Pearl Harbor documentary History Channel

On the 60th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack, television responds with at least two documentaries and a special day of programming.

TLC's "Hell in the Pacific" (8 p.m.) treats the entire grueling and gruesome war in the Pacific Theater, which began, of course, with Pearl Harbor.

It's full of compelling contemporary footage and, with a quick but careful tracing of the events leading up to the Japanese attack, serves as a kind of balance to American culture's intense focus on World War II's European theater.

Interestingly, pop historian Stephen Ambrose's next book is on the Pacific war.

On the History Channel, the programming is the most ambitious in the channel's history. Commemoration events from New Orleans' D-Day Museum (9:30 a.m.) and Pearl Harbor (11:30 a.m.) will air live and then repeat beginning at 1 p.m.

A repeat broadcast of the episode from ABC's "The Century" documentary dealing with 1936-45 airs at 4:30 p.m., followed by a repeat of the "Unsung Heroes of Pearl Harbor" documentary at 6 p.m.