December 7th (film)

December 7th
Directed by	John Ford Gregg Toland
Produced by	United States Army Air Forces
Starring	Walter Huston Dana Andrews
Cinematography	Gregg Toland
Distributed by	Office of War Information
Running time	34 min
Language	English

December 7th (1943) is a propaganda film produced by the US Navy and directed by John Ford, about the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, the event which sparked the Pacific War and American involvement in World War II.

Production background

The film begins with a chronological breakdown of the events of December 7, starting with the town of Honolulu gradually waking up and coming to life in the morning. A young private is credited with intercepting some vital information which his superiors dismiss; other sailors play baseball or attend religious services.

Then, "like locusts", the Japanese planes start humming over the air above Oahu, and begin the now infamous attack on American military installations on the island, including the sinking of the Arizona, and the bombing of Hickam Field. All the while, back in Washington, Japanese diplomats are still talking with Secretary of State Cordell Hull.

An animated sequence is then shown, with a large radio tower over Japan, broadcasting a fictional speech by Prime Minister Hideki Tojo. The narrator contradicts most of the "facts" that the Japanese leader tells his listeners in Tokyo, Kobe, and Okure.

After the attack Honolulu isn't quite the same; the island is put under martial law, barbed wire and other protective barriers are set up in case of invasion and even children have to be evacuated and given gas masks. The film is notable for its sympathetic depiction of the Japanese in Hawaii, and the difficulties they now had to go through.

Preservation status

Started within days of the attack, the original film was 82 minutes long and asked some embarrassing questions, such as why there was no long-range reconnaissance and no short range air patrols. Further, the film had a lot of time devoted to the culture of the 160,000 Japanese in Hawaii and their response to the attack. For these reasons the long version of the film was censored for decades and the shorter 32-minute version released.

Awards

The film won an Academy Award at the 16th Academy Awards in 1944 for Documentary Short Subject. ^[1]

See also

• List of Allied Propaganda Films of World War 2

References

1. ^ "New York Times: December 7th". NY Times. http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/124960/December-7th/details. Retrieved 2008-05-26. 

External links

External links and reference

• December 7th is available for free download at the Internet Archive [more]
• December 7th (film) at the Internet Movie Database