Secrets of the Unknown: Pearl Harbor

Naval historians discuss in detail the events leading up to the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

On the morning of December 7, 1941, aircraft and midget submarines of the Imperial Japanese Navy began a surprise attack on the U.S. Despite long standing assertions that this attack could have been predicted and prevented by the U.S. military, the U.S. forces at Pearl Harbor appeared to be utterly unprepared. This is the story of the attack that drew the U.S. into World War II. This exclusively licensed series contains a plethora of compelling images and film footage from before and after this historic battle.

This film is a poetic composition of recorded history and non-recorded memory. Filmmaker Rea Tajiri’s family was among the 120,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans who were imprisoned in internment camps after the attack on Pearl Harbor. And like so many who were in the camps, Tajiri’s family wrapped their memories of that experience in a shroud of silence and forgetting. This film raises questions about collective history – questions that prompt Tajiri to daringly re-imagine and re-create what has been stolen and what has been lost.

Showcases 3 major events during World War 2 involving both the Europeans & Pacific conflicts. The Raids to destroy Nazi Germany's heavy water production based in Norway, plus the final desperate act to deny them what had already been stockpiled. The Japanese midget submarines role and participation in the attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. What they achieved plus what was their ultimate fate. The attacks on United States warships in the Pacific late in World War 2 by the Japanese Kamikaze and Okha Squadrons. The Kamikaze attacks were in whatever planes the Japanese forces were able to gather. The Okha attacks were made in specially built flying bombs that were towed by larger and usually slower aircraft that were not suitable for fighter work.

William Courtenay's color film of the pacific campaign and Japan's downfall.

Within hours of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, bombs rained down on U.S. and Filipino forces in the Philippines. After months of vicious fighting, Allied forces surrendered on the island only to be met with a brutal march to P.O.W. camps dotted across the islands. Thousands died on the marches, before reaching the P.O.W. camps where countless more died. The surrender of the Philippines, now almost forgotten in U.S. history, is commemorated in the Philippines every year.

"September 11: The New Pearl Harbor" is a 5-hour documentary that summarizes 12 years of public debate on 9/11. While aimed primarily at a general, uninformed audience, the film also contains some new findings that may be of interest to advanced researchers.

This two-hour special looks back at Dec. 7, 1941 - the date that has indeed lived in infamy, as President Franklin Roosevelt promised - when imperial Japan attacked the U.S. naval forces in Hawaii, ushering America into World War II. The attack killed more than 2,400 people, wounded 1,000 and damaged or destroyed nearly 20 American ships and over 300 airplanes.

The surprising story of how one of music's biggest icons helped to establish a USS Arizona memorial in Pearl Harbor. Elvis’ fundraising concert drew public attention to the plight and helped to galvanize efforts to finish the USS Arizona Memorial as it stands today.

Hawaii, Pacific Ocean. In this heavenly place, one of the most memorable battles of the Second World War took place 80 years ago. On December 7, 1941, at 7:53 am, a Japanese air squadron struck the American fleet which anchored in the waters of Pearl Harbor. The United States were struck at the heart of their defensive system and entered the conflict the very next day. How Pearl Harbor changed the face of World War II and therefore the face of the world? What are the diplomatic undersides of Pearl Harbor? Was the attack really a surprise attack? Is it really a Japanese victory?

Few Americans realize that the Battle of Midway - just six months after Pearl Harbor - doomed the Japanese to defeat. Discover how Admiral Nimitz and Admiral Yamamoto, two leaders from vastly different cultures, designed and executed their battle plans. See the spectacular naval and aerial battles as they played out.