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00:06Pearl Harbor is the most dramatic opening of any war in almost all human history.
00:12Nobody imagined that Japanese would do such a thing.
00:15This was almost like science fiction.
00:20Pearl Harbor is one of the cleanest breaks between the past and the future I think you can find.
00:29Pearl Harbor is one of the most extraordinary events of World War II.
00:38Now, rare footage from around the world, expertly restored in full color, tells the story as you've never seen it
00:46before.
01:03It was very cold.
01:05Some accounts said that it was snowing.
01:08The sailors on the 30 ships did not know where they were going to war, did not even know who
01:15the enemy was.
01:17They thought they were going to attack Singapore or Hong Kong.
01:21All radio communications were cut off.
01:25Special provisions were made to not dump garbage over the sides of the ships.
01:31They formed a box in the sea several miles across.
01:36Always fearful that someone was going to appear in the sky above them.
01:41What happens if an American vessel, if a fishing vessel, if anyone comes across the entire Japanese Navy at sea?
01:51The Japanese entire plan crumbles because it has to be based on surprise.
01:57The largest gathering of naval air power in history sets out on a top-secret mission.
02:0530 ships carrying 408 airplanes and 16,000 men are traveling 4,000 miles across the Pacific Ocean.
02:17They're heading to attack a country 10 times richer and more powerful than their own, in one of the most
02:24audacious military gambles in all history.
02:29They've calculated that they have only a 50% chance of success, and failure would be suicide.
02:37What has pushed them into this desperate situation?
02:471905, 18 months of fighting against Imperial Russia ends in a shock victory,
02:53when Japan, a small island nation, emerges triumphant.
03:00After centuries of being ignored by other nations,
03:03the Japanese have finally arrived on the world stage as a serious military power.
03:10And that shocked the world, that this vast czarist empire,
03:15could be beaten on the battlefield by these funny little people in this island chain off the east coast of
03:22Asia.
03:22I think that convinced the Japanese, they should be considered a world power.
03:29A decade later, after the outbreak of World War I,
03:34when Imperial German forces start moving into China,
03:38Japan teams up with Britain to help drive them out.
03:42Thanks to the Japanese, the Allies gain a key victory.
03:49Afterwards, Japan gets a seat at the top table,
03:53and they want recognition by helping win the war.
03:58Japan was one of five countries invited to the Paris Peace Conference.
04:03The Japanese didn't have major say, but they were there.
04:10As part of the post-war treaty, Japan asks the Allies for their citizens to have freer immigration to Western
04:19countries,
04:20like Australia and America.
04:22But their request is denied.
04:25So the Japanese went home angry.
04:29But Japanese leaders persevere.
04:33Having recently transformed their feudal society into a parliamentary democracy,
04:38they hope their new politics will help align them with the West.
04:45Once again, they are rebuffed.
04:48When the U.S. bans all non-whites from moving to American soil,
04:53the Japanese are included.
05:00So this kind of discrimination, which was overt,
05:03and, you know, references to the yellow peril,
05:05really made the Japanese very resentful.
05:09And so the Japanese feel that they are still being treated as a second-rate power,
05:13when in fact they do have a first-rate military.
05:17The outlook of the British, the outlook of the Americans, is somewhat racist.
05:23So there's this poisonous brew of militarism, grudges against the West.
05:32And the fledgling democracy takes another hit,
05:35when in 1929 America's Great Depression sends a shockwave round the globe
05:42that reaches the markets of Japan.
05:45Its economy takes a devastating blow.
05:50In the early 30s, things were utterly miserable.
05:54The demand for silk dropped.
05:57And so there are many, many stories about struggling farmers
06:01having to sell their daughters into prostitution.
06:06With Japan on its knees and the international door tightly closed,
06:12the country looks inwards with a solution to its problems.
06:20Inspired by ancient samurai codes and traditions,
06:24a far-right nationalist movement gains traction.
06:29At first, it takes over the military,
06:32but soon starts infiltrating the civilian government.
06:37Japan's parliamentary democracy works for a time.
06:42And then gradually, the parties begin to have a tough time.
06:46There's scandals, there's corruption,
06:49and the military men begin to intimidate.
06:53And at that point, parliamentary democracy really ceases to function.
07:00Heading the military power grab is an ultra-nationalist army general.
07:04The son of a revered samurai,
07:08Hideki Tojo is a fierce military fighter.
07:11And he has a vision
07:13for how to transform an impoverished Japan
07:16into a rich and powerful nation.
07:22Tojo is a bright man,
07:26certainly a very good administrator,
07:28but he's also relatively small-minded.
07:31He is not a well-traveled individual.
07:35He looks at the world completely from a military point of view,
07:39and his solution to any problem is a military solution.
07:44For Tojo, the days of asking for equal stake in the Pacific are over.
07:51General Hideki Tojo very much represents this stream of opinion in Japan
07:55that they need to take a very hard line with the Western powers.
07:58And they had a really admirable belief
08:01that far too much of Asia was in Western hands.
08:06The Dutch controlled what we today call Indonesia.
08:10The French controlled Southeast Asia.
08:12The British had Singapore, Malaya, and Hong Kong.
08:15The United States had the Philippines.
08:17And the Japanese believed that Asia should be for the Asians.
08:25Tojo's fixation with the Western territories in Asia
08:28stems from their valuable natural resources.
08:33Resources Japan needs if it's going to prosper.
08:38It had very few natural resources.
08:41No oil to speak of, no coal.
08:43Nothing in the way of the fuels
08:45that were essential to be a great power.
08:50In 1931, Tojo's army invades the Chinese province of Manchuria,
08:56an area rich with coal and iron.
09:02Western powers with interests in the Pacific become uneasy.
09:07An international summit is called
09:09where the other nations agree to help China resist Japan.
09:20Japan finds it impossible to accept the report adopted by the assembly.
09:29The West had stolen, occupied, taken, pick your verb, land all over Asia.
09:35And so to be denied the same privilege
09:39seemed to the Japanese to be Western hypocrisy.
09:45Ignoring all calls to end their expansion,
09:48in 1937, Japan moves even further into China,
09:53marking the beginning of a savage and bloody war.
10:02Within weeks, thousands of Chinese citizens have been killed
10:07at the hands of the Japanese army.
10:10And when reports of systematic rape
10:13and civilian massacre in the city of Nanking surface,
10:17the world is horrified.
10:23Certainly the rape of Nanking in 1937 is shocking.
10:27The atrocities were unimaginable at the time.
10:30So the United States, it's just further proof
10:33of Japan's malign intentions in China,
10:36that they are going to go in, colonize China,
10:39and they are going to milk it of resources.
10:40The Americans had always liked to think of themselves
10:43as China's protector against outside aggression.
10:46The Japanese invasion is, of course, a huge challenge to this.
10:52But the West soon has big problems of its own.
10:58In Europe, another far-right nationalist leader
11:02is putting his expansionist vision into action.
11:07Hitler's fearsome army is sweeping across the continent,
11:12overrunning country after country
11:14and incorporating them into a German empire.
11:18For British Prime Minister Winston Churchill,
11:21the threat of a Nazi-controlled Europe is now very real.
11:28Winston Churchill realised that the only realistic hope
11:32of the West prevailing over Hitler
11:34was if the Americans could come into the war.
11:37And all the time, from 1940 onwards,
11:41he was urging the Americans, saying,
11:42come on, come on, you must realise
11:44that only if we stand together against these great evils
11:47can we possibly hope to prevail.
11:49But the Americans were not that receptive.
11:54Blessed by simple geography,
11:57that being thousands of miles from other countries
12:01gave it a sense of safety.
12:05Europe was regarded as a place that was forever at war.
12:10If you're in Iowa,
12:11what difference does it matter what happens in Alsace?
12:13What real threat is it to the United States,
12:16which is 3,000 miles away across a huge ocean?
12:20The vast majority of Americans
12:22believe Europe's war is nothing to do with them.
12:26Publicly, President Franklin Roosevelt
12:28is careful to uphold the wishes of his people.
12:321940, of course, is an election year,
12:34and Franklin Roosevelt,
12:35knowing how powerful the isolationist element was,
12:40promised to American mothers,
12:42your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign war.
12:47Roosevelt was someone who played all his cards
12:52very close to the vest.
12:53He hated to commit to policies,
12:56allowed people to think that he agreed with them.
12:59But deep down, Roosevelt is worried
13:03that the Nazi peril isn't limited to Europe.
13:07He was far out in front of the rest of the country
13:09in recognizing the threat to the United States
13:13posed by the peril that Great Britain faced.
13:17And while he won't go back on his word to the American people,
13:22he knows the Allies need help.
13:25His goal in 1940 was to provide the raw materials,
13:30the airplanes, the tanks, the shipping, the equipment,
13:32the ammunition, the oil,
13:33that would allow Britain to hold on.
13:37When in May 1940, Hitler invades France,
13:42to Roosevelt the stakes are higher than ever.
13:46What he can't do is openly get the United States in war.
13:51So he does everything possible short of that.
13:54He begins to flood the British with aid.
13:56He begins to take the most extraordinary risks
13:59with American ships in the Atlantic
14:01to try and make the Germans fire the first shot.
14:06Facing a rapidly escalating crisis in Europe and the Pacific,
14:10Roosevelt turns his attention to Japan.
14:15Franklin Roosevelt, in his policy towards Germany,
14:18he always has an eye on Japan.
14:20What he doesn't want to have happen
14:22is the Japanese to take advantage
14:24of what's going on in Europe to expand.
14:26And Roosevelt was worried that Japan would seize that moment
14:30to start capturing the colonies of defeated European powers.
14:36In line with his policy of doing everything
14:39short of using force, he sends Japan a warning.
14:44When his Pacific naval fleet go to Hawaii for training,
14:48he takes the unusual step of keeping them there.
14:53The United States Pacific fleet was largely based in California.
14:58Roosevelt figured that if you move the fleet
15:00and keep it permanently based at Pearl Harbor,
15:03that will be a loaded gun.
15:07There's no other large naval base within thousands of miles.
15:11So Japan, it's a very threatening base.
15:15It extends the American Navy thousands of miles
15:18farther into the Pacific.
15:25But not everyone agrees with Roosevelt's decision.
15:32Admiral Richardson is in charge of the Pacific fleet at the time,
15:37and he does not think that the move out to Hawaii
15:41is going to be a good one.
15:42The fleet needed more training, more ships,
15:45and Richardson felt that if you're going to call someone's bluff,
15:49you have to back it up with something meaningful.
15:51And his distaste for this move
15:54leads to him having some very strong words
15:57with President Roosevelt,
15:58and Roosevelt actually removes him from command.
16:02Richardson has a point.
16:04Far from being battle-ready,
16:06for many, the move feels more like a tropical holiday.
16:11This exotic, far-away place,
16:14it smelled beautifully.
16:18The palm trees, the mountain ranges.
16:22It's a great place to be able to have fun.
16:26In the off hours, they're having picnics,
16:28they're going out dancing,
16:29they're going to the clubs,
16:31they're just having a really good time.
16:33The geographical location of Pearl Harbor
16:35makes it seem impregnable.
16:39Thousands of miles from land,
16:41it is well-protected from airstrikes.
16:45There were a number of airstrips,
16:47docking facilities,
16:49there were repair facilities,
16:50there were fuel depots.
16:52It was a major base that could defend itself.
16:57The geography provides the fleet with natural protection.
17:01Pearl Harbor is a very large,
17:02but in many ways actually quite shallow base,
17:04which is seen as a great protective thing
17:06in the interwar period for torpedo attacks.
17:09Pearl Harbor at its deepest,
17:11about 40 or 45 feet.
17:13Torpedoes drop from airplanes.
17:15They're heavy weapons.
17:17They're about 2,000 pounds.
17:19They drop and plunge quite deep into the water
17:21before they rise up a bit
17:23and begin their journey to your target.
17:25And the feeling was that Pearl Harbor
17:28was too shallow
17:29to use a torpedo drop from a plane.
17:35But the relaxed mood soon changes
17:37when a new man takes over.
17:40Admiral Kimmel is now in charge of the fleet.
17:45Husband Kimmel was almost a quintessential
17:47career naval officer in the 1930s.
17:49He was liked by his subordinates.
17:51He was admired by his superiors.
17:54He is very, very particular.
17:57And everybody has to do what he says
18:00exactly how he says it.
18:02So his plan is to start making sure they're ready.
18:06And ready for what?
18:07Well, he and most everyone else in the Pacific Fleet
18:10knew war was close enough
18:12that you needed to prepare for it.
18:14And he embarked on relentless maneuvers.
18:20Believing that war is dangerously close,
18:24Kimmel wastes no time in preparing his fleet
18:27so that when the time comes,
18:29they'll be ready to take the war to Japan
18:33and destroy them in the open ocean.
18:37We wanted to be in a decisive engagement.
18:40The capital ship of every navy was still the battleship.
18:45Kimmel was raised on battleships.
18:47He had served on nine of them.
18:49He, like most people in the navy,
18:51still envisioned settling matters at sea.
18:57The newly stationed fleet
18:59does little to calm Japan's military ambitions.
19:04With Europe in turmoil,
19:07Tojo and his colleagues
19:08see an opportunity to take advantage of the chaos.
19:14They join forces with Hitler and Mussolini
19:17in an historic pact
19:19promising to support each other's imperial efforts.
19:24The majority of the people
19:27within the Japanese military
19:28look at the successes of Nazi Germany,
19:30and that's something that they want to emulate.
19:32But the pact is not without its critics within Japan.
19:37Head of the navy,
19:39Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto
19:41is concerned that the pact risks Japan
19:44being dragged into war against the Allies.
19:48And that could mean
19:50taking on the huge might of the USA.
19:53Admiral Yamamoto thinks that this is insane
19:57for Japan to enter in an agreement
19:59with Nazi Germany.
20:01But he is a real minority.
20:04He had risen all the way to the top
20:06of the Japanese navy
20:08because he was tough,
20:10and he's brilliant,
20:11also had kind of a sensitive side to him.
20:14He carried a list of all the people
20:17who had ever been lost at sea on his watch.
20:22Yamamoto was a brilliant commander
20:25and not somebody who was eager
20:27to go to war with the United States.
20:29He had spent two tours in the United States,
20:31part of that at Harvard University.
20:33He had seen the enormous potential
20:35of the American industrial capacity,
20:37the oil wells of Texas,
20:38and he knew that war with an industrial giant like this
20:41was not a great idea.
20:44But Yamamoto's doubts fall on deaf ears.
20:49The pact is signed.
20:54Empowered, the Japanese army decides
20:57to continue their imperial expansion.
21:01Once Hitler rolled over the powers
21:03of Holland and France,
21:05their Asian colonies became orphans
21:08and ripe for the plucking.
21:12When France falls to the Nazis,
21:15Japan seizes the opportunity
21:17to invade French Vietnam.
21:22It's exactly what Roosevelt
21:24had feared Japan would do.
21:26But his hands are now tied.
21:28He wants to avoid intervening with force,
21:32but he can still hit Japan hard.
21:37Roosevelt imposes harsh sanctions,
21:40suspending all American exports to Japan,
21:43including oil,
21:45knowing that Japan gets 80% of their oil
21:49from America.
21:51It's a huge blow for the Japanese.
21:55Roosevelt will remove the embargo
21:57only if they reverse
21:59all their expansionist actions to date.
22:02It seems like a brilliant move.
22:06The Japanese,
22:07the sanctions are no small thing,
22:09because let's remember,
22:10they've got over a million troops
22:11in China by this point,
22:12so they need fuel oil desperately.
22:15Roosevelt believed
22:17that by putting the sanctions on,
22:18that would definitely
22:20keep the Japanese in line.
22:22I don't know if he realized
22:23it puts them in such a dilemma.
22:26So the American sanctions
22:28threatened to unhinge
22:29this Japanese war effort.
22:30So they have to start thinking
22:31about this southern operation.
22:34Either they will have to back down,
22:35they will have to accept American demands,
22:38which are ultimately to pull back
22:39on these great Japanese imperial advances,
22:42or they have to go to war to get oil.
22:44That's it.
22:45But far from halting Japan's expansion,
22:48the sanctions push war closer.
22:52Japan turns to a new source of oil,
22:54much closer to home,
22:56but it's in the hands
22:57of another Western country.
22:59Japan has no oil.
23:01There is a lot of that in the Pacific,
23:04but it's in the Dutch East Indies,
23:07what is now known as Indonesia.
23:10The Dutch possessions there,
23:12some of the richest oil fields
23:13in the world,
23:13and that would be where
23:15they would get their resources.
23:19The risk is that any move south
23:21puts them dangerously close
23:23to the American-held Philippines.
23:28But any caution evaporates,
23:30with a dramatic change
23:31in the political situation in Japan.
23:35The prime minister resigns.
23:38Tojo takes control of the country.
23:42And if war is now inevitable,
23:45Japan will strike the first blow.
23:49They looked at Americans
23:50as the ultimate sort of decadent power,
23:53where, you know,
23:53consumer culture, materialism.
23:55If we punch them really hard,
23:58and they're already under threat
24:00from the fascists in Europe,
24:02what are the odds
24:03of the Americans
24:04gathering themselves
24:05and saying,
24:05OK, we're going to make
24:06this superhuman effort
24:07to fight in the Pacific,
24:09the Atlantic, and Europe,
24:10all at the same time?
24:12The Japanese gamble.
24:13They won't do that.
24:15The idea was not
24:17to defeat the United States.
24:18It was to wear out
24:19the United States.
24:20Oh, they knew we had
24:21a bigger population,
24:22had more factories,
24:23and could produce more airplanes.
24:25But we did not have
24:26the Japanese spirit,
24:27and that would win the war.
24:29But any attack on the U.S.
24:30would have to involve the Navy.
24:33And for that,
24:34they would need the help
24:35of the war skeptic,
24:37Admiral Yamamoto.
24:40Yamamoto thought
24:40this was an insane idea.
24:42We should not go to war
24:43with the Americans.
24:44But he saw which way
24:45the wind was blowing.
24:46He knew he could not say no.
24:52The obvious place
24:53to attack America
24:54is in the Philippines,
24:56all route south
24:57towards the oil fields.
25:00But Yamamoto hits
25:02on a more audacious plan.
25:05Yamamoto was a gambler.
25:08He once said
25:09that his ideal retirement
25:11would be to retire
25:12to the French Riviera
25:13and gamble away
25:14the hours in the casinos
25:16of Monte Carlo.
25:18He believes Japan's
25:19only chance of victory
25:20in the Pacific
25:21is to go straight
25:23for the jugular,
25:25taking out
25:25the American Pacific fleet,
25:29now enticingly
25:30stationed at Pearl Harbor.
25:33And so he said this,
25:35if we have to go to war
25:36with the United States,
25:37the only chance
25:38we have to survive it
25:39is to take out
25:40their fleet
25:41on the first day.
25:43Japan will at least
25:44have a breathing space
25:45to go south,
25:47seize the resources,
25:48and then try
25:49and affect
25:50some kind
25:51of political settlement.
26:02To attack Pearl Harbor
26:04was an astonishing act
26:07of military guts.
26:10So much could go wrong.
26:15It was 3,000 miles
26:17from Japan.
26:18It would take them
26:1912 days to get there,
26:21on any one of which
26:22they could have been spotted.
26:23They would have to
26:25refuel at sea repeatedly,
26:27which is an extremely
26:28difficult operation.
26:31And perhaps the greatest
26:33difficulty was keeping
26:34the whole thing secret.
26:36So Yamamoto estimated
26:38his chances
26:39at probably about 50-50.
26:42He was a gambler,
26:43and 50-50
26:44looked pretty good to him.
26:46So there's a real irony here.
26:49On the one hand,
26:50Yamamoto has been saying
26:51for months
26:51that we would be insane
26:53to go to war
26:54against the Americans.
26:55And yet,
26:56on the other hand,
26:57he is absolutely dogmatic
26:59about making sure
27:00that his own vision
27:01of the attack
27:02against the Americans
27:03is adopted.
27:09Meanwhile,
27:10in Washington,
27:10American intelligence
27:12has broken Japan's
27:14secret communication code.
27:16And it's clear
27:17from the messages
27:17that Tojo
27:19is gearing up for war.
27:21The Americans
27:22are reading this message traffic
27:23with Admiral Nomura,
27:25who was the Japanese
27:25ambassador to the United States,
27:27so that we knew
27:28that Nomura
27:29was getting this message
27:30that said,
27:30you must do certain things
27:32by the end of November,
27:35or other things
27:36are automatically
27:37going to happen.
27:44The Japanese
27:45had six
27:46large-deck
27:48aircraft carriers.
27:49They could carry
27:49as many as 450
27:51combat airplanes.
27:52And what Yamamoto
27:53wanted to do
27:54was use all six of them
27:55to strike Pearl Harbor.
27:57So that made
27:58this grouping
27:59the largest
28:01concentration
28:01of naval air power
28:03in the world
28:03at the time.
28:05The Americans
28:06were operating
28:07very much
28:08of the mindset
28:09of the time
28:10of the interwar period.
28:11The Japanese,
28:13partly because
28:13they were forced
28:14to make
28:15the imagination
28:16leap required
28:18to think
28:19of using
28:20the aircraft carriers
28:21alone
28:22as a strike force
28:23to cripple the fleet.
28:30knowing from
28:31the intercepts
28:31that Japan
28:32is poised
28:33for war,
28:35Washington alerts
28:36all military forces
28:37in the Pacific.
28:40And so a message
28:41was sent
28:42to Pearl Harbor
28:42that began
28:44with a nine-word sentence
28:45that really is
28:46probably the most famous
28:47in American naval history.
28:49It said,
28:50this dispatch
28:50is to be
28:52considered a war warning.
28:53And it then went on
28:55to list
28:56possible targets
28:57the Philippines,
29:00Malaya,
29:00and husband Kimmel
29:01in Hawaii
29:02got that message.
29:03And he sat down
29:04with his executive staff
29:06and they analyzed
29:07what does this mean?
29:08What should we do?
29:10And they concluded,
29:11well,
29:11they are specifically
29:12noting
29:13that the Japanese
29:14are going here,
29:15here, and here,
29:15but they don't mention us.
29:19Admiral Kimmel
29:20believes
29:21that he is going
29:22to have to send
29:22his fleet out
29:23to support
29:24whatever area
29:25does get attacked.
29:27So Kimmel focused
29:28on making sure
29:28the ships were ready,
29:29they were fueled up,
29:30they had good training,
29:32they were ready
29:32to go out to sea
29:33when the Japanese struck,
29:34wherever they struck,
29:35and everyone expected
29:37a Japanese attack.
29:38While Kimmel
29:39prepares his fleet
29:40to attack
29:41the Japanese at sea,
29:43Army head
29:44General Short
29:45has to defend
29:46the base.
29:48but he expects
29:49the real threat
29:50to come from
29:52within the island.
29:54There were
29:55more people
29:56of Japanese ancestry
29:57than any other
29:58nationality,
29:59including native Hawaiians.
30:01And there was
30:02this widespread feeling
30:03that if war came,
30:04they would all rise up
30:05and they would
30:05plant bombs
30:06under bridges.
30:07So Short
30:08wanted to guard
30:09against people
30:09committing acts
30:10of sabotage.
30:13And in the end,
30:14he ends up
30:15issuing an order
30:16that requires
30:17his airfields
30:18to put all
30:19of their aircraft
30:20on the center
30:21of the tarmac
30:22where they can be
30:22guarded around the clock.
30:28But what the Americans
30:29don't know
30:30is that a vast armada
30:33is now making its way
30:34across the Pacific Ocean.
30:36The attack
30:37is less than
30:38a week away.
30:40But for the Japanese,
30:41it's been months
30:43in the planning.
30:44The Japanese
30:45knew this was something
30:47that had to be
30:48meticulously planned.
30:49They had to decide
30:51which mix
30:52of airplanes
30:53to use,
30:54which targets
30:55were the priority targets,
30:57who would lead
30:58which squadrons.
30:59Everything
30:59was planned.
31:02And there was
31:03some intelligence
31:04that could only
31:05be collected
31:05on the ground.
31:07Of the thousands
31:08of Japanese residents
31:10on Hawaii.
31:11One was
31:12Takeo Yoshikawa,
31:14a Japanese citizen,
31:16a naval officer,
31:17who'd been living
31:18on the island
31:19for eight months,
31:20working as a spy.
31:22Every day,
31:23he'd been observing
31:24the movements
31:25of the ships
31:25and aircraft
31:26down to the
31:27smallest details.
31:34On board one of the ships,
31:36there were two models
31:37of Pearl Harbor
31:39and Oahu,
31:39actual scale models
31:41that had been built
31:42on tabletops.
31:43They even made
31:45little miniature warships
31:47about the size
31:48of a Hershey bar,
31:49so that pilots
31:51could practice
31:52which directions
31:53to come from
31:54and would recognize
31:55the landmarks
31:56on the island.
31:59Signs of an impending
32:01attack continue
32:02to grow.
32:06It became evident
32:07that Japanese embassies
32:09and consulates
32:10were starting
32:11to destroy
32:12their secret code machines
32:14and documents.
32:15Now, why would
32:16a country do that?
32:18Well, a country
32:19that's about to go
32:20to war
32:21with another country
32:22realizes that
32:24the host country
32:26will probably
32:27come knocking
32:28on your embassy
32:29front door
32:30and seize
32:31everything it can find.
32:33The news of that
32:35destruction
32:35was sent
32:36to the Pacific Fleet
32:38in Hawaii,
32:39and its commander,
32:41husband Kimmel,
32:42read the message,
32:44and he read it as,
32:45they think
32:46we are going
32:47to attack them,
32:48so they are
32:50destroying
32:51their stuff
32:51in anticipation
32:53of being attacked.
33:06There's a strong
33:07sense of fatalism
33:08in Japanese culture,
33:09the sacrifice
33:09of your life
33:10for the greater good,
33:12for the empire,
33:12for the emperor.
33:14This is the highest
33:15duty
33:16and the greatest honor.
33:20When the word
33:21finally was passed
33:22to the typical
33:23crewman,
33:24many, of course,
33:25did the obvious thing.
33:26They began writing
33:27their wills
33:28and sending letters
33:29to their family.
33:35December the 6th, 1941.
33:38The Japanese fleet
33:39are 200 miles
33:41off the north coast
33:42of Hawaii
33:44and closing in
33:45on their final
33:46destination.
33:48Against the odds,
33:49they have survived
33:50the epic journey
33:51undetected.
33:53The American fleet
33:54at Pearl Harbor
33:55had no idea
33:56they are there.
34:01The American secretary
34:03of the Navy,
34:03Frank Knox,
34:04had a dinner party
34:05in Washington, D.C.,
34:06where members
34:06of the press
34:07were invited
34:08and they asked him
34:08to say a few words
34:09and he said,
34:09ladies and gentlemen,
34:11I don't know
34:12what's going to happen.
34:13None of us know
34:13what's going to happen,
34:14but I can tell you this
34:15with great assurity,
34:16whatever may happen,
34:17we will not be surprised.
34:19The American Navy
34:20is ready.
34:21The American Navy
34:21is ready.
34:50The American Navy
34:59radar was a new invention
35:01in 1941.
35:03The Army had mobile radar units.
35:08One of those was
35:09at the farthest northern point
35:12of the island of Oahu,
35:13manned by two privates,
35:16and they had been told
35:17to operate their radar
35:19just for practice.
35:20Nobody had told them
35:21there's anything
35:22to worry about.
35:22And at 7.02 a.m.,
35:24they detected on the screen
35:26a large blob of airplanes.
35:33And they called down
35:35to their headquarters.
35:36There's this blob
35:37of planes out there.
35:39We don't know how many,
35:40but it's a lot.
35:41And headquarters
35:42essentially told them,
35:43don't worry about it,
35:45they're probably Navy planes.
35:46They could be Army planes
35:47coming from the mainland.
35:51The privates had,
35:53in fact,
35:54spotted 183 planes
35:56that comprise the first wave
35:59of Japanese aircraft
36:00heading directly towards them.
36:04At 7.53 a.m.,
36:07the planes arrive at Oahu
36:09to find a sitting duck
36:11awaiting them.
36:13Pearl Harbor happens
36:15on a quiet Sunday morning
36:18when American sailors
36:20are going about their business
36:21as if it is any other Sunday
36:23at peacetime.
36:24The initial thought is
36:26that for some reason
36:27there's training on Sunday,
36:29and that seems wildly unbelievable.
36:32Why are their planes in the air?
36:35The Japanese had certainly
36:37banked on the element of surprise,
36:38that they would catch
36:40the American fleet
36:41and the airfields unawares,
36:42but they had to assume
36:43that there'd be some reaction.
36:47The sight that greets them,
36:49you know,
36:49no enemy fighters in the sky.
36:51They must now have been
36:52thinking to themselves
36:53that not only are they
36:54going to pull off this attack,
36:56but we may, in fact,
36:58walk away with far fewer casualties
36:59than we had anticipated.
37:03They cruise in
37:04on a lovely morning.
37:05The air is clear,
37:07makes it very easy
37:08to identify their targets,
37:09and so they go into their dives
37:11and they drop their bombs.
37:23The Japanese target
37:25the airfields first,
37:27taking out any defense planes
37:29before they have a chance
37:30to fight back.
37:32And thanks to General Short's orders,
37:35the planes make perfect targets,
37:37parked together on the runways.
37:40And anti-aircraft ammunition
37:42is locked away from saboteurs.
37:48For some on the ground,
37:50it meant a desperate scramble
37:52to find the keys.
37:58They couldn't find a guy with the keys.
38:02We can't do nothing.
38:03We were just spectators
38:04because we couldn't fire.
38:09After destroying hundreds of planes
38:11within minutes,
38:13next, the Japanese
38:14turn their attention
38:15to the real prize,
38:18Battleship Road,
38:22Battleship Road.
38:24I'll never forget all those cruisers
38:26and battleships
38:26who were tied
38:27mostly with behind each
38:29that on the side
38:29by the field.
38:31And they're selling there
38:31just like a harness.
38:36And within minutes,
38:38everything's aflame.
38:44Their comrades are dead.
38:46They're watching these ships
38:47that they considered invulnerable,
38:49the greatest battleships
38:50in the world,
38:51beginning to burn.
38:53It would have been
38:54just a cacophony of noise
38:56and a crush of men
38:57going in these narrow passageways
38:59trying to get
39:00their ships operational.
39:01People moving through hatchways,
39:03up and down ladders.
39:04You have to run to your guns
39:05and do something
39:06to defend your ship
39:07because if you don't,
39:08you're all going to die.
39:13And the attack only intensifies
39:17as the Japanese
39:18unveil their secret weapon.
39:22And as I looked,
39:23just as I looked west,
39:25I saw them drop
39:26two torpedoes in the water.
39:31Americans tended to disparage
39:33the technological prowess
39:35of the Japanese.
39:36They were not thought
39:37to be great engineers.
39:40Knowing that Pearl Harbor
39:42was impervious to torpedoes,
39:44in the weeks leading up
39:45to the attack,
39:46the Japanese had come up
39:47with an ingenious solution.
39:49They built a brand new
39:51type of torpedo
39:52that can be dropped
39:53in shallow water.
39:55Fixing wooden fins
39:57and other things
39:57to the torpedoes
39:58that would absorb
39:59the initial impact
40:00of the weapon,
40:01allow it to dive
40:02not quite so deeply.
40:05They're able to utilize
40:06what the Americans think
40:08is an advantage
40:09for the Americans
40:10and turn it on its head.
40:12It's like adding insult
40:14to injury here
40:14because they're not just
40:15being attacked
40:16from the dive bombers.
40:17The torpedoes are clearly working,
40:18wreaking devastation.
40:22The Japanese get
40:23a very lucky shot
40:24and one of their bombs
40:25strikes the forward magazine
40:27of the USS Arizona.
40:31And it just lifts the ship
40:32out of the water.
40:34In just a few seconds,
40:35more than 1,100 sailors
40:37are killed.
40:38And so this is the most
40:40devastating blow
40:41of the entire morning.
40:43For one American
40:45watching the events unfold,
40:47the attack is more
40:48than a national catastrophe.
40:52On that morning,
40:53Kimmel was slated
40:55to play golf with Short.
40:57Kimmel was up
40:58when he got the phone call
40:59that planes were now
41:01attacking Pearl Harbor.
41:03He put on his uniform,
41:05had it only partially buttoned,
41:07and walked out
41:08onto the lawn
41:09of his house
41:10and from there
41:11looked out
41:13at history unfolding
41:14in front of him.
41:19Bombs are going off
41:20and Japanese planes
41:21are flying by
41:22and it's a nightmare.
41:25But Kimmel's nightmare
41:26is made even worse
41:28by the fact
41:29that he'd missed
41:30a glaring opportunity
41:31to act that very morning.
41:34around half an hour
41:36before the Japanese
41:37planes arrived,
41:38he'd received
41:39a phone call
41:40that an enemy submarine
41:42had been spotted
41:43and destroyed
41:44by an American ship
41:45just outside
41:47Pearl Harbor.
41:49Despite the warning,
41:51he'd failed
41:51to prepare for attack.
41:54So the great irony here
41:56is that America
41:57fires the first shot
41:58in the Pacific War
41:59because we fling
42:00all these depth charges
42:01at this Japanese
42:02midget submarine
42:03so we fire the first shot
42:05and then we stand down
42:06and allow ourselves
42:07to be attacked.
42:09Kimmel has heard
42:10so many war warnings
42:12at this point
42:13that even when
42:14USS Ward says,
42:16I depth charged
42:17this submarine
42:17and sank it,
42:19he just doesn't believe
42:20that it could possibly
42:21be true.
42:22That's, you know,
42:23one of the failings
42:25that morning.
42:27Kimmel knew
42:28his days as commander
42:30of the Pacific Fleet
42:31were over.
42:33and of course
42:34later famously said
42:35if only one of those
42:37bombs had killed me
42:38how much better
42:38it would have been.
42:44By 9.45 a.m.
42:46the attack is over.
42:48In just two hours,
42:50the Japanese
42:51had dropped
42:52hundreds of bombs
42:53and dozens of torpedoes
42:55and dozens of torpedoes
42:56to cripple
42:56the American Pacific Fleet.
43:00328 American aircraft
43:02are put out of action,
43:0419 Navy ships destroyed,
43:07and in total,
43:092,403 Americans
43:13would be killed.
43:16It was a terrible thing
43:17as we went out
43:19of the harbor
43:19to see
43:20men in the water
43:24bodies.
43:25It was a horrible sight.
43:34So the Japanese
43:35could call it
43:36a perfect day.
43:38We've pulled this thing off.
43:39It was extremely daring.
43:41We know that we've hit the enemy
43:43terribly hard.
43:45They feel
43:46it's mission accomplished.
43:49With the Pacific Fleet
43:51in ruins,
43:52the Japanese
43:53can push ahead
43:54with territorial expansion
43:56in the South Pacific.
43:57Within 24 hours,
44:00they invade Hong Kong,
44:02Thailand,
44:02Malaysia,
44:03and the Philippines
44:04and quickly drive south.
44:07In a matter of weeks,
44:09they would have taken
44:10over thousands
44:11of miles of territory,
44:13reaching even
44:14the ultimate prize,
44:16the oil
44:17of the Dutch East Indies.
44:20Emboldened
44:21by their success
44:22at Pearl Harbor
44:22and new territorial gains,
44:25and with the valuable
44:26oil supply
44:27feeding their
44:28huge war machine,
44:30the Japanese
44:31feel more powerful
44:32than ever.
44:35But as the new empire
44:37takes shape,
44:38the man behind
44:39the plan
44:39to destroy Pearl Harbor,
44:41Admiral Yamamoto,
44:43falls into a depression.
44:45He fears the attack
44:47missed important targets.
44:50Yamamoto,
44:51having spent some time
44:52in the United States,
44:53knew two things.
44:55Number one,
44:56that Americans
44:56worshipped their battleships.
44:58So if you knock
44:59the battleships out
45:00in the first round,
45:02Americans would feel
45:03as if they were stripped
45:05of their most potent weapon.
45:06The other thing
45:07that Yamamoto knew
45:08was that the Americans
45:10had really good
45:11aircraft carriers
45:13and great aircraft
45:14and pilots on them.
45:15That was the thing
45:16that needed to get
45:17knocked out.
45:17And the worst possible outcome
45:19was to destroy
45:21their battleships
45:22and leave their aircraft
45:22carriers untouched,
45:24which is exactly
45:24what happened.
45:27By total chance,
45:29America's three
45:29Pacific aircraft carriers
45:31had not been
45:32in Pearl Harbor
45:33on the morning
45:34of December the 7th.
45:38While his colleagues
45:39don't see this
45:40as important,
45:42Yamamoto understands
45:43its significance.
45:48He was an innovator
45:50out front
45:51in terms of
45:51recognizing
45:52the significance
45:53of air power
45:54at sea
45:55and recognized
45:56that this was
45:57the coming wave.
45:59So if you look
46:00at aircraft carriers
46:02as the fundamental units
46:03of the fleet,
46:04Pearl Harbor
46:04does nothing
46:05to weaken
46:06the United States.
46:09But there was
46:10another reason
46:11that Yamamoto's
46:12mood was low.
46:13as he'd feared,
46:15the American public
46:16hadn't reacted
46:17as his military
46:18colleagues were hoping.
46:21Far from being
46:22shocked into submission,
46:23the attack
46:24had completely
46:25the opposite effect.
46:28The Japanese
46:29really kick over
46:32a hornet's nest
46:32because the Americans
46:33are like,
46:34wow,
46:34we can't take
46:35this sitting down.
46:36We need to strike back.
46:38People want to be
46:39involved in this war.
46:40People are rushing
46:40to the recruiting stations.
46:42A country like
46:43the United States
46:44is never going
46:45to be brought
46:45to its knees
46:46as the result
46:47of losing one battle.
46:48No matter how devastating
46:50the Japanese attack
46:51had been,
46:51had they sunk
46:51every single battleship,
46:53had they found
46:54and sunk those carriers,
46:55it still would have meant
46:57that the United States
46:58was galvanized
46:59into a full-scale war.
47:03The one man
47:04who understood
47:05immediately
47:07the true meaning
47:08of Pearl Harbor
47:09was, of course,
47:09Winston Churchill
47:10because he knew
47:11that although
47:12a vast amount
47:13of dying
47:14and killing
47:15had to go on,
47:16that once the United States
47:18was in the war
47:20with this stupendous
47:22economic and industrial power,
47:24that the Allies
47:25must in the end prevail.
47:27Churchill claimed
47:28he went to bed
47:29that night
47:29saying to himself
47:31in his head,
47:32so we had won after all.
47:34With anti-Japanese feeling
47:36at an all-time high,
47:38President Franklin Roosevelt
47:40grasps the opportunity
47:41to unite the country
47:43for the fight ahead.
47:44In a speech to Congress,
47:46he declares war
47:48on this new
47:49and evil enemy.
47:51Roosevelt calls it
47:52dastardly and evil.
47:53He calls it
47:54a day of infamy.
47:55American opinion
47:56rallies strongly
47:57against Japan.
47:59No matter how long
48:00it may take us
48:01to overcome
48:03this premeditated invasion,
48:06the American people
48:07in their righteous might
48:09will win through
48:11to absolute victory.
48:13From a political standpoint,
48:15Pearl Harbor
48:16is a gift
48:17to, you know,
48:19FDR
48:19that he couldn't
48:20have possibly imagined,
48:21that all of a sudden,
48:22all of the roadblocks
48:24to being able
48:25to fight against the Axis
48:27have been magically removed.
48:28Four days after
48:30Roosevelt's speech
48:31marks the beginning
48:32of the war with Japan,
48:34Hitler weighs in,
48:36declaring war
48:37on the U.S.
48:39Less than a week
48:39after the Pearl Harbor attack,
48:41united and galvanized,
48:44America is now
48:45a fully-fledged
48:46combatant
48:46in World War II.
48:49Within days,
48:51Roosevelt lays plans
48:52for the bombing of Tokyo,
48:53using two of the aircraft carriers
48:56that were untouched
48:57during Pearl Harbor.
49:00In three months,
49:02half of the ships
49:03thought to have been destroyed
49:05during the attack
49:06are returned to service.
49:09Eventually,
49:10all but three
49:11will be fully repaired.
49:15As the Pacific conflict
49:16continues into 1942,
49:19and the full military
49:21might of America
49:23is unleashed,
49:24the war is only
49:26just beginning.
49:27The U.S.
50:14You
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