Made just 8 years after the surrender of Japan in World War II, Eagle of the Pacific (aka Taiheiyo no washi) (1953) is a dramatization of the life of Commander of the Imperial Navy, Admiral Yamamoto. It is essentially told in 3 parts beginning with Yamamoto's opposition to Japan's entry into the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy due to his belief that this would ultimately lead to a war with the US that Japan could logistically never win. Once war is inevitable he goes all in for the cause and the next portion is the attack on Pearl Harbor, followed finally by the story of the rout at Midway and the road to the end of the line.
Directed by Ishiro Honda, destined for bigger things in the following year with Godzilla, the film is clearly treading a fine line in how it depicts the war. Opening with a thanks to the US military for providing stock footage the specter of not offending the US does seem to pervade many scenes but it also specifically states that it is operating from a basis of truth and for the most part it does seem that it gets enough right to let any minor historical inaccuracies slide, although the shots of P-40s being used in the sea battles of the Pacific may test the patience of aviation nerds.
Starring Kurosawa veteran Denjiro Okochi as Yamamoto, two other regulars also have small scenes with Takashi Shimura in a blink-and-you-miss-it segment and Toshiro Mifune as a torpedo plane pilot who is an early adopter of the kamikaze lifestyle. Honda uses a mix of combat footage, clever matte work and, of course, his beloved models to great effect, particularly in a shot of attack planes flying through a Hawaiian valley. While there are many (and I mean many) scenes of guys standing or sitting around some sort of table describing the action it did not bore and I found it fascinating from a historical perspective. It turns out that trusting rabid political and military nutjobs was not a prudent thing to do for Japan, there might be lessons in that yet.
