tora! tora! tora!

when i was a kid, we didn't go to movies much, but for some reason, our parents took the crown prince & me to the drive in with them when they went to see tora! tora! tora!. there must have been some other movie first, b/c i remember watching something else before they told us to lie down & go to sleep on the matress they'd put in the back of the station wagon. tora! tora! tora! is about the japanese attack on pearl harbor. it was apparently a blockbuster at the time -- 1970 -- but also widely condemned as boring, dull, & long. it's on right now, on the teevee, and i can attest to the fact that it is, indeed, boring -- with wee tiny little subtitles.

tora is the japanese word for tiger, but according to wikipedia -- in this case, it is a combination of totsugeki, meaning charge, and raigeki, meaning thunder bolt. charge of the thunderbolt.

in the movie, ships use flags for communication. do ships still use flags for communication?