"Pearl Harbor": Based On A True Story

With today marking the 60th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, The Smoking Gun presents this stirring collection of U.S. government records documenting the 1941 bombing by the Japanese.

The documents, which TSG obtained from the National Archives and the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, provide a chilling account of an assault that left 2400 Americans dead and forced the United States into World War II.

The collection begins with a February 1941 note about a rumored Pearl Harbor attack, a warning dismissed as unfounded by Navy officials. We've also included a December 7, 1941 White House memo to President Roosevelt describing that morning's attack as well as a draft of the president's famous remarks to Congress(which includes FDR's handwritten revisions). You'll also find eyewitness accounts of the bombing of the USS Arizona (where 1177 crewmen perished) and Navy"after-action" reports prepared by ship commanders, documents that offer a harrowing tale of bombs and body counts.

While Touchstone Pictures is positioning "Pearl Harbor" as a love story set amid chaos, these documents offer no such pretty Hollywood varnish:

Memo notes a "Rumored Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor." (1 page)

Memorandum for the President (2 pages)

"A date which will live in infamy." (3 pages)

USS Arizona crewman recalls "bodies of the dead." (2 pages)

Sergeant describes carnage on ship's deck (2 pages)

List of "Material Damage" to USS Arizona (2 pages)

After-action report on capsized USS Oklahoma (3 pages)

USS Tennessee's attack chronology (4 pages)

Trapped crewman saved from USS Utah (4 pages)

A note to the USS Helena's crew (1 page)