Two military disasters in U.S. history are chronicled in Richard Fleischer and Kinji FukasakuÆs ôTora! Tora! Tora!ö and Ridley ScottÆs ôBlack Hawk Down.ö Both war genre films, the former details the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, and the latter describes the failed ôhumanitarianö mission by U.S. troops to end civil war in Somalia in October 1993. A combination of both an American and Japanese version of the events culminating on December 7, 1941, ôTora! Tora! Tora!ö provides a fairly balanced blending of the perspective of both nations. ôBlack Hawk Downö provides a largely American perspective of the events that occurred in Mogadishu. This analysis will discuss concepts of nation and citizenship as illustrated in these films, including the impact on patriotism and nationalism of films in this genre.
ôTora! Tora! Tora!ö is the synthesized product of an American and Japanese directed version of the events leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese. Because of this, the film does an accurate job of providing the perspective of both the Americans and Japanese. Hawks of war in Japan urged the attack on Pearl Harbor, while American bureaucratic ineptitude and an ôit canÆt happen hereö attitude failed to minimize the impact of the attack. The filmmakers step back from judging the event and provide a documentary-like account of events that enables viewers render their own conclusions. Vice-Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto tells celebratory naval commanders, their success at Pearl Harbor is only ôsowing the seeds for certain disasterö (Fleischer and Fukasaku 1970). The Hawks win out but YamamotoÆs words were prescient. On the American side, bureaucratic ineptitude and a cavalier attitude about Japanese determination to attack the U.S. are apparent. When a radar operator tells his superior he sees ôa large formation of planes coming in from the north,ö Lieutenant Tyler tells him, ...