Memorable quotes for
Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970) More at IMDbPro »

[last lines]
Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto: I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve. The Admiral quoted an old Samurai maxium, "Nekubi o kaite wa ikenai"
["It does not do to slit the throat of a sleeping man."]

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[after seeing one of his pilots miss a practice bombing target]
Admiral William F. Halsey: Well, you can tell Lt. Dickinson from me, he couldn't hit a bull in the butt with a bass fiddle.

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General Short: [hearing that an important military spot is off limits due to concern for wildlife] Wildlife Preservation Society!

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[Telephone conversation from the radar station to the Information Center]
Pvt. Elliot: Sir, this is Private Elliot at Opana Point. There's a large formation of planes coming in from the north - 140 miles, 3 degrees east.
Lt. Tyler: Yeah? Well... Don't worry about it.
[Click!]

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Cordell Hull: In all my fifty years of public service, I have never seen a document so crowded with infamous distortions, on a scale so huge that I never imagined that any government on this planet was capable of uttering them.
Ambassador Nomura: [pleading] Mr. Hull...
Cordell Hull: [wearily] Go!

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Lieutenant Kaminsky: [to Captain John Earle, who demanded confirmation of the attack before doing anything] You wanted confirmation, Captain? Take a look! There's your confirmation!
[Earle, horrified, looks out and sees several ships in flames]

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Frank Knox: [reading a report of the attack] Oh, no, no, this can't be right; they must mean the Philippines!
Admiral Stark: No, sir. It's Pearl!
Frank Knox: [to his aide] Get me the White House, the direct line!

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Admiral Kimmel: It looks good on paper, but for God's sake... that's not a paper fleet sitting out there.

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Major Truman Landon: What a way to fly into a war... unarmed and outta gas. Oboe leader to oboe flight... we've flown smack into the middle of a war... get out as fast as you can, anywhere you can. If you can't make Hickam try Bellows or Wheeler.

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Air traffic controller: Tower to B-17, there's a Jap on your tail. Juice yer engines and get outta here!

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Admiral Kimmel: [after a spent bullet breaks through the window hitting him with no injury] It would have been merciful had it killed me.

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Colonel Rufus G. Bratton: [rushing in with a message warning about a possible attack] Ed, here's a message; I need this typed up immediately!
Colonel Edward F. French: [in no hurry whatsoever] R-i-ight.
[he studies the paper]
Colonel Edward F. French: Umm... the General's handwriting - hard to read. You're going to have to help me out with this, Rufus.
[looking nervously at French, Bratton takes the paper from French and sits down at a typewriter, rolling paper in as if to begin typing the handwritten message]

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Major Truman Landon: [upon seeing the sky over Oahu full of planes] What the hell kind of traffic control is this?

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Major Truman Landon: [trying to land amid heavy friendly flak] Tell those damn fools to stop shooting at us, we're Americans!

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Commander Minoru Genda: It's the Nevada, she's making a run for the sea. If we sink her in the channel, the harbor will be blocked for months.

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Captain John Earle: [Captain John Earle receives a phone call from Kaminsky about a submarine sunk in the harbor] Confirmation, Kaminsky. I want confirmation.

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Lt. Cmdr. Fuchida: No, you idiot!
Lt. Cmdr. Fuchida: It's your own flagship!

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Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto: Finally, gentlemen... many misinformed Japanese believe that America is a nation divided... isolationist... and that Americans are only interested in enjoying a life of luxury, and are spiritually and morally corrupt. But that is a great mistake. If war becomes inevitable, America would be the most formidable foe that we have ever fought. I've lived in Washington and studied at Harvard, so I know that the Americans are a proud and just people.

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Lt. Cmdr. Fuchida: Exceptional people get exceptional treatment!
Japanese Pilot: You outrank me, so it must be true.

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