The West Side of the Kingdom
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Meanwhile, on her way to or from church, my grandmother’s kindergarten teacher’s car was strafed by Japanese planes flying in low over the island. Luckily, she was not seriously injured; her car was totaled, however. This type of civilian attack was not really depicted in the film, but the Japanese certainly took pot-shots at innocent people while on their dark mission against Pearl Harbor. I suppose that this isn’t a shock; we do the same things in hostile conflicts. My grandfather was a B-17 bombardier in WWII and did his fair share of bombing schools, neighborhoods, etc. over Germany. It’s a sad reality, but it happens.
While the fight was picked and raged on at Pearl Harbor, another broke out 35 miles away. It occurred to Pinkie’s father that having two homes with a large flag pole waving the Stars and Stripes would stick out like a bull’s eye to incoming Japanese fighters and he raced outside to lower it immediately. Eli, forever the red-blooded American general, refused to do so at first, stating that it was un-American to "retreat" in such a fashion. Again, Pinkie was left inside the house. Whatever transpired between the two men on that beach on Oahu as Japanese forces were busy kicking our butts, the flag was eventually lowered and the houses were not harmed in any way that morning.
After the sounds of death on the other side of the island subsided, American reaction was fast. One of the most severe counter-measures was the rounding-up of any Japanese Americans believed to have contact with the Empire of Japan and placed into "holding encampments." Pinkie recalls that there was a small neighborhood market that was owned and operated by a friendly little old Japanese man who made extra money selling scrap metal to Japan; a practice not uncommon amongst Japanese Americans in those days. Shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, he was taken away by the United States military and she never saw or heard of him again. Their private beach was immediately loaded with barbed wire fences, to deter any further aggressions against Oahu by Japanese forces. It was definitely the end of innocence and a paradise lost.
My grandfather went to high school in Sedalia, Missouri. Though seemingly a world away from Hawaii, that community and campus felt the effect of December 7, 1941 as did the rest of the United States. Word spread immediately that the Japanese had struck us at Pearl Harbor, resulting in major devastation and a great loss of life. My grandfather remembers that everyone was dumbfounded by the news and at the same time, everyone was asking, "Where the hell is Pearl Harbor?"
Shortly after the attack, one of my grandfather’s classmates, James Whitman, received word that his older brother had been killed in the attack; the young pilot had been attempting to take off in his fighter when he was strafed and killed by the Japanese. To memorialize the fallen alumnus of the school, a picture was given to the staff of James’ dead brother, slumped over in the cockpit of his plane; it was hung at the entrance of the campus. The young man died bravely, while attempting to protect the United States against this heinous aggression. His final moments remain in that picture and have forever burned themselves into my grandfather’s memory.
With these very personal accounts (and thousands others like them out there), I was a bit disappointed by the lack of violence depicted in the attack on Pearl Harbor in the film. I completely understand that Disney wanted to keep the film from being R-rated. I do think however, that if you’re going to try and recreate such an important event in history, you should not gloss it over or tone down the reality of something like war. Unlike the brilliant Saving Private Ryan, I was disappointed by the lack of realism in Pearl Harbor when it comes to the ultimate price our men and women paid that awful morning. With each explosion, I was discouraged with Michael Bay (the movie’s Director) when five or six guys would go flying across the screen, completely intact.
I told my 13 year-old sister that the actual attack on Pearl Harbor was much more violent; that there would have been body parts flying from those explosions. There would have been men screaming for their mothers and total carnage everywhere you looked. If people were not blown to pieces, they may have been terribly burned, their skin dropping from their bones like baggy clothing. War brings death and destruction that is not glamorous. The attack on Pearl Harbor was bloody, swift and horribly accurate. Many accounts state that the ocean water turned red as thousands of young men fell into the sea after being killed or attempted to tread water while the enemy flew back and forth, strafing the wounded and dying without mercy.
Michael Bay and the folks at Disney toned the violence down many notches. I wonder how much more powerful Pearl Harbor would have been, had it been more bold in its portrayal of history like Private Ryan or even Schindler’s List. We’ll probably never know; at least, not from Hollywood. It’s our job as adults to teach our kids about what happened - and at what costs.