text: The harshest criticism was aimed at instances in the film where actual historical events were altered for dramatic purposes. For example, Admiral Kimmel did not receive the report that a Japanese midget submarine was being attacked until after the bombs began falling, and did not receive the first official notification of the attack until several hours after the attack ended.
  The scene following the attack on Pearl Harbor, where President Roosevelt demands an immediate retaliatory strike on the soil of Japan, did not happen as portrayed in the film. Admiral Chester Nimitz and General George Marshall are seen denying the possibility of an aerial attack on Japan, but in real life they actually advocated such a strike. Another inconsistency in this scene is when President Roosevelt (who was at this time in his life, stricken and confined to a wheelchair due to Polio) is able to stand up to challenge his staff's distrust in a strike on Japan, which never really happened. During the same scene, a military advisor indicates that Japan was close to invading the continental United States, and could potentially expand "as far as Chicago;" in reality, Japan had neither the manpower nor the firepower to invade nearby Australia and Siberia, let alone the mainland United States.
  In another scene Admiral Yamamoto says "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant," a quote which was copied from the 1970 film Tora! Tora! Tora!, even though there is no printed evidence to prove Yamamoto made this statement or wrote it down.