Tora! Tora! Tora!

The previous war epic by Darryl F. Zanuck, The Longest Day (1962) was an extreme success. As stated by his son, producer Richard D. Zanuck, this was because it was about victory. He noted in contrast that Tora! Tora! Tora! is about defeat. Although the film made a great deal of money, it did nowhere near as well as The Longest Day. In Japan, however, the film was a smash. For the Japanese audience, it not only depicted a battle victory (after twenty-five years of films depicting defeat) but it also put the attack on more understandable footing; identifying not only the villains but also the motivation of those who believed that their actions were honorable.

Shortly before the attack commences, an officer tells Isoroku Yamamoto, "The Emperor wishes to follow the Geneva Convention. A declaration of war will be delivered at 1 pm, 30 minutes before the attack." The Geneva Convention deals solely with the treatment of POW's and non-combatants. Japan ratified but did not sign the Geneva Convention. He likely meant the Hague Convention of 1899, which covers the rules of war, and which Japan signed. Senior Japanese officers would be well aware of that.

For the U.S. version of the film, the next to last of the main credits reads "Japanese Sequences Directed by Toshio Masuda Kinji Fukasaku" and the last credit reads, "Directed by Richard Fleischer." For the Japanese version of the film, the next to last credit reads, "American Sequences Directed by Richard Fleischer" and the final credit reads, "Directed by Toshio Masuda Kinji Fukasaku."

The original release included a line by Admiral Halsey (James Whitmore) saying that after the war, Japanese will only be spoken in Hell. This line is removed from later releases.