All language subtitles for World.War.II.with.Tom.Hanks.S01E04.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH.track2

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- The 1930s is a decade
of aggression.

Italy attacks Ethiopia,

dreaming
of a modern Roman Empire.

Hitler's Thousand-Year Reich
calls for his seizure

of Austria, Czechoslovakia,
and Poland.

The Japanese Empire expands

with the invasion
of Manchuria and China,

but intends to dominate
all of Asia.

To accomplish that,

the military in Japan
know they must first eliminate

the United States
as a seaborne power.

They act accordingly.

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- All wars change the world.

But none of them
change the world

like the Second World War did.

- Japan's on the march.
Germany's on the march.

- No one can imagine
the nightmare

they're about to unleash,

the most destructive war
in human history.

- Suddenly, the world
is turned upside down

and all hell is let loose.

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- The West is stunned
by the speed of the advance.

- You get the Allies,
led by the Big Three--

Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin--

men who are dealing with

immensely complicated
questions.

- It's the biggest military
operation of human history.

-The Allies have to
come together

not just militarily,

but industrial scale

it's a global perspective.

- They have to fight
in every climate

from the Arctic
to the jungles of the Pacific

to the deserts of Africa
and the depths of the ocean.

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- But there was
no certainty of victory.

It was going to be
a horrific bloodbath.

- We see humans
at their absolute worst,

how they treat other
human beings.

And we see them
at their absolute best,

willing to give their lives
that others might live.

- World War II was a struggle
in which there could be

one victor and one vanquished.

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- In late 1937,

the Japanese escalate
their military campaign

in China.

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They already occupy Manchuria.

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After three months
of fighting,

they take Shanghai...

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And move to the ancient
Chinese capital of Nanking.

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The Japanese brutality
that follows

will shock the world.

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- They enter the city,

but instead
of just occupying it,

they let the Japanese troops
off the leash.

They rape, they pillage,

they burn, they steal.

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- The Japanese commanders

ordered their soldiers
not to take any prisoners,

which meant executions.

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- This was Japanese soldiers

looking down on the Chinese
as an inferior people

and as being nonhumans.

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Japanese soldier who committed
atrocities himself--

he described it
as killing pigs.

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- Japanese officers
had a competition

to see who could be the first
to kill 100 civilians

with a sword.

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- This was printed
in Japanese newspaper.

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- To show pictures of swordsmen

decapitating bound prisoners

in the 20th century...

made the people
doing the killing

seem almost like they were
barbarians from another era.

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And it struck Americans and
people in the Western world

in a different way

than had they shown people
being lined up against a wall

and shot.

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- Hundreds of thousands
of people

raped and murdered
by the Japanese.

It was called
the Rape of Nanking.

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- In just six weeks,
the Japanese army

killed 200,000 Chinese
in Nanking.

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Most are civilians.

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- The Japanese invasion
does identify

the Japanese as an aggressive
power in the Pacific,

that they are brutal

in the way that they've treated
the population.

And this starts to change
people's perceptions

with regards to the Japanese.

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- By the end of 1939,

Japan controls vast areas

of north and central China,

as well as the southern
port cities.

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The Japanese are driven
by the desire

for raw materials.

- The luck
of the historical draw

has put the Japanese people

on a series
of beautiful islands

which are, unfortunately,
resource poor.

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Take iron ore.

The Japanese have almost
no indigenous sources

of iron ore.

Their steel industry is based
on U.S. scrap iron.

They need the raw materials

and almost limitless manpower
of China.

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- Japan is a modern
and complex nation.

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At the pinnacle of society
is the emperor Hirohito...

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The 124th emperor of Japan.

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- The constitution made
the emperor of Japan

a divine figure...

literally a living god.

-

-

- Taken literally,
he's a god on Earth--

a mystical figure who people

aren't really supposed to have
much direct contact with.

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- Emperor Hirohito is not
really a policymaker in Japan.

He's not the wartime planner.

He doesn't go through details
of tax policy

in the way you would think

a president
or a prime minister does.

He's a guarantor
and a protector

of Japanese tradition.

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- Emperor Hirohito
approves government policy.

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But real power lies

with the Japanese army
and navy

and its political allies.

They want Imperial Japan
to control Asia.

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- For the last couple
of decades,

it has been
a major industrial power,

powerful economy.

Its armed forces
have been built up.

It's in a really strong
position.

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- The Japanese resent
the Western colonial empires

that dominate Southeast Asia
and control resources.

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The British rule
over Hong Kong,

Burma, Malaya, and Singapore.

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There's French Indochina...

and the Dutch East Indies.

Even the United States
has territories

called protectorates
in Guam and the Philippines.

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Japan intends to create
what they term

the Greater East Asia
Co-Prosperity Sphere

under their leadership.

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- By this point, Japan is
Asia's preeminent power

by a long way,
and I think because of that,

the Japanese have a sense
that they are destined

to bring the rest of Asia
with them.

- Japan had an interest
in becoming the supreme power

of not only continental China
but also Asia.

"Asia for the Asians" was one
of the propaganda slogans,

one of the key slogans
of the Japanese Empire.

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Asia for the Asians
was understood

by some Japanese politicians
at the time

as an honest interest
in liberating Asia

from the Western colonizers.

But there were some voices
in the Japanese military

who had
a different understanding

of the phrase
"Asia for the Asians,"

saying, okay,
Asia for the Asians

means actually Asia for Japan.

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- You get people

in the Japanese government
who are militarists,

who have a very constrained
view of the world.

Their attitudes are
somewhat disdainful

of Western comfort

and softness
and all these sorts of things.

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- The Japanese
believe their soldiers

are the toughest in the world.

They combine modern weapons

with the traditional training
and values

of the samurai warrior,

known as the code of Bushido.

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- Bushido was
an older tradition

that had now been inculcated

into the manpower
of the Japanese army.

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The Japanese didn't choose
this aspect

of their history randomly.

They don't have the aircraft
to compete with the West.

They don't have the heavier
tanks and artillery.

There needs to be
an equalizer.

And they believe
they found that equalizer

in the superior fighting spirit
of the Japanese soldier.

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- By 1940, Japan controls
most of China.

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In Washington,

President Franklin D.
Roosevelt is alarmed

and fears
further Japanese aggression

could threaten the entire
Asian Pacific region.

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- Japan is
an authoritarian power

organized and driven by
a theory of racial superiority

on a march
of aggressive conquest.

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That was what Japan was doing.

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- Now, the only problem there
is that the United States

has traditionally seen
the Pacific

as its own area of operations.

- Roosevelt is determined
to dislodge Japan from China,

and the Japanese
are determined to stay.

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- To counter continued
Japanese aggression in China,

Roosevelt orders
the U.S. fleet

to move from San Diego
to Pearl Harbor--

a naval base on Hawaii

2,000 miles closer
to the Japanese mainland.

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- This is a land that is an
extension of the United States.

It is the United States.

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- Roosevelt is sending
a clear signal

he hopes will deter Japan:

the Pacific is
America's sphere of influence.

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- He wants the fleet to be
positioned far enough forward

that the Japanese
will take it seriously,

but at the same time
not to be overtly provocative

by moving it to a place
like the Philippines

or maybe Singapore.

- Pearl Harbor
is now the front line

of American naval power
in the Pacific.

- The Pearl Harbor
naval base is perfect...

because it's got a narrow
channel into a wide harbor

with an island
right in the middle.

So it looks like a fortress.

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- Outside the naval base is
the thriving city of Honolulu.

- The Hawaiian islands
to America

looks like a paradise...

beautiful beaches,
relaxed culture,

amazing weather.

- But there are
security concerns

among top naval
and army commanders.

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- Because now they
are surrounded

by a population that
is disproportionately Asian

and a population
that also includes

a very large percentage
of Japanese Americans.

- 30% of the population
of the Hawaiian Islands

has Japanese heritage.

- One of the major fears
is sabotage

from local Japanese Americans.

General Short,

who is in charge
of the army at Hawaii,

is much more afraid
of sabotage than air attack.

So he takes the fighter planes

out of their
protective bunkers,

lines 'em up on the airfield,

where he thinks his soldiers
can protect them

from sabotage.

Unfortunately, he's presented
a line of sitting ducks.

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- The U.S. expands its profile
in the Pacific

at the same time
as Germany's forces

sweep through Europe

and conquer nation
after nation.

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- Hitler doesn't realize
what he's done,

but in toppling France,
he set in motion

a kind of ripple effect
of aggression

that is going
to move far and wide.

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- Going back
to the First World War,

there's a sense in Japan

that when things
happen in Europe,

there's an opportunity
for Japan in Asia.

If they can get
their hands on something

while the big powers are busy
in Europe, then they will.

That's exactly what happens
in June 1940.

- Germany's conquests
present Japan

with an opportunity.

Germany now occupies
the Netherlands--

colonial ruler of the oil-rich
Dutch East Indies.

Great Britain,
still at war with Germany,

controls the resources
of Malaya, Singapore,

Burma, and Hong Kong.

And the French,
who rule Indochina,

have surrendered to the Nazis.

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- The Japanese now realize

that opportunity is beckoning.

The Dutch can't defend the
Dutch East Indies any longer.

The British are going
to have a heck of a time

trying to defend Singapore

and on and on--
the French and Indochina.

The resources await.

And it seems to the Japanese

that a once-in-a-century
opportunity

has arisen to seize
those colonies.

Who's going to defend them?

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- So the French are overrun
by the Nazis.

You have the Vichy regime
being set up.

The Japanese really have
their eyes on Indochina

because
of the resources there,

the sense that actually it
won't put up much of a fight,

given that the French
are busy elsewhere.

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- Japan's first target
is French Indochina.

In September 1940,

it pressures
the French Vichy government

to cede to them
the northern region.

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That same month,

Japan's leaders
signed a formal alliance

with Germany and Italy
called the Tripartite Pact.

The three nations become known
as the Axis powers.

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- One of the characteristics
of the Axis, of course,

is that they were three

hyper-aggressive militant
powers eager for war.

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- Hey, America...

- They're strange bedfellows.

There seems to be no overlap
between German interests,

which are focused on Eurasia,

Italian interests,
focused on the Mediterranean

and north and east Africa.

Japanese interests
are in East Asia.

And so there's no obvious
overlap between the three.

They come together because
they're all kind of outcasts.

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- The Tripartite Pact
is a marriage of convenience,

to try and put
the Americans off

from entering any kind
of conflict with Japan.

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There isn't a great deal
of ideology there.

It's simply a case of,

how do we keep the Americans
at bay for now

so that we can do
what we need to do in Asia?

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- In the summer of 1941,

the American-Japanese
relationship

reaches crisis level

when Japan takes control
over all of French Indochina.

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- The French yield,
and the Japanese come down,

and they start
helping themselves

to the resources they need
to keep the war going.

And then eventually they just
outright take it over.

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- It's a great source
of resources.

It's also a great staging post

for whatever else you might
want to do in Southeast Asia.

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- Japan now has access
to even more raw materials.

- The thinking in Tokyo is,

we need to get tin and bauxite
from Malaya.

We need to get oil
from the Dutch East Indies.

We need to get rice
from the Philippines.

And everything
you need is there.

It's a no-brainer.

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- The United States
has one major weapon

to force Japan out of China
and Southeast Asia,

and President Roosevelt
is about to use it.

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- In the summer of 1941,

the United States
takes its strongest stand yet

against Japan's
territorial ambitions.

- The United States
has been concerned

about Japanese expansion
and aggression in Asia

for some time.

Roosevelt has stopped short
of a military response,

but there's been a series
of embargoes--

embargo on weapons,
an embargo on scrap iron.

- Japan is almost
entirely dependent

on oil imported from the U.S.,

so FDR imposes an embargo
on the Japanese.

- In the summer of 1941,

America essentially
turns off the tap.

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- The embargo
becomes a disaster

for the Japanese economy
and military.

- By installing
an oil embargo,

we have basically said, we are
going to control your future.

- The Japanese
have to find a way out,

and there's oil nearby.

The Dutch, for example,
control huge amounts

of oil in that region, so it
becomes almost a temptation.

Why wouldn't you take it,

especially when you feel
like the United States

had no right to cut you off
from oil in the first place?

I mean, would a European power
stand for that?

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- The moment Roosevelt
turns off the tap,

the clock is ticking.

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- In Tokyo, the Japanese
make plans to strike back.

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- Japan thinks about,

how do we get out
of this straitjacket?

Well, we have to replace
those things

by seizing the raw materials
of Southeast Asia.

And the first step
would be to knock out

the American Pacific fleet.

- The Japanese finalize plans
to attack American interests

in the Pacific.

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- There's a sense
amongst the Japanese

that the Americans are
merchants rather than warriors,

and that if you do give them
a really bloody nose,

they'll think,
actually, this isn't for us.

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So, if you really show them
some proper steel,

then they might back away.

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- But not everyone in Japan
is committed

to conflict
with the United States.

Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe

wants to find
a peaceful solution.

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- Very much
of a noble background--

he is an internationalist.

He has great relationships
with diplomats in the West.

His big concern, I think, is

how you reach
some kind of a settlement

with the United States
and manage to bring

the Japanese military
along with you.

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- But War Minister Hideki Tojo

is determined to go to war
against America.

- Hideki Tojo does have
a very aggressive sense

of what Japan
is going to have to do.

The destiny of Japan is to be
the preeminent power in Asia,

is to push the Americans out,
to push the British out,

to push the Dutch out.

Look at what's happening
in Europe.

Look at the success
of the Nazis.

That is the way a great power
is going to run itself

in the future.

- Emperor Hirohito is caught

between the war
and peace factions in Tokyo.

He gathers his political
and military leaders

for an imperial conference,

where he recites a poem
written by his grandfather,

the emperor Meiji.

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"Across the four seas,
all men are brothers.

"In such a world,
why do the waves rage,

the winds roar?"

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The Japanese try to interpret

Hirohito's feelings
about the war from the poem,

but he never states
his views explicitly.

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Prime Minister Konoe
still wants to find

a diplomatic solution.

- There's no harm done

in keeping open channels
of communication.

There are an ambassador
and a special envoy

in Washington talking
to the U.S. State Department.

- But the Americans
still demand that Japan

withdraw from China.

- I don't think they see
any possibility

that this problem
can be negotiated away.

I think the Japanese have made
a pretty firm decision

to go to war.

- In mid-October 1941,

a frustrated
Prime Minister Konoe resigns.

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He tells
his government secretary,

"His Imperial Majesty
is a pacifist.

"I told him that war
was a mistake.

"He agreed,

"but the next time I met him,
he leaned more to war.

"I felt the emperor
was absorbing more and more

the view of the army
and navy high commands."

- Hirohito heard plans

being discussed
in detail constantly.

He never really said yes.

But the crucial factor
is that he never said no.

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- War Minister Tojo becomes
the new prime minister.

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Japan's destiny is now
in the hands of the military.

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- In Honolulu,
there's a new employee

at the Japanese consulate...

Takeo Yoshikawa.

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- Takeo Yoshikawa was
a member of the Japanese navy

and was sent
to Hawaii as a spy.

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- Yoshikawa is hoping
that he's going to find

some sympathizers
within the Japanese population

that will give him
additional information.

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But what
he quickly discovers is

that the vast majority of
the Japanese Americans on Oahu

are loyal to the United States.

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So he's renting planes
to take sightseeing tours

around the harbor.

He's driving around town.
He's taking pictures.

"I'm a tourist."

He's renting boats
to go around

and actually measure the depth
of the harbor and so forth.

So he gathers
a lot of intelligence

about the daily activities
on the Pacific Fleet.

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Yoshikawa is the one
who comes up with the insight

that Sunday morning
really is the best time

to launch an attack
against the Americans.

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- Although meant
to deter Japan,

FDR's order to move
the Pacific Fleet base

from California
to Pearl Harbor

means it's now within
striking distance.

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- Roosevelt
doesn't really understand

that by moving the fleet
this far forward,

it now becomes a potential
target for the Japanese,

because the Americans,
in general, don't understand

the sophistication
and level of capability

that the Japanese now have.

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- On a cold Wednesday morning,

a fleet
of the Japanese Imperial Navy

heads out into the Pacific.

In overall command

is Grand Admiral
Isoroku Yamamoto.

It was his plan
to launch a surprise attack

against the U.S. fleet
at Pearl Harbor.

- Yamamoto has
a really good appreciation

for just how powerful
the United States is.

He's lived in the U.S.
He was a naval attach�.

He speaks some English.

And so he understands

that any war
with the United States

is going to have to be
a very fast affair,

that they've got to get
this thing over

as rapidly as possible.

Hit them hard at the outset

and try to go
after American morale.

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The way he thinks
he can do that is by sinking

as many of our battleships
as possible.

Maybe then the Americans will
come to the bargaining table,

and we can get
this war over with

in six months
or something like that.

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- Key to the operation
is grouping

six modern aircraft carriers
together

for the attack.

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- Yamamoto is
an air-power advocate.

He has been
consistently pushing

to beef up
Japan's aircraft carriers.

And they create
this organization--

Kido Butai, the Mobile Force.

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- Aircraft carriers
are usually deployed

one at a time,

and their aircraft are tasked

with defending
heavy battleships.

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- The Japanese are like,

we're going to take
all of our carriers.

We're going to put them
into a carrier fleet

of six big flight decks...

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That can now bring 350 aircraft
across the ocean.

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That is going to allow
the Japanese

to deliver these enormous
pulses of firepower

over the battlefield,

which has never been seen
before in naval warfare.

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- The Japanese
have another challenge.

How do you get
this enormous armada

across 3,500 miles of ocean
without being detected?

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First, they shut down
all radio communications

and travel in silence.

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Then eight oil tankers
sail alongside the fleet.

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- The ability to refuel at sea

is one of the masterstrokes
of Pearl Harbor,

because your fleet didn't have
to stop at any bases.

This is how the Japanese fleet
could stay radio silent.

Refueling at sea literally
allowed the Japanese fleet

to vanish like a ghost.

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- As the Japanese fleet
steams towards Hawaii...

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In Washington D.C.,
the Japanese and the Americans

continue to negotiate.

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On December 6th,

President Roosevelt writes
to Emperor Hirohito directly.

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"It is clear
that a continuance

"of such a situation
is unthinkable.

"We have a sacred duty
to restore traditional amity

and prevent further death
and destruction in the world."

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- Roosevelt's saying,
look, war would be a horror,

this war that none of us want.

But at this point,
Hirohito has embarked on war.

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- The Japanese fleet...

has reached
the point of no return.

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- December 7, 1941...

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Just before 4:00 a.m.,

a patrol ship,
the U.S.S. "Ward,"

receives a message.

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A small submarine
has been spotted

in the area near Pearl Harbor.

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At 6:40 a.m.,

the "Ward" drops depth charges
on the submarine.

- They send
a sighting report upstairs.

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The people
at Pearl Harbor look at it,

and they're like,
this is a brand-new captain.

He's only been on duty
for a day at this point.

He probably doesn't know
what he's doing.

Eh, don't worry about it.

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Even though the "Ward"
has successfully fired

the first shot in this war,

her report
is completely ignored.

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- 20 minutes later,

two young radar operators spot
a huge formation of planes

approaching the area.

They report it
to their senior officer.

- He knows that there's
a group of American B-17s

that are due in this morning

that should be coming
from roughly that direction.

And the result is that he tells
those two radar operators,

don't worry about it.

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- 183 Japanese planes
descend on Pearl Harbor

in the first wave
of the attack.

Their target...

the airfields.

- The result is going to be

this concentrated
bombing attack

to try to put as many
American planes out of business

at the outset of the attack.

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- At 7:55 a.m....

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The first bombs hit.

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- When you hear the airplanes
overhead, you're like,

oh, boy, they sure are doing
training early today.

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And then when all of a sudden

things start to explode,
you're like, oh, man,

somebody's
really going to get in trouble

because this training event
is way out of hand.

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- At 8:00 a.m. on Honolulu,

the Japanese spy
Takeo Yoshikawa

tunes his radio in to
a Japanese weather forecast.

The announcer uses the phrase
"higashi no kaze ame"

"east wind, rain."

It's code.

The attack on America
is underway.

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- Another formation
of Japanese aircraft

dive on the ships
anchored along Battleship Row.

- Torpedo planes
at low level...

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And overhead bombers.

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- It's not until ships
actually start exploding...

bullets start ripping
through the decks

that they realize, oh, my God,
this is really real.

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- Torpedo attacks
are very, very successful.

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The "Oklahoma"
and the "West Virginia"

are very heavily hit.

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"Oklahoma" ends up capsizing,

trapping hundreds of men
in this overturned ship.

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- Over 400 sailors and marines

die on the U.S.S. "Oklahoma."

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- At the same time, the level
bombers are coming in overhead

and dropping their bombs.

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And one of them lands
a devastating hit

on the battleship "Arizona"...

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And destroys her...

in just the blink of an eye.

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- The explosion
on the U.S.S. "Arizona"

kills 1,117 men.

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- So, if you think
about every,

you know, soldier,
sailor, marine,

they cannot connect the idea
of what is happening.

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Bombs exploding.
There are ships sinking.

There are men on fire.

There are body parts
flying around.

And you can imagine
just trying to wrap your mind

around all that.

- After two waves of attack...

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The Japanese withdraw.

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188 U.S. aircraft
are destroyed.

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1,178 servicemen and civilians
are wounded.

2,403 are dead.

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But the United States Navy's
aircraft carriers are at sea

and escape the devastation.

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- If we want to talk about
the grand inflection point

in World War II,
it's December 7, 1941.

At 7:55, it's the world
as we've always known it.

15 minutes later, at 8:10,
the world is different.

We are now at war.

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- The America that wakes up
on December 8, 1941

is a different country.

- The country's being tested.

Are we up to this?

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Can we meet this challenge?

We are being put
in the balance,

and would we be found wanting
or not?

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-

- Prime Minister Tojo
tells the Japanese people

about the victory of its navy
at Pearl Harbor.

[Tojo continues speaking
Japanese]

He also tells them
that Japan has attacked

Singapore, Hong Kong,
Malaya, Wake Island,

Guam, and the Philippines.

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- While American
attention is focused

on the surprise attack...

The Japanese are bombing and
launching invasions all around.

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They're bombing Malaya, they're
bombing the Philippines.

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- At 12:30 p.m.,
Congress assembles.

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- Yesterday,

December 7, 1941...

A date which will live
in infamy...

The United States of America

was suddenly
and deliberately attacked

by naval and air forces

of the Empire of Japan.

- He dictated
a good part of the speech

to his secretary, Grace Tully.

And the initial
formulation was,

"Yesterday, December 7, 1941,

a date which will live
in world history."

And at some point,
before he gets to Capitol Hill,

he writes in that wonderful
handwriting of his...

"date which will live
in infamy."

So it was his edit
of his own dictation

that created
an indelible phrase.

- I ask that
the Congress declare

that since the unprovoked

and dastardly attack by Japan

on Sunday, December 7, 1941,

a state of war

has existed

between the United States

and the Japanese Empire.

?

- Look very carefully
at what Franklin Roosevelt

said on the 8th of December.

"We are declaring war
against the Empire of Japan."

?

He does not mention Germany.

The 8th goes by.

The 9th goes by.
The 10th goes by.

And not until the 11th,

when Hitler decides to declare
war on the United States,

did the United States
then, in turn,

declare war on Germany.

?

- America now faces
a global war on two fronts.

?

- We were dragged into this.
Let's be very clear.

The United States of America
did not wake up

in the middle
of the 20th century

and decide it was going
to defeat tyranny.

Tyranny had to force us
into a struggle

that we now recognize to be

the great
existential struggle,

arguably,
of the last millennium.

But it was not a quick
or easy date

with destiny.

?

- We are now in this war.

We're all in it, all the way.

Every single man,
woman, and child

is a partner

in the most tremendous
undertaking

of our American history.

?

It will not only be a long
war, it'll be a hard war.

?

We are going to win the war.

And we are going to win
the peace that follows.

- America is now at war,

the most devastating
in world history.

Germany reigns
from the Atlantic

to the outskirts of Moscow.

Imperial Japan has swept
across the Pacific,

forcing America
into an armed struggle

it is not yet ready to fight,

not on land, not in the air,
not at sea.