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Now Garrison was among the pilots flying off the Yorktown, which had been hit by a Japanese bomb during the real war and was playing a supporting role as the Akagi, the attack force’s flagship. His partner had died during preproduction, one of two Tora! deaths. Lynn Garrison, a retired Canadian Air Force pilot, was one of two plane wranglers responsible for building the air fleet. The aircraft rolling down the Yorktown’s deck were World War II–era American and Canadian trainers modified to look like Japanese carrier planes- Zero fighters, “Kate” torpedo bombers, and “Val” dive-bombers. (Santi Visalli, Ron Galella/Getty Images)

Akira Kurosawa, the renowned Japanese filmmaker. It would premiere two years later, in 1970, after numerous false starts, delays, scandals, deaths, and ruined careers-even a threat of suicide-and it would be, for its day, one of the most complex, expensive, and seemingly cursed films ever made.

Panavision cameras captured it all, because the Yorktown was a movie set-a gigantic 36,000-ton movie set steaming in the Pacific-and this was the first day of shooting for a film unique in the annals of war movies: Tora! Tora! Tora! Twentieth Century Fox was making it to tell the story of the planning and execution of the bombing of Pearl Harbor from both the American and Japanese sides. Up they went, one after another, the roar of their radial engines deafening. Beneath the black horizon line only their glowing exhaust pipes and navigation lights were visible, but once they rose into the orange sky their ominous shapes were clearly defined. The planes hurtled down the deck, over the painted lines, and lifted into the air. These sailors, however, were American-the Yorktown’s crew. And surrounding the aircraft were throngs of cheering sailors waving their hands and the white baseball caps favored by the Imperial Japanese Navy. Behind them was a raft of Japanese aircraft, or at least what appeared to be Japanese aircraft. Painted on the deck were the white lines that Japanese carrier pilots used to gauge wind direction at takeoff.

But that was only one contradiction on this ship of contradictions. As the ship turned into the wind, its silhouette left no doubt as to its pedigree: This was a World War II–vintage Essex-class aircraft carrier, though with an angled flight deck that had been added after the war. The USS Yorktown (CV-10) steamed gently 30 miles off the coast of San Diego on a golden December morning in 1968. Was the Making of 'Tora! Tora! Tora!' Cursed? Close

Container of yamamoto collectible cards world of warships