Lawson was a pilot on the historic Doolittle Raid, America's first retaliatory air strike against Japan, four months after the December 7, 1941, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Not long after the Pearl Harbor attack, United States Army Air Forces Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle orders 24 North American B-25 Mitchell medium bombers—with volunteer crews—to report to Eglin Field, Florida, for a secret three-month-long mission.

His crew consists of Lt. Dean Davenport, co-pilot; Lt. Charles McClure, navigator, Lt. Bob Clever, bombardier, and Corporal David Thatcher, gunner-mechanic.

One dark morning, Lieutenant Colonel Doolittle sends them off to fly cross-country at hedge-hopping height to Naval Air Station Alameda, California.

After dropping their payloads, they will continue to designated landing spots in parts of China controlled by Nationalist forces and regroup in Chungking.

When an enemy surface vessel does discover the convoy, the crews assemble to take off immediately—12 hours earlier than planned.

In the absence of any medical supplies, the injured men endure terrible pain, and Lawson's leg becomes infected.

There is no surgeon at the elder Dr. Chung's hospital, but Lt. Smith's crew is on its way with Lt. "Doc" White, who volunteered as gunner.

Lawson forgets his missing leg and stands; he falls and Ellen rushes to him and the two embrace on the floor, overjoyed to see each other.

Lawson was the sole author of the book Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, and the word "Collier's" was crossed off in the credits of the copyright cutting continuity.

The production crew worked closely with Captain Ted Lawson and other members of the raid to make the film as realistic as possible.

[7] Although an aircraft carrier was not available, due to wartime needs (USS Hornet itself had been sunk in the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands on October 27, 1942 only six months after launching the raid), a mix of realistic studio sets and original newsreel footage recreated the USS Hornet scenes.

[5] Film critic and author James Agee praised it in 1944: "30 Seconds Over Tokyo is in some respects the pleasantest of current surprises: a big-studio film, free of artistic pretension, it is transformed by its not very imaginative but very dogged sincerity into something forceful, simple, and thoroughly sympathetic in spite of all its big-studio, big-scale habits."

[9] Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo was recognized as an inspirational, patriotic film with great value as a morale builder for wartime audiences.

The New York Times in 1944 summed the production, "our first sensational raid on Japan in April 1942 is told with magnificent integrity and dramatic eloquence."

[10] Variety focused on the human elements, "inspired casting ... the war becomes a highly personalized thing through the actions of these crew members...this pleasant little family."

[2] In the 1945 Academy Awards, the Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo team of A. Arnold Gillespie, Donald Jahraus and Warren Newcombe (photography) and Douglas Shearer (sound) won the Oscar for Best Special Effects.