"I fear we have awakened a sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve."

What better way to capture the patriotic determination of the United States than using these words uttered by a former enemy 60 years ago after another attack on America? Since the events of Sept. 11, politicians (including President Bush, who misquoted it as "mighty giant") and the media alike have used the quote, or parts of it, often. It's usually attributed to Japanese Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto, who uttered the now-famous comment soon after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Or did he?

Historians are doubtful. Some say Hollywood simply made it up. Others contend that while Yamamoto could have written it at one time, he certainly didn't say it right after Pearl Harbor.

"As far as I know, we have no evidence that Yamamoto ever made the observation following the attack that Japan had awakened a sleeping giant," said Steve Gillon, dean of the Honors College at the University of Oklahoma and resident historian at the History Channel. "The phrase appears for the first time in a Hollywood movie."

The movie that Gillon refers to is 1970's Tora! Tora! Tora!, a 20th Century Fox production about Pearl Harbor. Actor Soh Yamamura, portraying Adm. Yamamoto, gave the ominous "sleeping giant" declaration at the end. The quote was paraphrased in this year's $140 million epic Pearl Harbor, with actor Mako as Yamamoto making the pronouncement.

Richard Fleischer, director of Tora! Tora Tora!, and Elmo Williams, the film's producer, maintain that the quote is factual, but both say that it was written, not spoken, by Yamamoto. However, Fleischer and Williams don't see eye-to-eye on the written source of the quote.

Fleischer recalls that he questioned the "sleeping giant" line when he was shooting the film. "And I was told by Elmo Williams that Yamamoto never actually said that, but that it was in his diary. So we took it from the diary," he said.

Fleischer says he never actually saw the diary but assumes that historian Gordon W. Prange did. Prange, who died in 1980, was a University of Maryland history professor hired by the filmmakers to research events leading up to Pearl Harbor. Fleischer says Prange and a staff of a dozen people compiled volumes of material for the movie.

Producer Williams, meanwhile, says the quote came "from a letter written by Yamamoto to a fellow officer several months after the attack on Pearl Harbor while Yamamoto was conducting an inspection of Japanese forces in the Pacific." Williams says the letter was obtained by screenwriter Larry Forrester from a Japanese military officer while Forrester was doing pre-production research in Japan. But Williams no longer has it and "has no idea where it is."

A strong argument against the authenticity of the quote comes from University of Pittsburgh history professor Donald M. Goldstein, author or co-author of 21 historical works, including six dealing with the attack on Pearl Harbor. Goldstein also was co-author with Prange on two definitive books on the attack: At Dawn We Slept: The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor and Pearl Harbor: The Verdict of History.

Goldstein contends that the Yamamoto quote came neither from a diary nor a letter. "As far as I'm concerned," he says, "Yamamoto never had a diary. Furthermore, I can find no evidence that he made or wrote that statement. It just isn't so."

Several books on World War II, including J.D. Potter's Admiral of the Pacific and John Pritchard, Guy Wint and Peter Calvocoressi's Second World War, make reference to a letter by Yamamoto to a fellow admiral in which he said, "This war will give us much trouble in the future. The fact that we have had a small success at Pearl Harbor is nothing. The fact that we have succeeded so easily has pleased people. I do not think it is a good thing to whip up propaganda to encourage the nation. People should think things over and realize how serious the situation is."

"I hope they find it," Goldstein says. "Unless somebody else can come up with the quote, it was never said or written.

"But even if [Yamamoto] didn't say it, it's a hell of quote."

Crosby Day writes for the Orlando Sentinel, a Tribune Co. newspaper.