Hollywood made three other films about Lieutenant Colonel James H. Doolittle's bombing raid on Japan, though they were fictionalized accounts. The three were Destination Tokyo, Bombardier (both 1943) and The Purple Heart (1944).

Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo was so convincing that military pilots tried to duplicate the aerial maneuvers created by MGM's Special Effects Department. While serving as an Air Force correspondent in the Pacific, screenwriter Dalton Trumbo learned that attempts to copy the quick, short-distance takeoffs in the film had increased the number of aircraft accidents.

For the film's 1955 re-issue, new credits were shot with Van Johnson, Robert Mitchum and Spencer Tracy billed above the title. Mitchum had moved into the spot previously held by the then-deceased Robert Walker.

The air raid sequence was used again in Bridge to the Sun (1961), while the shot of Tokyo taken from the nose of Capt. Lawson's bomber would be used under the opening credits of Midway (1976).

In the '70s, Van Johnson filmed a commercial for Post Fortified Oak Flakes on a set reminiscent of the flight deck of the USS Hornet. His final line was "Take me to Tokyo -- and back!"

The rock band Pere Ubu named its 1975 debut single after the film.

by Frank Miller