WW2 American & Japanese Veterans Meet Where They Once Fought | Once Were Enemies | Timeline

hi everybody and welcome to this documentary on timeline my name is dan snow and i want to tell you about history hit tv it's like the netflix for history hundreds of exclusive documentaries and interviews with the world's best historians we've got an exclusive offer available to fans of timeline if you go to history hit tv you can either follow the information below this video or just google history hit tv and use the code timeline you get a special introductory offer go and check it out in the meantime enjoy this video no place on this island there was actually there wasn't a front [Music] 60 years ago i probably thought i never want to see this place again [Music] the least i can say is rest in peace had two of the best units fighting against each other we killed 52 japanese soldiers this sounds kind of cold-blooded but it's one of the best experiences i had on the island thank god for the peace [Music] i came here when i was very young and started exploring and i've spent many hours in the marine corps archive studying researching and exploring the island and doing a battle survey so this is really neat to have the opportunity to be here with a couple veterans who actually fought here [Music] [Music] bill comba was an officer platoon leader in the seventh marines he lasted the entire battle it was very rare for a platoon leader the last without getting hit his perspective of the battle was different from lee smith thing that's really neat about this is lee smith's tank is still on the island it's going to be neat to see him climb in that tank after 60 years fantastic who would have thought 60 years ago i probably thought i'd never see this place again and now i'm so excited about coming back i can hardly wait a little bit different very very different little grown up a little more greenery than you remember huh not not just a little bit a lot more actually the bombardment just took the forestry right off remnants japanese docks one two and three yeah what is it the land of enchantment land of enchantment right paleolithic land of enchantment don't you see this beach looks so much different today 60 years later a whole lot better oh a lot better one of the main things that i remember is a particular cave that we were assigned actually we were assigned to take a certain ridge and by the time we worked our way up to the ridge it was getting dark and i knew it would be suicide if we tried to climb that rig and we dug fox holes along east road we started getting fire from the top of the ridge jumped all over the ridge just firing point blank at us and if we exposed ourselves the least bit we got hit a japanese soldier had been in a foxhole right by the side of the road he would jump up and throw himself on the track of the tank and pull the pen on his explosives and blow himself to kingdom come of course and also disable the tank in the meantime we will hunker down you know couldn't expose a finger finally the third tank did make it to us and i said it might be a good idea to put a few shots of the 75 millimeter cannon into the mouth of a cave and we killed 52 japanese soldiers running out of that cave and there was actually a mound of dead japanese soldiers one on top of that one on top of the other this this sounds kind of cold-blooded but it's one of the best experiences i had on the island because as you know on the type warfare we will have it on peleliu you had to dig them out the enemy out one at a time wow see that one shell hit that's probably from the 75 yeah yeah i imagine so it probably ain't a little high and but now there's the mouth of the cave right there [Music] see it was torched you can see the color looks kind of black yeah from the fire i'm gonna help you down you guys okay so let me get down first and of course they were running out of here just to view just where we've passed by and well you can tell just looking in here bill there's all kinds everything's torched gracious alive there you go step good good okay good job okay here we go okay whoop i've got you got you sure that's your bearings right there okay look at that see how it's scorched see the metal scorched just amazing look at the tabby look at the tabby here it's all scorched black the japanese shoes oh [ __ ] yeah look at that yes this cave burned for two days according to the report official reports you know that's where the big toe was and then the rest you got it yeah exactly that's right come on take a look over here i'll kind of support you so they don't slip on the rock this is where the cave goes completely through the ridge it's actually on a staggered level uh that's a good drop 40 feet at least see it coming down look at that yeah you see that opening where it goes on i wonder how many square feet there is in this thing it would hold a bunch of ammunition oh man or anything else look at it i found this uh key in one of the crevices of the cave here well i'm satisfied there were people actually living in here this is evidence that the cave cooked off you can see a 20 millimeter projectile that exploded back in 44 a few days afterwards they said that this smoked and exploded for 48 hours after we fired the 75 millimeters that's confirmation right there really i mean look at the black timbers in here and the walls that means this thing was smoking but over here you can actually see a bomb remains of one that exploded so perhaps this is a ammunition storage uh cave and that's why they ran out of here so fast yeah it certainly explains why they were coming out as fast as they could possibly make it not foreign foreign it's gonna stop [Music] i'm gonna do this you have a good idea where he fought in the ridges which is the japanese term for the southern ridges ah oh it looks at okay he was an officer shows his rank as an officer he was in the last command post cave this color bear was with colonel nakagawa he would have destroyed the regimental colors on pillow in the last command post cave um that's where he probably died uh that picture i have at home picture of colonel nakagawa and his color bearer and those were the ones who were killed in the last command post cave uh this is overwhelming it blows my mind foreign this is all the caves on pillow though all these are caves all the okay now the last command post cave here's a picture of it colonel nakagawa's last command post cave a communication cave and this is where colonel nakagawa shot himself his brother was definitely part of the elite japanese army one of the best regiments uh he should be very proud that he fought with the best of the best and he went up against the best marine regiment the first marine division so you had two of the best units fighting against each other you know this this is a great day because we can take him back to the cave and we can take mr tsushida back to his cave too here's an archival picture taken in 1944 right after the battle this is the last pocket of japanese resistance [Music] it's no easy task like godwin was saying because it's very rugged terrain of course they held out in all the caves that line the bases of the ridges and sometimes at the top of the ridges and it shows the valley it's denuded there's no vegetation it's all blasted clean and here it is uh today and you can see it's very disorienting there's a lot of jungle growth the valley we're entering is called death valley by the americans this is a japanese memorial at the entrance to the valley a valley that the japanese heavily defended it was their last stand was right here and the last command post was deep in this valley americans had a very tough time getting through here they couldn't because of stiff resistance you can see some of the artifacts they've found around the caves in this area there's many caves that are lining the valley here foreign [Music] it's very slippery hey hey be careful the rocks and the roots [Music] foreign this is a napalm bomb jelly gasoline dropped from the airplanes so this is what they burned the foliage and caves um [Music] is last command post [Music] this was the communication cave where the last message was transmitted to kuror a sakura sakura [Music] perhaps one of these canteens is his brothers [Music] [Music] [Music] a concussion grenade a japanese hand [Music] grenade this is quite an honor it's it's amazing it's never dreamt this would happen to be in here with the same cave that his brother probably died in [Music] there were bones found in this cave and the adjacent cave that you were just in both both caves had remains it's uh looks like a toe toe from the toe [Music] i guess it's try to say it but the serenity just overwhelming you know if you see the where those breakers are out there but halfway the distance between us and them is when the firepower start being laid down there's just a steady line and then we just keep moving forward getting those that went ahead of them and the ships stayed 18 000 yards offshore to get away from the japanese artillery those over lucky enough to be ahead of the firepower got on the shore and established a beachhead here's a picture the same this is right where we're standing of course that point would be over there burning amphibian tractors on the shoals right here and of course marines uh pinned down right here probably crawling to safety get off the beach trying to get off the beach you can just imagine the gunfire the noise was tremendous because the height of the fighting was in progress i mean it was war i frankly didn't know how i was going to handle combat and then when i came in there were several dead marines that i had to step over to get on shore it was strange to say maybe but that gave me a feeling of confidence after i got past those poor marines that didn't make it i said well i can handle whatever's ahead wouldn't it be great if everybody that landed that day or tried to land that day could be standing here with us yes instead of that what an honor that would be it all yes thank god for the peace [Music] [Music] um [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] you [Music] [Music] the least i can say is rest in peace when i think of the rich lives that you and i lee were privileged to have having survived the war and to think of the guys we left behind that never had a chance they they died right the very prime yeah of life the opportunity that that came that for the 60th anniversary here on the island and the the landing that i could come back and see my tank and just hope that it's still good shape this is the moment you've been waiting for 60 years to see your tank now we're here can hardly wait watch a log here watch your step you guys a lot of twigs branches and coral have a look at this that is one big cannon that's a 13 millimeter right there any aircraft cannon they had a top clip they put a clip in yeah as you see brass is still here this sucker is still loaded what happened it didn't looks like it didn't eject i mean it failed on the automatic and had the opera hand operated the japanese and placed these on the beaches this is what they shot boats with there's a couple of them on white beach still in place this is the ribs here are the air cooled this is a flash suppressor so when that when the japanese fired the gun the americans couldn't see the flash this whole area was a japanese defensive position had three cannons and several anti-aircraft guns so the mount was right here and it must have taken a hit because this is bent and the gun's over here now either someone moved it or was blown over there foreign [Music] i got a visual on lady luck you guys careful watch your step loose rock i can see the rear of it be careful come on this way i don't see where i see d12 where i scrape it off maybe it's on the other side i can see part of it well let's go on the other side machine gun tripod it looks like 30 caliber that's a that's amazing this thing is still this this is still this good after so long how's the bow yeah the engine's out transmissions are all out see the floor is all rusted out the mortar that was did the damage that caused all this thing landed in this position and the tank just raised up the explosion and the superstructure underneath for the gun emplacement was was just blown away and we slid forward and down right against probably well camouflaged oh yes probably a foot or more of a carrot on the top of victor to conceal what it really was yeah how did you happen to find this just hiking around i came to the tank and uh i tried to research it for many years and i took a machete and i started scraping the turret revealed d12 which was painted up there and so i knew which tank it was looking good d is dog company d company 60 years later this is quite a sizable jungle that we're in and some huge trees do you remember it had all of this growth been leveled by the pre-invasion bombardment you know you look at these trees where'd they come from they weren't here then conceivably you could have run over some fairly good-sized treeless anyway well you're looking you're looking at a vehicle and when it's completed it's 31 foot long ten foot one inch wide and ten foot one inch high that's a good size piece of material especially what's coming at you they scare the living daylights out of you even our own troops but you see how thin that is you could actually 30 calibers shoot through the pontoons inside we didn't have much armor for the side but the front [Music] looks like you left it in first gear there lee i'm just kidding i don't know anything about these levers but your levers are right here where you would have drove the tank [Music] foreign [Music] foreign foreign foreign ah there's a slot if i can get it open it's all rusted shut you can look out of that slot when you're driving and when you lose a periscope you can use that i would raise that up and i could either throw a grenade out through that or use my thompson submachine gun for something in front of me that's a tow hitch and when i knock a tree down i hit it right there it's amazing you did your job well lady you're still looking good i don't care what anybody else says to me you're the great casing [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] me [Music] me [Music] i understand that um maybe a couple of of the japanese soldiers who were on peleliu are going to be here i'm looking forward to meeting with these people and probably have an interpreter that we can actually talk to them but just patting them on the back and smiling that says a lot in itself remember you got a bow remember oh yeah [Laughter] um i'm bill this is a great lead great moment [Laughter] we we've been waiting to meet you times more than you guys this is a little him yeah yeah yeah and this is the smika commander when you were down in the cave and we were dropping bombs from planes shooting this these heavy guns from the ships did it bother you down in the cave i'm little oblong so you must walk a little bit but i can walk yeah can you go with me i can walk if you go slow if you go slow i'm just a kid i'm just a kid you're 84. oh man that was a broader one down below here i come is that it yeah when you think of this fortification here and to think on this small island there are hundreds and hundreds maybe not just like it but just as formal formidable it's incredible [Music] [Music] you know if we get permission from the government the president and the governor to open up a cave would you be ready to do it i hope it works out that way there's a lot of sealed caves on the island but they've never opened one and now it seems like we have permission to do such and uh they they have over nine thousand japanese missing in action here several more sealed in the caves we'll go up right in here this is the draw okay watch out for those mimosa thorns you guys don't forget they shelled this area for almost three months so just watch where you step i'll point out any ordinance i see especially mortar rounds so watch your step it's very slippery good eyes godwin here's here we got a 60 millimeter mortar round and a live japanese hand grenade this one still has the pin in it look at the pin right there 60 millimeter these are all over the place everywhere oh you guys come here come here come here look at this part of the look at this part of the wreckage of that plane that was shot down over the ridges the wings right on the other side of the ridge here [Music] throughout the valley here is wreckage of the plane there's pieces everywhere we can find the exact aircraft and the crew members who are on this plane uh they were all killed of course but guys 16956 this is huge find a huge find this is a 30 caliber machine gun ammunition case yeah okay ammunition 30. so this is machine gun these are all over the place but this one's in really good shape has its lid on it's in fantastic condition considering it's been almost 60 years almost to the day there's a helmet in between the draw here american helmet obviously a casualty a lot of americans were shot machine gun right through the valley is this is a trap in here but as they descended this hill to assault this ridge this is brother number one the japanese laid down a murderous crossfire right here you guys oh you can just right here and they forced americans back up this ridge but horrific casualties right here you guys this cave right here obviously served as a machine gun position i can tell by the way the coral stacked up here there's a deep cave and my goodness that field of fire was right down the draw no doubt right here and right here were positions very well protected oh here's the cave you guys this now this one is i'd really love to open it could be a time capsule [Music] um [Music] the cave is right over here hey guys doing all right well this is a sealed cave right adjacent to the pillbox or casemate this served as a shelter cave for this japanese gun crew it looked like every time we look up there would be another piece of fire another location of fire coming back at us so it wasn't even a safe point then to be because like like you know there's no place on this island was actually that wasn't a front [Music] this is the cave and uh let's get started i have to be very careful with live ordinance here i think if we clear initially the top soil and just be careful what we're doing stones are roots roots nice m no [Music] no no no no no [Music] foreign we got we got bones what do you think eric well i see uh japanese helmets part of a skull a bayonet bayonet scabbard nest tins tins of food i count three helmets down here ammunition two hand grenades with the pins still in them and gas mask canisters and of course human remains just a time capsule september 15 1944 feel like i'm in a tomb i gotta get out of there guys it's a tune i don't feel right in there i'll take one last picture oh foreign nobody can question but the japanese were experts at defensive office health there's no question about this this is a reformable formidable position no question one position i'll tell you and i think we could put some uh biggest stuff on this that wouldn't have taken it out [Music] is thank you [Music] um [Music]

Channel: Timeline - World History Documentaries

Views: 609,196

Rating: 4.9599481 out of 5

Keywords: History, Full Documentary, Documentaries, Full length Documentaries, Documentary, TV Shows - Topic, Documentary Movies - Topic, 2017 documentary, BBC documentary, Channel 4 documentary, history documentary, documentary history, once were enemies, japanese ww2 veterans, american veterans, ww2 veteran documentary, ww2 history, ww2 documentary, pacific theatre documentary, iwo jima

Id: v5R-aVg6iZ4

Length: 53min 31sec (3211 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 18 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/__Praxis__]

Will watch this later, thanks

[u/BobLablawLawBlogFTW]

Have this saved to watch in my bookmarks, I'm a huge fan of the Timeline documentary channel on YT.

[u/pccarl]

Wow, great documentary. Im a Marine who minored in history. I enjoy reading up on battles like Peleliu. This was great. I’d imagine these veterans are gone or near gone by now.

[u/anafuckboi]

Imagine being mansplained to by someone half your age about how your own tank works lol

[u/iHateDem_]

These vets from the early 20th century were truly just a different breed. World was a completely different place back then. Can’t imagine they’ll ever be another time where a political dictatorship threatens the sovereignty of all the globe.

[u/JoycePizzaMasterRace]

4:41 what accent is that? never hear much of it anymore