Customer Reviews

Pearl Harbor - The View From Japan

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This seems to me a worth-while DVD; I don't regret buying it. It is somewhat mis-titled, for it actually briefly covers the entire ill-fated Pacific campaign. It has a strong focus on Admiral Yamamoto himself--his foresight and vision as a military leader, and his reluctance to enter into a fight with the U.S. It is interesting to hear a few words from the Japanese perspective, yet it seems that is all you get--a few words. There is little groundwork laid which might explain more fully Japan's reasons for attacking us. The DVD ends abruptly, with no final words of summary or mention of lessons learned. I suppose one can't blame them; they are, after all, reciting a long painful list of defeats which began only six months after the Pearl Harbor "turkey shoot". Nonetheless, though this overview is brief, it succeeds brilliantly, and makes fine use of map diagrams. One comes away with increased clarity about the scope of events in the war in the Pacific. The narration is dubbed over in English, and is outstanding. The DVD is very attractively packaged, using a semi-clear plastic case. Again, a worth-while purchase.

Amazon reports this has been discontinued by manufacturer, having sat through this drivel I can only assume it is from shame.

I have seen a lot of bad documentary's in my day with lots of problems: poorly edited, prejudiced views, inconsistent production values, poorly researched or just down right wrong facts. But this is the first time I have seen them all come together in one place in such a complete and utter cluster fudge waste of time and film.

Since this is from the Japanese view I could understand they gloss over the Japanese atrocities in China which led to the deterioration of relations between the US and Japan. They are unlikely to mention the Rape of Nanking and other issues but they do not mention China at all. This gives no reason at all for the deterioration, not even the current wave of self agrandizing 'we fought a defensive war' clap trap. It just happens.

The writer seems to revere Admiral Yamamoto to the point of ignoring historical fact, crediting him with inventing the idea of attacking fleets at rest with air power. A nice idea but it was American General Billy Mitchell who first showed how ships were vulnerable to air attack and it was the British Admiral Cunningham's smaller carrier attack on the Italian fleet at Toranto which gave the Japanese the idea that became Pearl Harbor.

This finally lost me when it explained how American Admiral Nimitz was disheartened by *his* defeat at Pearl Harbor. For the record Nimitz was sent out to take over *after* Pearl, relieving Kimmel. I found myself yelling at the TV "Did any of you even hear of the term `fact check'?" It rapidly becomes unwatchable with no explanation, no conclusions nothing more than a recounting of facts, misstatements and things that are just plain wrong.

Maybe you can watch this for rare Japanese film footage but for goodness sake don't think you're getting any facts out of this drivel.