America's Fight For The Pacific In WWII | Battlezone | War Stories

[Music] foreign [Music] 1943 the japanese are at the height of their military success their trail of slaughter and destruction has secured the whole of southeast asia and half the pacific the japanese people led into war by a battle-hungry military council are pleased with the success japan's economy can grow on the raw materials that are now in their grasp few realize in these heady times that their days of conquest are over the americans have already taken guadalcanal and thus secured their lines of communication across the pacific it had been a baptism of fire for the americans who had lost 1600 men in this one landing alone but the implications for japan had been worse the japanese gamble had failed the new japanese empire was not going to be left alone the united states did not intend to cut its losses the news of the japanese conquests had brought about an angry determination in the hearts of all americans it was not a matter of simply liberating these territories now under the japanese yoke they intended punishing the japanese by inflicting on them a total defeat it was not a matter of simply defeating the japanese they intended to root out the whole military structure that had begun the reign of terror it was to be total war and to wage this war the americans were prepared to throw in everything they could the battle of midway had already shown that the balance between the two powers was a fine one the japanese had summoned the best of their naval resources they had put together the largest fleet in the world yet the americans already crippled by the losses at pearl harbor had beaten off the japanese attack now as the americans began the long push back through the solomon islands they started to deploy their massive industrial strength they were to spend thousands of millions of dollars on their navy and build seventy thousand ships this was to be the foundation of their troop deployment across the largest battlefield in the world they built over 200 000 planes four thousand tanks nearly two million trucks in the four years that the americans were in the war they manufactured three million rifles they produced over a million machine guns a million motors and before they were finished they had put over 11 million men into the battlefield combat fighting lasted a few hours sometimes only a few minutes most of our life from once a month was rather boring just crossing the pacific uh which was not uh pacific at all it was uh full of tremendous typhoons which uh really were more a source of concern to us than the japanese uh these typhoons uh which started in the philippines and uh went across the pacific to the bering sea and did a great deal of damage and one struggled for days to stay afloat i think we lost more destroyers to typhoons and we did to the japanese submarines the vast area of the pacific was too much for one commander alone it was split into two general douglas macarthur who had set up his headquarters in australia after leaving the philippines was given command of the southwest pacific area macarthur was to strike northwest to the philippines a flamboyant personality macarthur operated almost as an independent power the american chiefs of staff negotiated strategic agreements with him rather than issued him with orders throughout the war he was to remain aloof and to put his personal stamp on the southwest pacific and though he was under instructions to coordinate his plans with the campaign in the central pacific his relations with the command of that area admiral nimitz were extremely bad admiral nimitz who was the commander-in-chief of the pacific a man who was modest and calm very well liked and a great diplomat which was important because he was caught between general macarthur who commanded the philippine area the western pacific and who was quite temperamental and admiral king who was chief of naval operations in washington admiral king was a man cold and hard who said when president roosevelt called him in to be the chief of the navy said when the going gets tough they always pick the sons of [ __ ] general macarthur was quite a different man brilliant highly susceptible to flattery uh looking for publicity which uh nimitz and king avoided when the strategy for the campaign in the pacific was settled in march 1943 it was macarthur who made the first move within six months he had advanced to within striking range of japan's most important strategic base in the south on december 26 1943 the americans under general macarthur struck at the heart of the japanese territories in the southwest pacific in new britain part of this force had fought at guadalcanal the americans had had over a year to perfect their landing techniques but they met little opposition here [Music] [Applause] but when they moved inland the marines found themselves sinking into thick jungle the undergrowth the mosquitoes the swamps and the violent tropical rainstorms were harder to overcome than the japanese [Applause] it was not enough to capture territory the airfields they captured turned into [Music] quagmires [Applause] their air cover was cut their wounded could not be thrown out it was to take them three months to get a firm grip on new britain and rebel was bypassed and never taken admiral nimitz had had an equally tough time in the central pacific at tarawa in the gilbert islands the first step in nimitz's plan of operations the japanese had lined the shores with pill boxes bunkers and machine gun emplacements they were ready for the americans but the americans were ready with plans that were to turn tarawa into the scene of one of the bloodiest battles of the pacific it began a constant bombardment of the japanese positions but it was not enough when the marines landed they could not get off the beaches [Music] [Music] it took the marines three days before they could move inland and there the japanese resisted to the last man [Music] four thousand japanese defended tarawa not one survived when they could fight no more they committed suicide in japan the emperor's birthday parade went on as usual the defeated tarawa was far away and the census had kept all reference to defeats out of the newspapers it was a time to celebrate the end of the white man's domination of southeast asia it was a time to proclaim the independence of the former colonies of burma malaysia and indonesia and to invite them to join in the great east asia co-prosperity sphere under the rule of japan the new israel's proclaimed this new empire now we have laid the foundations for the future they said for generations the people of eastern asia have lived under the domination of the english the dutch and the americans now these people have thrown off the yoke of the oppressors thanks to the heroic efforts of our armed forces they have joined with their liberators in the new great east asia co-prosperity sphere meanwhile in china chiang kai-shek was still holding out against the new great east asia co-prosperity sphere his nationalist forces were still keeping the major part of the japanese army busy he had spent a decade fighting the japanese and was still the central figure in the war with japan for the americans initial objective in the pacific was still to aid china before crushing japan china was the base from which they could launch the invasion of the japanese mainland so chang stayed in the headlines with pictures of his attractive american educated wife [Music] now that the japanese had occupied burma and cut chiang kai-shek's last land link with the outside world the only way his allies could communicate with him was by air from india over the mountains north of burma some of the worst flying country in the world chiang kai-shek's armies were large on paper they looked very good on propaganda films but in fact their equipment was poor they were weary after a decade of fighting and many units were barely under chiang's command at all the traditional chinese warlords had taken up their former feudal rights and had begun to make deals with the japanese many allied observers doubted chang's ability to fight at all and no one was more skeptical than general vinegar joe stillwell the american military advisor stillwell's objective was to build a road over the mountains into burma there the british army was fighting the third front of the battle for the pacific under general sir william slim probably the best fighting soldier the british army produced in the whole of the war the british operations began in 1943 with commando groups the chindits under brigadier ord wingate they operated in the jungles miles behind the japanese lines destroying communication wherever they could when it came to conventional fighting the japanese played right into the allied hands when they marched into burma it had never been their intention to invade india they had regarded the mountains along the chambering river as an almost impenetrable natural barrier that would protect the northwesterly flank of their empire the british guerrilla tactics however changed their ideas the chindits could get through the mountains and hit them with force in march 1944 the japanese decided to attack across the chinwin over the mountains into india it was a grateful decision [Music] the british held firm before them the japanese exhausted themselves their lines of communication stretched through miles of almost impenetrable jungle always prey to the british gorillas still lodged there eventually it was the japanese who fell back and then began the allied advance so the japanese army in burma was virtually wiped out they lost about 53 000 men out of an army of 85 000. the allied armies with british american indian and even chinese troops swept through upper burma and reopened the road to china the next year under their new commander-in-chief lord louis mountbatten the allies went on to greater victories burma turned into a disaster for the japanese as had been tarawa and rebel but there had been others by now so shattering that the japanese census could no longer hide the truth nimitz in the central pacific had reached the marianas and was ready to strike a death flow to the japanese carrier fleet june the 19th 1944 disastrous day for the japanese 300 american fighters took part in the battle and they were to shoot down as many of the japanese planes two-thirds of the japanese fighter strength in the area was to be destroyed [Music] [Music] [Music] it was as the americans said like clay pigeon shooting [Music] and when the japanese fighters were overcome the americans turned on the japanese fleet they sank one aircraft carrier damaged four others and put two battleships out of action but they were now 300 miles from their own carriers tired short of fuel some with damaged planes they were often unable to judge their approaches correctly as evening came on [Music] they had lost 20 in the battle they were to lose 80 on the return [Music] so [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] whilst the air battles were being fought off the marianas the americans were also bombing saipan the marines were meeting the same kind of opposition they had met at tarawa it took them over three weeks to take this island only ten miles wide and four miles across they lost three thousand men but they killed 26 000 japanese [Applause] the last resistance was in the central mountains there the japanese with neither food nor water were holed up in caves they were literally blasted out when there was no resistance from the caves it was because the defenders had saved their last bullets for themselves japanese civilians also were held up in the caves they too committed suicide in tokyo the loss of saipan brought about a change of government general koiso and admiral yoni now led the japanese war cabinet everything was now to be directed to the war effort everyone was mobilized even children were sent to work in the factories students were conscripted into the army this was the time when the ashes of the dead of saipan arrived in tokyo it was a warning of what was to come the americans had already assembled the largest force ever seen in pacific waters and we're heading for the gulf of laity in the philippines the last surviving ships of the japanese fleet were coming to meet them [Music] the japanese began well they decoyed part of the american fleet away from the main forces to a position north of the philippines then they moved in with their main group on macarthur's landing forces they sank two carriers and three destroyers severely damaged seven other carriers and one destroyer but then the japanese admiral kurita broke off the engagement and the american escort turned on him the invasion force carried on [Music] unhindered and in the north the japanese decoy was not successful for long admiral halsey noticed the virtual absence of planes on the japanese carriers there were only 116 planes on all four carriers the americans immediately sent their fighters into action [Music] four carriers were sunk one cruiser two destroyers with the losses in the south it meant that the japanese fleet was now practically non-existent and now the americans reached the philippines in october 1944 they landed at leyte where there was no opposition [Music] in march 1942 mcarthur had promised to return to the philippines now he kept that promise [Music] but it was not all as easy as this in the main island luzon the japanese held out manila the capital had to be cleared yard by yard it went on for over 10 days when the japanese and the americans had finished with it manila was a massive rubble [Music] it was almost a year before macarthur declared the philippines liberated it had been a long way back but macarthur was not to be first to strike at the japanese mainland super fortresses from the marianas had been within striking distance since the autumn of 1944 they could carry six tons of bombs and they had a range of three thousand miles the b-29s raided japan every four or five days from december 1944 there were 60 to 90 bombers in each attack their main targets were the industrial areas the harbors and aircraft factories but they were not very successful in hitting these targets bad weather and inadequate training meant that many of the bombs fell on civilian areas [Music] the japanese had no reply to the firepower of the fortresses the only way they could stop them was to ram them [Music] the people in the cities had no cellars and very few air raid shelters to go to when the b-29s came their wooden houses were no protection against the american bombs they soon caught fire and now in 1944 evacuation of children to the country had to be organized these were scenes few had thought possible in 1941 [Music] while the children were being organized in their evacuation camps their parents in the cities were also being organized for the last effort every inch of ground was turned over to grow vegetables even units of the army reserve were detailed to work in the fields japan prepared for a long siege and the americans were less than a thousand miles away [Music] admiral nimitz was now preparing to invade iwo jima in the bonin islands but at iwo jima the americans came across defenses even stronger than they had met before the japanese had transformed iwo jima into an ant hill of heavily fortified pill boxes connected by tunnels [Music] on the 19th of february 1945 the first wave of assault craft landed the marines they could not get beyond the beaches they were under heavy fire from positions they could hardly see casualties were heavy by the end of the first day they had battered their way to the first pill boxes at the foot of the mountain in the center of the island [Music] but when the morning came it was as if they were only starting the marines were trapped at the foot of the mountain the japanese overlooked their positions only a continued air and naval barrage saved [Music] them iwo jima is four miles long two and a quarter miles across [Music] the americans were over a month in taking it [Music] though they lifted their flag to the top of the central mountain on the fourth day they were never sure where the next japanese attack would come from in the end it was the sheer weight of their firepower that won iwo jima for the united states but they lost seven thousand men and the japanese dead numbered twenty one thousand [Music] as iwo jima fell the americans changed their strategy in bombing japan general curtis lemay decided to switch from high altitude bombing to low-flying incendiary raids the objective to break down japanese civilian morale the first raid was on the 10th of march 1945 300 b-29s set out from their bases in the marianas their target tokyo the weather was not good it was a force wind the air crews said it was suicide to go up the planes had been stripped of all defensive guns so they could carry more bombs [Music] but at iwo jima they were met by an escort of mustangs they were to be defended all the way to [Music] tokyo the b-29s on the tokyo raid carried more than 1600 tons of bombs mainly clusters of incendiaries and napalm at midnight a deluge of fire fell on tokyo it lasted for three hours [Music] it was like a forest fire the flames were whipped across the city by the hurricane force wind [Music] there was no shelter from the flames anyone who took refuge was burned alive seventy two thousand died that night and by morning nearly half of tokyo had been burnt out the royal palace escaped destruction in spite of protests by his staff the emperor now insisted on seeing the devastation for himself it was the first time he had used his full power contrary to his government's wishes he was appalled by what he saw in tokyo japan could conquer no more the defense of the country was now the only thought and a defense that no one could have imagined for one american battleship one plane and one life the suicide pilots the kamikazes they were all young men in their twenties all volunteers by the end of the war the japanese had trained five thousand of them one who miraculously survived remembers the squadron leader called us together at the end of march 1945 and said i regret to tell you but the high command has asked you to enroll in the kamikazes it's not a dialect order you are being asked to volunteer you have 24 hours to decide just about everybody was ready to go to be a kamikaze was to defend the homeland to defend our parents and our family they trained on wooden simulators for they could not spare the fuel for training in the air they were taught just two things how to take off and how to dive i got into the plane but then i got down again and touched the soil of my homeland for the last time i looked at the grass that was growing there even the grass that was of no use whatsoever that would stay attached to the soil of japan that would survive me because i was about to die you cannot possibly imagine just how attached we are to the soil of our homeland i try to think of the faces of my parents of my younger sister but i couldn't the emotion of the moment had even blotted out these memories these young men were the ultimate expression of the dedication of the japanese people to their nation and their emperor god their name kamikaze meant divine wind and they had an aura that was reflected in their song we go to battle shielded by a divine force we leave the mountains of our homeland and as we die we salute our emperor god the kamikazes were a terrifying weapon at least at first but it was a sign to us that the japanese knew that they had lost the war kamikaze was just a a flyer with very little experience trying to crash on a ship hardly any evasive action just to dive so if you if you were in the right position you could shoot it down pretty easily but where it was very very badass for people on board ship my destroyer the lamson was hit by a suicide pilot who struck the ship just behind the bridge and everyone on the bridge except myself was killed or wounded and the survivors had to jump in the water to save themselves from the flames in two weeks uh in our group uh called a division uh of eight to eight destroyers we lost half either sunk or damaged by the kamikazes [Music] it was at okinawa that the kamikazes made their supreme effort on april the 6th 1945 350 of them took on the american invasion fleet 28 of them got through [Music] [Music] as a force the kamikazes were a serious threat to the american fleet but it was the dying gasp of the japanese forces there were just not enough of them [Music] um [Music] on the 26th of july 1945 the allies issued a final ultimatum to the japanese to surrender or be destroyed civilian members of the japanese cabinet had already made peace feelers through the russians though their military colleagues did not know this stalin passed these peace dealers on to his allies at potsdam but when the japanese government replied to the potsdam ultimatum the translation was not clear the new american president truman concluded that the ultimatum was being rejected he gave the order the atomic bomb to be dropped on japan tragic faith has thrust upon us brave responsibilities we must carry on the man who was to drop the atomic bomb was colonel now retired general paul tibbets his commander general spartz was awaiting a decision on where to drop it and his instructions to me were to be prepared for a split operation meaning that i had to make an organization that would be capable of going to the both the european theater and the pacific theater tibbetts did not know that the bomb would never be ready to drop on germany when it was successfully tested japan alone remained to be defeated the weatherman indicated that the first two weeks of august would be the best time for weather in the area of japan that we were interested in and the cities that we were interested in were hiroshima kukura niagara and nagasaki on the 5th of august 1945 the bomb was loaded onto a specially equipped b-29 bomber on the island of tinian in the marianas it was 10 feet long 28 inches in diameter and weighed 9000 pounds at a quarter to three the next morning the plane took off for japan the target selected was hiroshima an industrial town of 380 000 inhabitants the people of hiroshima had so far been spared american air raids at 8 15 in the morning of the 6th of august the atom bomb was dropped there was a blinding white flash then a shock wave that lasted about a second and in that time four square miles of hiroshima were obliterated [Music] i looked at the japanese as an enemy one with whom our country was at war and my responsibility at that particular time was to carry out a war mission sixty five thousand buildings collapsed and houses were completely destroyed a mile from where the bomb fell seventy eight thousand japanese died many of them literally incinerated 51 000 people were badly injured for the first time ever air raid victims suffered the appalling effects of radiation burns three days later a second atomic bomb was dropped on nagasaki this one did less damage as it did not explode over the center of the target area nevertheless 24 000 people were killed and of the 43 000 injured many were later to die a slow painful death from the lasting effects of radiation in the fire raid on tokyo five months earlier the actual damage had been greater and 84 000 people had then been killed and over forty thousand injured but the injuries of the victims at hiroshima and nagasaki were of a new and hideous nature the psychological effect of the atom bomb on his people was such that the emperor personally made the final decision to end the war on the 15th of august the japanese people heard his voice for the first time in a radio broadcast he told them that he was surrendering on their behalf and that the war was over [Music] [Applause] on the 2nd of september 1945 japan formally surrendered to the allies on board the american battleship missouri in tokyo bay oh general macarthur in charge of the proceedings called on the japanese foreign minister shigamitsu to sign the instrument of surrender i now invite the representatives of the emperor of japan and the japanese government and the japanese imperial general headquarters to sign the instrument of surrender at the places indicated the supreme commander for the allied powers will now sign on behalf of all the nations at war with japan will general wainwright and general percival step forward and accompany me while i sign then he too signed on behalf of the allied powers is my earnest hope and indeed the hope of all mankind that from this solemn occasion a better world shall emerge out of the blood and carnage of the past these proceedings are closed fifteen major battles of the second world war their impact was enormous and decisive see newly released documentary footage on the dramatic encounters in the atlantic and the pacific see the great historical battles in russia the normandy landing the bombing of berlin the invasion of italy see the big battles of world war ii the fateful encounters upon which hung the destinies of men and nations see the big battles

Channel: War Stories

Views: 107,140

Keywords: military history, war, war documentary, military tactics, war stories, history of war, ww2, battle of midway, pacific ww2 movie, japan ww2 history, japan ww2 documentary

Id: CzPkku7LEqw

Length: 49min 41sec (2981 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 14 2021