Japan, is about to attack the United States of America.
On board the aircraft carrier "Zuikaku", the pilots are woken at 4 AM.
Captain Mitsuo Fuchida, gathers them together for the traditional sake toasts to the Emperor.
Fuchida will lead the attack on Pearl Harbor, the large American naval base in Hawaii,
according to the bold plan, devised by Admiral Yamamoto.
Yamamoto wants to deal a decisive blow
and eliminate this obstacle to Japan's conquest of the Pacific.
Fuchida recounts, "We took off for Pearl Harbor.
I shouted out the code words. Tora, Tora, Tora!"
AMERICAN ALLIES
The attack comes as a total surprise.
Marine Corporal Earl Nightingale, who is on board the battleship Arizona,
describes the scene:
An explosion caused the ship to shake, violently.
I looked to the boat deck and everything seemed aflame.
I reported to the Major that the ship was aflame.
The Major ordered us to leave. I was the last man to leave.
The bodies of the dead were thick and badly burned men were heading for the quarter deck
only to fall, apparently dead or badly wounded.
In this attack, launched without any declaration of war
2,500 Americans died, and 1,200 were wounded.
Whereas less than a hundred of Japanese pilots and sailors were killed.
These images would shock the American people.
They would no longer oppose their country's entry into the war.
Yet the Japanese forces did not land in Hawaii, nor did they take Pearl Harbor.
They sunk part of the American fleet but only the now outdated battleships.
Aircraft carriers will become the key to victory in naval warfare.
And the 3 aircraft carriers based in Pearl Harbor were not there.
They were all out at sea. And so miraculously, they remain intact.
The President of The United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt
had been expecting an attack.
Tension between the two countries was at its height.
But who would've imagine that that Japanese naval aviation units
would be able to strike 5000 km away from their bases?
The next day, Roosevelt goes before Congress.
Yesterday, December 7, 1941,
a date which will live in infamy.
United States of America were suddenly and deliberately attacked.
No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion.
The American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory.
It is, indeed, an invasion.
On the same day, the Japanese attack the British colony of Hong Kong.
Then they bomb the American air bases in the Philippines
and land on the Bataan peninsula.
The Japanese have already established a strong foothold in China.
They invade the British colony of Burma and Malaya for their rubber.
The Dutch colony of Sumatra for its oil. And they threaten India and Australia.
A few months earlier they had moved into the French colony of Indochina.
After France's defeat in 1940
the Vichy regime, which was unable to refuse anything to an ally of Hitler's
had turned some of its air and naval bases over to the Japanese.
The United States retaliated by cutting off its oil supplies to Japan
and freezing Japanese assets.
These economic sanctions had pushed Japan into the wall.
The country, a chain of over populated islands
lacking in natural resources, was rapidly developing.
It was in need of raw materials
and it set out to conquer the nations who had them by force.
Japan had built up its navy
to become one of the second most powerful fleets on the world.
With no less than 10 aircraft carriers and with highly sophisticated fighter aircraft.
The remarkable "Zero", for example, which outperformed Allied planes
in terms of speed, maneuverability, and range.
This in addition to an army of millions of men fiercely devoted to their emperor.
Hirohito is the 124th Emperor of Japan.
The scholarly monarch studies marine biology in a laboratory in his palace.
He is a living God.
The actions of his military are covered by his divine authority.
In China, the Imperial Army had carried out unbelievable massacres.
Such as in Nanking in 1937, where 300,000 Chinese were slaughtered
before the Japanese could proudly parade through the Forbidden City in Beijing.
The Emperor reigns but does not govern.
Power lies in the hands of General Tojo and an ultranationalist group
that controls the country by their local "Gestapo", the "Kempeitai",
and via loudspeakers, they broadcast the official declaration of war
against the United States.
100 million Japanese
are now called upon to completely devote and sacrifice themselves to the country.
As long as we all preserve this patriotic loyalty
to the imperial goal of peace throughout the world
we will fear neither the Americans nor the British!
These Japanese pilots, who took off from Indochina at breakfast time,
do not fear the British.
They are looking for 2 British battleships that havel come to protect Singapore.
The venerable "Repulse" and one of the most modern combat ships of the time,
the "Prince of Wales", the pride of the Royal Navy.
They are both sunk by the Japanese, in less than an hour.
A fateful date, the end of Great Britain's dominion of the seas.
The following day in Berlin, the Fuhrer goes to the Reichstag
for a meeting of Nazi leaders.
For 4 critical days, since Pearl Harbor
and Japan's entry into the war against the United States, Hitler has been waiting in vain
for Roosevelt to declare war on Germany.
If Hitler sides with Japan, perhaps Tokyo will support him in Russia.
The German generals, however, are far from enthusiastic.
Ribbentrop, the foreign minister has tried to dissuade Hitler.
But Hitler declares war on the United States.
"We know what powers stand behind Roosevelt, it is the eternal Jew.
I am grateful to the German people for designating me to lead this historic struggle
that will determine the history of the world for the next 10 centuries to come."
The British Prime Minister phones Washington.
Roosevelt says, "We're all in the same boat now."
This is the moment Churchill's been waiting for the last two years.
Roosevelt had wanted to show his electorate
that he'd done everything he could to keep the peace.
The war has now become a world war and Churchill now feels stronger.
What kind of people do they think we are?
Is it possible that they do not realize that we shall never cease
to persevere against them
until they have been taught a lesson which they and the world will never forget?
Churchill severely underestimates the enemy. Hong Kong falls to Japan in just 17 days.
General Yamashita, known as "The Tiger of Malaya",
sends Japanese tanks through the Malayan Jungle.
He captures Singapore, the pearl of the British Empire.
A stronghold that was considered impregnable.
Yamashita makes hundreds of prisoners line up in perfect order
for an impressive and humiliating review.
Yamashita indulges in a chivalrous salute for the Japanese propaganda crew.
General Yamashita will be hanged for war crimes in 1946.
General MacArthur, commander of US Forces in the Philippines,
which are now surrounded by the Japanese is ordered by Roosevelt to escape,
so he's not to be taken prisoner.
When he arrives in Australia, he declares, "I shall return."
MacArthur's soldiers are taken prisoner.
30,000 Americans, with their old 1917 "Doughboy" helmets.
And an equal numbers of Filipinos
who set off for their internment camp 100 km away.
This is the "Bataan Death March".
One of the survivors, Sydney Stewart, recalls:
We marched for 10 days and nights without eating. We were constantly beaten.
Those who cannot longer go on, were killed by the guards
who beheaded them with a sword.
In just 5 months, Japan has destroyed the Allied forces in the Far East,
and conquered half of the Pacific.
"Tennouhekai Banzai", long live the emperor.
A huge "Banzai" resounds throughout the Empire
to celebrate Japan's version of the lightning war.
It reaches General Tojo and The Emperor
who deigns to make an appearance in public with his family.
Germany first.
Churchill and Roosevelt both agree on this strategy.
Their primary objective is to defeat the Germany.
"We have to bomb it." Says Churchill.
He creates an air fleet, commanded by general Bomber Harris.
Harris believes he can win the war
with his powerful 4-engined Halifaxes and Lancasters.
This strategy is criticized as being costly in terms of men and equipment.
But it does begin to take its toll on German's cities.
On the March 8, 1942, Essen is bombed. A way for Churchill to help Stalin.
The city produces weapons used by the German forces in Russia.
The Germans begin to measure the consequences of Hitler's policies.
The Nazi regime descends into murderous insanity.
Hitler, Göring, Himmler and his assistant, Heydrich,
begin to implement what they call "The Final Solution".
The extermination of Jews in Europe.
It is further endorsed at the Wannsee Conference, near Berlin
in January 1942.
That's why Heydrich comes to Paris to organize the rounding up of Jews in France.
Their one-way-trip to the gas chambers in Auschwitz.
The Wannsee Conference is the manufacturing of mass produced crime.
Thousands of Jews are crowded into fake showers and gassed.
After the holocaust by bullets in Russia, the genocide intensifies.
In Paris and across Europe, the occupation brings poverty.
Everything is rationed, everything the occupation country produce
goes to feed the German army.
The children's fathers are prisoners in Germany.
"Stalag" camps for enlisted men, and "Oflag" camps for the officers.
Gaston Chirac, imprisoned in June 1940, writes:
I've wasted 5 years of my life in that Stalag from 20 to 25, without my wife.
In the Oflags, the officers are treating better.
The French generals are interned in the Fortress of Koenig stein, near Dresden.
Including the unfortunately leaders of the battle of France, such as General Giraud.
His jailer takes great delight in filming him
during an interesting visit to the city of Dresden
which British bombs would later raze to the ground.
At the age of 63, general Giraud will become the hero of an acrobatic escape
that will infuriate Hitler.
For a while, Giraud will be the rival of general De Gaulle.
It is De Gaulle, however, who, from London, embodies the French resistance.
In France, attacks against the occupiers are being on the rise.
especially, since the communists join the resistance's struggle
following Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union.
In retaliation for the anti-German attacks, hostages are executed.
De Gaulle now has a small army, fighting alongside the British in Africa,
called the "Free French Forces".
Its member have been sentenced to death by the Vichy Government.
Some have been fighting since June 16, 1940.
The most famous among them is general Lecrec.
His real name is Philippe de Hauteclocque.
But he adopted this alias to protect his family back in France.
After being promoted to general by De Gaulle,
he fashioned a "Kepi" for himself with 2 stars taken from an Italian
after the victorious battle in Kufra, Libya.
That day, Leclerc says to his men, "Swear that you will not lay down your arms
until our flag flies once again over the Cathedral of Strasbourg."
For 15 days at Bir Hakeim, in the Libyan deserts,
other Free French Forces repel the German offensive
launched by Rommel, "The Desert Fox", and his Afrika korp.
In this global conflict, the so-called "Axis Powers",
the alliances between Germany, Italy and Japan are positioned on all fronts.
The Afrika korp are just outside Egypt.
The Wehrmacht occupied a third of Russia.
The Imperial Navy of Japan controls the Pacific.
And Germany's submarines are wrecking-havoc in the Atlantic.
The U-boat is arguably German's most dangerous weapon.
In the first few months of 1942,
these submarines have sunk 4,000,000 tons of Allied ships.
Oil tankers, freighters loaded with arms and planes
on their way with fresh supplies to an asphyxiated Great Britain.
Even though The United States have joined the conflict, the war seems to be lost.
The world is on the brink of destruction.
The German submariners approach North America.
Through their periscopes, they film the bright lights of New York.
We have information that a squadron of fleas is heading towards the Long Island.
The American newspapers and radios warn the public of possible German air raids.
In reality, however, planes do not yet have such a long range of action from Europe.
Still, the population is told to black out their light.
It is, in fact, the West Coast,
where the idea of Japanese attack seems more plausible
that is over-taken by hysteria.
Suddenly, 120,000 Japanese-Americans fall under suspicion.
First, their radios are confiscated, then their fingerprints are taken.
The government posts orders that introduce emergency measures.
Roosevelt declares, "It is a military necessity."
These Americans of Japanese ancestry have lived for generations in California
where they contribute to the agriculture and economy of the state.
Most of them are US citizens.
They are given 48 hours to vacate their shops and their houses.
They are then evacuated in groups
to relocation centers, far out in the desert of Utah
or up in the snows of Colorado,
centers euphemistically called "Internment camps".
A disgraceful spectacle for the United States.
In the words of the American novelist, Julie Otsuka:
My upbringing was very American. We never spoke Japanese at home.
We didn't eat Japanese food.
And then my grandfather was arrested by the FBI as a suspected spy for Japan
along with my grandmother, my uncle, my mother.
My family has always been very discreet about what happened.
But nothing diminishes their loyalty for America.
6,000 will serve as translators in the Pacific.
Nearly 20,000 will sign up to combat the German in Europe.
The rest will be freed at the end of the war.
In 1942, American rallies around its flag.
Millions of men enlisted.
6,000,000 women go to work to replace them in the armament factories.
Roosevelt sets production target at 125,000 airplanes,
75,000 tanks and 10 million tons of ships. This is the victory program.
But victory is uncertain and very far off.
American opinion is flagging and an exploit is needed to shore it up.
A daring plan is devised.
An aircraft carrier, the USS Hornet
will attempt to get as close to Japan as possible with a squad of 16 B-25 bombers.
This is the first time that such large planes will be taking off
from a compact deck of a carrier in battle.
The air crews are trained by Air Force Colonel Jimmy Doolittle,
once a famous racing pilot.
He will command the raid.
The mission seems impossible.
For the long flight over to Japan these planes are too heavy in terms of bombs and fuel.
But they succeeded in taking off.
Their mission will be celebrated in a popular feature film,
"Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo".
They dropped 16 tons of bombs and caused only minor damages.
But it is a huge slap in the face for the Empire of the Rising Sun.
Eight raiders went down in Japanese territory and vengeance was fierce.
Tried for war crimes, 3 were sentenced to death and 5 received life in prison.
For the prime minister, general Tojo, and for admiral Yamamoto,
the American raid proved that it was necessary to extend
their defensive perimeter to the east.
Their plan is to take Midway.
An American military base in the middle of the Pacific.
And then capture Pearl Harbor, as they should have done 6 months earlier.
What the Japanese do not know
is that the Americans have successfully broken their secret military code.
And therefore aware of the plan.
As the results, US Commander-in-Chief, admiral Chester Nimitz
prepares to defend Midway.
He has fewer aircraft carriers than Yamamoto.
But he brings them all over to set up an ambush.
Admiral Yamamoto is on his way
at the head of the biggest armada ever put together.
200 battleships, and above all, an exceptional fleet of 8 aircraft carriers
transporting nearly 600 planes.
On board are 5,000 Japanese marines.
And a painter, who's come along to immortalize the battle, Fujita.
In Paris, he was a famous Montparnasse artist.
He has returned to Japan to do his duty.
On the American side, it is the eminent director John Ford,
who will immortalize the defense of Midway Island.
On the eve of the battle, he recreates the atmosphere of his Western
before the final shoot-out.
The marines know that the attack is slated for the next day.
In the morning, Ford films the first Japanese attack
which devastate the American base.
A Japanese bomb explodes a bit too close to the filmmakers, seriously wounding Ford.
Ford will later recall a marine saying, "My God, that one is close."
He would also recall, "Marines with me, them kids from 18 to 22.
And they were the calmest people I've ever seen.
I figured then, while this war is practically won."
The pilots on board the US aircraft carriers are no older. They are barely out of college.
They pose for John Ford's cameramen and then take off to attack the Japanese fleet.
Torpedo Squadron 8 will strike first.
One of its pilots, 25 years old, lieutenant George Gay,
nose-dives over the Japanese fleet.
The anti aircraft guns on the Japanese aircraft carriers
shoot down the American planes, one after the other.
George Gay flies low over the waves, he is shot down.
He surfaces on the water, miraculously unhurt.
A few hundreds yards away he can see the feverish activity
on board the Japanese aircraft carriers.
Planes are being fueled and bombs are being loaded,
in preparation for their second wave of attack.
At that very moment, another squadron of US bombers
flies over the Japanese ships.
An incredible stroke of luck, they sink 4 Japanese aircraft carriers.
George Gay, still in the water, recalls,
"I found myself in the middle of the Japanese wreck and the sharks.
I saw the Japanese planes coming back from their first attack on Midway.
They were looking for their aircraft carriers, the ones we have just sunk.
So I saw the Japanese pilots who have by now, run out of fuel, landing in the water."
George Gay would be rescued by an American sea plane.
He will go on to become an airline pilot.
The US aircraft carrier Yorktown, has been damaged by the Japanese.
It tends to its wounds.
Counts the number of casualties, and attempts to return to its place.
But the next day, it is torpedoed by the Japanese submarine, I-168.
The Americans have lost an aircraft carrier but the Japanese have lost 4.
This is the first Japanese defeat and it boosts the Allies' morale.
It restores their confidence.
But it doesn't seem to have weakened Japan.
Thwarted at Midway, in the middle of the Pacific,
continues to advance south, towards Australia.
Darwin, the northern most city in Australia already bombed by the Japanese,
is now preparing for an invasion.
The country's first war.
The Australians will attempt to counter the Japanese
who continue their expansion invading New Guinea.
An enormous island, practically impenetrable,
which until then had mainly attracted explorers.
The Papuans will end up providing precious assistance to the Australians
who will fight a desperate war in New Guinea against the mosquitoes,
the red ants,
the leeches,
the snakes,
and attacks from the Japanese.
But it is the Island of Guadalcanal that now concerns the Americans.
One of their reconnaissance planes has revealed
that the Japanese are building an airfield on the island.
Another threat to Australia.
The Americans organize the first big landing of the war.
Initially, on the beach, the marines do not encounter any resistance.
And head into the jungle.
One of them, Edwin Morgan, reports:
We were getting to know the jungle.
It was full of suspicious noises that were frightening.
I was afraid. But we said to ourselves,
there's no reason for the Japanese to be better than us.
They all live in cities. There are no jungles in Japan.
The marines are professionals and the Japanese are die-hards.
The Japanese are so confident in their superiority
that they charge with their bayonets.
Just as in World War 1, in Verdun, against machine gun fire.
With the same result, as in Verdun, a blood bath.
Japanese soldiers are killed in the battle of Tenaru river.
After that, the marines are able to capture the air field.
They secure it and enlarge the runway
for the first planes of the airborne marines, called "The Black Sheep Squadron".
This airfield becomes the target of incessant shelling by the Japanese.
At night, their cruisers glide up and down the coast
and pound the bases with such regularity, that marines call it, "The Tokyo Express".
A naval battle is engaged to prevent reinforcements from landing.
A Japanese elite regiment gets through.
These Japanese marines are fearsome warriors.
But they go off to war without any defense against tropical diseases.
Malaria will kill many of them.
Others will sacrifice themselves in keeping the Bushido tradition.
Their commander, colonel Ichiki, reminds them of the Samurai motto:
Duty is heavy like a mountain, but a soldier's death is light, like a feather.
The battle for Guadalcanal is only just beginning.
The fighting will last 6 months, a war of attrition.
The US marines feel that they are trapped in, what they call, a "Green hell".
They, too are ill, their wounds become infected.
But this is only just the beginning of their ordeal.
At that moment, the Red Army is going through its own ordeal.
The Russians call it, "The Black Summer of 1942".
The Germans have resumed their march eastwards and are taking prisoners again.
Less than the previous year, however, because most of the time,
the Soviets have already taken off and left nothing but scorched earth behind them.
Hitler thinks they are fleeing, but it is in fact, an order from Stalin.
Yet for the Lancers, the soldiers of the Wehrmacht,
a fierce battle has to be waged for every single town.
Major Hoch of the 18th Infantry Regiment, writes:
The new recruits are not used to this kind of fighting.
They soon get depressed, go crazy and are struck down.
On August 8, we lost 35 young men like this.
Out of the 50 who were killed in the 6th Company.
Into this quagmire, Hitler throws everything he has, some 10,000,000 men.
He estimates, however, that he still needs 800,000 more
for this decisive campaign.
His Romanian, Hungarian and Italian allies will provide the men.
Most of whom are forced to go and fight for him.
Of the Italians, forced into war by Mussolini's megalomania.
300,000 will be killed.
Hitler's goal is no longer Moscow, but Southern Russia.
He is planning a colossal pinser movement
that will close up around the oil fields in the Caucasus.
And with Rommel advancing through Egypt, those in the Middle East.
His other goal is Stalingrad, Stalin's city and its factories.
Hitler launches both offensives at the same time which alarms his military commanders.
As he did for Moscow the previous year, Hitler splits up his forces.
A part of the Wehrmacht penetrates deep into the steppes.
General von Kleist says,
"In front of me, no enemies. Behind me, no reserves."
They reach the Caucasus mountains, they head for the Iranian border
which has recently become a supply route for American aid to the U.S.S.R.
They will never reach it.
In the mean time, the rest of the German forces,
the 6th Army, led by general Paulus is marching toward Stalingrad.
To try and stop the relentless advance of the German tanks,
the Russians start using desperate means.
Dogs.
Up until now, the skins of these dogs were used to make boots.
The Russian have hastily put together a method
based on the work of the famous scientist Pavlov and his condition reflexes.
The dogs are starved and trained to seek their food under a tracked vehicle.
They are strapped with remote controlled explosives
and freed at the last minute when the German tank comes into view.
In August 1942, Churchill and Harriman, Roosevelt's ambassador,
fly to Moscow to meet with Stalin,
who is demanding that a second front be opened in the West.
Churchill makes his famous "V" for victory sign.
But he has no other choice but to admit to Stalin
that The Allies cannot help him against the Germans on the Eastern Front.
Harriman promises aid and equipment, but Stalin is furious.
He knows he will have to fight Hitler, alone.
He assigns the defense of Stalingrad to one of his most ruthless henchmen,
the Ukrainian, Nikita Khrushchev
who had been responsible for several of Stalin's massacres before the war.
Khrushchev conveys Stalin's order, not to retreat.
But he is unable to stop the German advance from arriving on the outskirts of Stalingrad.
By September 1942, Paulus reaches the railway that goes to Moscow.
He manages to follow it all the way to Stalingrad and takes the Central Train Station.
The Stukas prepare to destroy the city that is the pride of the Soviet Union.
The greatest industrial city in the communist world.
Built to cater to the workers,
with its garden estates and its "Red October" and barricades factories.
The German's bombs killed thousands of civilians.
The massive tractor factory, where the T-34 tanks were manufactured
is reduced to a sea of rubble.
Yet these ruins become blockhouses and fortresses
that the Germans have to capture in hand-to-hand combat.
They suffer heavy casualties,
which are however nothing, compared to the Russian losses.
After 4 weeks of dogged fighting,
the Germans finally get to the top of the only high point in the city, Mamayev Hill.
From there, they can control all of Stalingrad.
On October 15, 1942, the Germans reach their goal,
the great Russian river, the Volga.
Only a thin strip of land is still held by a few Soviet combatants.
General Paulus can inform Hitler that the Swastika is flying over the city
which is now occupied by the 6th Army.
Hitler is delighted. He gathers all of his associates together.
Göring, Goebbels, Himmler and his devotees.
And he tells them, "I wanted to take that city, Stalin city.
It's finally ours!
Boats can no longer sail up the Volga. That's what is most important."