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Crusade in the Pacific is a video series that documents the fighting between the United States and Japan's Empire of the Rising Sun during and immediately after World War II. Each episode examines a crucial stage in a war that was contested bitterly and marked by unheard-of savagery. This episode, Crusade in the Pacific: The Rise of the Japanese Empire, covers the initial stirrings of the Japanese war machine, including the military's decision to attack China without the approval of civilian authorities. This decision set Japan on a disastrous course, one that climaxed with the decision to attack the United States at Pearl Harbor.