The Japanese attack on the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor on Sunday 7 December 1941 literally came out of a bright blue sky. There were a few cameramen on the island of Oahu that day, but they became involved in saving themselves or their ships as the Japanese bombs and torpedoes fell.
One cameraman on board USS Argonne was able to shoot half a reel of film (about five minutes of material) during the second-wave attack. It included spectacular shots of USS Shaw exploding. This and the iconic footage – captured by a doctor trying out a new camera – of the USS Arizona blowing up were nearly all that was recorded of the attack as it happened.
The recriminations about who was to blame and why the base had not been on a higher state of alert despite warnings began almost as the last Japanese planes flew away. So in January, the US Navy decided to quickly make a short propaganda film in order to boost American morale. The brief was to ignore questions of blame and instead focus on the rapid salvage and recovery operation of the damaged battleships.
