when the office of the coordinator of information (predecessor to the office of strategic services and later the central intelligence agency) was created by franklin delano roosevelt before the united states' entry into world war ii, toland was recruited to work in the agency's film unit. toland was commissioned as a lieutenant in the navy's camera department, which led to his only work as a director, "" (1943); this documentary of the attack on pearl harbor, which toland co-directed with john ford, is so realistic in its restaged footage that many today mistake it for actual attack footage. this 82-minute film took the academy award for best documentary (short subject).