After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Army Chief of Staff George Marshall went looking for help in boosting troop morale. "Why We Fight" was a series of films Frank Capra made for Marshall, but the pictures John Wayne made interested him more. A bold and confident man of action was what soldiers wanted to see up on the screen. So Wayne was asked to make "message" pictures --- "Flying Tigers," to honor American flyers fighting in China; "Reunion in France," to honor French resistance fighters; "The Fighting Seabees," to honor the Navy's construction crews; "Back to Bataan," to honor Filipino resistance fighters (at the request of the State Department); and "They Were Expendable," to honor PT boat commanders. After the war came "Sands of Iwo Jima," to honor the U.S. Marine Corps. Wayne's critics, who never left a turn unstoned, were not impressed. Japan's Emperor Hirohito was, however, and asked to meet "the big American."