History students love a good “what if?” Would the authors of a man-made catastrophe have acted differently if they’d been aware of how badly things would turn out?

In the case of Japan’s decision to declare war against the United States in 1941, this isn’t just a hypothetical. Only months before the attack on Pearl Harbor, a group of the country’s brightest young minds crunched the numbers and informed their leaders that a prolonged conflict with the U.S. could only end in defeat. You probably know what happened next.

Yuya Ishii’s “The Secret Battlefield” dramatizes a little-known historical episode that still feels chillingly relevant. This is a good year to be releasing a film about a country rushing into an ill-advised war seemingly because nobody was brave enough to stop it.