Taiheiyo no washi

太平洋の鷲 movie poster.

Movie (1953)
Japanese title :
太平洋の鷲
English title : Eagle of the Pacific or Operation Kamikaze

Starring:
Denjirō Ōkōchi / 大河内傳次郎 (Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto / 山本五十六)
Hiroshi Nihonyanagi (Commander Furukawa)
Eijirô Yanagi (Admiral Mitsumasa Yonai)
Minoru Takada (Prince Fumimaro Konoe)

Events from the eve of the Pearl Harbor attack and the death of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto (18 April 1943), focusing on the admiral's point of view about the Tripartite Pact and the American industrial power.
Please, read the Discussion tab for a few thoughts on the sequences in which the aircraft appear and the special features of this page.

Nakajima Ki-43

Take off.

Archive footage.

Matte painting

Nakajima Ki-43-III 64th Sentai (Group) 1st or 3rd Chūtai (Squadron).

@ 1h15.

Aichi E13A

Yokosuka K4Y

Just over 200 of this single engined two-seat biplane were built between 1933 and 1940, serving as the Imperial Japanese Navy's basic floatplane trainer.

Nakajima B6N Tenzan

The B6N Tenzan began reaching front-line units in August 1943 and so could not be used months before the Pearl Harbor attack during training as shown during this action.

Torpedo away !

Still anachronistic at the time of Midway (June 1942).

@ 1h30.

Nakajima B5N

@ 57 minutes.

Aircraft of the 20th attack bomber of the Kure Naval Air Corps.

Mitsubishi A6M Zero

Mitshubishi A6M2 type21 ZERO, Shōkaku aircraft carrier, 7 December 1941.

Mitsubishi A6M5 filmed on the Zuiho aircraft carrier on 24 october 1944 ... long after the 7 December 1941 !

AI-158, A6M2 of Masao Taniguchi taking off from the Akagi with the first wave.

Another Mitsubishi A6M5, still anachronistic for the Rabaul fightings (seen at 1h41).

Mitsubishi G4M

Night attack on the US fleet known as 'The Betty attack' although the action was carried out with Nakajima B5Ns, one of them crashing on a US battle ship (the real attack by G4Ms was on daylight).

Kaga & Nakajima B5N

Nakajima B5N on the deck of the Japanese aircraft carrier Kaga sunk by US dive bombers during the Battle of Midway, 4 June 1942.

Aichi D3A

Archive footage of the Pearl Harbor raid.

Same aircraft in other movies at Frequently Seen Aircraft (Military Fixed-Wing).

A model used for the bombing scene.

Consolidated PBY Catalina

Japanese footage filmed during the bombing of the Ford Island (7 December 1941).

Same footage in other movies at Frequently Seen Aircraft (Military Fixed-Wing).

Another one seen twenty minutes later (during the Battle of Midway).

North American B-25 Mitchell

Shape to evoke the air raid on Tokyo on 18 April 1942.

Boeing B-29 Superfortress

... but clusters of bombs emerge from the bays of a B-29, which would not bomb Japan until 2 years later.

Brewster B-339

The Brewster B-339 (or Brewster Buffalo Mk I for the RAF) was the de-navalized F2A-1.

Thirty minutes later, at 1h43.

Hawker Hurricane

Hawker Hurricane & Brewster B-339

Mitsubishi G3M

This cockpit view could be from a Mitsubishi G3M or a Mitsubishi G4M ...

Nakajima B5N (models)

Full-scale replicas were used for the key moment of the Battle of Midway and for close-ups of certain characters. All these replicas ended up in pieces, as small explosions used by the special effects team simulated the devastating dive-bombing of the US Navy.

At least one scale model was used in this scene showing how the lift works :

Aichi E13A

A matte painting Aichi E13A (with lot of errors) seen at 1h18.

Douglas C-47 Skytrain

Curtiss P-40E Warhawk

One of the few Curtiss P-40Es seized by the Japanese during the first weeks of 1942. They received Japanese markings but one was painted again with US roundel in order to be shot for a propaganda movie. This footage seems from this Japanese movie.