As an industrial nation Japan has always had one weakness -- no natural resources to speak of. No coal mines, no iron ore, no oil, no vast stands of timber. As an Island nation, it has always had to depend on imports. And in the 1920s and 30s, as the population expanded, the Japanese martial government looked for its resources elsewhere.
On pretexts they invaded first Manchuria, then a disorganized China. And when France fell to Germany in 1940, they took French Indo-China, now Vietnam.
And what the hell, it was all so easy that Japan fell victim to what they later were to call "the victory disease." The U.S., in support of France, imposed an embargo on Japan, depriving them of oil supplies and more or less forcing them to look elsewhere for fuel.
The plan developed by the secular leader of Japan, General Tojo, was to achieve quick victories over all European colonies and bring them together in the "Greater Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere." The initial attack was on America's armed forces at Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands, a severe blow to the U. S. Navy. The American were overwhelmed. The Japanese had a multitude of aircraft carriers and the Mistubishi A6M Zero, the finest fighter airplane in the Pacific.
Then the Japanese moved against American, British, and Dutch colones in Southeast Asia. They fell like a row of dominoes. MacArthur in the Phillipines was caught with his pants down and the British outpost in Singapore suffered the most humiliating defeat in British history. Thirty thousand Japanese troops forced the surrender of 100,000 British and colonial troops.
The program then takes us through the Battles of the Coral Sea, Midway, and Guadalcanal. All of which, taken together, put a stop to Japanese advancement.
The details are few. After all, it's an hour program (less commercial time) and the coverage is sketchy. The footage doesn't always match the events being described by the euphonious Robert Powell, but that's minor. It's a decent documentary of a war that is rapidly disappearing from living human memory.