Media Portrayals
Since the end of the Second World War, a number of Japanese and American films have depicted the character of Isoroku Yamamoto.
One of the most notable films is the 1970 movie Tora! Tora! Tora!, with stars Japanese actor Sô Yamamura as Yamamoto, who states after the attack on Pearl Harbor:
I fear that all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve. —attributed to Yamamoto in Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970), in reference to the attack on Pearl Harbor.There is no evidence that Yamamoto said this in reality despite the film calling it a quote. (See Isoroku Yamamoto's sleeping giant quote for further discussion.)
The first film to feature Yamamoto was Toho's 1953 film Taiheiyô no washi, (later released in the United States as Eagle of the Pacific), in which Yamamoto was portrayed by Denjirô Ôkôchi.
The 1960 film The Gallant Hours depicts the battle of wits between Vice-Admiral William Halsey, Jr. and Yamamoto from the start of the Guadalcanal Campaign in August 1942 to Yamamoto's death in April 1943.
In Daiei Studios's 1969 film Aa, kaigun (later released in the United States as Gateway to Glory), Yamamoto was portrayed by Shôgo Shimada.
Award-winning Japanese actor Toshirô Mifune (star of The Seven Samurai) would portray Yamamoto in three films:
- Rengo kantai shirei chôkan: Yamamoto Isoroku (1968) (later released in Canada and United States as Admiral Yamamoto),
- Gekido no showashi 'Gunbatsu' (1970) (lit. "Turning Point of Showa History: The Militarists"), and
- Midway (1976) (where all of the Japanese scenes had English dialogue).
In Shūe Matsubayashi's 1981 film Rengō kantai (lit. "Combined Fleet", later released in the United States as The Imperial Navy), Yamamoto was portrayed by Keiju Kobayashi.
In the 2001 film Pearl Harbor, a Jerry Bruckheimer-produced epic, Yamamoto was portrayed by Oscar-nominated Japanese-born American actor Mako Iwamatsu. Like Tora! Tora! Tora!, this film also features the sleeping giant quote.
The most recent film to feature Yamamoto is Toei's 2011 war film Rengō kantai shirei chōkan Yamamoto Isoroku (聯合艦隊司令長官 山本五十六), in which Yamamoto was portrayed by Kōji Yakusho.
Read more about this topic: Isoroku Yamamoto
Famous quotes containing the words media and/or portrayals:
“The corporate grip on opinion in the United States is one of the wonders of the Western World. No First World country has ever managed to eliminate so entirely from its media all objectivity—much less dissent.”
—Gore Vidal (b. 1925)
“We attempt to remember our collective American childhood, the way it was, but what we often remember is a combination of real past, pieces reshaped by bitterness and love, and, of course, the video past—the portrayals of family life on such television programs as “Leave it to Beaver” and “Father Knows Best” and all the rest.”
—Richard Louv (20th century)