Original subtitles

At 7:56 on the morning of December 7th, 1941,

Japanese aircraft swooped down over Hawaii.

Their target - the US Pacific Fleet

at anchor in its base at Pearl Harbor.

Five US ships were hit immediately.

A few minutes later, more Japanese aircraft joined in.

By 8:35, two US battleships were sinking,

two had capsized and two were badly damaged.

A seventh battleship, the "Nevada",

slipped her moorings and was heading out to sea

when she too was caught and forced to beach.

Simultaneously, Japanese Zero fighters

strafed US aircraft lined up on the island's airstrips.

They also shot up nearby army barracks.

By the end of the attack dozens of US warships

had been sunk or damaged.

188 aircraft were also destroyed.

The next day, US President Franklin Roosevelt

declared war on Japan.

Since the unprovoked and dastardly attack

by Japan on Sunday December 7th, 1941,

a state of war

has existed between the United States

and the Japanese empire.

The stage was set.

Could Japan knock out the United States with a swift blow

before the huge might of America ground it down?

It would become one of the great conflicts of World War Two.

Japan's first steps towards war had come in August 1940.

Capitalizing on France's defeat in Europe,

it seized control of air bases

in the north of the French colony of Indo-China.

It was looking for a quick and easy expansion of its empire.

A year later, it issued an ultimatum

demanding the use of all French air bases throughout Indo-China.

When the French hesitated,

the Japanese invaded and seized control of the entire colony.

Japan felt the consequences almost immediately.

The United States froze its overseas financial assets,

effectively robbing the country of its ability to buy oil.

Japan faced a choice; climb down and lose face,

or seize more territory and up the stakes.

For a new Japanese government,

under the aggressive General Hideki Tojo,

there was no question about which course to take.

Japanese army and navy commanders were told to prepare

for a swift war to occupy all the Far Eastern territories

controlled by Britain, France,

the Netherlands and the United States.

The country was expecting a swift victory.

Japan saw the Americans, in particular,

as a nation of pleasure lovers with no stomach

for a lengthy war and heavy casualties.

The Japanese military calculated that if they could destroy

the US Pacific Fleet, the US would quickly sue for peace.

It was now that they decided to attack Pearl Harbor.

Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto,

commander of the Japanese combined fleet,

was put in charge.

He had ten battleships, ten aircraft carriers

and the world's most advanced naval aircraft.

Against him, the US Pacific Fleet

had eight World War One-vintage battleships and two carriers.

Yamamoto planned the attack with great care.

He would hit the US fleet in Pearl Harbor on a Sunday,

since, according to intelligence reports,

it usually spent the weekends in port.

In total radio silence the Japanese strike force

gathered in Tankan Bay in the northerly Kurile Islands.

The fleet set sail on November 26th, 1941.

Meanwhile, as a decoy,

Japanese negotiators arrived in Washington

to discuss a possible Japanese withdrawal from China.

The Japanese fleet refueled after several days at sea.

Three days later, it was off Hawaii.

The Americans were still blissfully unaware

that anything was wrong.

At 6:00am on December 7th, after a final briefing,

the first wave of Japanese aircraft took off.

As the Japanese aircraft dived into the attack,

US personnel were still just stirring,

on a fine Sunday morning.

It was all over in less than two and a quarter hours.

Yamamoto's plan had worked like a dream.

Or had it?

There was only one problem.

The US fleet's two aircraft carriers

had not been in Pearl Harbor at the time

and had escaped the attack.

Yamamoto's main aim of crippling the US Pacific Fleet

had only partially succeeded.

US naval air power in the region was still intact.

But in the United States there was shock and disbelief.

It quickly turned into a mood of fury and determination.

Angry mobs attacked the Japanese embassy.

Japan had disturbed a sleeping giant.

The US Secretary of the Navy, Frank Knox, spoke for many.

The Japs started this war.

We are going to finish it.

Yet before the US could mobilize its full strength,

the Japanese were to inflict more humiliating defeats

on the Western Allies.

In December 1941, as America was licking its wounds

after Pearl Harbor, Japan launched a series of attacks

on Western colonies in South-East Asia.

It thought it had knocked out America.

Now it moved against Britain and its colonies.

The first to be hit was Malaya,

where a Japanese force came ashore

in the north-east of the country.

The plan was that it should make its way south

down the east coast.

The invasion force was met by a contingent

of British Indian troops.

But after a day of fighting, they were brushed aside.

Meanwhile, further north in Thailand,

a second Japanese landing was unopposed.

Thirty thousand Japanese troops

were soon making their way down the western coast of Malaya.

The target of the two groups - Singapore,

the center of British military

and political rule in the Far East.

Britain had turned the island into what it believed

was an impregnable fortress.

But all the guns pointed south, out to sea.

The Japanese were approaching by land from the north.

Yet British military commanders remained remarkably untroubled.

They didn't rate the Japanese as fighting men,

and believed the Malay jungle was,

anyway, virtually impassable.

But the Japanese had other ideas.

To soften up Singapore, they attacked the city from the air.

Britain sent the new battleship "Prince of Wales",

and a battle cruiser, "Repulse",

to attack Japanese troop convoys.

They were met by Japanese bombers.

Both warships were sunk in less than two hours.

Almost 1,000 of their crew were lost.

It was the greatest British naval disaster of World War Two.

In an era of aircraft and aircraft carriers,

it was now clear the battleship,

for years the mainstay of the British navy, had had its day.

Back on land the Japanese continued to head south

towards Singapore.

On January 11th, 1942, Kuala Lumpur was captured.

The British forces fell back and withdrew to Singapore.

There were now about 100,000 British soldiers to defend it.

They faced a force of only 30,000 Japanese.

Even without their big guns,

the British should have been able to hold out.

The Japanese launched an assault in early February.

It was supported by more air strikes.

The British defense was soon reduced to chaos.

Civilian casualties began to escalate.

Four days later, the Japanese had pushed through

the last of the British defensive lines.

The commander, General Arthur Percival,

surrendered with over 90,000 men.

Never in the history of the British army

had a commander in charge of such a large force

had to surrender, and to an enemy general

whose force was outnumbered more than three to one.

Britain's 200-year-old power and prestige in the Far East

had been wiped out in just ten weeks.

But it wasn't the only disaster.

Elsewhere in South-East Asia

the Japanese forces were equally triumphant.

The British garrison in Hong Kong fought for two weeks

before succumbing to a Japanese invasion.

In the Philippines, America fared no better.

Here, a pre-emptive bombing raid

caught large numbers of US aircraft

neatly lined up at Clark Field.

Most were destroyed.

Two days later, with US airpower virtually non-existent,

Japanese troops began to land.

The local Philippine troops melted away.

The Japanese advanced rapidly.

Ten days later, Manila was captured.

The US soldiers were forced to withdraw

to the Bataan Peninsula.

Here they hoped to hold out until a relief force could be sent.

It never came.

On April 3rd, 1942,

Japanese troops launched a major assault on US positions.

After four days heavy fighting, they broke through.

The Americans surrendered two days later.

That left just one British colony in the region, Burma.

In early 1942, Japanese forces

pushed into the south of the country.

The British defenses had been utterly neglected.

There were only some 15,000 men defending the country.

They were no match for the Japanese.

The Allied troops mounted a brief but doomed resistance.

Less than two months after invading Burma,

the Japanese had seized the capital, Rangoon.

Eight weeks later, the British had been pushed

entirely out of the country.

In just under six months, the Japanese had seized control

of the whole eastern rim of the Pacific.

Their Oriental Blitzkrieg had been swift and crushing.

Yet already there were warning signs

that they were not as powerful as they appeared.

On April 18th, 1942, four months after Pearl Harbor,

America struck back at the Japanese.

US bombers, flying low over Tokyo,

dropped bombs on the city close to the Emperor's Palace.

Others struck Yokohama, Kobe and Nagoya.

The raid, authorized by President Roosevelt himself,

was daring in the extreme.

The B-25 Mitchell bombers had not been designed

to be launched from aircraft carriers.

They barely managed to lumber off the deck

of the "USS Hornet",

which had brought them to within 700 miles

of the Japanese capital.

But that didn't diminish their effectiveness in the air.

In Japan, the raids caused profound shock.

After their runaway successes of the past four months,

they had never expected an attack on their homeland.

Japan's military planners now decided

to extend the country's defenses.

If they could seize additional strategic outposts

in the Pacific, they could attack and destroy

Allied forces before they even come close to the homeland.

Japan already controlled much of the Chinese coast,

South-East Asia and the Philippines.

They had also seized the Dutch East Indies.

Now they decided to strike south and attack Papua New Guinea

and the Solomon Islands.

And east to take the Island of Midway

in the middle of the Pacific.

It would mean the homeland was surrounded by a string

of fortified positions.

Yet, even as Japan was planning its move,

its operations were severely compromised,

though it only realized this after the war.

The United States had broken its military

and diplomatic codes.

By spring 1942,

the US Navy's code-breaking team in Hawaii

was reading enough messages to give it

a remarkably accurate insight into Japan's intentions.

So it was that the US Commander-in-Chief in the region,

Admiral Chester Nimitz,

learnt the details and timing of Japan's planned invasions

of the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea.

If successful they would cut off Australia from her allies.

A Japanese bombing raid on Darwin

had already caused widespread fear of an invasion.

In early May 1942,

the Japanese plan to widen its defensive perimeter was launched.

They seized the Solomon Islands.

Two days later, the Japanese carrier force

entered the Coral Sea in preparation

for the main assault on Papua New Guinea.

But this time, the Americans had anticipated them.

Admiral Nimitz had ordered two US aircraft carriers

and a number of smaller warships into the area.

For two days, the rival fleets searched for each other.

Then on May 7th, US aircraft located and sank

the Japanese carrier "Shoho".

The battle of the Coral Sea was underway.

Early the following day, the Japanese responded,

unleashing a hail of torpedoes and bombs.

To begin with the US aircraft carrier "Yorktown"

managed to avoid the Japanese torpedoes.

But then she took a bomb

which penetrated four decks before exploding.

Thirty-seven men were killed.

The larger and less maneuverable carrier "Lexington"

was also hit by several bombs as well as two torpedoes.

She developed a heavy list to port.

The Americans returned fire,

attacking the Japanese carrier "Shokaku".

The first US raid was blunted by Japanese Zero fighters,

which forced the US Douglas Devastator bombers

to drop their torpedoes too far out.

All the torpedoes missed.

But a second wave of US dive-bombers struck home.

The "Shokaku's" deck was so badly damaged

she could no longer be used by aircraft.

After two days of fighting,

the two forces finally disengaged.

That evening, the "Lexington", still afloat,

suddenly erupted in a huge explosion.

There had been an undetected leak of aviation fuel

that had caught fire.

Amazingly all but 215

of the nearly 3,000 men on board were rescued.

Later that evening, an American torpedo

scuttled the burning hulk.

The Battle of the Coral Sea was, on paper, a draw.

Each side had lost one carrier

and had another severely damaged.

Strategically, however it was a major US success.

It had prevented the Japanese from seizing more territory

and it had stopped them from isolating Australia.

The Battle of the Coral Sea marked a new era in naval tactics.

It was the first major sea battle

in which the opposing ships were completely

out of visual contact.

It was fought instead by aircraft flying from carriers.

It would soon become clear which side had adapted

to the new form of naval conflict more successfully.

By the late spring of 1942,

Japan and America were deadlocked.

Japan needed a quick victory if it was not to be ground down

by the huge resources of the United States.

In mid-May it began its next move.

US code-breakers reported Japanese plans for a new attack.

It would be on "Target AF", somewhere in the mid-Pacific.

The problem for the Americans was that they had no idea

where Target AF was.

Could it be a reference to Midway Island near Hawaii,

an ideal jumping off point for another attack

on the American fleet in Pearl Harbor?

The code-breaking team suggested a way to find out.

The US air base on Midway was instructed

to send an uncoded message

reporting problems with the island's water system.

Almost immediately the code-breakers intercepted a Japanese signal

that Target AF was having water supply problems.

Admiral Chester Nimitz now knew exactly

where the enemy would strike.

The Japanese plan was typically complex.

A diversionary attack on the Aleutian islands

in the North Pacific would draw away part of the US fleet.

While Midway was seized by an occupation force.

The Americans would be obliged to hurriedly commit

their carrier force to retaking the island.

There they would be annihilated by a huge Japanese naval presence,

including four large aircraft carriers.

It was the second Japanese attempt to wipe out

the US navy in the Pacific within a year.

Forewarned, the American carriers left port

and moved to a position where they could ambush the Japanese.

On June 3rd, 1942,

Japanese forces launched the expected attack

on the Aleutian Islands.

Nimitz didn't respond.

Then, early the next morning,

the main Japanese carrier force launched a first air strike

on Midway Island to soften up its defenses.

US war planes from the island intercepted them.

Most were outdated Brewster Buffaloes

and were easily shot down by the more agile Japanese Zero fighters.

But the Japanese attack had been blunted.

Midway's defenses had not been broken.

The Japanese commander, Admiral Chuichi Nagumo,

faced a difficult decision.

He'd kept some of his aircraft in reserve,

loaded with munitions designed specifically

for attacking ships, just in case the US fleet was spotted.

Should he now order this reserve to be stripped of its torpedoes

and armor-piercing bombs and reloaded with high explosive

and fragmentation bombs for a second strike on Midway?

It would leave him ill-equipped to take on the US navy,

but he calculated it was a risk worth taking.

Then, just as the reloading was underway,

he received unwelcome news.

A US naval force had been spotted.

Was this the US carrier force

or a smaller, less significant fleet of ships.

Nagumo was in a dilemma.

Should he continue with the second strike on Midway

or should he, once again, re-equip his bombers

to take on the US vessels?

Nagumo decided to gamble.

He would push ahead with the second strike on Midway.

His hope was that when the bombers returned,

there would still be time to rearm them to take on the US ships.

Even as he weighed the odds,

the Japanese carriers were attacked by US bombers.

Every available Japanese Zero fighter was scrambled

before the US bombers were repelled.

Then came another report from reconnaissance planes.

The US force did indeed contain aircraft carriers.

Nagumo was, once again, on the spot.

His aircraft were half way through reloading

but the US carriers were a much more important target.

He took a second gamble.

He decided to change their weapons yet again

to attack the US force.

But while he did so his ships would be sitting ducks.

Almost immediately they came under attack

from low-flying US torpedo bombers.

But they were old and slow

and attacked without fighter support.

As they approached the Japanese fleet,

they were rapidly shot down.

For a brief period it looked as though Nagumo's gamble had paid off.

Then, just as his bombers had been reloaded

and were ready to take on the US carriers,

disaster struck.

US dive-bombers, approaching unseen at high altitude,

hurtled down on his ships.

The Japanese were caught completely by surprise.

Nagumo had gambled once too often

and was now at the mercy of American air power.

Within five minutes the US dive-bombers had reduced

three of Japan's largest aircraft carriers to flaming wrecks.

All would later sink.

A fourth carrier, the "Hiryu",

had been masked by a rain storm

and that afternoon mounted a desperate counterattack.

The US carrier "Yorktown" was severely damaged.

It was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine several days later.

But the Japanese fight back was short-lived.

Late in the afternoon that day,

the "Hiryu" was also hit and turned into a blazing pyre.

In a matter of hours

Japan's mastery of the sea had been destroyed.

The attack on Midway Island had achieved nothing.

But it had cost Japan its finest carriers

and 332 aircraft.

Well over 2,000 sailors had also died.

America now ruled the waves in the Pacific.

Yet Japan was still undefeated on land

and a powerful, threatening, force in the air.

In the coming months, it would try to maximize these advantages.

By summer 1942,

Japanese plans to build a defensive ring

of occupied territories around their homeland

had still not been completed.

Heavy losses at sea had frustrated their attempts

to grab Papua New Guinea and islands in the central Pacific.

Japanese planners now came up with a new plan.

If they couldn't do it by sea they'd do it by land.

On July 21st, a division-sized force of experienced jungle troops

landed on the northern coast of Papua New Guinea.

They immediately struck west to capture Port Moresby,

the capital.

Progress was swift at first.

The small Australian defense force was

completely outnumbered.

Within weeks the Japanese had captured the main pass

over the Owen Stanley Mountains.

They then halted to await reinforcements

before the final push on Port Moresby.

The Australians also mustered new forces.

When the Japanese moved off again

they now met much stiffer resistance.

For the first time, Japanese troops were up against men

who matched them for training, experience and morale

The Australians stood their ground

and the Japanese were temporarily brought to a standstill.

But conditions in the jungle were appalling.,

There was constant tropical rain.

Malaria was rife.

The Australians were eventually, again, forced to retreat.

After two months of grim fighting,

the Japanese were within 30 miles of Port Moresby.

Then finally US reinforcements arrived.

Through September and October,

the Japanese were, in their turn, forced back.

The Japanese made an heroic but suicidal stand.

Many chose to die fighting rather than surrender.

It took the Allies another two months

before the Japanese were finally overwhelmed.

It had been a bloodbath.

15,000 Japanese troops had embarked on the operation.

Only 3,000 got away.

The Japanese were in trouble.

They'd lost at sea.

They were now rapidly losing the initiative on land.

American military might was asserting itself.

There was only one alternative left, airpower.

Through the summer of 1942,

Japanese engineers began building

a string of airstrips across the Pacific.

One was on the island of Guadalcanal

in the southern Solomon Islands.

It was particularly well situated

to threaten US convoys heading for Australia.

It would become the focus of an epic battle.

In July 1942, an amphibious force

of US Marines invaded the island.

They landed without resistance.

The plan was to capture the half-built airstrip,

complete it and then turn it into a US base.

But the Japanese were not ready to give up.

That night they sent in a naval force to land reinforcements

and to attack the fleet of US ships supporting the Marines.

In a dazzling display of night fighting the Japanese cruisers

sank four Allied warships and drove the rest out to sea.

The Marines were now marooned without supplies

and without much of their equipment.

They dug in around the airstrip.

Despite constant bombardment,

using construction machinery left behind by the Japanese,

they pushed ahead with the completion of the airfield.

Two weeks later a group of US Wildcat fighters

and Dauntless dive-bombers flew in.

They were not a moment too soon.

The next day newly arrived Japanese troops

launched a series of suicidal attacks on the airstrip.

Over the following months,

wave after wave of fanatical troops

were thrown into the battle.

By the winter of 1942,

the two sides had fought themselves to a standstill.

Both now dug in to defensive positions.

Then, in December, the exhausted US Marines

were replaced by fresh troops.

US soldiers now began a new push on the increasingly

isolated pockets of Japanese resistance.

By early February 1943,

the Americans had finally won control of Guadalcanal.

They had now beaten the Japanese at sea

and on land.

They had even denied them access to the air.

The Oriental Blitzkrieg had failed.

The Japanese empire now faced a foe

that was still growing in strength,

at a rate it could never hope to match.

It was the beginning of a fundamental shift

in the course of the war.