War stories: Pearl Harbor

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Wars have provided plenty of material for the movie industry over the years, from Gallipoli to Apocalypse Now, and Reservoir Dogs to Saving Private Ryan.

The movie Pearl Harbor was a huge hit in the United States, but it has met mixed reactions in New Zealand, with some reviewers claiming it is historically inaccurate and biased.

What we know for sure was that Pearl Harbor in the island of Oahu, Hawaii was the naval base of the US Pacific Fleet in 1941.

After the outbreak of war in 1939, Japanese ambitions in Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific produced an escalating conflict with the United States.

President Roosevelt first responded to Japanese aggression in French Indochina (now Vietnam) by imposing embargoes on trade in 1940. He followed this in July 1941 with a freeze on Japanese assets in the United States, and a ban on all oil shipments to Japan.

As a result, the Japanese government began planning for war with the United States in September 1941. In November a Japanese flotilla set sail for Hawaii.

Japanese plans for victory over the United States rested on hopes of a successful first strike that would cripple the US military power in the Pacific.

In the early morning of 7 December 1941, 185 planes took off from the decks of the Japanese aircraft carriers stationed 220 miles north of Oahu. The planes were spotted around 7:30 am by two US radar operators on the northern end of Oahu who were told not to worry because it was thought that the planes must be US bombers flying in from California.

At 7.55 am on 7 December 1941 the first bomb dropped on the American Navy in Pearl Harbor. In a little over an hour, the US Pacific Fleet lost all its battleships – three permanently, and five others for months or years because of damage. Three United States destroyers, three light cruisers, and five other vessels were put out of commission. Nearly 200 American planes were destroyed, 2,403 United States soldiers, and sailors were killed and 1,178 were injured. The Japanese lost 29 planes, six submarines, and fewer than 100 men.

You could use one or more ideas as brainstorm starters for a unit planning session:

Create atmospheric or mood music to accompany a film clip or sequence of images representing the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Explore the design conventions used in wartime propaganda posters.

Use process drama to create and develop a pre-war United States, Hawaiian, or wartime Japanese community.

Devise a mime that explores the tension between Japanese and United States governments, communities or people before or during the outbreak of war.

Develop a series of freeze-frame images to highlight a key moment from World War II, such as the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Negotiate to create a Japanese or American character with a rich history. Gather and create objects to reveal aspects of the character's life.

Explain the sequence of events leading to, during, and following Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.

Create a detailed time line of events leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Analyse the influence of geographic location and geographic features on political events.

Develop your own personal time line about your family during the years 1939 – 1945, focusing on social organisation in groups, for example, how people organise themselves in response to challenge or crisis.

Visit the arts community (www.tki.org.nz/e/arts/) or the social sciences community (www.tki.org.nz/e/socialscience/) to explore these ideas further.

Suggested relevant achievement aims and objectives

Social Studies: time continuity and change
Level 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, and 8.

Drama: Developing Practical Knowledge in Drama, Developing Ideas in Drama, Communicating and Interpreting in Drama
Level 2, 3, and 5

Visual Arts: Developing Practical Knowledge in the Visual Arts; Developing Ideas in the Visual Arts; Communicating and Interpreting in the Visual Arts
Level 4

Music: Developing Practical Knowledge in Music; Developing Ideas in Music; Communicating and Interpreting in Music
Level 5

The arts curriculum (www.tki.org.nz/r/arts/curriculum/statement/contents_e.php) and the social studies curriculum (www.tki.org.nz/r/socialscience/curriculum/index_e.php) are available on TKI.

Unwrapping the arts
Learning examples for the new arts curriculum are available on TKI's unwrapping the arts pages, a part of the arts community (www.tki.org.nz/e/arts/).

NZHistory.net.nz
This site aims to be the first port of call on the web for information on New Zealand history. A "gallery" profiles particular topics or events in New Zealand's history with photographs, paintings, maps, sound and other media (www.nzhistory.net.nz/index.html).

Anne Frank House
The website of the museum of the house in Amsterdam where Anne Frank hid during World War II contains extracts from her diaries with pictures, biographical details, definitions, and FAQ related to prejudices, discrimination, racism, the persecution of Jews and concentration camps in Nazi Germany. It has suggestions for incorporating a study of Anne Frank in the classroom and provides links to organisations about Jewish history, victims of National Socialism in Germany, and right-wing extreme movements (www.annefrank.nl/).

Air
Explore the role of the RNZAF in World War II (www.airforce.mil.nz/flightplan/past/ww2.htm). The war birds' site (www.nzwarbirds.org.nz/) has information on New Zealand's military aircraft.

Navy
The New Zealand navy pages include a timeline (www.navy.mil.nz/history/history.cfm).

Pearl Harbor
This guide to Pearl Harbor includes images, ideas for lessons, and questions (http://teacher.scholastic.com/pearl/index.htm).

The movie
The Pearl Harbor movie site has great graphics (www.pearlharbor.com). A warning: you have to register to see the site.

Photos and documents
Photographs of Pearl Harbor just before the attack have been collated (http://gohawaii.about.com/travel/gohawaii/library/gallery/blpearlharborphotos.htm), and scans of original United States government documents have been collected on the web (www.thesmokinggun.com/pearlharbor/pearlharbor.shtml).

Pearl Harbor today
National Geographic has published the expedition log of a diver who went looking for the wrecked ships in Pearl Harbor (www.nationalgeographic.com/pearlharbor/expedition.html).

Timeline
The History Place has a timeline for World War II (www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/ww2time.htm).

Museum of Tolerance
The Museum of Tolerance (http://motlc.wiesenthal.org/pages/t033/t03389.html) documents the aggression leading to Pearl Harbor. The site includes resources for teachers.

Pacific War museum
The national museum of the Pacific War includes an extensive education area (www.nimitz-museum.org/).