When we started doing the WW2 series the youngest veterans of the war still alive were already getting fewer and fewer. On Oahu, ever since the war, veterans have been gathering both for December 7 and VJ Day to remember and remind younger generations of the war, and every year the group grows smaller. Only two survivors of the USS Arizona remain alive, and this year both the VJ and Pearl Harbor remembrances were cancelled due to the pandemic. So as the eyewitnesses of WW2 are quickly passing, we need to remember and honor the sacrifice of a whole generation that gave us in 2020 a safer, more prosperous world, and understand the colossal tragedy and suffering inflicted by extremism and hatred to not let it be repeated. That is why we do this; to create the most extensive, interactive, free to access memorial for WW2 ever, to make the biggest conflict in human history accessible for a new generation using the most recent technology on social media. We hope that this series is yet another stone set in that memorial. Spartacus Episode Guide: This is a 10 episode limited series within our weekly coverage of WW2 - to see the immediate events leading up to this day watch episode 119 from December 5, ruclips.net/video/DYUzmBuX-6Y/видео.html. Some of the events covered briefly as they start on this day, such as the invasions in the West Pacific will be covered in more detail in the coming weeks, especially in episode 120K (the 11th episode this week).coming out on December 12. The playlist to get all these episodes in one go is here: bit.ly/Pearl-min-by-min Before you comment, read our rules of conduct community.timeghost.tv/t/rules-of-conduct/4518
I don't think this was perhaps the best approach.....maybe one really long video on Pearl Harbor would have been better? Love your videos, love your hard work, keep on doing a great job.
I love how you guys cover after the main attack and the political and civilian states! this is SO GOOD and you guys need to do one for Normandy too! ;) and yes America did have the biggest navy! but in 1940 the U.S. had 9 billion dollars of debt, and in 1945 that total rose to 98 billion!
@@mrcroob8563 thanks for the input. I was doing it on my phone and I didn't spot check before hitting reply. Again, thanks for the input, I will be Exta careful next time.
My great uncle joe served on HMS Repulse during the 30s and was killed trying to escape a Japanese POW camp during the war, I have an original photograph of the Repulse hanging in my room right now
Troy Staunton I’ll take a photo tomorrow and send it to them, should I just message them the photo? And I had another great under joe (mums side) who passed away afew years ago aged 93, he was on the HMS Rodney and was there on d day manning the 16” guns, I have a tattoo of the Rodney on my arm
Does he know about Kermit Tyler and the Oahu US radar signal that picked up the Japanese planes coming to Pearl Harbor? Check here his and the entire WW2 story : ruclips.net/video/toJQIuPRJrU/видео.html
Indy this is absolutely fantastic stuff. As a brit, we really don't get taught too much of the pacific side of WWII at our schools - save for the bombs - so it really is the first time I've learnt about Pearl Habor in so great detail.
Britain was heavily involved in the war against Japan: in HK, Malaya, Singapore, Burma, India, the early naval battles in SE Asia and the Indian Ocean, and the later ones (including Okinawa) of the British Pacific Fleet. Not to mention the POWs, and the British occupation of Japan, NEI and Vietnam at the end of the war.
@@artemisfowl7191 There is never enough time in school lessons to cover every topic someone may want to teach/learn about. In terms of Force Z, that was a loss of 2 capital ships. Taken among all of the other losses that Britain and Europe suffered in 6 years of war, it is usually missed next to other events. For example, if you have to decide on dedicating a lesson to learning about the holocaust or about the early Pacific War, which one would you focus on? When I was in school we had a year focused on 20th century history. We had 3 months of lessons devoted to WWI and 3 months of lessons devoted to WWII. Both times looking at the causes, major actions and aftermath. The remaining time was devoted to other topics of the century, class assignments and exams.
Hexaphious operation attacks through land, air, water, cyberspace (how troops are moved through cyberspace is unknown), time (troops are sent to past to provide support) and mind using memetic attacks and cognitohazards.
It is likely that Yamamoto felt this way...but historians report that they cannot find any actual record of him saying it in public or writing it down that way. He did say that he believe he would run wild in the Pacific for 6 months, and he was correct to within a day.
Yamamoto did not say it, but it sounds really good. He had first hand information on US industrial capacity and knew that it outperformed Japanese by several magnitudes. If war against US was decided by his superiors he would do his best to wage it as well as possible.
Yamamoto's biggest mistake was in believing that attacking the USA was necessary for the Japanese to achieve their goals against the British and Dutch. If they had assiduously avoided attacking America, FDR would have had a tough time convincing Congress to declare war over British and Dutch colonies. Indy and team make that point in one of the earlier vids in the series.
@@iKvetch558 Especially when he was probably more interested in getting the US into a war with Germany or at least support Britain as much and as active as possible.
Holy crap i was expecting a 2 hr feature but this is a whole documentary! I havent ever donated via patreon but i am signing up for these guys! Absolutely incredible!
27:30 "getting the Soviet Union to join the Axis" It would have been really interesting they had gotten the Soviet Union to join the Anti-Comintern Pact.
8:23 A side note about the Niihau incident. This was one of the events that contributed to the internment of Japanese Americans later on. A little unfortunate on the things that happened...
Yes it is. I mentioned in my comment that I wish they went a little deeper into the Niihau incident because it is the primary incident later cited by supporters of the US interment of Japanese Americans that will happen later in the war.
Don't forget the role the Japanese sub attack on the Los Angeles area had in making the decision for internment. That combined with Niihau makes it more understand WHY certain assumptions were made and decisions made.
It was also a good example of the patchy Japanese intel. They believed the island was uninhabited and a good place for pilots of damaged planes to crash-land and be picked up later. It was inhabited by a few people.
You really don't get an appreciation of the immensity and size of the disaster until you're standing there, looking west towards Arizona. Then you visualize all the photos/film and overlay your view of the harbor. Only then can you even start to grasp the mind-boggling size of the whole chaotic scene. An incredible sobering experience on so many levels and with one huge lesson.....weakness leads to disaster.
I'm very glad you guys covered the Niihau incident in this episode. I was thinking about replying in the last few videos saying you should have covered it lol. I know time is limited in how much you need to cover but I can't help but think that maybe you should have given it another 30 seconds. The Niihau incident is a very important incident later on in the war since it is the primary incident (among other Japanese spy incidents) later cited by supporters of the US interment of the Japanese on the US mainland. Since during the Niihau incident American citizens of Japanese ancestry are the ones who tried to help the Japanese piolet escape, killing a Hawaiian man trying to stop the couple from helping the Japanese pilot escape.
They were not “American” citizens. Hawaii wasn’t even a state back in 1941. Make some sense. Asians couldn’t even be naturalized citizens back then. Had to be born in the “states” which Hawaii was not.
@@ShiningTrapezoid I wouldn't say zero chance of German victory, if the drive onto Moscow had been the focal point, a major communications and transport hub would be removed. The effect would prolong the war as the Soviets rebuilt and rearmed. But the Soviets would never surrender and they would always win eventally. Russia is too big to occupy.
Shining Trapezoid I disagree, With a better plan from outset of Invasion, the Germans could have won. Once the plan they chose was set in motion, yes it was doomed from the start.
My dad was stationed there before the war. He said that he was disappointed on reaching harbour as he was lead to believe that all the Honk Kong Chinese would be dressed as Mandarins, conical hats, long thin moustaches. In reality, the dock workers looked no different from those he saw in Liverpool - ordinary people, in fact (donkey jackets & flat caps). I have a picture of him in the army rowing team. Swimming in the China sea sounded so exotic to a 10 year old me
I hope they talk about the Canadian General who fought the Japanese at his headquarters to the death with a pistol in each hand and and a pile of dead Japanese around him.
Guarded by rookie troops and rendered a second tier importance by Churchill, Hong Kong eventually held out until Christmas whilst being outnumbered 3 to 1. By the way, one of the generals on the Japanese side was Major General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, who was famous for being down to earth and visit wounded soldiers at the hospitals. (Spoilers) He later commanded the defence of Iwo Jima.
Defending #HongKong from the numerically superior Japanese army was a hopeless and helpless task, yet the Allied soldiers fought on courageously and honourably. We #Hongkongers owed them so much. #LestWeForget
Don't worry. They carry that cockiness (and lessons learned) with them to Darwin's version of Pearl Harbor but it begins to crack after Coral Sea and then Midway.... well... you know what happens there lol.
I saved this minute by minute up for a year. Well worth the wait, great presentation and I learned a few things. My Grandfather served on the USS Penquin in WWI. Spent 1918 putting mines in the North Sea. And 1919 sweeping them up. Came home a year after everyone else. Mom said he spent a day pacing back and forth cursing when he heard she was lost.
This is one of the best documentaries I've ever seen. And I've seen a lot! This would be an excellent viewing experience for any history class. It explains events in easy to follow methods and you learn so many details that are never discussed in most publications. Multiple sources of history are important, and the delivery of this information is equally as important. You should be proud of your team for the great work you have done.
This really is the channel de jour for WW2 history presented in a colorful and entertaining way. Our presenter's obvious enthusiasm for the subject is infectious and really makes the subject matter come alive. Total respect for how this channel has developed and particular props to "Indy" who is just great. Well done to the channel team.
12:42 That is the most fabulous horse I've seen in WW2 footage. He is totally decked out with leaves for camouflage (or shade?). He looks like he has some sort of ghillie suit made for horses, it's awesome!
I took your advice and looked more into the Niihau incident...which led me to the rabbit hole of discovery that Fuchida (the lead pilot) became a Christian evangelist who died in the US....crazy
Fiuchida after the war met Tibbits, pilot of the Enola Gay, and told him he (Fuchida) thought dropping the bomb on Hiroshima was a good decision. I don't think his life story could be any more crazy
@@briandevlin4136 It is that horrifying realization that thousands die to save millions. Horrifying demonstration of superiority was needed to hammer truth in: Japan has lost! Give up, or you will all die. Period.
@@vksasdgaming9472 Well. The bombs helped. The fact Russia wanted to invade Japan did not help. The Japanese knew if Russia came, they would NEVER leave. So they decided to choose the lesser evil in their eyes they figured the US would not kill the Emperor. They were right. McAuthor knew harming, much less executing the Japanese Emperor in anyway would be killing Jesus a second time in front of devout Christians. A bad idea. Plus they feared we had more nukes. But they feared Russia never leaving more.
@@equarg Never thought of Japanese fear towards USSR and how things went in Eastern Europe it was justified. Least or at least most predictable of many evils.
When comparing Japanese divisions to Western or Soviet divisions, the Japanese are much larger in terms of manpower, but far lower in mechanization and motorization. IIRC, the typical Japanese infantry division numbers around 25,000 men, whereas Western Allied and German divisions averaged around 16-17,000 men. Soviet divisions numbered around 14-15,000, mostly because their logistical support was stripped out and moved to the Corps level (one organizational level above).
They really need to do the division sizes in these videos. Chinese divisions at the best case are 10,000 men, in practice most were 6,000-7,000 men. This leads to episodes where 4 Japanese divisions face 32 Chinese ones... And it looks like the Chinese outnumber the Japanese by 8 to 1, when in actuality, the Chinese would only be outnumbering by 2 to 1 in that scenario.
What I really like about this channel, is the way Spartacus and Indy comment everything at the same time passionate and factual. This way it never gets boring, but still feels(and is) a 100 % objective and neutral narration of the events. Looking forward to the topics ahead...maybe Vietnam, Falklands, Gulf Wars and East Ukraine.
As always a marvelous production. Carry on the great work chaps I'm always quite pleased to have used patreon for the first time to help out this series.
"Simple. And now, it has begun." I am very appreciative of all the research writing and presentation that have been developed for this mini-series. Thank you.
I do not have the words to describe how well done and informative this series is!! Thank you very much for all the time effort that your trip organization has devoted to these videos.
I have watched the 10 episodes in this documentary, i enjoyed alot, thank you for everyone who worked hard from research to graphics to presenting, thank you so much guys, keep the good work, i personally learned alot by watching this channel, thank you again.
I have been listening to this channel on and off for awhile. But, listening to this series clinched it for me. I decided to subscribe to the channel Thanks Indy. 👍
This series is an awesome, and absolutely comprehensive narrative. Brilliant writing, production and delivery, that situates itself in a 'neutral' zone of historiography.
Michael you flatter us. The whole team works their tails off to produce these episodes, and it brings us all great joy to read comments like yours that appreciate the efforts. Thanks for watching and please do stay tuned, much more war to come.
Excellent in-depth coverage of the events leading up to and following Pearl Harbor. My only small complaint is the 'g' in Singapore is silent. Sing-a-pore. Not Sing-ga-pore.
I've been following y'all since the beginning of the Great War channel, watched everything there, everything at the It's History Channel, everything at the TimeGhost History channel and now after seeing how spectacular this Pearl Harbor special has been, I'm finally joining the TimeGhost army and donating. Love you guys! Indy, please say "H town hold it down!" One day
I hope they use Australian sources for the Pacific war as well as British and American sources because the Australian narrative is quite different to the British and American narratives.
I think Indy will take that into account especially after the Darwin raid and the formations of ABDACOM and the ANZAC squadron. This is the deepest I ever seen anybody dive into either the wars and much further than I ever hoped to be. So I have high hopes. I know you guys did a lot in the Pacific War and have already been at it since 39' in Europe. That was in your back yard. Literally. Thank you Australia and its servicemen/women. From Texas.
@Troy Staunton Well in the Pacific, the Americans did do just about everything. That's just a verifiable fact. America could've defeated Japan without Australia and the UK. Not the other way around. I still heavily admire what the Aussies did, especially in New Guinea. And here I thought this was going to be a wholesome, positive, complimentary thread. You just HAD to take a dig at Americans right after one just gave y'all a great compliment, and literally proved your generalization wrong lol. Inferiority complex: Example#3454
Fuchida must have been a master of fuel manipulation..to be last pilot to touchdown is amazing..the detailed presentation of this series is just outstanding..thank you
This series is outstanding! I'm finishing up the episodes morning of the 8th. In addition to these episodes, I watched the film 'Tora Tora Tora', a sort of tradition for me on Dec. 7.Today, on the 8th, I think of the young men, like my father, who enlisted on the 8th.
Anybody who is interested in simulating the Pacific War should consider the game War in the Pacific, Admiral`s Edition. Incredible detail, really shows the strategic problems each side faces.... It is fairly easy to stick troops somewhere...Keeping them supplied...Not so simple... Game is a amazing though there is a steep learning curve. If you get into it the pay off in terms of playing time for money invested is brilliant
WW2 is weird for my family because I have great grandparents fought on both sides of the war. I have family who fought in the Japanese army who fought against my great granduncles who were in the Marine Corps
Yeah I know this feeling. My uncle was working with the government who oppressed my people and my father was on the rebel side fighting for freedom. Fuck my uncle 😂
There was a Japanese family that had this exact problem. One Brothers Family fought for “The Emperor”, the other fought for the USA. This was not realized till after the war.....at a reunion. Almost caused a fistfight. That was until the Family Patriarch told then to STOP. The war was over. So was the need to fight. His words alone settled things down immediately. 😖 Worse Reunion Ever.
8:52 It's interesting that you phrase it that way, attributing the older, battleship-centric view to officers who had fought in the Russo-Japanese War. In fact, at the time of Pearl Harbor, only one Japanese naval veteran of the Russo-Japanese War was still in active service: Yamamoto.
So is one of these also planned now for D-Day I assume? Or you could do battle of midway, though I feel like the timeline of that battle had been done to death. Or Kursk though like battle of the bulge it's not a one day battle/attack so unsure if fits the format.
Interesting point on the emphasis by the U.S. on bomber construction. Giulio Douhet and Billy Mitchell were a tad too optimistic in what strategic bombing could achieve on its own but they knew that while it wouldn't turn weapons like battleships into dinosaurs, their place in the food-chain would drop considerably as airpower ascended. Japan and Germany could have taken a hint from their doctrine. One of the greatest weakness for both was the inability to develop multi-engine long-range bombers.
Thank you for doing the work to explain the details in order. Books give a sequence of events and always leave something out so you have to do a lot of reading to fill in the historical holes. The Japanese had their own version of Lebensraum.
Did anyone notice the Japanese grunt at 12:12? His cap is crooked, and I've never noticed that before on a Japanese soldier. There's a wiseguy in every outfit I guess.
Bicycle infantry sounds silly when you think of those old fashioned bikes. But imagine some modern special forces tearing it up on modern mountain bikes...
map Earth with all of the Pacific ocean upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7d/World_location_map_%28W3_Pacific%29.svg/1280px-World_location_map_%28W3_Pacific%29.svg.png
I did read up on the Niihau incident, and that _is_ an interesting story! How was that never made into a movie?? EDIT: Never mind, apparently a movie _has_ been made about this: Enemy Within (2019)
Not too long after the war ended, the Japanese went from being a treacherous, sadistic enemy played that way in wartime films (typically with Chinese actors portraying them, in the same way as Nazis in Hollywood tended to be portrayed by German or Austrian Jewish expatriates) to allies against the USSR and Communist China. Presenting them as an enemy within no longer fitted the agenda. If anything films and TV shows from the 1950s onwards showed Japanese in a somewhat more favourable light than the wartime facts would imply. Some Japanese vessels were used to ferry US Marines to Inchon in the Korean War. Some Marines on these ships glanced at the Japanese ship captains on the bridge and could not help wondering what the inscrutable Oriental had been doing five or six years earlier.
Hope you guys also talk about the Japanese invasion of the Portuguese possessions in the far east like East Timor and Macau, the Portuguese government was in no position to declare war on Japan but the soldiers stationed there still fought.
Hopefully. A lot of stuff is about to go down in East Timor/West Indies that rarely ever gets covered or discussed especially in the USA. Hell, most people never even heard of the Darwin bombing which was basically the "better" Pearl Harbor attack where the IJN actually hit the targets they were supposed to unlike at Pearl where everyone sort of did their own thing, which meant ignoring critical targets in favor of big fat battleships for those glory points lol.
@@azraelswrd AT PH the battleships (and the American carriers, but fortunately they weren't there) WERE the intended targets; the Japanese did hit the targets they planned to hit. And the Japanese COULDN'T have gone after the infrastructure even if they wanted to-they didn't have the fuel to stay around for long enough, and the infrastructure (especially the fuel tanks) at Pearl were far more resistant to bombings than those at Darwin, especially once you realize that naval fuel doesn't burn that well.
Historians assert that the planned 3rd wave of attacks by the Japanese would have been a critical wound. The 3rd wave would have attacked the oil storage depot and submarine base. Loss of BOTH facilities would have crippled the Pacific fleet for many months, particularly the oil storage depot. Adm. Nagumo was cautious, perhaps more cautious than necessary, considering the considerable confusion at Pearl Harbor, but not knowing where the Enterprise was located was a huge factor in the decision. While the Pacific fleet would have to sail out and find the Japanese, which took time, any aircraft sighting would have made an immediate American response possible. Retirement from the battle was the single safest course. In turn, because the submarine base and oil farm was not destroyed, the submarine fleet was able to function and act, and for a while become the strongest defense and means of communication between bases in the Pacific.
Honestly, much of the traditional narratives about the Pacific War is flawed and disproven (including cases where the narratives for entire battles is flawed), and I fear that Indy may further spread misinformation because of this.
We don't use Fuchida's account as verification or single source anywhere, but as an eyewitness account of events that can be verified by a multitude of primary sources. If you pay attention to the quotes we use, they revolve around his own feelings, and events inside of his cockpit that can be easily verified.
@@WorldWarTwo OK...that is really good...thank you for clarifying. Just a suggest, a short disclaimer explaining exactly what you just told us could be placed prominently in any video where Fuchida's words are used? That way, nobody can even claim that you depended on Fuchida as a real source other than for what you described. Anyway...the series is a masterpiece...excellent work to all involved. ✌
Big fan of the series, but not a fan of the description given at 14:05 Not entirely sure what the standards were for the count displayed, but at no point was the US working on constructing 15 battleships simultaneously. 4 South Dakotas and 6 Iowas had been ordered by the Pearl Harbor attack and 8 of those ships had been laid down by that point (4 of each), with a further 2 Iowa-Class ships seemingly under order at the time. This implies that the standard was when the ship was ordered by the Navy. 15 battleships seems to imply inclusion of the Montana-class (5 ships), which was authorized by Congress under the Two-Ocean Navy Act, but were never ordered and never got out of planning stages. If you are going to include the Montanas, you really need to include all 18 Essex-class ships, similarly authorized under the Two-Ocean Navy Act, despite only 11 being under construction before December 1941. The only other way I think you could reach 15 battleships is by including the Alaska-class Battlecruisers, 6 of which had been on order, and counting them in a weird way to reach 15 total battleships instead of 16. This seems unlikely, so I'm left scratching my head. It kind of seems that one reason someone might choose to count this way would be to emphasize a much stronger preference for battleships in the US Navy, despite there being many within the naval and political establishment recognizing the merits of naval aviation. The Two-Ocean Navy Act is strongly implied in the series when direct reference to the fall of France is made, given that was the motivation for that particular piece of legislation and other naval construction was more in line with more normal military modernization efforts (it was the Naval Act of 1938 which authorized the 4 South Dakota and 3 Iowa-class Battleships). A listing of ships authorized by the Two-Ocean Navy Act (aka the Seventy-Percent Act or the Vinson-Walsh Act) would read 7 Battleships, 18 Aircraft Carriers, 29 Cruisers, 115 Destroyers and 42 Submarines.
"...They are expected to destroy anything of military value and escape, but that's not what happened for you see the Marines there...." Pretty sure the moment any plan involves Marines retreating it's doomed to fail.
US: The Empire of Japan has attacked pearl Harbor Hawaii! The Philippines, Wake and Guam Island: We're gonna be alright....right? Japan: Well yes but actually no. BANZAI! X.X
Imperial Japanese forces landed on the shores of Miri and begin the end of the White Rajah Dynasty. Japanese planes were seen doing reconnaisance flight as soon as the Pearl Harbor attack reach the Brits. The Sarawakian government were told by Britain to do a scorched earth by destroying as much as possible to every oilfield and airfield across Miri and Lutong to prevent the Japanese from gaining any resources and seal every oil well to decrease output. Where these oil wells stand today is now a developed area. There are houses built on top of these wells. Miri that time is a one big oilfield and we still pump oil to this day and there are rumors says there are still oil deposits left beneath Canada Hill.
Excellent documentary on Pearl Harbor and the initiation of the Pacific war with Japan. Naturally, such a production as this needs to be sensitive about stirring up a hornet's nest of controversy surrounding this quite controversial event - or, rather, the controversial historical interpretation of it. However, I have to lean more towards the thesis that the attack on Pearl was, in fact, NOT the complete surprise to FDR and his key political advisors that the conventional wisdom (and this documentary) advocates. Based on the work of historians such as James Perloff and Robert Stinnet, it is clear that FDR and his cronies had expected it, had hoped for it, and had worked for it. The attack certainly was a blindsided surprise to Kimmel and Short, but not to FDR. This is also strongly alluded to in the superb 1970 movie "Tora Tora Tora", which in my opinion is one of the finest WW2 movies ever produced. The assertion that there was ample foreknowledge in Washington of Japan's intent to attack the US Pacific fleet that was withheld from US commanders in Hawaii in order NOT to spoil the attack certainly has parallels with other contrived incidents for getting a reluctant public into the war spirit. Most notably are the attack on the USS Maine which ignited the Spanish-American war, the sinking of the Lusitania that provided an entree for the US into WW1, and the Gulf of Tonkin incident that opened the door to the war in Vietnam. Simply put: that's politics...as is too the subsequent writing of the histories of such events to gloss over and obscure the Machiavellian politics behind the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of young men. The point is that those elite personnel trained and experienced in military, diplomatic, and political planning and operations are necessarily schooled in the actual motives, methods and techniques used in the past to achieve a desired political outcome. So why should the general public - or at least that portion of the public with an interest in such matters - be denied knowledge of these "actual motives, methods and techniques" in at least an historical context (with some degree of redaction, of course)? Why should any thoughtful persons be relegated only to the nursery rhyme versions of great historical events? Well, thank goodness we don't have to be - thanks to the intelligent and courageous work of people such as Perloff and Stinnet with regard to Pearl Harbor. Though some may be uncomfortable with challenges to the superficial versions of such events produced for mass consumption, for more adventurous minds the provocative kind of information and documentation produced by the likes of Perloff and Stinnet is not only stimulating, but excellent sources for better understanding how our world really works. This is not to take anything away from this highly entertaining and informative documentary. But there is certainly a larger, more Machiavellian context into which the Pearl Harbor event took place. We would all be better citizens, and perhaps better able than we seem to be now to hold onto and defend our cherished nation and its (former?) principles of liberty if we were more aware of the contextual possibilities surrounding the significant trends and events in our country's history.
You guys relied on Fuchida's memoirs way too much, considering how he's known to exaggerate events to make himself look better. Fuchida's discussion with Nagumo never happened. The third wave was never planned and that's why it wasn't executed. The guy was disproven by Japanese historians a while ago, and by western historians more recently (goddammit, language barriers!). This is also not the only instance of him lying, another example is his account of the Battle of Midway in which he says the Japanese were just about to counterattack before the American planes struck Akagi, Kaga and Soryuu. It kinda leads me to question what else it is that he said and was false, given that in a lot of events you have talked about he's the only source. Anyway I don't want to be overly negative or anything, I'm loving your Pearl Harbor documentary, but I wanted to point out the mistake as I haven't seen anyone mention it (on second thought, I'm sure someone in the 400 comments here or in the forums have)
To add to the breakdown of US forces, those defending the Philippines by 1941 included over 130,000 Filipino officers and enlisted men of the Philippine Commonwealth Army (R. Jose, The Philippine Army 1935-1942, p. 227), majority of them untested and poorly equipped reservists, with some regular units, i.e the Phil. Army's 1st and 2nd Divisions.
More like Bulgaria. Just like how Bulgaria conquered southern Dobruja, Macedonia, and Thrace in 1941 by invoking the 1878 Treaty of San Stefano, Thailand used the war to reconquer parts of Burma taken from Thailand in 1893, and the four provinces ceded to Malaya in 1909.
I read about the Niʻihau incident. The fact that all 3 of the Niʻihau Island residents of Japanese ancestry, 1 of whom was born in the US, decided to side with the downed Japanese pilot and help him escape is kinda scary. I guess it heavily tipped the scales in favor of Japanese internment. Its easy to make judgments now from our perspective but back with a looming threat of possible Japanese invasion its hard to blame people.
he was hoping to get the Japanese to attack something American big enough to get into the war - he was hoping for something smaller than the entire pacific fleet. we were impounding their ships, had on several occasions set a cruiser or 2 into or near Japanese ports (he called them pop up cruisers), we had shot down a few of their planes near the Philippines, we commonly had subs shadowing their ships. they were allied with Germany the thinking was if we went to war with them Germany would follow (also Italy but no one took them seriously). he just wanted them to look like they shot first - he got it
Yeah this part of the video was shameful. Not because what Rosevelt did was wrong but shameful since it does not give his cabinet credit with bringing the US in the war
The Nihau incident is generally downplayed, but it is one instance when a resident family of Japanese descent, seemingly assimilated, immediately supported the Japanese military rather than the Americans. It's certainly racist, but I wonder if the loyalty exhibited by Americans of Japanese descent was heavily influenced by their surroundings. Surrounded by their American neighbors, they went along with them. If the islands had suffered a Japanese invasion, and surrounded by thousands of Japanese military, would the local population have exhibited the same loyalty?
I don't think the question is racist, but it's decidedly uncomfortable. It's a question that has been raised of other peoples, principally I think of the Germans, whom there was in the previous war I believe some latent support because of hereditary lines connecting them to the country from immigration. It could be here that some Japanese would feel the same pull of loyalty to the nation they left because of familial ties though distant. In regards to yours in particular, it depends on the who and where. Perhaps Hawaiian Japanese Americans would have closer ties to their homeland than mainland Japanese-Americans. Or first and second generation immigrants. But I think that unlikely, and I think based on the conduct of many units in the European theater, they were as loyal to America, not merely displaying some faux trickery.
In extreme situations, like war, a lot of people react to the immediate situation they are in and take the easiest available option. Had there been a landing in force many Japanese-Americans might have supported the Japanese. Ancestral ties and also a feeling that there were backing the winning side. Also In the Niihau incident just one Zero pilot - not an invasion force - was enough to get the handful of local Japanese supporting him, if not necessarily enthusiastically. In fact it took some courage for them to do that, given that they were outnumbered and there could be no certainty more Japanese would arrive.
@@porksterbob India is a bit of a different story. India being a colony has more estranged relations with the British preceding and running through the war. I can't recall their general opinion towards Japan, but while it was certainly not favorable, it at least offered them an opportunity in pushing for succession from the British Empire.
When we started doing the WW2 series the youngest veterans of the war still alive were already getting fewer and fewer. On Oahu, ever since the war, veterans have been gathering both for December 7 and VJ Day to remember and remind younger generations of the war, and every year the group grows smaller. Only two survivors of the USS Arizona remain alive, and this year both the VJ and Pearl Harbor remembrances were cancelled due to the pandemic. So as the eyewitnesses of WW2 are quickly passing, we need to remember and honor the sacrifice of a whole generation that gave us in 2020 a safer, more prosperous world, and understand the colossal tragedy and suffering inflicted by extremism and hatred to not let it be repeated. That is why we do this; to create the most extensive, interactive, free to access memorial for WW2 ever, to make the biggest conflict in human history accessible for a new generation using the most recent technology on social media. We hope that this series is yet another stone set in that memorial.
Spartacus
Episode Guide:
This is a 10 episode limited series within our weekly coverage of WW2 - to see the immediate events leading up to this day watch episode 119 from December 5, ruclips.net/video/DYUzmBuX-6Y/видео.html. Some of the events covered briefly as they start on this day, such as the invasions in the West Pacific will be covered in more detail in the coming weeks, especially in episode 120K (the 11th episode this week).coming out on December 12.
The playlist to get all these episodes in one go is here: bit.ly/Pearl-min-by-min
Before you comment, read our rules of conduct community.timeghost.tv/t/rules-of-conduct/4518
I love you're ties
I don't think this was perhaps the best approach.....maybe one really long video on Pearl Harbor would have been better? Love your videos, love your hard work, keep on doing a great job.
Another evil Japan？ I am sick of than.
I love how you guys cover after the main attack and the political and civilian states! this is SO GOOD and you guys need to do one for Normandy too! ;) and yes America did have the biggest navy! but in 1940 the U.S. had 9 billion dollars of debt, and in 1945 that total rose to 98 billion!
Oh and I live in Guam so I understand history, I get to see it EVERY day!
Little details like the bike bell ringing as the footage of Japanese forces cycling through Malay peninsula are what make this Chanel great.
That made me smile...
They spare no expense 😁
Chanel? I would think typo, but you even capitalized it.
@@mrcroob8563 thanks for the input. I was doing it on my phone and I didn't spot check before hitting reply. Again, thanks for the input, I will be Exta careful next time.
@@moosemoose9409 Exta! I see what you did there.
My great uncle joe served on HMS Repulse during the 30s and was killed trying to escape a Japanese POW camp during the war, I have an original photograph of the Repulse hanging in my room right now
Wow! Sorry to hear that. Thank you for sharing.
I take a bow for your great uncle Joe.
Troy Staunton I’ll take a photo tomorrow and send it to them, should I just message them the photo? And I had another great under joe (mums side) who passed away afew years ago aged 93, he was on the HMS Rodney and was there on d day manning the 16” guns, I have a tattoo of the Rodney on my arm
Bishop Thankyou bud!
Does he know about Kermit Tyler and the Oahu US radar signal that picked up the Japanese planes coming to Pearl Harbor? Check here his and the entire WW2 story : ruclips.net/video/toJQIuPRJrU/видео.html
I demand a special episode on the Japanese Bicycle Infantry.
Yesssss
How bout a whole series on various bicycle corps in WW2.
@@CyborgPilord Denmark had some too.
I used to study the Japanese invasion of our country of Malaya when I was fifteen. To this day, I still wish to know how effective the bicycle was
The Dutch: "Finally, a worthy opponent. Our battles will be legendary!"
Indy this is absolutely fantastic stuff. As a brit, we really don't get taught too much of the pacific side of WWII at our schools - save for the bombs - so it really is the first time I've learnt about Pearl Habor in so great detail.
Britain was heavily involved in the war against Japan: in HK, Malaya, Singapore, Burma, India, the early naval battles in SE Asia and the Indian Ocean, and the later ones (including Okinawa) of the British Pacific Fleet. Not to mention the POWs, and the British occupation of Japan, NEI and Vietnam at the end of the war.
Not even the fate of Force Z?
@@artemisfowl7191 There is never enough time in school lessons to cover every topic someone may want to teach/learn about.
In terms of Force Z, that was a loss of 2 capital ships. Taken among all of the other losses that Britain and Europe suffered in 6 years of war, it is usually missed next to other events. For example, if you have to decide on dedicating a lesson to learning about the holocaust or about the early Pacific War, which one would you focus on?
When I was in school we had a year focused on 20th century history. We had 3 months of lessons devoted to WWI and 3 months of lessons devoted to WWII. Both times looking at the causes, major actions and aftermath.
The remaining time was devoted to other topics of the century, class assignments and exams.
Question. Do y'all learn much about the American Revolution or is it only a mention?
@@grantameele421 Do you mean the American war of independance?
21:53 "since you don't sell water to your neighbour when his house is on fire".
Hah tell that to Crassus.
Sign over your house to me or I'll let it burn
Yeah, but those weren't his neighbors.
@@ATINKERER considering the amount of property he owned, they propably were his neighbors
Curios fact: combined air-sea-land military operations are calld _triphibious._
Ah, yes. The fear of number 3.
this hints to the existence of quadruphibious military operations
@@Zaluskowsky Yes, space is the final frontier (but there's also cyberspace so it could be even pentaphibious operations).
Hexaphious operation attacks through land, air, water, cyberspace (how troops are moved through cyberspace is unknown), time (troops are sent to past to provide support) and mind using memetic attacks and cognitohazards.
Does this mean that triremes are used?
3:57 Ah, the Tiger of Malaya, we finally meet...
The man who took gold people still search for to this day
Moo
Ah yes, what we would be remembered for, getting invaded by Japanese on bicycles.
@@lennardlee4483 what brand exactly?
Poor guy didn't deserve the fate he got after the end of the war.
"I fear that all we have done is to awaken a sleeping Giant...and fill him with a terrible Resolve."
It is likely that Yamamoto felt this way...but historians report that they cannot find any actual record of him saying it in public or writing it down that way. He did say that he believe he would run wild in the Pacific for 6 months, and he was correct to within a day.
Yamamoto did not say it, but it sounds really good. He had first hand information on US industrial capacity and knew that it outperformed Japanese by several magnitudes. If war against US was decided by his superiors he would do his best to wage it as well as possible.
Yamamoto's biggest mistake was in believing that attacking the USA was necessary for the Japanese to achieve their goals against the British and Dutch. If they had assiduously avoided attacking America, FDR would have had a tough time convincing Congress to declare war over British and Dutch colonies. Indy and team make that point in one of the earlier vids in the series.
@@iKvetch558 Especially when he was probably more interested in getting the US into a war with Germany or at least support Britain as much and as active as possible.
Some guy (dont remember his name) said he found this quote in Yamamotos diary but this was never confirmed.
Holy crap i was expecting a 2 hr feature but this is a whole documentary! I havent ever donated via patreon but i am signing up for these guys! Absolutely incredible!
But he skipped the Japanese invasion of Alaska. That was part of the same mission to bomb Pearl.
@@stephenjacks8196 Except that the Aleutian Islands campaign didn't occur until June 1942....
These guys are great. They've done WWI and are doing WWII.
27:30 "getting the Soviet Union to join the Axis"
It would have been really interesting they had gotten the Soviet Union to join the Anti-Comintern Pact.
8:23 A side note about the Niihau incident. This was one of the events that contributed to the internment of Japanese Americans later on. A little unfortunate on the things that happened...
Yes it is. I mentioned in my comment that I wish they went a little deeper into the Niihau incident because it is the primary incident later cited by supporters of the US interment of Japanese Americans that will happen later in the war.
@@PhillyPhanVinny This may be of interest: www.pbs.org/video/history-detectives-the-hero-of-niihau-hawaii/
@@onanthebarbarian9883 I liked this RUclips video about it: ruclips.net/video/ZIpaMR9Jdtc/видео.html
Don't forget the role the Japanese sub attack on the Los Angeles area had in making the decision for internment. That combined with Niihau makes it more understand WHY certain assumptions were made and decisions made.
It was also a good example of the patchy Japanese intel. They believed the island was uninhabited and a good place for pilots of damaged planes to crash-land and be picked up later. It was inhabited by a few people.
You really don't get an appreciation of the immensity and size of the disaster until you're standing there, looking west towards Arizona. Then you visualize all the photos/film and overlay your view of the harbor. Only then can you even start to grasp the mind-boggling size of the whole chaotic scene. An incredible sobering experience on so many levels and with one huge lesson.....weakness leads to disaster.
Japan: "We did it! We destroyed their fleet!"
USA: "Ya done messed up A-a-ron!"
Careful, Icarus.
I'm very glad you guys covered the Niihau incident in this episode. I was thinking about replying in the last few videos saying you should have covered it lol.
I know time is limited in how much you need to cover but I can't help but think that maybe you should have given it another 30 seconds. The Niihau incident is a very important incident later on in the war since it is the primary incident (among other Japanese spy incidents) later cited by supporters of the US interment of the Japanese on the US mainland. Since during the Niihau incident American citizens of Japanese ancestry are the ones who tried to help the Japanese piolet escape, killing a Hawaiian man trying to stop the couple from helping the Japanese pilot escape.
They were not “American” citizens. Hawaii wasn’t even a state back in 1941. Make some sense.
Asians couldn’t even be naturalized citizens back then. Had to be born in the “states” which Hawaii was not.
29:37 Me in HOIV playing as USA who is still at war with Japan in 1949: Yeah I know I know.
My dad was in the US Army preparing for the invasion of Japan. The saying before the Bombs was "The Golden Gate in '48, the bread line in '49"!
*United States enters the chat*
USA: OK, now it's my problem
as the pacific war heats up, I hope you guys get Drachinifel onboard for crossover purposes, one of the best naval channels
Did you see the live stream that Indy and Sparty did with Drach and Jingles?
ruclips.net/video/eJJjdMCfYdA/видео.html
@@iKvetch558 thank you !
Barbarossa sealed the Axis Powers’ fate. Pearl Harbor was the nail in the coffin
Barbarossa could’ve possibly been a German victory. The pacific war for Japan not so much
@@UrWifiIsSlow Barbarossa could be only won by surrender of Soviet leadership which is highly unlikely.
@@ShiningTrapezoid I wouldn't say zero chance of German victory, if the drive onto Moscow had been the focal point, a major communications and transport hub would be removed. The effect would prolong the war as the Soviets rebuilt and rearmed. But the Soviets would never surrender and they would always win eventally. Russia is too big to occupy.
Shining Trapezoid I disagree, With a better plan from outset of Invasion, the Germans could have won. Once the plan they chose was set in motion, yes it was doomed from the start.
@@jandelaogcake sucks it's Stalin in charge not the Romanov or smth
Thank you to everyone who protected Hong Kong.
My dad was stationed there before the war. He said that he was disappointed on reaching harbour as he was lead to believe that all the Honk Kong Chinese would be dressed as Mandarins, conical hats, long thin moustaches.
In reality, the dock workers looked no different from those he saw in Liverpool - ordinary people, in fact (donkey jackets & flat caps).
I have a picture of him in the army rowing team. Swimming in the China sea sounded so exotic to a 10 year old me
Free HK!
#HK_is_NOT_China
I hope they talk about the Canadian General who fought the Japanese at his headquarters to the death with a pistol in each hand and and a pile of dead Japanese around him.
Guarded by rookie troops and rendered a second tier importance by Churchill, Hong Kong eventually held out until Christmas whilst being outnumbered 3 to 1.
By the way, one of the generals on the Japanese side was Major General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, who was famous for being down to earth and visit wounded soldiers at the hospitals. (Spoilers) He later commanded the defence of Iwo Jima.
Defending #HongKong from the numerically superior Japanese army was a hopeless and helpless task, yet the Allied soldiers fought on courageously and honourably. We #Hongkongers owed them so much.
#LestWeForget
29 planes lost and just 50 men. That is incredible success, no wonder the Japanese were cocky at the start of the war
Even Japanese themselves noticed it once they started to lose. It is called "Winner's Disease" or something like that.
Don't worry. They carry that cockiness (and lessons learned) with them to Darwin's version of Pearl Harbor but it begins to crack after Coral Sea and then Midway.... well... you know what happens there lol.
@@vksasdgaming9472 Victory disease... also known as hubris
@@vksasdgaming9472 And to think, six months later at Midway, it's all over.
@@azraelswrd Truk also, blew a mile wide hole in their supply chain
I saved this minute by minute up for a year. Well worth the wait, great presentation and I learned a few things. My Grandfather served on the USS Penquin in WWI. Spent 1918 putting mines in the North Sea. And 1919 sweeping them up. Came home a year after everyone else. Mom said he spent a day pacing back and forth cursing when he heard she was lost.
This is one of the best documentaries I've ever seen. And I've seen a lot! This would be an excellent viewing experience for any history class. It explains events in easy to follow methods and you learn so many details that are never discussed in most publications. Multiple sources of history are important, and the delivery of this information is equally as important. You should be proud of your team for the great work you have done.
Thank you for the kind words! We're really happy to hear that you liked it!
Thank you Sparty and Indy and all at TimeGhost HQ for bearing witness to the horror and tragedy that was December 7, 1941.
2:55 He had definitely practiced saying "Plaek Pibulsongkram"
If you look outside of the door behind Indie you can see the gif looping
This really is the channel de jour for WW2 history presented in a colorful and entertaining way. Our presenter's obvious enthusiasm for the subject is infectious and really makes the subject matter come alive.
Total respect for how this channel has developed and particular props to "Indy" who is just great.
Well done to the channel team.
Thanks!
12:42 That is the most fabulous horse I've seen in WW2 footage.
He is totally decked out with leaves for camouflage (or shade?). He looks like he has some sort of ghillie suit made for horses, it's awesome!
I took your advice and looked more into the Niihau incident...which led me to the rabbit hole of discovery that Fuchida (the lead pilot) became a Christian evangelist who died in the US....crazy
Wut??? That is crazy indeed.
Fiuchida after the war met Tibbits, pilot of the Enola Gay, and told him he (Fuchida) thought dropping the bomb on Hiroshima was a good decision. I don't think his life story could be any more crazy
@@briandevlin4136 It is that horrifying realization that thousands die to save millions. Horrifying demonstration of superiority was needed to hammer truth in: Japan has lost! Give up, or you will all die. Period.
@@vksasdgaming9472
Well. The bombs helped.
The fact Russia wanted to invade Japan did not help.
The Japanese knew if Russia came, they would NEVER leave.
So they decided to choose the lesser evil in their eyes they figured the US would not kill the Emperor.
They were right. McAuthor knew harming, much less executing the Japanese Emperor in anyway would be killing Jesus a second time in front of devout Christians. A bad idea.
Plus they feared we had more nukes.
But they feared Russia never leaving more.
@@equarg Never thought of Japanese fear towards USSR and how things went in Eastern Europe it was justified. Least or at least most predictable of many evils.
When comparing Japanese divisions to Western or Soviet divisions, the Japanese are much larger in terms of manpower, but far lower in mechanization and motorization. IIRC, the typical Japanese infantry division numbers around 25,000 men, whereas Western Allied and German divisions averaged around 16-17,000 men. Soviet divisions numbered around 14-15,000, mostly because their logistical support was stripped out and moved to the Corps level (one organizational level above).
They really need to do the division sizes in these videos.
Chinese divisions at the best case are 10,000 men, in practice most were 6,000-7,000 men.
This leads to episodes where 4 Japanese divisions face 32 Chinese ones... And it looks like the Chinese outnumber the Japanese by 8 to 1, when in actuality, the Chinese would only be outnumbering by 2 to 1 in that scenario.
What I really like about this channel, is the way Spartacus and Indy comment everything at the same time
passionate and factual. This way it never gets boring, but still feels(and is) a 100 % objective and neutral
narration of the events. Looking forward to the topics ahead...maybe Vietnam, Falklands, Gulf Wars and East Ukraine.
As always a marvelous production. Carry on the great work chaps I'm always quite pleased to have used patreon for the first time to help out this series.
Amazing so far. Thoroughly enjoyed the level of details in this coverage. As usual awesome narration Indy.
"Simple. And now, it has begun."
I am very appreciative of all the research writing and presentation that have been developed for this mini-series. Thank you.
I do not have the words to describe how well done and informative this series is!! Thank you very much for all the time effort that your trip organization has devoted to these videos.
Another excellent episode of a fantastic series. I wish we'd known this stuff back in high school. Thank you.
I have watched the 10 episodes in this documentary, i enjoyed alot, thank you for everyone who worked hard from research to graphics to presenting, thank you so much guys, keep the good work, i personally learned alot by watching this channel, thank you again.
I have been listening to this channel on and off for awhile. But, listening to this series clinched it for me. I decided to subscribe to the channel Thanks Indy. 👍
This series is an awesome, and absolutely comprehensive narrative.
Brilliant writing, production and delivery, that situates itself in a 'neutral' zone of historiography.
Michael you flatter us. The whole team works their tails off to produce these episodes, and it brings us all great joy to read comments like yours that appreciate the efforts. Thanks for watching and please do stay tuned, much more war to come.
Excellent in-depth coverage of the events leading up to and following Pearl Harbor. My only small complaint is the 'g' in Singapore is silent. Sing-a-pore. Not Sing-ga-pore.
I've been following y'all since the beginning of the Great War channel, watched everything there, everything at the It's History Channel, everything at the TimeGhost History channel and now after seeing how spectacular this Pearl Harbor special has been, I'm finally joining the TimeGhost army and donating. Love you guys!
Indy, please say "H town hold it down!" One day
Anyone wanna acknowledge and appreciate the nice touch of a bicycle bells sound effect at 04:47 with me?
10/10 episode
I hope they use Australian sources for the Pacific war as well as British and American sources because the Australian narrative is quite different to the British and American narratives.
How is it different?
Well the Japanese where well in Invasion range so it was more of a personal we win or die type of situation. I take an educated guess.
I think Indy will take that into account especially after the Darwin raid and the formations of ABDACOM and the ANZAC squadron. This is the deepest I ever seen anybody dive into either the wars and much further than I ever hoped to be. So I have high hopes.
I know you guys did a lot in the Pacific War and have already been at it since 39' in Europe. That was in your back yard. Literally.
Thank you Australia and its servicemen/women. From Texas.
@Troy Staunton Well in the Pacific, the Americans did do just about everything. That's just a verifiable fact. America could've defeated Japan without Australia and the UK. Not the other way around. I still heavily admire what the Aussies did, especially in New Guinea.
And here I thought this was going to be a wholesome, positive, complimentary thread. You just HAD to take a dig at Americans right after one just gave y'all a great compliment, and literally proved your generalization wrong lol.
Inferiority complex: Example#3454
Australia repairs and bases American submarines during the war. Not sure about other details.
Fuchida must have been a master of fuel manipulation..to be last pilot to touchdown is amazing..the detailed presentation of this series is just outstanding..thank you
Royal Neighbors? 5:50 didn't skip a beat I couldn't tell you meant to say Royal neighbors or if it's supposed to be Royal Navy.
"You should look up the Nīhau incident for yourselves" I wish my favorite RUclips history channel would have a video on it.
i think the unfolding of events is too short to make an extensive video out of it.
TimeGhost is one of the best channels on RUclips.
This series is outstanding! I'm finishing up the episodes morning of the 8th. In addition to these episodes, I watched the film 'Tora Tora Tora', a sort of tradition for me on Dec. 7.Today, on the 8th, I think of the young men, like my father, who enlisted on the 8th.
Excellent work writing and presenting TimeGhost-a real asset to me. Many thanks !
Anybody who is interested in simulating the Pacific War should consider the game War in the Pacific, Admiral`s Edition. Incredible detail, really shows the strategic problems each side faces.... It is fairly easy to stick troops somewhere...Keeping them supplied...Not so simple... Game is a amazing though there is a steep learning curve. If you get into it the pay off in terms of playing time for money invested is brilliant
18:39 Japan: that sounds like a challenge
WW2 is weird for my family because I have great grandparents fought on both sides of the war. I have family who fought in the Japanese army who fought against my great granduncles who were in the Marine Corps
Yeah I know this feeling. My uncle was working with the government who oppressed my people and my father was on the rebel side fighting for freedom. Fuck my uncle 😂
What are their relationships today?
@@AbrahamLincoln4 good now
salute
There was a Japanese family that had this exact problem.
One Brothers Family fought for “The Emperor”, the other fought for the USA.
This was not realized till after the war.....at a reunion.
Almost caused a fistfight.
That was until the Family Patriarch told then to STOP. The war was over. So was the need to fight.
His words alone settled things down immediately.
😖 Worse Reunion Ever.
8:52 It's interesting that you phrase it that way, attributing the older, battleship-centric view to officers who had fought in the Russo-Japanese War. In fact, at the time of Pearl Harbor, only one Japanese naval veteran of the Russo-Japanese War was still in active service: Yamamoto.
Thank you for this amazing work...
Small detail, is Indy's infantry insignia upside down?
So is one of these also planned now for D-Day I assume? Or you could do battle of midway, though I feel like the timeline of that battle had been done to death. Or Kursk though like battle of the bulge it's not a one day battle/attack so unsure if fits the format.
@ 11:02 are those smiley faces on the forward turrets?
Blast bags. They keep over pressure from entering the turret when the main battery guns fire and keep water from entering the turret as well.
Interesting point on the emphasis by the U.S. on bomber construction. Giulio Douhet and Billy Mitchell were a tad too optimistic in what strategic bombing could achieve on its own but they knew that while it wouldn't turn weapons like battleships into dinosaurs, their place in the food-chain would drop considerably as airpower ascended. Japan and Germany could have taken a hint from their doctrine. One of the greatest weakness for both was the inability to develop multi-engine long-range bombers.
Thank you for doing the work to explain the details in order. Books give a sequence of events and always leave something out so you have to do a lot of reading to fill in the historical holes. The Japanese had their own version of Lebensraum.
Did anyone notice the Japanese grunt at 12:12? His cap is crooked, and I've never noticed that before on a Japanese soldier. There's a wiseguy in every outfit I guess.
Bicycle infantry sounds silly when you think of those old fashioned bikes. But imagine some modern special forces tearing it up on modern mountain bikes...
As always, Indy, a very class act!!! Well done, from another historian. :)
Another excellent episode. Kinda sad I only have one left to enjoy. Well done.
The fact the Pacific Ocean is bigger than all the land of earth put together staggers me. It was a big place
map Earth with all of the Pacific ocean
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7d/World_location_map_%28W3_Pacific%29.svg/1280px-World_location_map_%28W3_Pacific%29.svg.png
The Pacific Ocean is still there.
@@football5964 no it’s not
@@football5964 Wake up! The pacific ocean actually disappeared in 1954!
@@halo7oo Where did it go. What happened to the agua
I did read up on the Niihau incident, and that _is_ an interesting story! How was that never made into a movie??
EDIT: Never mind, apparently a movie _has_ been made about this: Enemy Within (2019)
Not too long after the war ended, the Japanese went from being a treacherous, sadistic enemy played that way in wartime films (typically with Chinese actors portraying them, in the same way as Nazis in Hollywood tended to be portrayed by German or Austrian Jewish expatriates) to allies against the USSR and Communist China. Presenting them as an enemy within no longer fitted the agenda. If anything films and TV shows from the 1950s onwards showed Japanese in a somewhat more favourable light than the wartime facts would imply.
Some Japanese vessels were used to ferry US Marines to Inchon in the Korean War. Some Marines on these ships glanced at the Japanese ship captains on the bridge and could not help wondering what the inscrutable Oriental had been doing five or six years earlier.
Whoa what the heck, Indy snuck in a pic of himself at 6:49.
who the Hell are the 51 whom have pressed dislike ?.....once again a brilliant episode thank you WWII
Can I ask where is episode two? This is so brilliantly done.
ruclips.net/video/tm39s7ry6rk/видео.html&t
@@WorldWarTwo Thanks so much.
Excellent detail. Thanks for bringing this back to life.
Just in awe of this series.....10 out 10, 5 stars
Hope you guys also talk about the Japanese invasion of the Portuguese possessions in the far east like East Timor and Macau, the Portuguese government was in no position to declare war on Japan but the soldiers stationed there still fought.
Hopefully. A lot of stuff is about to go down in East Timor/West Indies that rarely ever gets covered or discussed especially in the USA. Hell, most people never even heard of the Darwin bombing which was basically the "better" Pearl Harbor attack where the IJN actually hit the targets they were supposed to unlike at Pearl where everyone sort of did their own thing, which meant ignoring critical targets in favor of big fat battleships for those glory points lol.
@@azraelswrd Yeah, many people don't even know that Japan attack Australian soil!
@@azraelswrd AT PH the battleships (and the American carriers, but fortunately they weren't there) WERE the intended targets; the Japanese did hit the targets they planned to hit. And the Japanese COULDN'T have gone after the infrastructure even if they wanted to-they didn't have the fuel to stay around for long enough, and the infrastructure (especially the fuel tanks) at Pearl were far more resistant to bombings than those at Darwin, especially once you realize that naval fuel doesn't burn that well.
This series was phenomenal, thank you. Y'all didn't disappoint.......
Historians assert that the planned 3rd wave of attacks by the Japanese would have been a critical wound. The 3rd wave would have attacked the oil storage depot and submarine base. Loss of BOTH facilities would have crippled the Pacific fleet for many months, particularly the oil storage depot. Adm. Nagumo was cautious, perhaps more cautious than necessary, considering the considerable confusion at Pearl Harbor, but not knowing where the Enterprise was located was a huge factor in the decision. While the Pacific fleet would have to sail out and find the Japanese, which took time, any aircraft sighting would have made an immediate American response possible. Retirement from the battle was the single safest course. In turn, because the submarine base and oil farm was not destroyed, the submarine fleet was able to function and act, and for a while become the strongest defense and means of communication between bases in the Pacific.
Some of your best work yet Indy
Great series, but in the future you might want to treat Fuchida's accounts with a bit more skepticism.
I noticed that too...it seems that Indy and the team may not be aware how unreliable Fuchida may well be. 💯🖖✌
Honestly, much of the traditional narratives about the Pacific War is flawed and disproven (including cases where the narratives for entire battles is flawed), and I fear that Indy may further spread misinformation because of this.
We don't use Fuchida's account as verification or single source anywhere, but as an eyewitness account of events that can be verified by a multitude of primary sources. If you pay attention to the quotes we use, they revolve around his own feelings, and events inside of his cockpit that can be easily verified.
@@WorldWarTwo thanks for the clarification!
@@WorldWarTwo OK...that is really good...thank you for clarifying. Just a suggest, a short disclaimer explaining exactly what you just told us could be placed prominently in any video where Fuchida's words are used? That way, nobody can even claim that you depended on Fuchida as a real source other than for what you described. Anyway...the series is a masterpiece...excellent work to all involved. ✌
Big fan of the series, but not a fan of the description given at 14:05
Not entirely sure what the standards were for the count displayed, but at no point was the US working on constructing 15 battleships simultaneously. 4 South Dakotas and 6 Iowas had been ordered by the Pearl Harbor attack and 8 of those ships had been laid down by that point (4 of each), with a further 2 Iowa-Class ships seemingly under order at the time. This implies that the standard was when the ship was ordered by the Navy.
15 battleships seems to imply inclusion of the Montana-class (5 ships), which was authorized by Congress under the Two-Ocean Navy Act, but were never ordered and never got out of planning stages. If you are going to include the Montanas, you really need to include all 18 Essex-class ships, similarly authorized under the Two-Ocean Navy Act, despite only 11 being under construction before December 1941.
The only other way I think you could reach 15 battleships is by including the Alaska-class Battlecruisers, 6 of which had been on order, and counting them in a weird way to reach 15 total battleships instead of 16. This seems unlikely, so I'm left scratching my head.
It kind of seems that one reason someone might choose to count this way would be to emphasize a much stronger preference for battleships in the US Navy, despite there being many within the naval and political establishment recognizing the merits of naval aviation.
The Two-Ocean Navy Act is strongly implied in the series when direct reference to the fall of France is made, given that was the motivation for that particular piece of legislation and other naval construction was more in line with more normal military modernization efforts (it was the Naval Act of 1938 which authorized the 4 South Dakota and 3 Iowa-class Battleships). A listing of ships authorized by the Two-Ocean Navy Act (aka the Seventy-Percent Act or the Vinson-Walsh Act) would read 7 Battleships, 18 Aircraft Carriers, 29 Cruisers, 115 Destroyers and 42 Submarines.
Whatever Indy has in the mug on the desk he would need it after all of his narration. Great job by all concerned 👍
This is an amazing series!
"...They are expected to destroy anything of military value and escape, but that's not what happened for you see the Marines there...."
Pretty sure the moment any plan involves Marines retreating it's doomed to fail.
US: The Empire of Japan has attacked pearl Harbor Hawaii!
The Philippines, Wake and Guam Island: We're gonna be alright....right?
Japan: Well yes but actually no. BANZAI! X.X
Imperial Japanese forces landed on the shores of Miri and begin the end of the White Rajah Dynasty. Japanese planes were seen doing reconnaisance flight as soon as the Pearl Harbor attack reach the Brits. The Sarawakian government were told by Britain to do a scorched earth by destroying as much as possible to every oilfield and airfield across Miri and Lutong to prevent the Japanese from gaining any resources and seal every oil well to decrease output. Where these oil wells stand today is now a developed area. There are houses built on top of these wells. Miri that time is a one big oilfield and we still pump oil to this day and there are rumors says there are still oil deposits left beneath Canada Hill.
Excellent documentary on Pearl Harbor and the initiation of the Pacific war with Japan. Naturally, such a production as this needs to be sensitive about stirring up a hornet's nest of controversy surrounding this quite controversial event - or, rather, the controversial historical interpretation of it. However, I have to lean more towards the thesis that the attack on Pearl was, in fact, NOT the complete surprise to FDR and his key political advisors that the conventional wisdom (and this documentary) advocates. Based on the work of historians such as James Perloff and Robert Stinnet, it is clear that FDR and his cronies had expected it, had hoped for it, and had worked for it. The attack certainly was a blindsided surprise to Kimmel and Short, but not to FDR. This is also strongly alluded to in the superb 1970 movie "Tora Tora Tora", which in my opinion is one of the finest WW2 movies ever produced.
The assertion that there was ample foreknowledge in Washington of Japan's intent to attack the US Pacific fleet that was withheld from US commanders in Hawaii in order NOT to spoil the attack certainly has parallels with other contrived incidents for getting a reluctant public into the war spirit. Most notably are the attack on the USS Maine which ignited the Spanish-American war, the sinking of the Lusitania that provided an entree for the US into WW1, and the Gulf of Tonkin incident that opened the door to the war in Vietnam. Simply put: that's politics...as is too the subsequent writing of the histories of such events to gloss over and obscure the Machiavellian politics behind the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of young men.
The point is that those elite personnel trained and experienced in military, diplomatic, and political planning and operations are necessarily schooled in the actual motives, methods and techniques used in the past to achieve a desired political outcome. So why should the general public - or at least that portion of the public with an interest in such matters - be denied knowledge of these "actual motives, methods and techniques" in at least an historical context (with some degree of redaction, of course)? Why should any thoughtful persons be relegated only to the nursery rhyme versions of great historical events? Well, thank goodness we don't have to be - thanks to the intelligent and courageous work of people such as Perloff and Stinnet with regard to Pearl Harbor. Though some may be uncomfortable with challenges to the superficial versions of such events produced for mass consumption, for more adventurous minds the provocative kind of information and documentation produced by the likes of Perloff and Stinnet is not only stimulating, but excellent sources for better understanding how our world really works.
This is not to take anything away from this highly entertaining and informative documentary. But there is certainly a larger, more Machiavellian context into which the Pearl Harbor event took place. We would all be better citizens, and perhaps better able than we seem to be now to hold onto and defend our cherished nation and its (former?) principles of liberty if we were more aware of the contextual possibilities surrounding the significant trends and events in our country's history.
Absolutely brilliant content thank you!!!
Great job. Thank you.
You guys relied on Fuchida's memoirs way too much, considering how he's known to exaggerate events to make himself look better. Fuchida's discussion with Nagumo never happened. The third wave was never planned and that's why it wasn't executed. The guy was disproven by Japanese historians a while ago, and by western historians more recently (goddammit, language barriers!). This is also not the only instance of him lying, another example is his account of the Battle of Midway in which he says the Japanese were just about to counterattack before the American planes struck Akagi, Kaga and Soryuu. It kinda leads me to question what else it is that he said and was false, given that in a lot of events you have talked about he's the only source.
Anyway I don't want to be overly negative or anything, I'm loving your Pearl Harbor documentary, but I wanted to point out the mistake as I haven't seen anyone mention it (on second thought, I'm sure someone in the 400 comments here or in the forums have)
Japan: I wish you good fortune in the wars to come. And now it begins.
USA: No, now it ends.
good Tower of Joy (GoT) reference ...
To add to the breakdown of US forces, those defending the Philippines by 1941 included over 130,000 Filipino officers and enlisted men of the Philippine Commonwealth Army (R. Jose, The Philippine Army 1935-1942, p. 227), majority of them untested and poorly equipped reservists, with some regular units, i.e the Phil. Army's 1st and 2nd Divisions.
Thailand, the Denmark of Asia.
Slightly unfair. Thailand could have defended it self with its terrain... Denmark could not.
More like Bulgaria.
Just like how Bulgaria conquered southern Dobruja, Macedonia, and Thrace in 1941 by invoking the 1878 Treaty of San Stefano, Thailand used the war to reconquer parts of Burma taken from Thailand in 1893, and the four provinces ceded to Malaya in 1909.
I was thinking more like Finland
@@ianhomerpura8937 the part of Thailand taken from Burma is Shan state
I read about the Niʻihau incident. The fact that all 3 of the Niʻihau Island residents of Japanese ancestry, 1 of whom was born in the US, decided to side with the downed Japanese pilot and help him escape is kinda scary. I guess it heavily tipped the scales in favor of Japanese internment. Its easy to make judgments now from our perspective but back with a looming threat of possible Japanese invasion its hard to blame people.
Wonderful series and many thanks for the neutrality and research here. Keep safe and keep well there. Dave...
Thank you
enjoy the 'simplicity' of the strategy
Amazing stuff!
Thank you!
13:20 Naval strategy is built strategy. Thank you Military History Visualized for that lesson learned.
The japanese opted to wake the dragon. The dragon woke. The dragon was angry. The dragon came for them.
That's really confusing, as we usually refer to China as "the dragon"
@@ivannierez7731 he meant hotdog
The Eagle...
@@mmdirtyworkz 😂😂😂😂😂
Amazes me that the militaries of that time kept track of all of their personnel with type written paperwork in folders.
And that was an improvement over had written documents from before the invention or widespread use of the typewriter.
-TimeGhost Ambassador
Roosevelt was saying that for the american publics ears.. he was chomping t the bit to get into the war!
He was chomping at the bit to fight in Europe, the Pacific was of secondary importance.
he was hoping to get the Japanese to attack something American big enough to get into the war - he was hoping for something smaller than the entire pacific fleet. we were impounding their ships, had on several occasions set a cruiser or 2 into or near Japanese ports (he called them pop up cruisers), we had shot down a few of their planes near the Philippines, we commonly had subs shadowing their ships. they were allied with Germany the thinking was if we went to war with them Germany would follow (also Italy but no one took them seriously). he just wanted them to look like they shot first - he got it
Yeah this part of the video was shameful.
Not because what Rosevelt did was wrong but shameful since it does not give his cabinet credit with bringing the US in the war
The Nihau incident is generally downplayed, but it is one instance when a resident family of Japanese descent, seemingly assimilated, immediately supported the Japanese military rather than the Americans. It's certainly racist, but I wonder if the loyalty exhibited by Americans of Japanese descent was heavily influenced by their surroundings. Surrounded by their American neighbors, they went along with them. If the islands had suffered a Japanese invasion, and surrounded by thousands of Japanese military, would the local population have exhibited the same loyalty?
I don't think the question is racist, but it's decidedly uncomfortable. It's a question that has been raised of other peoples, principally I think of the Germans, whom there was in the previous war I believe some latent support because of hereditary lines connecting them to the country from immigration. It could be here that some Japanese would feel the same pull of loyalty to the nation they left because of familial ties though distant.
In regards to yours in particular, it depends on the who and where. Perhaps Hawaiian Japanese Americans would have closer ties to their homeland than mainland Japanese-Americans. Or first and second generation immigrants. But I think that unlikely, and I think based on the conduct of many units in the European theater, they were as loyal to America, not merely displaying some faux trickery.
In extreme situations, like war, a lot of people react to the immediate situation they are in and take the easiest available option. Had there been a landing in force many Japanese-Americans might have supported the Japanese. Ancestral ties and also a feeling that there were backing the winning side.
Also In the Niihau incident just one Zero pilot - not an invasion force - was enough to get the handful of local Japanese supporting him, if not necessarily enthusiastically. In fact it took some courage for them to do that, given that they were outnumbered and there could be no certainty more Japanese would arrive.
In NE India, some locals helped Japanese pilots who crashed there.
@@porksterbob India is a bit of a different story. India being a colony has more estranged relations with the British preceding and running through the war. I can't recall their general opinion towards Japan, but while it was certainly not favorable, it at least offered them an opportunity in pushing for succession from the British Empire.
Hell no!
This is some really great history. I didn't know Germany approved the attack on Pearl Harbor.
4:49.. someone edited in a bicycle bell together with the infantry using bikes? Mmmmkay.. :D