THIRTY SECONDS OVER TOKYO 317
in Los Angeles, at Mills Field in San Francisco, at the Alameda Naval Air Station
near San Francisco, at Hurlburt Field (near Mary Esther, Florida), and at Eglin
Field (near Valparaiso, Florida), present- day Eglin AFB, which was the actual base
where the Doolittle Raiders trained. The filmmakers used USAAF B-25C and - D
bombers, which were quite similar to the B-25B Mitchells used in the raid, fur-
ther ensuring verisimilitude. Auxiliary Field 4 (aka Peel Field) was used for the
short- distance take- off practice scenes. With the war still raging, an aircraft car-
rier was unavailable— the USS Hornet itself had been sunk in the Battle of the
Santa Cruz Islands on 27 October 1942— but a mix of realistic studio sets and
archival footage accurately re- created the USS Hornet scenes. Second- unit aerial
cinematography featured Los Angeles masquerading as Tokyo and Santa Maria
(between Pismo Beach and Santa Barbara) simulating the coast of China. The
film was shot in sequence between April and June 1944.
Plot Summary
An opening title card reads: “One- hundred and thirty- one days after December 7,
1941, a handful of young men, who had never dreamed of glory, struck the first
blow at the heart of Japan. This is their true story we tell here.” After the attack on
Pearl Harbor, the U.S. Army Air Force quickly hatches a plan to retaliate by bomb-
ing Tokyo and four other Japa nese cities: Yokohama, Yokosuka, Nagoya, and
Kobe. Tapped to lead the mission, Lt. Col. James Doolittle (Spencer Tracy) assem-
bles an all- volunteer force. Their top- secret training involves learning to get their
B-25 bombers airborne in the extremely short take- off distance of 500 feet or less—
the deck length of an aircraft carrier. After depicting the training pro cess at Eglin
Field, Florida, and Naval Air Station Alameda (San Francisco Bay), the film depicts
the raid and its aftermath. While en route to Japan, a Japa nese picket boat detects
the Hornet’s task force and reports its location by radio. The boat is sunk, but the
bombers are forced to take off at the outer limit of their fuel range. Nonetheless, they
make it to Japan and drop their bombs. After the attack, all but one of the bombers
run out of fuel before reaching their recovery airfields on mainland China, either
ditching in the sea or crash- landing along the coast. Lt. Ted Lawson (Van Johnson)
tries to land his B-25 on a China beach but crashes in the surf in bad weather and
darkness. Seriously injured, Lawson and his crew face a grueling transit back to
American lines, led and aided by Chinese allies. While he is en route, Lawson’s inju-
ries are so severe that the mission’s flight surgeon, Lt. Thomas “Doc” White (Horace
McNally) has to amputate one of his legs. The story ends with Lawson being re united
with his wife, Ellen (Phyllis Thaxter), in a Washington, D.C., hospital.
Reception
Released on 15 November 1944, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo enjoyed widespread crit-
ical acclaim and did well at the box office, eventually earning $6,247,000 in
domestic and foreign ticket sales against a production bud get of $2.9 million— a
$1,382,000 profit, minus promotional expenses. Likewise, reviews were effusive.
For example, Bosley Crowther called the movie “a stunning picturization of an epi-
sode crammed with drama and suspense. And so expert are the re- enacted film