I Bombed Pearl Harbor (VHS)

This is my favorite Toho war movie, up there with BATTLE OF THE SEA OF JAPAN. This version is the Hugo Grimaldi re-edit which features the very recognizable dubbing voice of Paul Frees for multiple characters (most notably Toshiro Mifune as Admiral Yamagushi). While the film is not presented in its full 2.35 Tohoscope, it's pretty close... also it's unfortunately reedited and rescored, which makes some scenes rather choppy but over all gives it a charm the very sober Japanese version lacks. The picture quality is good but it's from a rather beat-up print.

If those effects shots later in the film of the aircraft carriers fighting and burning is familiar to you, it's because it was mostly stolen by the 1976 film MIDWAY. The film covers the attack on Pearl Harbor and then (more extensively) the Battle of Midway, as seen through the eyes of a young Japanese bombadier played earnestly by Yosuke Natsuki. Natsuki would go on to act in numerous Godzilla films, so you may recognize him, as well as several of the other cast members from the Godzilla series (including Akihiko Hirata, Jun Tazaki, and Takashi Shimura in decent roles).