The History Channel's Pearl Harbor

The Definitive Pearl Harbor Documentary

This fine documentary produced by The History Channel describes the events leading up to and the attack on Pearl Harbor in vivid detail. Drawing on testimonies of famous World War II historians such as Richard Frank and Donald M. Goldstein (who co-authored Gordon Prange's definitive "At Dawn We Slept"), this documentary brings to life the events of December 7, 1941. The documentary covers the entire Pearl Harbor attack, as well as the diplomatic negotiations between Japan and the United States. Japanese and American survivors give their input as well, from Japanese pilots recalling the textbook-perfect execution of their attack to American servicemen fighting to survive the nightmarish inferno of battle.

I believe that oral history is the best way to learn about history or a specific historical event, and this documentary contains excellent testimonies from both Japanese and American survivors. The Japanese describe what it was like to actually travel all the way across the Pacific undetected to make their attack, while the Americans describe the horrors of battle, from bodily injuries to the death of a friend, or being trapped inside a ship and given up for dead when they were really alive. These testimonies are one of the high points of the documentary.

I was also impressed with the computer generated rendition of the sinking of the U.S.S. Arizona. The graphics are excellent, and I learned a great deal more about the loss of the Arizona from this rendition. For example, the rendition shows that the first bomb that struck the Arizona did relatively little damage, but the second bomb is the one that ultimately destroyed the ship.

Also included in this fine set is a documentary of Admiral Chester W. Nimitz. From his early days growing up in Texas until the outbreak of World War II, this video looks at the life of perhaps America's greatest military commander. Included is a narration of all of the major campaigns of the Pacific War and how through his excellent choices of subordinates, Nimitz's navy managed to destroy the Japanese fleet.

I highly recommend this fine video set. The actual combat footage is first-rate, the narration is superb, and the input from both historians and survivors make the documentary quite enjoyable to watch. This is a fine set and includes all of the essential information on the attack on Pearl Harbor and our ultimate victory over the Japanese. October 27, 2004

Great Documentaries On The Pacific War

This is a DVD set which is quite well done, but I find the packaging a bit misleading. There are three DVDs included, only one of which is specifically about Pearl Harbor, the other two are biographies of Douglas MacArthur and Chester Nimitz. Obviously these two figures are crucial to an understanding of the Pacific war, but are really tangential to Pearl Harbor. This was the sole reason that I deducted a star from the package.

The Pearl Harbor DVD is quite well done and combines historical and contemporary footage and interviews with some rather early generation computer graphics to produce a slick and powerful telling of the story of the Pearl Harbor attack and its context in history.

The biography of MacArthur is fascinating. I have always found MacArthur to be a brilliant but arrogant General, and this DVD reinforced that appraisal. This production helped me appreciate some of MacArthur's strengths more than I had before, but also helped me understand the psychological side of him which led to his aloofness and arrogance.

The Nimitz biography is wonderful. I have always regarded Nimitz as the greatest of the Pacific commanders. I think Halsey was the better battlefield commander, but Nimitz was an amazing motivator and organizer, and a great, compassionate man. This DVD made me appreciate Nimitz even more that I previously did, and I think anyone interested in naval history would love it.

In total, this is a very good production, with excellent use of archive and current footage and with insightful interviews. I think anyone interested in World War Two would be thrilled with this set, even if it isn't exclusively about Pearl Harbor.
September 26, 2004

A fantastic DVD

This DVD set is great. It has excellent footage of the attack on Pearl Harbor and there is interviews with people who survived the attack and there is even interviews with some Japenese fighter pilots who bombed the ships. It starts at 1939 when the USA decide not to enter The Second World War and goes through the attack on Pearl Harbor and ends at today showing the USS Arizona Memorial. The Set also has a bounus disc with a lot of Pearl Harbor facts as well. This is an amazing DVD and anyone who is interested in USA history should buy it. July 24, 2002

War in the pacific

A good documentary, but with all of the Pearl Harbor documentary material out there, why did the creators choose to include a documentary DVD on Chester Nimitz? This set should have been called "War In The Pacific" or something. But, the history is accurate and the footage is good. I would recommend this. It would have been great if they had one DVD about the attack, one dvd about Kimmell, and one DVD about Yamamoto. That would have made this collection stand out from the others! History Channel, ARE YOU READING THIS? October 21, 2001

A little misleading

The first disc in this offering rates five stars for being an absolutely fantastic documentary. However, the second disc is about Admiral Nimitz and not about Pearl Harbor itself. Also, the bonus program offered is not "Blunders Of Pearl Harbor" but something about leaders of the Pacific theater, again, not about Pearl Harbor itself. I wanted a thorough documentary on Pearl Harbor, which I got on disc one. The second disc seems thrown in haphazardly. The item description, however, didn't mention the Nimitz material on the second disc and got the bonus program wrong entirely. I would've liked a more thorough, not to mention accurate, description before making my purchase. May 9, 2001

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