Directed by John Ford, this retelling of the events of December 7, 1941 is a masterful piece of propaganda, stirring the emotions without straying too far from the truth. The scenes of devastation in the aftermath of the attack are particularly tragic. Surprising is the scene where Ford has several of the slain GIs "speak" to usthe ones he picks are of several different races and ethnic backgrounds. They are all narrated by the same person and the question is asked why they all sound alike. The answer: "We are all Americans." This little piece of tolerance for diversity was way ahead of its time, though it is somewhat offset by the stereotyped "Jap" voice Tojo is given in a later scene. Another amazing sequence is that of the changes made in the civilian lives of Hawaiians in the aftermath of the attack. We see schoolchildren ducking down in foxholes and trying on gas masks, and it reminds us that Hawaii was the one piece of U.S. territory to actually see combat. Most interesting is a sequence where we see Japanese-Americans in Hawaii removing all traces of Japanese culture from their homes and businessesthe most striking being the guy who takes down the sign "Banzai Cafe" and replaces it with "Keep 'Em Flying Cafe" (I want both signs, of course, for the Film Ephemera Museum of Quirky Devices). The ironic thing about this, though, is the fact that Hawaii was the only place in the U.S. where Japanese-Americans were allowed to keep their homes and businesses, rather than be shuffled off to internment camps. One thing that increases the historical interest of this film is the fact that some scenes had portions of the frame blacked out by the censor. This is an essential piece of WWII propaganda. Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: **. Weirdness: ***. Historical Interest: *****+. Overall Rating: *****. We're All Friendly HawaiiansNo Japanese Here 5 Christine Hennig 2006-03-12 11:24:31 2006-03-12 11:24:31 Actually, John Ford had little to do with this movie. He nominally set up the project before heading to England for duty with the OSS. It was actually put together by the great cinematographer Gregg Toland, immortal for lensing Citizen Kane and The Best Years of Our Lives and so many other great films. I bought a copy of this propaganda film years ago and was disgusted by the racism exhibited in it. A pathetic piece of junk, and a reminder of how low we Americans can sink in the pursuit of a cause. Actually... zamo_studios@yahoo.com 2010-11-19 04:32:40 2010-11-19 04:32:40 1 I learned a lot from this documentary.. From the inexperienced lieutenant on duty that morning that messed up and when he was told about the sound of planes approaching Hawaii, assumed that they were probably only just some B-17's that were flying in from the mainland, to seeing some additional footage that I had never seen before of the ensuing battle that shot down 25% of the invading Japanese planes.. It really gives you an insight to what it must have been like to have been right there in the middle of all the bombs exploding and the strafing and seeing 50 of those Japanese Zero's catching fire and plunging into the ocean.. If only we would have had that 30 minutes of warning to launch a counter-attack, or our carriers would have been alerted and present to intercept , the headlines would have read: "200 Jap planes wiped out in sneak attack attempt on Hawaii." A day that will live in infamy sirderek 2011-10-07 04:38:34 2011-10-07 04:38:34 5 The long versions are at http://www.archive.org/details/gov.ntis.ava18528vnb1 The link above is a Department of War print @ 81:32 minutes. http://www.archive.org/details/gov.archives.arc.40099.bl The link above is an OSS print @ 75:03 minutes. "December 7th" - this short 30 minute version - was nominated for an Oscar for "Documentary Short Subject" in 1944. The long versions were censored and unreleased. Long versions Jilly9 2012-01-22 17:20:28 2012-01-22 17:20:28 0 4 3.67