What does “Tora Tora Tora” mean?
All I’m finding are links to the movie. Thanks.
IIRC, Attack, Attack, Attack.
Wasn’t it “Tiger, tiger, tiger”?
I thought it was, “Attack, tiger!”,3 times.
I thought it was, “Attack, tiger!”,3 times.
I think so.
“Tora” means tiger in Japanese.
To/ra in some combination must be a kind of code, because those are not standard terms for attack/surprise.
“To” (whether long or short) is a bland phoneme in Japanese. It could be a bunch of different things.
“Ra” (only the short syllable is commonly used) on the other hand doesn’t have a lot of meanings. None of them are connected to “surprise,” unless the meaning of “naked” refers to the enemy’s lack of protection. Seems unlikely.
In other words, no really useful information in this thread yet, as far as I can see. Except that “tora” definitely means “tiger.”
Yeah, yeah, old thread. But the OP and the last responder are both active members. Anyway. . . apparently there is some debate as to whether “Tora” was meant to mean ‘tiger’ or whether it was just the two unrelated syllables that indicated the attack was to commence, but it wasn’t fleshed out very much in the earlier thread. I’ll defer other research to more knowledgeable people.
I’d always assumed that it meant ‘tiger’, and was a codeword used in the same way as the now-unprintable codeword used by Guy Gibson to indicate the breech of the Möhne Dam. That is, it was a word unrelated to the mission, but had a meaning understood by prearrangement. I had not heard of the consonant-vowel pairs theory, but it makes as much sense as the traditional codeword. Actually, I think it makes more sense because the attack was undertaken by the IJN. Being the Navy, they may have developed codes based on (inspired by) signal flags. For example, in the USN ‘Bravo Zulu’ means ‘Well done.’ A two-syllable radio call could very well be analogous to a two-flag message.
My mom knew one of the pilots who flew in Tora! Tora! Tora!. He took us to see the movie when it came out. 
So they weren’t Jewish?
What a Juvenile, Kindergarten-level, unserious, value-subtracted, stupidfuckofapost.
We are trying to have a serious discussion here, and somedork says hahaha lets make a joke out of it.
This is the kind of shitpost which deserves a lot more zealotry from the already undeniably superzealous SDMB MOD CORPS.
This is General Questions, where jokes often appear, especially once (a) the question has been factually answered, (b) ten posts precede the joke, and © ten years have passed since the OP.
You appear to be in the wrong thread, m’friend.
Moderator Warning
One kind of post that does get zealotry from moderators are insults to other posters. This is an official warning. If you have a problem with a post, report it and let us deal with it. Do not do this again.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
ETA. Jokes are permitted in General Questions after the question has received some factual responses.
Lighten up, Francis.
Let’s not junior-mod, either, especially when a mod has already addressed the post.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
For the record, I was mocking, not junior-modding. 
I always assume posts by silenus have a high mockery quotient. 