The American movie titled Thirty Seconds over Tokyo and directed by Mervyn LeRoy was released in 1944 and is categorized as war drama.
Key cast members of Thirty Seconds over Tokyo include Spencer Tracy, Van Johnson.
The plot of Thirty Seconds over Tokyo is: In spring 1942, a few months after the Pearl Harbor attack, the United States Army Air Forces plan to retaliate by bombing Tokyo and four other Japanese cities—launching traditionally land-based bombers from US Navy aircraft carriers that can approach near enough the Japanese mainland to make bombing feasible. After dropping bombs planes will continue to Nationalist controlled parts of China, and crews will regroup in Chungking.
Lt.Col. James Doolittle (Spencer Tracy), the architect and leader of the mission, assembles a volunteer force of aircrew, who begin their top-secret training by learning a new technique to make their North American B-25 Mitchell medium bombers airborne in the short distance of 500 feet or less, to simulate taking off from the deck of an aircraft carrier.
After depicting the raiders' weeks of hazardous training at Eglin Field, Florida and Naval Air Station Alameda, the story goes on to describe the raid and its aftermath. While en route to Japan, the Hornet's task force is discovered by a Japanese picket boat, which has radioed their position. It is sunk immediately by American gunfire but the bombers are forced to take off twelve hours early at the extreme limit of their range. However, the bombers successfully reach Japan and drop their bombs. Dolittle himself leads the raid with incendiary bombs, designed to aid the following aircraft identify targets.
After the attack, most of the B-25s run out of fuel before reaching their recovery airfields in Nationalist controlled China. Crews are forced to either bail out over China or crash-land along the coast.[Note 1] Lawson's B-25 crashes in the surf just off the Chinese coast while trying to land on a beach in darkness and heavy rain. He and his crew survive, badly injured, but face hardships and danger while being escorted to Nationalist lines by friendly Chinese. Lawson's injuries require the mission's flight surgeon to amputate his left leg above the knee.
The closing stages of the film feature many of the Dolittle Raiders reunited in Chungking, per the original plan, where Chinese sing the Star Spangled Banner, in Mandarin, in an emotional climax. The story ends in the United States with Lawson reunited with his pregnant wife Ellen in a Washington, D.C. hospital. In tears, Lawson tells his wife: "When things were the worst I could see your beautiful face.".
