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Volume One
America Taken By Surprise
America never thought the Japanese could attack its forces at Pearl Harbor - especially without warning. Our leaders downplayed the threat to the U.S. Pacific Fleet, while focusing on the Nazi threat in Europe. President Franklin Roosevelt desperately wanted to fight Hitler. Did he conspire with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to get America into World War II? Even if it meant being attacked by Japan?
This original Questar program answers the enduring question: why was America taken by surprise? The United States had many warnings of Japanese aggression. Yet our defenses at Pearl Harbor remained lax up to the very moment of attack.
Even after a Navy gunboat was sunk in the Pacific - and a U.S. destroyer in the Atlantic - the isolationist movement in America remained strong. President Roosevelt had to find some way to get us into the war against fascism. Find out how American attitudes and politics got in the way of military wisdom - and doomed U.S. forces in Hawaii.
Volume Two
The Pacific War On FilmDecember 7th, 1941 tells the story of Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor like no other documentary. Combining actual combat footage with dramatic re-creations, Ford moves through the entire attack. See the first wave of enemy warplanes cripple U.S. Navy warships. Watch the second wave destroy Army warplanes, hangars and more ships.
The Battle of Midway, shot in color, gives a blow-by-blow account of the most important naval battle in the Pacific campaign. Experience the elation of Navy pilots as they sink four Japanese aircraft carriers. Watch as torpedo planes and dive-bombers avenge Pearl Harbor and put the Japanese Navy on the defensive for the rest of the war.
The Fighting Lady gives you a firsthand look at combat operations on board the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown. When the first Yorktown was sunk at the Battle of Midway, its name was given to a new ship, which also became known as the "Fighting Lady". This documentary demonstrates the intensity of the Yorktown's will to survive as its crew and pilots desperately battle the Japanese.
Volume Three
Prelude To Pearl Harbor
Two documentaries by Frank Capra, Academy AwardŽ-winning director, give you the full story of how war enveloped Europe and Asia, setting the stage for Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.
In Prelude to War, witness the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party as fascism spreads across Europe. See how Japanese militarists started a war in Manchuria to further their country's expansionist goals. Watch as bombs fall on defenseless cities during the Spanish Civil War. Find out why Great Britain and France had to oppose Germany, and how Hitler struck an alliance with his arch-enemy, Soviet Premier Josef Stalin. Feel the fear that gripped all of Europe in the 1930s as the entire continent moved inexorably toward the most destructive conflict the world has ever known.
War Comes to America is Frank Capra's patriotic call to arms against a global foe that threatens democracy in the United States. Experience the contrast between quiet, peaceful streets in America with the wholesale slaughter taking place overseas. Hear the arguments put forth by isolationists, who believed America should stay out of war at any cost. Get the real story on President Roosevelt's strategy to help his British allies in the face of annihilation. Finally, witness the attack on Pearl Harbor and how that single event galvanized our nation as ever before.
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