Although it is clearly stated in the show that no American of Japanese ancestry was convicted of sabotage during WWII, the main character is not only insane, but a traitor, and many viewers will remember that rather a single sentence. This original HI50 actually uses many more local Asian actors than the remake, so I wonder if no Asian actor of appropriate age would be willing to play this part, because so many were in California and interned like the Jews in Nazi Germany during the war. It was a point of honor for that generation to serve in the 442nd and to demonstrate loyalty to the US.
The characters supposed mental illness is beyond improbable. He was said to be nearly catatonic on admission to the mental hospital just before the PH attack.
That kind of condition does not come on over night, and his his conspirators would have been aware something was wrong with him and he would not have been functional enough to build and plant a bomb. His apparent schizophrenia may well abate some as he ages, and he might remember some thing.s from before his hospitalization, but not those from close to Dec 7, he would be unable to focus enough to create the memory.
As a physician I can speak with some authority.
The one thing they got right was the vulnerability of the fuel tanks. There were 3 areas at PH with above ground
tanks, and if the Japanese had targeted them instead of the ships PH would have been totally destroyed. The Navy
was aware of this risk and in 1940 started building the underground tanks at Red Hill. There are 20 steel lined tanks set in concrete,100feet wide and 200 feet high. They hold up to 250 million gallons of fuel and 2.5 miles of pipeline runs to the fueling docks at PH. The irony is these tanks are now a time bomb for all of Oahu. These 80 year
old tanks leak, polluting the water supply. Hundreds of military families have been displaced from their homes for months due to petroleum products in their water supply and local schools and hundreds more subsist on bottled water.