This programme, with the English title "Pearl Harbour - Who Fired First?" was broadcast on the History Channel in the UK between 0000-0100 on Saturday 15 March 2008.
The programme's central theme was the claim that the duty destroyer in Hawaiian waters at dawn on Sunday 7 September 1941, the USS Ward, had fired on, and sunk, a midget submarine - a claim that was not believed, and certainly not proved, until recent years.
The Japanese sent five midget submarines, as well as the hundreds of carrier-launched naval aircraft, to attack the US Fleet at Pearl Harbour (Pearl Harbor). The midget submarines, launched from the deck of a larger submarine, were an early form of kamikaze (they had insufficient fuel for a return journey).
One was found washed up on a beach in the islands in December 1941. The other four were not found at the time but, as this film showed in the last fifteen minutes of footage, one of them has now been found by underwater researchers and it is clear that she was sunk through gunfire, thus proving the story of the sailors of USS Ward.
The film has interviews with veterans from the US and Japan, as well as clips of interviews with historians of the period. There is good footage of various aspects of the attack on Pearl Harbour, as well as an overview of the reasons for Japan's decision to wage war.
This is a true story of Pearl Harbour and will be of interest to anyone with a serious interest in the subject. Perhaps it should have been a bonus film on the DVD of the feature film Pearl Harbor (2001).
The programme's central theme was the claim that the duty destroyer in Hawaiian waters at dawn on Sunday 7 September 1941, the USS Ward, had fired on, and sunk, a midget submarine - a claim that was not believed, and certainly not proved, until recent years.
The Japanese sent five midget submarines, as well as the hundreds of carrier-launched naval aircraft, to attack the US Fleet at Pearl Harbour (Pearl Harbor). The midget submarines, launched from the deck of a larger submarine, were an early form of kamikaze (they had insufficient fuel for a return journey).
One was found washed up on a beach in the islands in December 1941. The other four were not found at the time but, as this film showed in the last fifteen minutes of footage, one of them has now been found by underwater researchers and it is clear that she was sunk through gunfire, thus proving the story of the sailors of USS Ward.
The film has interviews with veterans from the US and Japan, as well as clips of interviews with historians of the period. There is good footage of various aspects of the attack on Pearl Harbour, as well as an overview of the reasons for Japan's decision to wage war.
This is a true story of Pearl Harbour and will be of interest to anyone with a serious interest in the subject. Perhaps it should have been a bonus film on the DVD of the feature film Pearl Harbor (2001).
