Destination Tokyo (1943)

Depending on how you want to define your terms, Destination Tokyo might be the earliest Christmas war movie, though this is absolutely one of those times the qualifiers have qualifiers. The 1927 silent film, Barbed Wire, at the very least includes a memorable Christmas sequence which thematically shapes the movie around it. Likewise, the 1936 science-fiction film, Things to Come, opens at Christmas and plays with the tonal dissonance between the holidays and war (something Destination Tokyo largely sidesteps). Neither of these feature the holidays centrally enough to unequivocally be considered Christmas movies, though I'd argue both are at least debatable. The 1939 animated short, Peace on Earth, is a more clearcut case - this is absolutely a Christmas war story, though its brief runtime might disqualify it as a movie if the difference between "short" and "feature-length" matters to you.

Destination Tokyo comes closer to a clear-cut case, but even this has room for disagreement: the holiday section accounts for less than a quarter of the runtime, and its presence may in part have been based around the historical timeline. For what it's worth, I'm of the opinion this one counts for a variety of reasons I'll get to later. First, I need to cover a few aspects of the movie that are unrelated to Christmas...

Starting with the racism.

The main characters, all American, regularly discuss their enemies in demeaning ways and are eager to kill them. It's notable that the one sequence that attempts to mitigate this does so by expressing sympathy for Japanese children brainwashed into being bloodthirsty killers - the movie appears oblivious to the fact its own heroes fit the same description. That sequence takes the form of a speech given by the movie's main protagonist as he reminds his men their goal is to dismantle the system that gives children knives instead of roller-skates. In other words, the movie at least nominally rejects racial superiority but embraces cultural superiority and colonialism. Perhaps not as mitigating a distinction as they'd hoped.

It probably goes without saying that this movie is a piece of American wartime propaganda, complete with unwavering support for the entirety of the US military and government. The film opens with a short intro showing military strategists hard at work - this ensures we're never given any reason to doubt the resolve, dedication, or intellect of the country's leaders. On the flipside, the movie goes to great lengths to keep us from sympathizing with the Japanese, many of whom are killed brutally.

I wanted to get that out of the way early, because my guess is one or both of those are going to be deal-breakers for a lot of people who stumble across this page and want to know whether or not they should bother with this film. And, just so we're clear, those are damn good reasons to skip a movie. But - depending on your patience for movies epitomizing the cliche, "it was a different time" - this does have a lot to offer outside of its flaws, particularly to anyone interested in the history of military cinema, submarine movies, naval warfare, and US wartime culture.

Oh, and also Christmas war movies, but I mentioned that at the top.

Destination Tokyo tells the story of a US submarine infiltrating Tokyo Bay after the attack on Pearl Harbor to gather intelligence to aid in the April 1942 Doolittle Raid. For those of you who (like me) are ignorant of WW2 but (unlike me) don't want to wade through Wikipedia articles and IMBD trivia, here's how this fits into actual history: the submarine and crew in the movie were definitely fictional, the mission to gather intel this way was probably fictional, the Doolittle Raid was real, a subplot around one of the men needing an operation mid-mission due to appendicitis is based on at least one real event, details of the submarine's layout were intentionally incorrect to limit the movie's value to Japanese military analysts, but enough of the depiction of the operation of the sub was accurate for the US military to use the movie for at least some training purposes.

In other words, this is historical fiction, but it's realistic enough to appeal to fans of grounded military movies. And, within that context, this is an extremely impressive film. Some of the battle sequences are tense and effective. The underwater explosions, in particular, are jarring and powerful. This does a fantastic job selling the fear of being trapped under the ocean as bombs go off around you.

It's also ahead of its time in the way it develops its characters and uses the audience's sympathies to give the threat of death dramatic weight. The holiday sequence is largely present for this purpose, incidentally: the movie shows us the crew celebrating and bonding together as they share jokes, stories, and gifts. There's even an extended caroling sequence. The holidays make their presence known and permeate the first half-hour.

As the movie proceeds, it becomes apparent the plot of the mission is less the focus than the plot of the men's emotional journeys. We explore how the events of the film challenge them as people, forcing them to face the pain of losing one of their own. The movie wants us to see the sailors as human, showing us their flaws and aspirations. It makes for effective storytelling, as well as effective propaganda (if the audience sees themselves in the film's heroes, it's an easier bridge to convincing them to sign up to become those heroes, themselves).

Structurally, this makes the plot easy to lay out in a technical sense and virtually impossible to describe in a way that captures the pace and feel of the movie. What actually occurs is a submarine crew is dispatched to pick up a specialist in the Aleutian Islands, where they engage in a brief battle with two planes resulting in the loss of a sailor stabbed in the back while trying to retrieve a downed enemy pilot. The crew then sneaks into Tokyo Bay and conducts a reconnaissance mission to support a planned bombing raid. The specialist and two of the crew go inland to gather intel while the submarine does the same. They eventually relay this information to the waiting fleet, allowing the bombing raid to commence. As they escape, they engage the enemy, sink a vessel and only barely get out with their lives.

But that's maybe a third of the movie. We spend the rest getting to know the characters through their conversations, flashbacks, and reactions. The death of the crewmember stabbed in the back is heavily focused on, complete with a dramatic sequence where the characters confront the only member of the crew to skip the military funeral. Their anger turns to sympathy as he explains the death of people he cares about at the hands of the Japanese is too much for him to bear (this sequence gets particularly dark, prompting the filmmakers to alleviate genocidal insinuations with the aforementioned speech extending goodwill towards Japanese children the Americans hope to [checks notes] strip of their culture and force into a capitalist ideology modeled on US values).

We also spend a great deal of time dealing with the emergency surgery. The key character here is actually the surgeon, a young crewmember who's not remotely qualified for the operation he's performing. During the Christmas sequence at the start of the movie, this character dismissed faith and all but self-identified as an atheist. By the end, of course, he has a change of heart and prays.

Faith isn't the only aspect of the holidays the movie leans on, but it's certainly the most obvious. And, in the context of the film's propagandism, perhaps its most insidious. The movie frames the conflict as one between two cultures, and it exploits the season to build allegiance and identity with the Americans and animosity towards Japan. Christmas and its associated elements - faith, comradery, family, and so on - are part of who we are. The Japanese are presented as something else, an ill-defined alien culture that must be defeated and replaced. This is hardly the first time such ideas were associated with the holidays, but they get any more palatable.

But at the same time, it's impossible to deny this movie has elements that endure. The action sequences are fantastically done; the explosions have weight you rarely see in movies of this time. The portrayal of the crew and the war has a realism, too, which may appeal to or repel you. And the list of movies influences by this is substantial. It seems like virtually every subsequent significant submarine movie drew some inspiration from this. I'd add this reminded me of some moments in Star Trek II, to say nothing of Steven Spielberg's 1941, a significant portion of which comes across as an attempted response to Destination Tokyo. And of course it likely had at least some affect on most or all Christmas war movies since.

I can't tell you whether or not you should watch this. Destination Tokyo is a brilliantly executed movie that's helped shape multiple subgenres. As a work of historical significance, it's very good. Likewise, Delmer Daves's direction is excellent, as is Cary Grant's performance as the captain. There are reasons to appreciate and perhaps even love this movie.

At the same time, the racist subject matter and blatant military propaganda are hard to look past. I mentioned being impressed by the explosions earlier, which is true, but I neglected to mention I was also horrified at times. Those same effects are employed in the narrative against the enemy ships, and it's nauseating to see such brutality celebrated. Likewise, there's a moment in which an anti-aircraft gun is turned against the downed pilot after he attacked a crewmember. The staging ensures there's no gore, but the violence of the scene, coupled with the way the movie expects you to find catharsis in the moment, is deeply disturbing.

Ultimately, there's too much history and craft in this to dismiss, but too much racism to recommend. There's a reason it's an extremely influential film that's rarely discussed. I'm guessing most readers have a pretty good idea where they'd fall in terms of whether this is the sort of thing they'd enjoy: go with your gut here.