Admiral Yamamoto (1968)

Another of Japan’s attempts to deal with the war somewhat realistically and still find heroes, Admiral Yamamoto is part bio-pic and part war epic, with Toshiro Mifune repeating his characterizations of the perfect Japanese Admiral, as well as marking the first of at least three portrayals of Yamamoto himself.

The movie provides a much more positive depiction of Yamamoto than most Americans had. Because of the Pearl Harbor attack, Yamamoto was the ultimate villain of WWII for Americans, more so than even Hitler, whose villainy emerged in its true shape for most Americans only after Yamamoto had died. Thus, Yamamoto became a personal target, and the flight on which he died was an intentional assassination mission from US planes, not a random casualty of war. There was reportedly much concern that the Japanese might realize this and know that their codes had been broken, but the mission was undertaken anyway, so important a target was he. Naturally, the American side of that is left out of the movie, but the Yamamoto who emerges seems to be closer to the real Yamamoto that the historical record shows. Most significantly, he is shown opposing the start of the war, which seems to match the historical record, but when put in command of the Pearl Harbor attack, he devotes himself to it completely. Much of the Pearl Harbor sequence looks like similar scenes in Storm Over the Pacific and may well have simply been borrowed to keep the budget down. The movie continues through Midway, the Guadalcanal operation, and eventually to his death when his plane was shot down.

Much time is spent on the requisite handsome young man thrown in to attract younger and female audiences, so we don’t get the laser-like focus of a Patton, for example. And he has a pretty sister, but not a pretty girlfriend as would be essential in American war films. Nevertheless, despite the general hagiography, some attempt is made to show Yamamoto the man. He is first seen doing a silly handstand in a boat on a river and falling overboard, and we see him gambling and practicing calligraphy, though we see little of his home or family life. And it shows his military mistakes as well as his successes, without trying to pass the blame for those mistakes to others. Throughout all the military scenes, Yamamoto is depicted as the Sensible One.

Overall, the movie suffers from the usual problems of naval warfare movies. We see lots of models exploding, planes flying, and water splashing, but the principal character mostly sits at a desk, in his armchair, or stands on the bridge. Interestingly, Toho decided not to use the same director as for Storm Over the Pacific, opting instead for Seiju Maruyama, whose only previous war movie was Retreat from Kiska. Maruyama had served in the Navy, which perhaps gives his shipboard scenes a greater sense of reality than we usually find, as well as underlining from experience the high regard other sailors reportedly had for Yamamoto personally. It also manages a balance between heroics and the arguments that these heroics should not have been necessary. Eiji Tsuburaya’s effects crew provide mostly high quality work given the date, though how many of these were new and how many borrowed from other Toho movies would require more comparison time than I’m willing to give. All in all, it is a better than average movie of its genre and of particular interest for how Japan was changing its views of the war years during the sixties.