Attack on Pearl Harbor: Minute by Minute

Peter McGinn

I have not read or watched as much about World War II as I have the American Civil War, so I found this mini-series to be quite informative in filling in details I was not aware of. Turns out that the desire to continue. Having access to slaves in the American south was still an even worse reason to attack the United States than the Japanese desire to secure long-term access to oil. (Though I am sure that the Japanese would have a different spin on it like the south leaned on the handy phrase of ‘states rights.’) There are interviews with a few of the rare living survivors (pretty lucid for being over 100 years old) and the usual talking head historians, along with as many photographs and video clips as they could find. I was not aware of any recreations, though I think they may have used a few substitute videos that show a generic explosion or the like. So I can’t speak to how accurate they are with the details or the opinions of this series, but it feels pretty fair-minded overall.