Because not everyone feels that historical inaccuracies are goofs per se, and as such, have no place in the goofs section, the FAQ page seems to provide a good neutral place where such inaccuracies can be recorded, as well as reasons hypothesized as to how or why these inaccuracies may have occurred.
- The scenes early in the film are dated 1923, yet Danny's father (William Fichtner) is a crop duster, an occupation which didn't exist until after the war. In addition, the plane he is seen flying (a Model 75 Kaydet) wasn't produced until 1934, and wasn't available to the public until after the war. This error seems most likely to have come about due to careless historical research and/or careless writing on the part of Randall Wallace.
- Mitchell Field is mis-spelt in the film. In reality, it is spelt Mitchel Field (with only one 'l'), after former New York City Mayor John Purroy Mitchel. This error is difficult to attribute to any cause other than simple carelessness on the part of the art department.
- One of the first plot points in the film is that Rafe McCawley (Ben Affleck) has volunteered to join an RAF Eagle Squadron. In reality however, this could not happen. Until December 7, 1941, active duty US military personnel can not serve with a belligerent nation whilst the US was neutral. In reality, McCawley would have had to resign from the US Army Air Corp and re-enlist into the RAF. It seems likely that historical advisor (former Navy SEAL Harry Humphries) would have noticed this error, and pointed it out to the filmmakers, and as such, it almost certainly came about due to the demands of the narrative; McCawley's hasty departure for England furthers the plot at home, and opens the way for the introduction of the love triangle.
- When Rafe first meets Evelyn Johnson (Kate Beckinsale), she is assessing whether or not he is fit to fly. However, as many historians, critics and military personal have pointed out, at no time during the war (or before or since) did nurses in the U.S. Navy Nurse Corp assess whether pilot candidates in the U.S. Army Air Corps could fly. The Navy Nurse Corp and the Army Air Corp have no connection whatsoever. Again, it seems unlikely that Humphries could have missed this glaring error, and as such, this particular inaccuracy is once more most likely the result of narrative expediency, as it allowed for a scene where the male lead (a US Army Air Corp pilot) could emotionally connect with the female lead (a US Navy Nurse Corp nurse).
- In a scene early in the movie, Rafe and Evelyn use a winch to raise themselves up alongside the RMS Queen Mary, which is clearly seen in its original Cunard colors. However, in 1939 the Queen Mary had been painted battleship gray in preparation for it being fitted out to serve as a troop carrier for the Royal Navy. As such, the scene (set in mid-1941) should have depicted the ship with its gray colors rather than Cunard colors. This mistake seems likely to have occurred due either to a lack of research or a mistake on the part of the art department.
- The USS West Virgina (the ship on which the boxing match takes place) had a 4x2 gun configuration. In the film it is shown as having a 3x3 configuration. The practical explanation for this error is that a retired Iowa-class battleship was used to represent the West Virginia for the scene; Iowa-class battleships have a 3x3 configuration. Obviously, the filmmakers didn't deem it important enough a detail to warrant correcting the error with CG work during post-production.
- Dorie Miller (Cuba Gooding Jr.) is shown as a petty officer second class. Miller was a petty officer third class at the time of the attack. This error is difficult to attribute to anything other than a lack of adequate research.
- During Dorie Miller's boxing match, a sailor can be seen betting with a $5 bill with the "Hawaii" overprint on it. This was a special World War II currency with the word 'Hawaii' overprinted on the front and back, and the serial numbers and seal changed from green to brown. This was done so that the currency could be declared worthless if there was a Japanese invasion. Although series 1934 and 1934-A $5 bills were printed with the "Hawaii" overprint, these notes were not issued until July 1942, seven months after the attack on Pearl Harbor. This error most likely arose due to lack of adequate historical research on the part of the art department.
- In a scene in England, a spitfire with a four-blade Rotol propeller can be seen. All Spitfires c1941 had three-blade constant pitch propellers. The Rotol propeller wasn't introduced onto the Spitfire XI until 1943. This error was most likely caused by lack of adequate research.
- Nurse Betty Bayer (Jaime King) claims to be 17 years old, saying she lied about her age to be accepted into the Navy Nurse Corps. However, Navy Nurses were required to be registered nurses to join the Navy Nurse Corps, which meant three years of prior training as well as passing a state board examination. As such, Betty would have had to have become a nurse at age 14 for her age of 17 to ring true. This mistake, which exists in Randall Wallace's screenplay, seems likely to have occurred due simply to a lack of adequate research on Wallace's part.
- In the film, Admiral Husband E. Kimmel (Colm Feore) is portrayed as a vigilant leader certain of an immanent attack on his base, and doing everything in his power to try to convince Washington of its inevitability. In reality however, most historians tell us that Kimmel received several warnings about a possible attack on Pearl Harbor, but felt they were too vague and chose to dismiss them. This, however, is a subjective matter, but where the film is specifically factually wrong as regards Kimmel is in terms of his reaction to the news that the USS Ward has just sunk a Japanese midget sub. Kimmel did receive this report about an hour before the Japanese planes arrived (as is accurately portrayed in the film), but he chose not to go to general quarters due to the fact that there had been a number of false sub sightings in recent months, and he wanted to confirm the Ward's report before acting on it (which is not how he reacts in the movie). The depiction of Kimmel in the movie is not strictly an 'inaccuracy' insofar as both director Michael Bay and actor Ben Affleck acknowledge on their respective DVD commentaries that the film is part of an ongoing attempt to reevaluate Kimmel's role in the attack, and to vindicate him as being almost wholly responsible for it. As such, the portrayal of Kimmel, although it doesn't tally completely with how history depicts him, was a conscious choice by the filmmakers so as to make an ideological point, not an error born of poor research.
- In 1941, all Japanese was written from right to left, but all of the Japanese characters in the movie are written from left to right, except one phrase, which says, "Empire of Japan banzai". See here for more information. This errors seems likely to have come about due to careless research.
- The Japanese aircraft carrier IJN Akagi has modern catapults and an angled metal deck in the film. Such innovations were not introduced on Japanese aircraft carriers until the mid-1950s. This error most likely came about because American carriers were used to depict the Japanese carriers, as nearly all Japanese carriers were destroyed during the war. Again, this mistake may have been left in the film because the filmmakers deemed it too minor to worry about, or it may simply have slipped them by due to a lack of adequate research or carelessness.
- The Japanese Zeros in the film are painted dark green, but in reality, Japanese Navy Zero fighters were painted light grey in 1941. They weren't painted green until 1943. This also seems likely due to lack of research or carelessness.
- As is accurately shown in the film, the Japanese aircraft carriers took up a position just north of Hawaii, with the attack launching early in the morning. However, the sunrise in the east would have caused the planes to be lit from the left side, not the right side, as is shown in the film. This mistake probably occurred quite simply because nobody noticed; and in the grand scheme of things, it is a fairly minor point.
- In the film, Admiral Kimmel is shown receiving the message which revealed that the Japanese government had ordered the destruction of all coding equipment. In reality, this message was never communicated to Kimmel. This mistake is most likely based upon the demands of the narrative, as Kimmel's receipt of this communication heightens the drama in the moments prior to the attack.
- In the film, the USS Arizona is hit by a high altitude bomb almost immediately after the appearance of the Japanese Zeroes. In reality, it was about 20 minutes into the battle before the Arizona was hit and exploded. Obviously, the filmmakers would have known this, as the chronology of the battle is well established, and as such, this error can also be attributed to dramatic effect - having the Arizona hit so early in the battle raises the stakes for the rest of the conflict.
- Throughout the attack sequence, the USS Oklahoma continually changes position from shot to shot, not only creating historical inaccuracies, but also internal continuity problems within the film. When the Oklahoma is shown capsizing, in some scenes she is correctly moored next to the USS Maryland, but in others she is next to the Arizona, whilst in others, she is surrounded by fog with no ships anywhere near her. When Admiral Kimmel is touring the destruction after the attack, the Oklahoma is seen next to the Arizona (which is historically inaccurate), and other battleships seem to have been placed in a random clutter next to one another, without any relationship at all to their actual positioning in real life. The geography of the attack has been well established by historians - there is no mystery as to where each ship was when the bombing started, and as such, it seems this error has most likely come about due to carelessness on the part of the filmmakers.
- At one point during the battle, Danny Walker (Josh Hartnett) says "I think World War II just started." This makes little sense for a number of reasons. Firstly, in 1941, World War I was still called The Great War; it wasn't officially called World War I until 1948, so the term 'World War II' had no meaning at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack. In addition, his assessment that World War II began with Pearl Harbor is inaccurate. American involvement began with the attacks, but the European portion of the war had been going on since 1939, when Germany invaded Poland. This error seems attributable simply to careless writing on the part of Randall Wallace.
- Perhaps the most controversial alteration to historical reality is how the film uses the real life personages of 2nd Lt. George Welch and 2nd Lt. Kenneth M. Taylor. The characters of Rafe McCawley and Danny Walker are loosely based on Welsh and Taylor, but a great deal of the details of their real exploits during the battle has been changed. In reality, Welsh and Taylor did race in a Buick to Wheeler Airfield (as do McCawley and Walker in the film), and they were the first two pilots off the ground during the attack (as are McCawley and Walker in the film). Between them, Welch and Taylor claimed at least six of the 29 Japanese aircraft lost during the Pearl Harbor attack (McCawley and Walker claim four each). However, this is where the similarities end. Welsh and Taylor were not involved in a love triangle and did not go on the Doolittle Raid. Upon the release of the movie, many Pearl Harbor historians took umbrage with this casual use of real people, criticizing the fact that the film makes no direct reference to the very real heroics of either Welsh or Taylor, but instead uses two fictional characters as replacements for the real people. Historians (and critics) particularly attacked the filmmakers for grafting an entirely fictional love story onto proceedings. Indeed, some argued that the role of Welch and Taylor in the real events was actually trivialized by the addition of the love-triangle subplot ("the memory of these two real-life heroes was obliterated for the sake of a sappy fictional romantic triangle, and their actions distorted into juvenile cartoon-like antics" - Hollywood Abominations). Allegedly, Taylor himself called the film "a piece of trash; over-sensationalized and completely distorted." See these two links for more information on the Taylor and Welsh debate: Washington Post; Hollywood Abominations (it is worth noting however, that this second site makes a number of errors itself, for example it criticizes the film for using all CG planes in the dogfighting sequences - this is inaccurate, the production had six real P-40s for the duration of the shoot).
- According to Rafe, the American P-40s can't outrun the Japanese Zeros, so they had to outfly them. Both of these claims are inaccurate. The P-40 can outrun a Zero with ease, but a Zero is much more manoeuvrable than a P-40. This error seems to have come about due simply to careless writing and/or poor historical research.
- Dorie Miller's actions during the battle are not entirely historically accurate. In the film, Miller comforts Captain Mervyn S. Bennion (Peter Firth) as he dies, and then delivers Bennion's last orders to the XO, before manning a .50 caliber machine gun and shooting down a Japanese Zero. In reality, Miller carried the fatally wounded Bennion off the bridge to a safer location, and Bennion continued to direct the battle until he died of his wounds just minutes before the West Virginia was abandoned. Miller never communicated anything from Bennion to the XO. In addition, although Miller did man an anti-aircraft gun on which he wasn't trained, he had no confirmed kills, although he did have three probables. Director Michael Bay acknowledges on his DVD commentary track that Miller's actions were altered slightly simply for the sake of the narrative; it was more dramatic to have him comfort the dying Captain and then deliver his final order.
- Dorie Miller is shown firing a twin Browning M2 air-cooled .50 caliber machine gun. The .50 caliber guns on the West Virginia were water-cooled, not air cooled. This mistake seems most likely to have arisen due simply to lack of adequate historical research.
- Upon hearing of the attack, President Franklin D. Roosevelt (Jon Voight) laments that the attack occurred "with our entire fleet at anchor". This creates an interesting internal error within the movie itself. In reality, the aircraft carriers (which were the real target of the attack) were not at Pearl Harbor on December 7, and as such the 'entire fleet' was not at anchor. However, this point is actually confirmed within the film itself by Admiral Chester W. Nimitz (Graham Beckel), when he points out to Roosevelt that any direct attack on Japan would put the aircraft carriers at risk, thus illustrating that the carriers survived the attack. Due to the error itself being created within the dialogue of the film, this mistake can be attributed to a simple continuity glitch in the writing.
- The scene where Roosevelt demands that the Army and Navy find a way to strike back at Japan but is told by Admiral Nimitz and General George Marshall (Scott Wilson) that such an attack is impossible is entirely fictitious, no such scene ever took place, and in reality, Nimitz and Marshall were as much advocates of striking back directly at Japan as was Roosevelt himself. The much ridiculed scene where the polio-crippled Roosevelt miraculously stands up is also completely fabricated. Without braces on his legs, Roosevelt could barely stand, much less, walk. Obviously, this scene was created to make the character portrayed by Jon Voight seem strong and determined in the face of opposition and thus serves a narrative function.
- After the attack, Danny and Rafe board a C-47 Skytrain to take them to their destination for the Doolittle Raid. The C-47 has a radar dome mounted in the nose, but this type of C-47 did not exist at that time. This is another error that is difficult to attribute to anything other than poor conducted research.
- Next to the Welsh and Taylor debate, the most controversial aspect of the film is the depiction of the Doolittle Raid, which many historians have dismissed as pure fabrication. Whilst the film is actually accurate in many of the details of the Raid (see 'Historical Accuracies' section below), it does get some aspects wrong. One that has attracted a great deal of criticism is the composition of the Raiders themselves. In the film, Lt. Col. James Doolittle (Alec Baldwin) recruits Capt. Rafe McCawley, Capt. Danny Walker, Lt. Red Winkle (Ewen Bremner) and Lt. Gooz Wood (Michael Shannon) to fly on the Raid. However these four men are single-engined fighter pilots who would not have been qualified to fly multi-engined bombers (such as the B-25 Mitchell). In reality, the Doolittle Raiders all came from the 17th Bombardment Group (Medium) from South Carolina. No one participated in both the Pearl Harbor attack and the Doolittle Raid. As with many of the errors listed here, this mistake was most likely noted by the filmmakers and consciously altered for the expediency of the narrative. Obviously, the climactic scene in the film needed to feature the protagonists of the story, and as such, history had to be altered in some way.
- During the Doolittle Raid, the Raiders are shown flying in formation from the carrier towards Japan, but in actuality, each B-25 flew by itself, with several minutes between each takeoff. Again, this error can be attributed to the demands of storytelling, having the planes all leave together simply makes for a more dramatic narrative.
- During the Doolittle Raid, the pilots' radio transmissions can be heard in Pearl Harbor. From such a distance, this would have been impossible in 1942. Again, this is all about creating tension and heightening the drama.
- At the end of the film, Evelyn and several other nurses are seen receiving the Purple Heart. Evelyn was not wounded in the movie, and the Purple Heart is only awarded to those who have died or been wounded. This is a strange mistake. Obviously, military consultant Harry Humphries would have known that the Purple Heart is not awarded to people who aren't injured, so it is possible that the filmmakers decided to ignore this discrepancy, and for the good of the scene, simply have Evelyn receive the same medals as the other characters.
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