He was very fluent and knowledgeable about the strike. "Once we broke the ice with the Japanese guy, we asked him a lot of questions. "That was probably the most interesting thing of the whole she-bang," said Hawkins, 83. At night, an American and Japanese historian would discuss real-life events from 1941. Actor Jackie Gleason's yacht became a temporary floating officers club. There were some perks that went with the filming. "He said, 'Not with me in it.' And we got a raise to $380 per flight."
"They got done, and our pilot, Jim Shannon, asked the stuntman if he wanted to go on another landing. "One of our pilots put a senior stuntman in the backseat of a bomber and made a carrier landing," Hawkins said. The pilots even got a raise from their original $180 per jump. In fact, during a practice exercise later in Hawaii, Jack Stone, one of the pilots, failed to pull up in time and crashed into Ford Island where he was killed.Įach of the pilots had a $1 million insurance policy - $500,000 to MGM, and $500,000 to a beneficiary. For historical accuracy, they were filmed taking off from the Yorktown at night, which added to the danger.
#JAPANESE FIGHTER PILOT FULL#
He was in a full Japanese flight uniform, and at 6-foot-3, probably the tallest Japanese bomber in the war. Hawkins spent 10 days on which he made nine launches off the Yorktown as well as flying in formation. carriers had an angled deck, which the Japanese Akagai and others did not have. Yorktown from World War II, scheduled to be decommissioned two years later. The Japanese carrier? It was actually the U.S.S. They were all heavily modified T-6 Texan and BT-13 Valiant pilot training aircraft from a company in Canada.
We were part of the stuntman's union."įor the movie, the Japanese attack planes included 12 Zeroe fighters, eight "Kate" torpedo bombers and eight "Val" dive bombers. "We all had to take a leave of absence from the Navy," Hawkins said, "and were contracted with MGM.
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