Nation: Show Biz

It is difficult to imagine such a commercial venture being mounted anywhere else in the world. Twentieth Century-Fox took the nation’s most ignominious military disaster since the burning of the White House in 1814, hired the man who planned it all to lend his expertise, and even enlisted the U.S. Defense Department’s help in filming it. Then, to launch their $25 million epic, Tora! Torn! Tora!, a recapitulation of Pearl Harbor (see CINEMA), the producers held a premiere last week in Washington. Among the guests of honor: Technical Adviser Minoru Genda, the retired Japanese general who planned the attack, and Mitsuo Fuchida, the pilot who led it. Even at a remove of nearly 30 years, there seemed an almost stupefying broadmindedness in celebrating Pearl Harbor in the nation’s capital.