Please Read the Letters Below:

(copy of FAX) Date: 23 May, 2001

To: Mr. Michael D. Eisner CEO Disney Co. Burbank, California

From: Mr. Hidde A. Stauthamer Highlands Ranch, Colorado

Dear Mr. Eisner,

From the Internet and the Denver Post, I have been informed that your company has prepared a sanitized version of your upcoming film "Pearl Harbor" for the Japanese market. As a result of this information, I am urging everyone I know
worldwide not to see the film. I am also urging my friends and acquaintances to sell any Disney stock they may own.

By preparing a sanitized version of the film for the Japanese market, Disney has become part and parcel of historical revisionists who would sweep the evil of the WWII Japanese Empire under the rug. An evil, that was responsible
for millions of deaths and bestial cruelty throughout the lands and peoples it tried to conquer. It is an insult to those who died and suffered at the hands of the Japanese armed forces in WWII.

What will Disney's next film be? Allied POWs healthy and happy on Japanese prison "cruise ships" and in Japanese "holiday" camps?

Whoever in your company thought up the idea of a special version of "Pearl Harbor" for the Japanese market, should get a job with the Japanese Government.

Sincerely,

(signed Hidde A. Stauthamer)

(Special thanks to Jesse Hwa for allerting us on this letter.)
 
 

Dear Cindy,

Yours is the correct approach. But, first we must protest the efforts of a few in this country to play down the Japanese atrocities of the WW II era. We can begin by boycotting the latest Mickey Mouse film "Pearl Harbor."

It is pure revision at its best. It is not historically correct, just politically correct. Example: there is a scene where American pilots from the Doolittle
Raid are forced down in China and captured by the Japanese. Yet, there is not one mention of why the Japanese are in China. It is one of many misleading "statements" about the film.

Every American veteran of WWII, and especially those who fought in the Pacific, should protest the film and boycott it. As long as such trash is on the screen, the truth as we know it will never emerge.

Books written by so called veterans who also distort the truth to benefit in some way by doing so are a disgrace to those who seek the truth, regardless of who is lying.

Maj. Richard M. Gordon
Adjutant
Battling Bastards of Bataan
 
 

The biggest problem with "Pearl Harbor" is that it will be taken history.  In that scene where the American Pilots from Doolittle's raid were captured, the film fails to inform of the historical accounts written below:

THE CHEKIANG MASSACRES

The Doolittle bombing raid on Tokyo brought a retalliation against the Chinese people that staggers the imagination. On April 18th. 1942,
sixteen twin-engined Mitchell B-25 bombers, each carrying one ton of bombs, and led by Lt.Col. Jimmy Doolittle, were launched from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet.

Their mission was to bomb the Japanese capital, Tokyo, and then, unable to land back on their carrier, proceed to friendly airfields in China, 1,200 miles across the East China Sea. Some of the planes reached their destination safely but the others ran out of fuel and crashed after their crews had baled out.

Sixty four airmen parachuted into the area around Chekiang. Most were given shelter by the Chinese civilians but eight of the Americans
were picked up by Japanese patrols and three were shot after a mock trial for 'crimes against humanity'.

The Japanese army then conducted a massive search for the others and in the process whole towns and villages that were suspected of harbouring the Americans, were burned to the ground and every man, woman and child brutality murdered. When the Japanese
troops moved out of the Chekiang and Kiangsu areas in mid-August, they left behind a scene of devastation and death that is beyond
comprehension. Chinese estimates put the death toll at a staggering 250,000.

Sirs:

While I did not serve in the Philippines, I was a member of the 90th Bombardment Group and flew Combat missions against the Japanese as a combat Crewman on a B24 in the 5th Air Force from November 42 until July of 43. Crews who bailed out of their damaged ships over Japanese territory were routinely executed by the japanese Military. Those few who were spared
instant execution were subjected to the harshest form of captivity so that very few ever lived to be freed at the end of the War.  I wholeheartedly support your efforts to boycott this film.

God go with you and all your comrades

Ray W. Smeltzer

A quote from Roger Ebert, movie critic, [on the new movie Pearl Harbor]:

"There is no sense of history, strategy, or context. According to this movie, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor because America cut off its oil supply...Would going to war restore the fuel sources? Did they perhaps also have imperialist
designs?"  Being in China attempting to take over the Chinese people by slaughter and rape as in Nanking certainly qualifies as having imperialist designs.

Again Ebert, "If you have the slightest nowledge of the events in the film, you will know more than it can tell you." That is a film sanitized and made to appeal to the Japanese market.

To fail to point out this false image is sanitizing the movie. Yes, the Japanese did have imperialist designs. That's why they were in China, [which was] left unmentioned. The Japanese were attempting to create the "Greater East Asia CO-Prosperity Sphere." That fact being left out is certainly being sanitized.

To fail to mention the murder of down American pilots-by decapitation for serving their country, and the slaughter of thousands of Chinese who may have aided these flyers, is to sanitize the movie.

Any film that seems to be aimed at an audience that may not have heard of Pearl Harbor or perhaps even WW II qualifies as a "Weekly Reader" version and ignores the true story that those young people need to know. That is a
sanitized version film and does a disservice to those Americans who died at the hands of the Japanese. Disney and company are making money and that apparently is all that matters. To hell with the real story.

Thanks, I agree this hit the nail on the head, so to speak. Yes, they, Japan, will still not admit to the RECORDED FACTS OF BATAAN. For those that decrry revisiting history they should remember that if we do not learn from such we are prone to repeat it, GOD forbide.

I try to see a person's viewpoint. We fought to protect this right but, excuse me, I get sick to my stomach and angry to hear about these bozo's that take, take, take from America and give zilch in return. Also, no... shut up Tillman before you get riled up good.

Thank you for letting me know about the inaccuracies of "Pearl Harbor." I had been planning to go, with my family members, to see it on Monday, Meorial Day. Now I will certainly not go.

You and those you quote in your BBB email today  about sanatizing the subject matter are correct.  However, what else could one expect from a country that shut its eyes to a president selling military secrets to a future opponent-nation?   I believe the problem is much
deeper than what you've alluded to.  I. E.=

I have spent this past week-end glued to our TV.  All the major networks, the History Channel,
CNN, you name it, have had Pearl Harbor on ad nauseum.  Now, Fred my son, I am and have
been for all of my life a close observer of events as they whirled around me.

Stay with me while I speak of just one obvious flaw in every one of the above mentioned
programs.  After viewing countless shots of Jap planes doing everything except making sexual
contact in the skies, I can assure you THEY JUST DIDN'T FLY LIKE THAT.  With a very few
exceptions, EVERY formation shown was NOT a Jap formation!

You will recall that those of us at Pearl Harbor #2 (The bombing of the Philippines, six hours later) were bombed almost EVERY DAY for the next four months.  We who were curious enuf to use our God given facilities of sight and intelligence quickly learned their formations and could tell within 100', often less, where a bomb would hit.  My personal equation was: If a bomb was going to hit 150' or more from me, I intended to stand there and watch it go BOOM, just for fun and relaxation.

I cite the above as a major flaw in every movie on the subject but there were many more.  Some
small, some real whoppers.  On the History Channel today, they had two honorable (what else, Historians) who spoke in learned discourse on Pearl Harbor and the Japanese.  A subject they were both completely ignorant of.

Where it leads me is this:  "Is all of History this fouled up, this incorrect, this skewed?  I'm beginning to think so!

I agree with you fully. The american people are not getting the true picture. The brutality of the Japs is never mentioned. All the people that were killed in China after the Doolittle raid. The artocities of the Japs are being swept under the rug. I have always said we should have tried and hung The Emporer. The Japs have never expressed any remorse for Pearl Harbor.
Eisner is on the Jap side. I own stock in Disney and will send Eisner a letter of my disgust.

Take care of yourself

As the adjutant of the Battling Bastards of Bataan, a group of veterans who suffered at the hands of the Japanese, I wish to protest, most vehemently, you sanitized version of what happened at Pearl Harbor.

In your desire to make money, and appease the Japanese, you have broken faith with your fellow American, if that means anything to you, by this piece of trash you have put on the market.

Our organization has started a boycott of that film and you may read our web site to see what our complaints are all about. A few examples:
You blame the attack on the United States forcing Japan into war. In plain soldier language that is a crock. Japan had designs on all of Asia, before Pearl Harbor.  Check out a term "Greater East Asia CO-Prosperity Sphere," which was Japan's way of tasking over small nations in the area. Their brutalities and atrocities in China brought about the oil embargo, or they would have run over other countries besides China.

I suggest you explain to the American people unfortunately ignorant of the truth, as to why American airmen downed in China, (Doolittle Raid) were captured by the Japanese. What were the Japanese doing in China?

You totally ignore the massacre of 250,000 Chines who aided those flyers. You failed to inform the American public of the many, many murders of American airmen shot down over Japan or their possessions. Airmen who were serving this country and doing only their duty as soldiers.

You failed to mention such massacres of Americans such as the Palawan Massacre re in the Philippines. You failed to mention the thousands of Filipinos murdered and raped in Manila in 1945 by the Japanese.

All of the above are reasons for your pictures to tell the true story, but you failed to do so in your greed and your attempts to placate the Japanese, or the Japanese Americans.

Some paper shuffler at your offices claimed "we are trying to picture a sense of what happened at Pearl Harbor, we are not doing history".What an idiotic statement. Pearl Harbor is history but you did not get it right.

We will continue to do all in our power to bring the true story of Pearl Harbor and the Japanese of World War II to every American we can reach.

In closing let me say you have dishonored the memory of a true American, Walt Disney. You bring shame and anger to all Americans who know what truly happened.

RICHARD M. GORDON
MAJOR, US ARMY RETIRED
ADJUTANT, BBB

What can I do to help spread the word? The surviving prison guard should not be allowed to walk in freedom as though nothing ever happened. Is the media  in Japan receptive to this kind of "bad press". Maybe we need a Voice of America radio station beamed towards Japan, but even as I suggest that, I realize that our politicians and businessmen would never
allow such a thing to happen.  Frustrating ! As a submarine veteran, I would like to help, but don't know how.

Thanks for the site,

I heartily throw my support behind this effort to point out the "whitewash" of the historical facts in the movie "Pearl Harbor".

I wasn't there with the BBB's But by God, I felt their pain!

Semper Fi,

MSgt        USMC (Ret)

Perhaps this is a good opportunity for you to urge the Japanese government now to acknowledge her atrocities during WWII and apologize to all countries and their people that she hurt during that period. Now is the time -- and no more glorification!

Mr. Eisner,

I am the daughter of a former WW2 Japanese POW.  My dad spent 3 1/2 years in hell for defending this country and never complained about it and I am outraged that you would trivilize what he and others went through.  It wasn't a romance, it wasn't the Titanic.  30% of Japanese POW's died in their camps! (compare to German camps 2%) Do you not know?????? Or is your greed just painfully transparent.  Those men really did die for your freedom.  How dare you turn your back like this, rewrite history like this, its makes me sick.   I'm staying home and
watching Tora, Tora, Tora instead at least they tried to stick with the facts.

Sir,

Just read your BBB update on the Disney/Pearl harbor fiasco.  Sad to see how low they'll go to make a buck.  Heard they were making a sanitized version for Germany too.  What rot!!

By the way, I've always thought the Bataan Campaign would be an excellent subject for a historical film.  But I don't know of any such film planned.  I have heard recently that Steven Spielberg and Stephen Ambrose intend
to make a Pacific "counterpart" to the Saving Private Ryan movie, and will make something about Iwo Jima.

One has to wonder how the Japanese will be portrayed in that film.  There's a good chance that if enough concern can be expressed about the way this Pearl harbor film has turned out, that this prospective Iwo Jima movie might try to be a little more authentic in setting a more accurate historic background context in which the real Iwo took place.

By the way, this historian Stephen Ambrose is writing a book on the Pacific War in a style similar to that he used for Citizen Soldiers covering the war in Northwest Europe.  He has a website that asks for any stories from Pacific vets.  I think the BBB needs to have serious input to this project.  A lot of effort might get at least something authentic into it to help tell your story to a whole generation of popular history readers.  They really need to know about Bataan.

I may only be a high school student, but I have read as much material that is fact and not only does the movie"Pearl Harbor" have a sanitized
view, but it wasn't much about "Pearl Harbor" or WWII.  I went to see the movie because of an articale about the planes and I saw more shots
of clevage than of the planes.  The movie didn't address with a clear view of what really happened.  I have gone off on friends that have said it was great.  It just showed a love story focused around Pear Harbor and didn't give both sides of the story.  They should have actually
researched some so that they wouldn't have looked like fools to anyone that knows more about it than they do.

I was lucky enough to get your e-mail re the truth on P.H.  I had heard it got bad reviews, but thought it had to do with acting or cinematography, etc.  To learn it was not a factual movie, that important details re: Japs in China, and their ruthlessness to our boys,  angers me immensely.  It would have taken so few minutes to add in some background info and maybe leave out some of the fluffy stuff.

When I got home I went straight to my books to find out about Doolittle....nothing....and nothing about the "second Pearl Harbor., i.e. Philippine raids for 4 months straight.  The only good thing I can say about the movie is that it gets people like me eager to learn as much as I can about the Pacific conflict.  I know so much about what happened in Europe.  I am sending  that URL site onward to all of my friends.

God Bless You All and thank you for what you did years ago.

Shame on you M$chael. Why can't you for once stand up for the truth and not for the profit! We as country must and are trying to face up to our historical wrongs. Why are you afraid of the Japanese facing up to theirs?$.

Why did you not show the truth of the beheadings of American pilots or much
worse the slaughter of tens of thousands of Chinese that were suspected of aiding the downed pilots?$.

Why not make a movie about the Imperialistic Japanese atrocities like they do the Nazi Germans (which we certainly should)?$ A good story to start with would be the taking of thousands of young Korean girls (I'm sure you have daughters) that were sent to Japan and used as sex slaves and many never to be heard of again.

I'm disgusted with you as a person and very concerned with people like you who have so much power, especially in the medias. I and all my family and neighbors may or may not go to see this film but we are defiantly going to start boycotting Disneyland (which we all love and I have worked at) and are going to stop buying
Japanese products.

The Japanese like the Germans are a wonderful people. Unlike the Germans they have not apologized for their sins. They will or they will face economic sanctions.

I recieved and read your link, boycot the movie pearl harbor. I agreeand have forwarded the page to many of my friends who i am sure will
want to boycott it for it's historical inaccuracies and obvious white washing of the duplicity by the imperial japanese government.

I also went to the chicago sun page and read Mr. Eberts review, he should be commended for his honest comments.
 

Please let Walt Disney Productions know that some of us are deeply hurt by their politically correct nonsense.   On behalf of all the victims of the Japanese Imperial Army and the Japanese Imperial Navy, we are protesting and boycotting this movie.

John Teteishi, the president of the Japanese American Citizens League had a meeting with the Producer and Director of "Pearl Harbor."  In this meeting, it was decided that a scene be added to the movie showing the Japanese Americans living in Hawaii in a positive light.  The result was a scene where a Japanese American doctor is seen trying to save the life of an American soldier.  This scene was not in the script, but rather added to the movie.  If the JACL has this much political and economical clout that they can dictate to Hollywood, what should be shown, and further white-wash our history, we should be able to exert similar pressure on the various production companies, in Hollywood.