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Abbigail Heafner

2 December 2020

HIS 132-721

Dr. Camper

Hollywood vs. History

The movie Pearl Harbor 2001 by Michael Bay gives great insight to the public on how

the tragic events of December 7, 1941 took place. Bay created the movie in order to help the

average American citizen put themselves in the scene of Pearl Harbor. This helps many people

better understand how it felt to be military personnel during the attack and what they would have

seen in Hawaii the day of Pearl Harbor. The attack on Pearl Harbor left many people with

questions of how it happened and why it happened. The movie helps people better understand

just how exactly the events took place and how such a grueling attack was able to be committed

without the United States being prepared. The movie takes a more romantic take on the story, but

this is to keep the average person engaged in the movie while also educating them on the attack

on Pearl Harbor. The movie has several historically inaccurate details that can give the wrong

idea of how the attack took place such as the attacks on the hospital, inaccurately timed events,

and the color of the Japanese Zeros.

The first historical inaccuracy was the attacks on the hospital. In the movie it was

portrayed that the Japanese aimed for the hospitals, but this is inaccurate (Fishel). The only

damage on the hospitals was caused from the crashing of enemy planes (Vkremer). The movie

also portrays that there were tons of deaths associated with the staff of the hospital. The only

deaths at the Pearl Harbor hospital were 26 deaths of hospital workers, 2 physicians, and 2
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dentists (Vkremer). In the movie many medical workers that the audience had grown fond of

died during the horrible attack. The deaths of these fictional characters make people assume that

many doctors and medical personnel died during the attack, but historically only a percentage of

those people were killed in the attack.

The second huge historical inaccuracy is the inaccurately timed events (Fishel). In the

movie Admiral Kimmel is standing on a golf course when the first bomb hit and he finds out

about the Japanese attack (Fishel). Historically however, this is not how Kimmel found out,

Kimmel did not know of the attack until after the attack was finished (Fishel). As seen in the

movie Kimmel expected an attack from the Japanese, but he did not expect them to attack Pearl

Harbor. Kimmel expected the attack to take place at Midway Island or Wake Island, so he and

his troops went to those islands ready to fight (History.com). The Japanese knew of Kimmel’s

suspicions and went forward with their attack (History.com). Due to Kimmel’s predictability, he

made Pearl Harbor an easy target for the Japanese (History.com). Kimmel found out after the

attack was over and blamed President Roosevelt for the attack (History.com). He truly believed

that Roosevelt knew of the attack and purposely did not warn Kimmel (History.com).

Unfortunately, Kimmel was held accountable for the horrible tragedy of Pearl Harbor and ended

up retiring shortly after (History.com).

The last major historical inaccuracy deals with the color of the Japanese Zeros. In the

movie the color of the Zeros was green, but the actual Japanese Zeros that invaded Pearl Harbor

were grey (PearlHarbor.org). The green Zero planes belonged to the Japanese army, but it was

the Japanese Imperial Navy that attacked Pearl Harbor (PearlHarbor.org). The color of the

Japanese Imperial Navy Zeros was grey so that the planes would blend in with the sky and ocean

and could not be seen (PearlHarbor.org). The grey color helped camouflage so it was
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exceedingly difficult for the United States to fight back since it was hard for them to see

Japanese planes (PearlHarbor.org). The green color portrayed in the movie would not be

practical in the sense that the Japanese wanted to conduct a surprise attack on the United States,

and they would have been seen from afar if they were green. For the Japanese to be able to pull

off such a large attack they would need to stealthily get close to the harbor.

The 2001 movie Pearl Harbor does an excellent job of giving the public an insight into

what exactly went down on December 7, 1941. The general idea of how the attack on Pearl

Harbor went down is exact and puts the audience in the point of view of a member of the

American Military during the attack. The point of view shows the low-flying planes, lots of

debris, and all the bombs and shots by the Japanese. Important historical inaccuracies however

give the audience a false idea of what things looked like or the purpose of the attacks. In the

movie it is implied that Japanese intended to take out all hospitals or care centers so they could

truly wipe out all the Americans. This however is not true, the Japanese did not aim for hospitals

at all and almost all care workers survived except for a few. The movie also portrays the way

Admiral Kimmel finds out about the war completely wrong. The movie shows Kimmel finding

out once the first bomb was dropped, however it was not until after the attack took place that

Kimmel found out. The final inaccuracy portrayed by the movie is the color of the Japanese

Zeros. In the movie the Zeros are portrayed as green, when the actual Zeros that attacked Pearl

Harbor were grey. The movie however still gives the audience a good idea of what took place

during Pearl Harbor even though it falsely portrays attacks on hospitals, gives an inaccurate time

line, and shows the wrong Japanese Zero paint scheme.

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Works Cited

Bay, Michael. Pearl Harbor. Buena Vista Pictures, 2001

“Commander at Pearl Harbor Relieved of His Duties.” History.com, A&E Television Networks,

5 Nov. 2009, www.history.com/this-day-in-history/commander-at-pearl-harbor-canned.

Fishel, Heather. The Endless Historical Errors Made in the Pearl Harbor Movie. 15 June 2017,

www.warhistoryonline.com/featured/endless-historical-errors-made-pearl-harbor-

movie.html.

“How Much of the Film Pearl Harbor Is Accurate?” Pearl Harbor Reservations How Much of

the Film Pearl Harbor Is Accurate Comments, pearlharbor.org/how-much-of-the-film-

pearl-harbor-is-accurate/.

Vkremer. “Navy Medicine at Pearl Harbor (Dec. 7, 1941).” Navy Medicine, Navy Medicine, 30

Aug. 2020, navymedicine.navylive.dodlive.mil/archives/3809.