario-di-john-ford-su-studio-universal

[gwb123]

The third part of the movie is rather sad. It shows a number of the family members who lost someone at Pearl Harbor.

 

It then goes onto show the changes in Hawaii: the organization of the local defense council, beefing up of military supplies and personnel, and the closing of Japanese based institutions. Many of the businesses simply changed their names to meet the new patriotic attitude.

 

It then shifts to another surreal sequence where we encounter the ghost of a perished sailor in full uniform speaking to us from the grounds of a military cemetery. He is there to assure us that everything we have seen is real (including the blatant anti- Japanese-American propaganda).

 

If this were not odd enough he is soon joined by another spirit wearing a WWI uniform. They walk through the peaceful grounds and talk about sacrifice for a better world. It eventually turns into a not so subtle argument for the US to continue in its presence as a world leader, and a call for another United Nations type organization to insure the peace of the future. And to top this off, it is done via a very long and drawn out baseball metaphor. It is bizarre to say the least.

 

This is another part you may want to skip if you get the DVD.

 

After watching this from beginning to end, it is obvious why the government decided to edit it down to its most basic 35 minutes. The weird beginning and ending are most likely what were cut.

 

But if you want to feel complete in your command of WWII propaganda films, then by all means watch it from beginning to end. If nothing else, it will give you a clue on how raw emotions were back in the period.

[gwb123]

Post Script... screen shots taken from the movie on the Youtube link listed above. Some of these might look familiar as they have been used in other movies.

 

These are about Hickam Field. The live action sequences were probably filmed well after the attack during the production of the movie. The model shot of aircraft on the runway is typical of their special effects work.

[gwb123]

These are taken from a pre-attack sequence showing mass taking place at Kanehoe MCAS. The priest had just finished advising his audience that they should buy some Christmas presents to send back home on an outbound ship, including hula skirts for their little sisters!

 

This, and a later sequence where everyone goes running for their battle stations is footage that has been used in later "documentaries". It would be easy for some viewers to assume it had been filmed during the attack.

[gwb123]

This is footage from after the attack showing a rather creative way the window of a local businesswas taped in case of a further air raid.

 

If you are interested in images of wartime Hawaii, the film is a treasure trove. Just keep in mind much of it was filmed well after the attack.

 

 

[RustyCanteen]

In the pre-digital age that was a tough movie to find. I first heard of it during the 50th Anniversary of WWII in the early 1990s. It was alleged that it featured rare footage of Hawaii (which it does sort of), as well as a recreation of the attack. My not-so local VHS store ordered it so I could see this supposedly rare film. As I recall, emblazoned on the front of the VHS cassette sleeve was the proclamation that the film had been banned for 50 years (or something to that effect). Any hopes for that 'faithful' recreation of the attack were blown away in following minutes of the movie. It was the long version, and it was awful. Gil has already made an excellent review of the film (and it's bizarre storyline) above.

 

The only real value the film has is in the snippets of historical footage from Honolulu and the salvage of Pearl Harbor. No wonder the film was never theatrically released in whole!