It’s now 82 years since the Japanese mad what in retrospect was a huge mistake by attacking US Navy, Marine, and Army bases on the island of Oahu in the territory of Hawaii.

Although the Japanese had planned to time their declaration of war with the onset of the attacks on Hawaii and the Philippines, their bureaucratic ineptitude resulted in the declaration being delivered after the start of the attack.

Diplomatic protocol aside, I’m not sure that there would have been much difference in the effectiveness of the attack, but it might have infuriated the American public a bit less.

The attack surprised most Americans, many of whom were not quite sure where Pearl Harbor was. For that matter, a lot of people were blissfully unaware of the war in Asia that had been going on since 1937.

Japan expected a quick victory in Asia and a rapid capitulation of America and allied nations in the pacific. For several months nothing much happened to contradict that belief, but that’s a story for another day.

The Japanese paid a horrific price for their attack, but they had earned it. That might be harsh, but it’s definitely true.

In 1943 film director John Ford produced and directed a documentary (now referred to as propaganda) about the attack. The original documentary, available on Amazon Prime the last time I looked was about 80 minutes long and had a lot of anti Japanese content. By today’s standard it’s considered hopelessly racist. That aside, it has some allegations that were probably known not to be true at the time.

As they say, the truth is the first casualty of war.

People can debate propaganda all they want, but the truth is all combatant nations engage in it to some extent or another. Whether anyone believes it or not I can’t say.

Anyway, here is the edited version of the film, which shows much of the devastation as well as the rescue and recovery efforts. I include it because it is part of the historical record of World War 2.