1941 — United States
Spielberg's 1979 comedy depicts the hysteria gripping Los Angeles in the days after Pearl Harbor — military units blundering through civilian neighbourhoods as the city braces for a Japanese attack that never comes.
After Pearl Harbor, genuine fear of Japanese attack gripped the US West Coast. In February 1942 anti-aircraft guns fired at an imaginary raid over Los Angeles in the 'Battle of Los Angeles'. Japanese submarine I-17 did shell an oil refinery near Santa Barbara in February 1942. The film satirises both the genuine panic and the military incompetence of the period.