Attack On Pearl Harbor: Minute By Minute (2022)
Today is the eighty-first anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the event which propelled the United States into the Second World War. Netflix has an excellent documentary series, Attack On Pearl Harbor: Minute By Minute that makes sense out of the confusion that surrounded the event.
The series does a great job of presenting both sides of Pearl Harbor without offering too much judgement, which is refreshing, especially for potential Japanese audiences. Whether or not students in Japan are taught about Pearl Harbor is touch-and-go, and if it’s mentioned at all, it may be disrespected or downplayed.
Something that’s immediately apparent about what happened prior to and during the attack is how much didn’t go according to plan and how much wasn’t taken seriously. Minute By Minute mentions that because of weak radio signals official communiques had to be sent by Western Union and since they weren’t marked “High Priority,” they were put into a queue with all the other to-be-sent messages. When another message warned of an imminent attack, the messenger got stuck in traffic on his way to see the officer in charge.
Things went wrong on Japan’s end, too. Signals were misread, which meant the planes didn’t attack all at once but in stages because some groups would veer off prematurely. They also weren’t expecting the Americans to fight back as much as they did, which threw off their plans. Even so, very few pilots were able to get into the air and the American Navy and Air Force sustained heavy damage.
Most of the film’s interviews are given by military historians, among them Daniel Martinez, who is the chief historian at Pearl Harbor, but there are a few surviving vets from both the United States and Japan who were able to tell their stories. I had a particular interest in Cass Phillips, who was a radioman on a PB-Y just like my grandpa Little, and there’s quite a bit of footage of PB-Ys landing on the water, which is really cool.
The series spares no details as far as the casualties and deaths resulting from the attack, with some pretty graphic descriptions of men who were very badly burned or trapped in air pockets on their ships. Ironically, rescuing trapped men was a very tricky business, as cutting into the hull of a damaged ship could result in a sailor drowning.
It also doesn’t spare details as far as heroes were concerned. Doris “Dorie” Miller, who was a black mess attendant aboard the West Virginia, not only manned a vacant gun and scored some hits against Japanese zeroes, but helped save the lives of many of his crewmates. He was the first black American to be awarded the Navy Cross and was later portrayed by Cuba Gooding, Jr. in the 2001 Michael Bay feature, Pearl Harbor.
Minute By Minute emphasizes how significant the attack really was. The famous-though-unverified quote about awakening sleeping giants is nowhere to be found, but the series makes it clear that America had been jolted out of complacency. The only minor error it makes is stating that American men rushed in droves to join the Armed Forces, which actually wasn’t the case; according to the National World War Two Museum, only 38.8% of servicemen and women were volunteers and everyone else waited to be drafted.
However, this doesn’t diminish Minute By Minute’s overall impact, which is fascinating from beginning to end and a competent record of the Pearl Harbor attack, which will be increasingly important as more veterans leave the scene.
Attack On Pearl Harbor: Minute By Minute is currently streaming on Netflix. Not rated.
My grade: A+
Participants: Russell Boulter (narrator), Jonathan Parshall, Laura Lawfer Orr, J. Michael Wenger, Timothy Orr, Daniel Martinez, Frances Emond, Taylor Downing, Steve Twomey, Louis Conter, Regina Akers, Masamitsu Yoshioka, Eri Hotta, Cass Phillips, Dick Schlink, John D. Anderson, Donald Berton Long
Directed by Stan Griffin.