GEORGE F. LEE, STAR-BULLETIN
"Pearl Harbor" actors Kate Beckinsale and Ben Affleck posed
for the cameras last night as they came down the red carpet to
board the USS John C. Stennis for the premiere.

‘Pearl Harbor’
left an impression

The film which premiered here
gets high marks for special
effects and accuracy

All hands on deck for movie

---

By Gregg K. Kakesako
Star-Bulletin

NIX THE LOVE STORY and the $140 million Disney production of the 1941 Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor and the U.S. retaliatory raid on Tokyo three months later is a winner.

At least that is what survivors and others attending last night's gala world premiere of the movie "Pearl Harbor" on the flight deck of a billion-dollar nuclear aircraft carrier say of Disney's version of the devastating sneak attack on the Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor

Ed Chappell, national president of the Pearl Harbors Survivors Association, said he viewed the Jerry Bruckheimer-Michael Bay movie with "mixed feelings."

"I wouldn't like to see it twice," said Chappell, 77, who was a crewman on the USS Maryland during the Dec. 7 attack.

"You have to realize that it is a love story and I am not into love stories," said Chappell, who now lives in Lake Havasu, Ariz.

But Dr. Rodney West, who worked at Straub Clinic as an obsterics-gynocology specialist after the war, still believes the Disney movie is worth attending.

"The special effects are worth seeing," said West, 90, who was stationed on Ford Island on Dec. 7, 1941.

Retired Navy Capt. Demetrius Vellis, 84, said the movie was "basically accurate."

"I was impressed with the special effects," said the Aina Haina resident, who was on the destroyer USS Dale on the day of the attack.

Tom Griffin, 84, was one of 80 airmen who repaid the Japanese with a B-25 raid on Tokyo three months after the Pearl Harbor attack.

"We ran out of gas and were forced to bail out over China," said Griffin.

GEORGE F. LEE, STAR-BULLETIN
Pearl Harbor survivor George Brown arrived for the premiere.

Three of the five crewmen in his B-25 Mitchell bomber were held for a day as prisoners by the Chinese until they learned of Dolittle's raid on Tokyo.

"They (Disney) did a good job under the circumstances," said Griffin referring to the closing scenes of Disney's production of "Pearl Harbor" which depicts Lt. Col. Jimmy Dolittle's bombing mission on Tokyo.

But Griffin said he liked "30 Seconds Over Tokyo" -- a Van Johnson movie shot in the 1950s -- a lot better.

Seventeen of the 25 survivors of Dolittle's Raiders attended last night's premiere at Pearl Harbor which was the first time a Navy carrier was converted into a Hollywood soiree complete with a nearly 25-minute fireworks show and an impromptu rendition of "Mustang Sally" and "Let the Good Times Roll" by Pearl Harbor stars Dan Aykroyd and Tom Sizemore.

State Education Superintendent of Education Paul LeMahieu said Disney "stuck to the basics."

He acknowledged that the movie had a challenge.

"It was a tough thing to build around since it is something everyone knows the ending. I think they did a good job."

Both Gov. Ben Cayetano and Robert Fishman, chief executive officer of the Hawaii Tourism Authority, loved the movie for nearly the same reasons -- the economic impact it will have on Hawaii.

"The premiere and the movie brought exposure to the state that we could never buy," said Cayetano.

"It's impossible to calculate the economic impact both the movie and the premiere has had," Fishman added. "The national exposure on television we have been getting this past week has been outstanding."

Besides the economic benefit, Cayetano added that the Disney production also is "great for the military and for the generation that doesn't know about the attack."

Adm. Dennis Blair, commander of all military forces in the Pacific theater, agreed.

He said the Disney film not only emphasizes individualism heroism, but also "the resilience of America, which three months after Pearl Harbor, responded with the raid on Tokyo and then three months later with the battle at Midway -- the turning point in the Pacific War."

Even in the darkest moments of Pearl Harbor, Blair said the movie revealed what he described as "heroism in defeat."

"There were scenes of a soldier firing a shotgun at Japanese fighters at Pearl Harbor," Blair said, "even though he knew he couldn't hit anything. It was that spirit of not giving up,"

"There also was the realism not only of heroism," Blair added, "but the horror of battle."