Professor David Peimer
Hollywood and History: Portrayals of Pearl Harbor
Summary
In this talk David Peimer asks, how does Hollywood portray historical events, specifically Pearl Harbor? By looking at “Tora! Tora! Tora!” other movies representing the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, this talk demonstrates the creative tension between historical accuracy and artistic entertainment/licence, a fascinating debate which cannot be reduced to a naive polemic. David Peimer makes the argument that the ultimate power of both history and storytelling is that, over time, they create stories in the memory of a culture which help forge a people’s identity.
Professor David Peimer
David Peimer is a Professor of Literature, Film and Theatre in the UK. He has worked for the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, New York University (Global Division) and was a Fulbright Scholar at Columbia University. Born in South Africa, David has won numerous awards for playwriting and directing in New York, UK, Berlin, EU Parliament (Brussels), Athens, Budapest, Zululand and more. He has most recently directed Dame Janet Suzman in his own play, Joanna’s Story, at London Jewish Book Week. He has published widely with books including: Armed Response: Plays from South Africa, the digital book, Theatre in the Camps. He is on the board of the Pinter Centre (London), and has been involved with the Mandela Foundation, Vaclav Havel Foundation and directed a range of plays at Mr Havel’s Prague theatre.
I think Roosevelt certainly was trying to help Churchill, was certainly trying to help the British, and I think he certainly understood history. And I think he certainly knew that if Hitler overran the English, then the British, and of course, who’s next? He’s not going to stop there. I don’t think there was naivety. So whether it was a good excuse for the isolationist America to enter, because of course, as we all know, the isolation movement was very strong, obviously incredibly strong at the time. I haven’t read any absolute definitive evidence that he was using it as a good excuse to get in or waiting.
Yes, it was the first major film dealt with Pearl Harbour, but I wanted to focus on Tora! Tora! Tora! because, I think it’s a really good film because of everything I’ve spoken about today, that integration. I think those scenes are so crucial to remembering and how to create memory visually in seven, eight decades later.
Tora! Tora! Tora!, it tries, yes, to get inside the Japanese thinking. ‘Cause Japanese writers and Japanese actors and directors made those sections of the film. The films show the idea that they become an epic when the ideas are epic. We get the way of thinking of the Japanese mindset at the time and the American. So whether it’s right or wrong, that’s what we get in the film. And I think that’s an amazing thing, a fantastic thing that a film can achieve.