All language subtitles for World War II with Tom Hanks - 01x06 - Guadalcanal.AMZN.RAWR.English

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It's hard to comprehend the scale

of the Pacific-Asian theatre of war.

It stretches from Hawaii to Burma,

from the Aleutian Islands to Indochina.

In 1942, the United States
sends fighting men

to far-off places most
Americans had never heard of.

They are soldiers, sailors,
airmen, and Marines

from every town in America.

They will confront
an enemy whose moral code

does not permit surrender.

All wars change the world.

But none of them changed the world

like the Second World War did.

Japan's on the march,
Germany's on the march.

No one can imagine the nightmare

they're about to unleash.

The most destructive war
in human history.

Suddenly, the world
is turned upside down,

and all hell is let loose.

The West is stunned
by the speed of the advance.

You get the Allies,
led by the big three...

Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin...

men who are dealing
with immensely complicated questions.

It's the biggest military
operation of human history.

The Allies have to come together,

not just militarily,
but industrial scale.

It's a global perspective.

They have to fight in every climate,

from the Arctic to the
jungles of the Pacific

to the deserts of Africa
and the depths of the ocean.

But there was no certainty of victory.

It was going to be
a horrific bloodbath.

We see humans at their absolute worst,

how they treat other human beings.

And we see them at their absolute best,

willing to give their lives
that others might live.

World War II was a struggle

in which there could be one victor...

and one vanquished.

Hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor,

Japan invades the Philippines.

They begin with a devastating strike

against the US air base
at Clark Field...

Then land 35,000 troops

and advance on the capital, Manila.

American and Filipino forces
are overwhelmed.

Within weeks, Manila is captured.

There was a Philippine war plan

that in the event of a
Japanese major invasion,

the forces would withdraw to Bataan.

Bataan is strategically
located next to Manila Bay.

It's this rocky peninsula.

It's got two dormant volcanoes that
are sitting in the middle of it,

and so it's really good
defensive terrain.

On December 23, 1941,
US and Filipino troops

begin their retreat
to the Peninsula of Bataan.

You have this chaotic retreat.

About 100,000 US and Filipino troops,

and we should add the 25,000 civilians,

Filipino but also Americans,

now desperate to escape
the attacking Japanese.

As the troops retreat,

the Japanese continue following

a well-planned,
well-coordinated offensive

aimed at British and Dutch colonies.

They have already invaded
Burma, Borneo, and Malaya.

They take Hong Kong on Christmas Day,

then move further into Malaya.

Malaya is considered
difficult jungle terrain.

But the Japanese,

using bicycle infantry and some tanks,

manage to push south...

...to the island of Singapore...

...known as the Gibraltar of the East.

Singapore was our military base,

with its massive naval facilities...

...guns facing into the sea

so that it could protect that position,

and really a military HQ

for the Empire in the Far East.

They begin
their assault on February 8th.

Winston Churchill, back in London,
is looking on in horror.

He's an Empire man.

He said many times,
he didn't come to power

to oversee the liquidation
of His Majesty's empire,

but it's crumbling before his eyes.

Churchill cannot abandon
the defence of Britain

and the Battle of the Atlantic.

He cannot risk losing the
whole of the Mediterranean,

North Africa, and the Middle East,
to Axis forces.

So what's got to go?

Unfortunately for Churchill,

he's got to scrimp
and save when it comes

to defence in the Far East.

It's just too much
for Britain to handle.

The Japanese take advantage

of British military mistakes

and capture the island
in only seven days.

Tens of thousands
of Commonwealth troops

are trapped and imprisoned.

Singapore was the granite foundation

of the British Empire
in Asia, and, boom...

...in the space of days, it falls.

The idea that Japanese forces
could go into this historic place,

a real symbol of British power
and prestige in Asia,

and take it within such a short time

is absolutely tremendous as
far as Japanese are concerned.

This is Britain's Fall of Rome moment

in its Asian empire.

Japan has plunged into the war

and is ravaging the beautiful,
fertile, prosperous,

and densely populated lands
of the Far East.

The British Empire now for centuries

had been the most powerful
empire the world had ever seen.

The Japanese had cracked it
like an egg.

By the time the shock of Pearl Harbor,

you know, wears off,

the Japanese have taken their empire

and expanded it seemingly overnight.

Japan's Asian offensive
has two primary war aims.

First, the seizure of raw materials
like oil and rubber.

Second, to replace
the Western colonial powers

who have long dominated the region

and establish an empire of their own.

This is one of the most audacious
offensives in military history.

In late 1941, early 1942,
it's good news every week,

almost every day, coming in.

They are liberating Asia.

They are pushing back
white Western colonial power.

The speed and scope
of the Japanese offensive

stuns the world.

A year earlier,
General Tomoyuki Yamashita,

the commander of the assault
on the Philippines,

consults with Japan's
Axis ally, Nazi Germany.

Japan is eager to adapt

the Wehrmacht's blitzkrieg tactics

to a very different theatre of war.

He was really admiring
the German blitzkrieg,

the German lightning war,

and he took the German blitzkrieg

as the role model for a future
Japanese war in Southeast Asia.

So we must surprise the enemy.
We must be fast.

It's always movement,
movement, movement.

For the enemy, for their
enemy, for the Allies,

it looks like the Japanese
aren't even thinking

about what they're doing,
because they're moving so fast

and they're moving constantly.

But this has a kind of shock
effect on the troops there

that are trying to defend
the peninsula.

The Japanese
have learned to move quickly,

move stealthily.
They fight well at night,

which is what most armies
are not good at.

They are pretty good
at operational art;

don't attack strongpoints,
envelop the enemy,

put them in untenable positions
either in time or space.

And, hence, it defines a lot of
their victories early in the war.

The British underestimate the Japanese.

I think part of that was racism.

I think they were astonished

that a non-European race
could defeat Europeans in battle.

They didn't consider
Asian people capable

of what the Japanese are doing.

After the Japanese land in Malaya,

Singapore's governor,

Sir Shenton Thomas, allegedly says,

"Well, I suppose you'll have
to shove the little men off."

But British hubris is no match

for Japanese military prowess.

There had always been this faction

in the Imperial Japanese Army called
the Kodoha, the Imperial Way Faction,

whose belief was, because

of Japan's extraordinary
fighting spirit

in the blood of their soldiers,

we can overcome the odds.

And that really is drummed
into the soldiers.

So there is this esprit de corps
within the Japanese Army.

It's guided by this belief in Bushido,

the way of the warrior.

Japanese
military discipline is instilled

by physically harsh measures.

Officers abuse
non-commissioned officers,

who in turn abuse the men.

You can see in diaries
and in letters home people saying,

"I got beaten up today.

I got slapped. I got punched.

I had a rifle butt
get me in the stomach."

There is a fair amount
of ritualistic abuse

that takes place as they go through

what they would refer to as lessons.

It's all about self-sacrifice.

They are all about suppressing
individual needs and desires

for the sense of whatever
the nation needs,

for whatever the emperor might need.

In just two months of fighting,

Japan has achieved
most of its objectives

and appears to be winning the war...

...except in the Philippines,

where US and Filipino troops
are fighting back.

After more than a month of fighting,

US and Filipino forces

continue to resist the Japanese
on the Bataan Peninsula.

But supplies, food, and ammunition

are running perilously short.

Supplies, provisions, ammunition,

they're strewn about
the Philippine Islands,

and they're not where
the defenders need them.

The American forces are now
completely isolated and surrounded.

They don't have what they need
to survive.

The men spend a lot of their time
just foraging for food.

Every snake, monkey,

anything within the Bataan Peninsula
is fair game.

The commanding officer of both American

and Filipino troops in the Philippines

is the charismatic and controversial

General Douglas MacArthur.

MacArthur's the son
of a Civil War hero.

He's confident, courageous,
a proven battlefield leader.

MacArthur's begging for more troops,

for more supplies, for more ships,

but none of those things are coming.
The US doesn't have them.

The Japanese, of course, they're coming

after MacArthur's force.

They know they can't leave an
army like this with MacArthur

and consider the Philippines
have been occupied.

In Washington,
President Roosevelt faces

a very difficult situation.

The American people expect
the troops to be supported,

but he knows resupplying
and reinforcing Bataan

is impossible.

Also, for both political
and symbolic reasons,

he must retrieve General MacArthur
from the Philippines.

You couldn't afford to let
MacArthur be captured.

You couldn't do it because it was

bad for the American spirit.

You can't let a man like this go down.

He's a figure of history.

MacArthur does everything that he can

to inspire his troops in Bataan,

and he's prepared
to go down with the ship.

But FDR orders MacArthur
to leave the Philippines.

Three weeks later,
he sends a rescue operation,

and MacArthur,
with his wife and young son,

leaves the Philippines
on a small torpedo boat.

He promises, "I will return."

And this is his commitment
to the American people,

but, more importantly, to himself.

Knowing that America must make a stand,

General MacArthur issues
a final order to his men.

MacArthur orders the garrison
to fight to the last,

which is completely unrealistic.

Soldiers are dying in medical tents

merely because there's not
enough medicine to save them.

So everybody's in a weakened condition.

But the defence is quite heroic.

But the soldiers on Bataan
realise they're being sacrificed.

So "The Battling Bastards
of Bataan" is written

by a journalist named Hewlett.

"The Battling Bastards of Bataan...

"no mamas, no papas, no Uncle Sam,

"no aunts, no uncles,
no cousins, no nieces,

"no pills, no planes,
no artillery pieces.

And no one gives a damn."

For all the people left in Bataan,

I'm sure that's exactly
what they thought.

After four months
of fatigue, hunger, and disease...

...the Bataan garrison surrenders.

But their ordeal is just beginning.

The Japanese didn't expect

that so many Allied defenders
of the Philippines

would actually surrender
and become prisoners of war.

One of the things you're
taught in the Japanese military

is you don't surrender.

You're disgracing your family.

You're disgracing
your home, your village,

your country, the emperor.

Surrender is dishonourable, not
only to yourself but to your family.

Anybody who surrenders
is inherently dishonourable.

The idea that you would surrender

and that you would expect
to be treated with respect

having done so really is disgusting
to a lot of the Japanese soldiers.

The Japanese march the 75,000 American

and Filipino troops

to a POW camp 65 miles north of Bataan.

These men are exhausted.
They're malnourished.

The Japanese, they line them up,

and they march them out.

In 110-degree heat with no food,

no water,

and Japanese guards just beating you

and kicking you and stabbing you
the whole way.

And so, if you're a recruit out there

and you've received umpteen beatings

from your own senior officers

on the way to where you are now,

then it's a very short hop to having
a Westerner in front of you,

asking for food, asking for water,

and slapping them, punching them,
perhaps even shooting them.

The Japanese will drink their canteens

and then dump the contents
out on the roadside.

Wounded troops will fall to the ground.

They will be instantly
bayoneted or shot.

They have been taught to regard

Western soldiers, and I think

white Western civilians generally,

with really no respect at all.

These people are lesser

almost to the point of being
a slightly lesser species.

Thousands die on what will become known

as the Bataan Death March.

The loss of the Philippines
will cripple

America's military capability
in the Pacific for months.

It's also a serious blow
to morale at home.

In a matter of just a few months,

the Japanese have conquered an empire

of 500 million people.

The Japanese have
the upper hand in the Pacific.

It's not clear what
or who can stop them.

Spring in Tokyo...

...Japan controls vast areas of
the Pacific and Southeast Asia.

To protect this growing empire,

Japan will consolidate
its new territory

and push into various island chains

to create an even stronger barrier

against the United States.

The Japanese saying, we got to

consolidate our position quickly.

We have to create a defensive bastion

between the United States and Japan.

So all these island chains
threaded like pearls,

they have got to be strengthened.

They've got to be fortified into
some kind of defensive perimeter.

Japan deploys thousands of troops

to outposts stretching
far into the South Pacific.

The Japanese are making absolutely sure

that what they've got, they will hold.

In the US, war production accelerates.

FDR calls for 60,000 planes

and 125,000 tanks

to be produced in 1942.

And in June, the US Navy

defeats the Japanese
at the Battle of Midway.

It's Japan's first decisive defeat.

The victory at Midway
has taken place in June 1942,

but this is a naval victory.

It's only directed
against Japanese warships.

Eventually, the Americans know

they're going to have
to retake real estate.

They're going to actually
have to capture islands.

The Japanese plan in the South Pacific

is to build a lot of airstrips,

which are going to allow them
to use air power

to defend these stronghold positions.

To counter,
America sends in the old breed;

the 1st Marine Division.

Marine Corps was always
"soldiers from the sea,"

back in the Revolution
when we invade Nassau, right?

We are meant to come from the sea.

That's the mission,
in support of the navy.

That's their purpose.

After World War I,
what they really start to do

is turn their attention to, what
does the next war look like?

And what they start to realise is,

Japan is becoming
a power in the Pacific.

If we're going to fight in the Pacific,

then we need to figure out how
to conduct amphibious landings.

Amphibious landings
on this scale are unprecedented.

Well, there's no sneaking up
on an island.

They can see ships coming.

So everything across a beach
is a frontal assault...

machine guns, rapid-fire artillery.

It's suicide, terrible idea.

And the Marine Corps goes,
"Got it, we'll take that one."

And that's how they get
into amphibious operations,

because that would be
what was necessary

to operate in the Pacific.

The training for the US Marine Corps

is probably the toughest in
the US armed forces at this point.

They are designed
for amphibious warfare

but to travel relatively lightly,

because, of course, if you
attack a coast from the sea,

you can't take much
heavy equipment with you.

Their job is as an elite assault force.

But don't leave them
in a campaign for too long,

because they don't have
all the heavy weapons

to be able to do the job over
a considerable period of time.

The Navy has ships, and the
Army has tanks and artillery.

What does the Marine Corps have?
It has culture.

So if you join the Marine Corps,

it's because maybe you
can be one of those elite.

You know you get to go fight
the Japanese.

The majority are new recruits.

They are relatively inexperienced.

They've had some
pretty hurried training.

And now all of a sudden, in 1942,

they're going to go into action against

what they know and fear
is a very formidable opponent.

They've read a lot of the stories

about how the Japanese
are almost supermen.

Until we actually face them
in close combat,

we'll never know if we're good
enough to take on these guys.

In the summer of 1942

an American B-17 on routine patrol

reports that the Japanese are building

an airstrip on the largest
of the Solomon Islands...

...Guadalcanal.

If the Japanese are successful,

they will build
an airbase on Guadalcanal

and potentially sever

the lines of communication
with Australia,

which is meant to be
a jumping-off point

for any campaign that's going to come

from the Southern Pacific.

We cannot let that happen.

The Americans know
that Australia is crucial

to their hold over the Pacific.

What's at stake, certainly for
the United States Marine Corps is,

they've hitched their horse to
this idea of amphibious operations.

Now they actually
have to go execute it.

If the Americans are going to roll back

Japanese power in the Pacific...

...it's going to have to be
boots on the ground,

and boots on the ground
it will be in Guadalcanal.

Early on August 7, 1942...

...the 1st Marine division
approaches Guadalcanal.

They are the first US troops to
take the offensive in World War II.

What's interesting
about all amphibious landings

is that if they're opposed
and you don't really understand

the terrain you're getting into,

there's always
the possibility of disaster,

and that was absolutely
the case at Guadalcanal.

After the naval
bombardment, the Marines will land

and attempt to capture the airfield
and secure the island.

The intelligence for the landings
at Guadalcanal is so thin

that they don't know
what the interior looks like,

and they certainly don't know
how many defending troops are there.

10,000 Marines reach the shore.

To their relief,
the landing is unopposed.

There are no Japanese
defending the beachhead.

The Japanese have only
2,500 men on the island,

most of them conscripted labour
to build the airfield.

The Marines are astonished
at how easy it is.

They move inland and then very
quickly capture the airfield.

The Marines build a defensive perimeter

around the airstrip,

which they name Henderson Field,

after a Marine dive bomber

killed at the Battle of Midway.

Supplies for the Marines on Guadalcanal

are being held just offshore
by a US Navy task force

anchored in Savo Sound.

But two days after the landing,

the calm of Savo Sound is shattered.

It's the middle of the night.

These American cruisers are asleep.

They don't come
to battle stations quickly.

In the space of 25 to 30 minutes,

the Japanese have sunk
four Allied cruisers,

killed more than 1,000 Allied sailors.

So it's a disastrous defeat
for the Americans,

the worst naval defeat
since Pearl Harbor.

You've got bodies
washing up on the shore.

It's grisly.

So many American ships are sunk

that Savo Sound is christened
Ironbottom Sound.

Vulnerable to air attack,
the task force pulls out

before they've unloaded all the
Marines' food and ammunition.

General Vandegrift is the commander

of the 1st Marine Division.

He's understandably upset
that the Navy have skedaddled.

But it's absolutely vital also

that he gives a sense
of confidence to his men.

We're going to get through this.
We are US Marines, after all.

The first wave
of Japanese troops land east

of the Marines' defensive
perimeter on August 18th.

Their objective... Henderson Airfield.

The airfield is in a key position

to maintain the shipping lanes
from America to Australia.

That supply line is like
the Allied sciatic nerve.

So this is a very serious development.

It must have been
very spooky for the Marines.

They are abandoned on the island.

They can hear the Japanese ships
coming in.

They know there must be trouble ahead.

What options do ground forces have?

You can attack, you can defend,
and you can retreat.

Well, guess what.
The Marines can no longer retreat.

So, no matter what,
we're going to have to fight it out.

The untested Marines are about to face

Japanese soldiers for the first time.

On Guadalcanal, the 1st Marine Division

is dug in around Henderson Airfield,

bracing for a Japanese assault.

Commanding the Japanese troops

is the veteran colonel Kiyonao Ichiki.

The Marines know that
all the Japanese have done

up to this point is win.

They start to almost have
these superpowers.

They're quiet at night.
They're all snipers.

They don't require any rest.
They're fanatical.

All of these things start to build
almost a super-samurai adversary.

On August 21st,

Ichiki's troops attack
the Marine lines.

The Marines respond with rifle, mortar,

and machine gun fire.

The Japanese have got about 200 guys

trying to get across this sandspit,
and they're mown down.

Ichiki just sloughs that off.
He'll launch two more attacks.

The Marines will beat them back.

The fighting is brutal...

Often hand-to-hand.

Some Japanese soldiers even
use ancestral samurai swords.

The battle doesn't end
until 5:00 that evening.

44 Marines are dead...

But nearly 900 Japanese soldiers
are killed.

The Marines are stunned.

How could a battalion commander
throw 900 men away?

Who would do that?

After the battle,

Colonel Ichiki commits suicide.

Just a single Japanese soldier
surrenders.

They may look dead,
but if they've got a weapon,

they're going to shoot you
when you go past.

If they've got a grenade,
they may blow themselves up

with a grenade to kill you.
This is a different kind of enemy.

The US Marines on Guadalcanal realise

that to combat that
and to protect themselves,

they're going to have
to be equally ruthless.

And this produced an incredibly
brutal form of warfare

that I think was unequalled
in the Second World War.

The Marines now
understand what will be required

to defend Guadalcanal.

The island has become a proving ground

for a generation of young Americans.

The Japanese conduct regular
airstrikes on Henderson Field...

And continue to move men and supplies

into attacking positions.

Every night the Japanese
are using fast transports

and depositing troops
and supplies on Guadalcanal,

via what's going to be known
as the Tokyo Express.

They are absolutely determined
to retake this island.

Their whole strategy

for moving forward
in the Southern Pacific

is based on recapturing Guadalcanal,

and they're going to pretty much send

as many troops as they can
to make sure that they do the job.

Vandegrift and his staff start taking

preventative action
in case they're overwhelmed,

so they start burning
vital intelligence papers.

By October, the Japanese force

has more than doubled its size.

But the US Navy is able
to resupply the Marines

from newly constructed supply bases.

Guadalcanal is now
a battle of attrition...

...who will give in first?

The Japanese are very good
at night attacks,

and so nights are horrific.

Imagine being a 19-
or 20-year-old American kid,

and you're in a foxhole, maybe
with one other person, right?

One guy sleeps. The other is on watch.

And you can hear the other
foxholes with your compatriots,

but they're not visible in the dark.

Remember, these islands
are really black as night.

And you hear screaming
from another foxhole.

This is life or death.

You go to sleep, you may not wake up.

This man was with you 24 hours ago.

Now his throat's cut
in the foxhole next to you.

This is a war of man against man.

This is personal.

And as darkness comes down every night,

the fear grows deeper and deeper.

Even though they're deprived of sleep,

lack sufficient food,

and battle tropical diseases,

the Marines maintain their morale.

But their casualty rate is climbing,

and they begin to suspect
they're being abandoned.

A lot of people are
catching malaria, dysentery.

They don't have enough food.

They're just becoming increasingly

incapable of functioning.

General Vandegrift
estimates that less than half

his force is fit enough to fight.

The Japanese are still coming.

Guadalcanal is going to be
where the Japanese teach

the Americans the cost
of punching a hole

in that defence perimeter.

They'll say,
look at the effort it took.

Look at the number of men
you lost on Guadalcanal.

How long do you think it'll take you

to batter your way across the Pacific?

One night,
two months into the battle...

...the Japanese deliver
a bombardment designed

to crush the Marines' spirits.

But the Marines just dig
their foxholes deeper.

1,000 shells are sent over
in 80 minutes.

We're talking about 14-inch shells,

described by some of the guys
like the weight of small cars.

Most of the Marines'
planes at Henderson Field

are destroyed in the bombardment.

The US reinforces the Marines...

...but the Japanese reinforce
their troops as well.

Control of the island

and the entire US campaign
in the Pacific is at stake.

All eyes are on Guadalcanal.

In America, Guadalcanal
is front-page news.

It's on everyone's minds.

It was observed,

Guadalcanal is not a name,
but an emotion.

You young Americans today
are conducting yourselves

in a manner that is worthy
of the highest,

proudest traditions of our nation.

All the attention
of the American public

is focused on this island.
Roosevelt knows

this is the first big American
ground offensive of the war.

It's going horribly wrong.

They have to hold on to Guadalcanal.

Roosevelt sends a note
to the Joint Chiefs and says,

"I want to be sure of something:

that every available man,
ship, and plane

is being devoted
to the struggle on Guadalcanal."

We here at home are supremely conscious

of our obligations to you.

We will not let you down.

The campaign gets a new commander,

Admiral William "Bull" Halsey.

Halsey's coming into this campaign

is like a defibrillator on the heart.

Halsey looks the part.

Halsey is this leathery, old

commander who's been successful.

He's a can-do, combative guy.

He can't wait to get to the Japanese.

His line was, "You hit 'em
hard, you hit 'em fast,

and you hit 'em often."

This is entirely
in keeping with the mentality

of your average Marine.

Admiral Halsey promises the Marines

all the support they need
on Guadalcanal.

In just a few weeks, he gets
the chance to demonstrate it.

A large Japanese fleet

carrying 14,000 troops

is approaching Guadalcanal.

This body of water is
the size of a bathtub.

So risking your battleships

to send them up to Ironbottom Sound,

I mean, it honestly
makes the hair stand up

on the back of my neck even now.

But Halsey is determined
that he is going to fight

with everything that he's got,

and so he pushes all his chips
into the middle of the table.

Halsey instructs the US Navy task force

to attack the Japanese fleet
in the sound.

For two days

American and Japanese warships
battle in Savo Sound.

The fighting is fierce.

It's ship-to-ship combat
at its most intense.

Nearly 2,000 Americans are killed...

...but the Japanese
are only able to land

a quarter of their force.

Bull Halsey and the US Navy
have turned the tide...

...and the Japanese begin
to withdraw from Guadalcanal.

Most of the Marines on Guadalcanal
are relieved by the US Army.

A generation of Americans
have proven to the world

that they're capable
of fighting this war.

But Guadalcanal has also revealed

how long and difficult
this conflict is going to be

and how steep the price of victory.

It was the first clash of arms

between the Japanese Army

and American Marines and soldiers.

And in that victory,
the Americans came out ahead.

Halsey put it best when
he said, prior to the battle,

the Japanese advanced at their will.

After the battle,
they retreated at ours.

It's a long road to Tokyo,

but Guadalcanal is the first step.

The Marines who hold the line
for months on Guadalcanal

are sure their country
has forgotten them.

But when the 1st Marine Division
is relieved by army units

and sent to Australia to recuperate,

they learn
that they're actually heroes.

That year, in 1942,

Hitler escalates his campaign

against the Jews of Europe

to an unimaginable level.