Pearl Harbor is a classic romance film created with the background of WWII complications in the early 1940s. It combines the bittersweet love triangle of two best friends falling for the same girl and the history of Japan's Empire bombing a US naval base on the island of Oahu. Although the film does a pretty decent job combining entertainment to grab viewers' attention and the amount of historical background, there were some major inaccurate details that stuck out to me. Personally I love the film for the intense story it portrays, but I believe some of the details and facts could have been modified to match more of the historical events that took place nearly seventy-three years ago.
The first scene that catches my eye automatically is how the film lacks a clear reason why the Japanese Empire decided to bomb Pearl Harbor. I immediately thought of all those viewers who knew little about the history behind this attack and just go by the film's false accommodations. .
The only explanation the film gave was when the Japanese admiral described the mission. He stated that they're going to attack Pearl Harbor since America cut off their oil supply and they were living off an 18 month reserve. Well yes, in fact America did cut off their oil supply but that has nothing to do with why Japan decided to place an attack on one of Americas largest naval bases. Knowing the information I learned in class, the attack was a precaution the Japanese decided to take in order to damage naval forces and keep the U.S. fleet from interfering with the overtaking that the Japanese Empire was planning against the United Kingdom. Not only does the film lack attention to the details of history, it also makes up scenes that are irrelevant.
Doing some further research, the second thing I want to analyze is the scene where FDR tries to convince Admiral Nimitz and General Marshall to plan an attack on Japan for revenge.
