The last thing on anyone's mind seemed to be the monstrous behaviour of the Japanese in the Pacific. Out of deference to its Japanese audience, the film played down any question of guilt to the point of invisibility. Instead of the familiar malevolently grinning faces in the cockpits of swooping planes, there were deftly placed excuses for the Japanese carrying out this most infamous attack. Even as he launched his sneak assault without going through the formality of declaring war, the Japanese admiral was shown lamenting the need to resort to armed conflict.
Historical inaccuracy is the least of it.
But the Japanese forces did behave like beasts, and anyone with the stomach for a little reality about their record in the war should give Pearl Harbor a miss and watch a new series coming up on Channel 4, Hell in the Pacific. All this is coolly and objectively portrayed, in the best broadcasting traditions, which of course doubles its force. Sometimes there was a strange incredulity in their voices, as if they could still not really believe the atrocities they had personally experienced or seen. And of course atrocities are contagious. Faced with an enemy whose troops had been taught that they must die rather than fall into captivity, and that prisoners of war in their hands were dishonourable men who could be treated as non-humans, the allies too often abandoned the inconvenience of taking prisoners.