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The film largely portrays the background to the attack on Pearl Harbor very accurately. Tensions had been rising between America and Japan for many years. During WWI, the Japanese and the Americans had been allies. However, when Japan invaded Manchuria in China in 1931 the American government and public were outraged<ref> Clarke, Thurston. Pearl Harbor Ghosts: The Legacy of December 7, 1941. New York: Ballantine Publishing Group, 2001.p. 78</ref>. The relationship between Tokyo and the US deteriorated over the years, especially after the Japanese signed a treaty with Italy and Nazi Germany. The movie clearly shows how poor the relationship between the Americans and Japanese had become by 1941. This was after the Japanese army had occupied most of Indochina then a French colony with the agreement of the Vichy French governor. In response to this, the Americans had placed economic sanctions on Japan especially on the export of oil. This was intended to slow the Japanese war machine in China as the Japanese did not have their own supplies of oil. This led to the Japanese militarists drawing up a plan to attack the American naval base in Hawaii. The atmosphere of mistrust between the two nations is brilliantly portrayed. On December 6, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt did appeal to the Japanese government for a peaceful resolution of the escalating crisis in the Pacific and he received no response. FDR was opposed to the Axis powers but he did not want to enter the war and wanted to maintain US neutrality. The Americans were very concerned about the possibility of a Japanese attack. This is all shown in the motion picture. The movie also makes clear that the US believed that its Pacific fleet was safe in Pearl Harbor. The movie correctly how the US naval command failed to anticipate a Japanese aerial assault on Pearl Harbor. The movie also shows how the Americans became aware of a Japanese plot to attack Pearl Harbor after they had decoded some of coded messages. The movie shows the intelligence services messaging the US Navy in Pearl Harbor but that they failed to reach those in command. This actually happened and if the US intelligence services message had been relayed to Pearl Harbor in time then they could have defended themselves and denied the Japanese the element of surprise which was so important in their attack <ref>Clausen, Henry C., and Bruce Lee. Pearl Harbor: Final Judgment. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1992, p. 112</ref>. [[File: ToraToraTora1970.png|200px|thumb|left|Poster of the movie]]