All language subtitles for The.Pacific.War.in.Color.S01E07.720p.Web.x264.AAC.2ch.ESub.S420

In 1945, Allies are closing in
on Japan

DAVID: We used
bazookas, flamethrowers,

and it was a slaughter.

NARRATOR: Americans
find a bloodbath on Okinawa.

Australians move in on Borneo.

And rescued POWs reveal
a nightmare in Thailand.

REUBEN: In almost no time
we have become skeleton men.

NARRATOR: With rare
behind the scenes film...

and color combat footage...

hear the voices,
and feel the fight.

ENS AITKEN: We knew that we were
going to be in for trouble.

We just knew it.

♫ Theme Music Playing ♫

Brought to you by Sailor420
!!! Hope you enjoy the film !!!

♫ ♫

NARRATOR: General Douglas
MacArthur is coming home.

This is Corregidor
in the Philippines,

where MacArthur
made his last stand

before defeat three years ago.

Now he's back to
address the paratroopers

that just helped liberate it.

The battle is so fresh,

the chutes are still
blowing in the trees.

GEN MACARTHUR: The
capture of Corregidor

is one of the most brilliant
operations in military history.

NARRATOR: Prone
to overstatement,

MacArthur is also
prone to emotion.

The Philippines are flying
the American flag once more.

GEN MACARTHUR: I see the
old flagpole still stands.

Have your troops hoist
the colors to its peak,

and let no enemy
ever haul them down.

♫ ♫

NARRATOR: But the flag is flying
over a territory in tatters.

The grand city of
Manila is gutted.

Official buildings
are reduced to rubble.

Neighborhoods are razed.

But weeks after liberation,
Manila is on the mend.

♫ ♫

British war
journalist William Courtenay

tours the city on a
horse drawn carriage

and captures the
sights with his own camera.

Filipinos are on the rebound.

Between bombed out buildings

is a sure sign
that war has moved on.

The USO has moved in.

Courtenay's camera
rolls as Hollywood stars

and servicemen and
women meet face to face --

7,000 miles from home.

Comedian Joe E. Brown has
come to boost their morale.

His comic
rubber-faced expressions

translate all the
way to the back row.

(servicemen
laughing, applauding)

♫ ♫

Throughout the Pacific,
the USO brings laughter

to places that only
recently knew horror.

Touching down on this
dusty airstrip on Tarawa --

another celebrity.

By now Bob Hope has
logged over 30,000 miles

across the Pacific.

At every stop he and his troupe

are escorted to
thousands of fans

eagerly awaiting
"the show of a lifetime."

EMCEE: Here he is -- Bob Hope!

(men cheering)

NARRATOR: By now, Hope knows the
reality of life in the Pacific

almost as well as the men.

BOB HOPE: Thank you. How do
you do, ladies and gentlemen?

This is Bob
Mosquito Network Hope.

I hope you enjoy our show today.

We have a nice show with Frances
Langford, Jerry Colonna,

Tony Romano, Patty
Thomas and Bonnie Dean.

I know you'll enjoy the girls.

You remember girls.

(audience cheers)

Yes, they're doing very fine.

On some of these
islands these girls

have been the first to land.
Won't Eleanor be mad, huh?

(audience laughing and cheering)

♫ ♫

NARRATOR: Hope
is not the only one

putting smiles
on American faces.

♫ ♫

There are plenty of big stars

and thousands of
lesser known names.

They perform show after show

for homesick troops
all over the Pacific.

Wherever there's a
USO show, war has passed.

But in these pre-dawn
waters, it's only beginning.

Here, the stage is set
for a very different show.

No laughter. Just
a nervous silence.

It's Easter Sunday, 1945.

Many of these men think it might
be their last day on earth.

The morning light
reveals a stunning sight --

the largest amphibious
assault of the Pacific War.

A line of steel almost eight
miles wide is closing in --

on Okinawa.

ENS AITKEN: I have never in my
life seen so many Navy ships.

The aircraft carriers were
lined up as far as I could see.

NARRATOR: Fifteen hundred
ships. Half a million men.

♫ ♫

Tarawa. Saipan. Iwo Jima.

All had beaches
covered in blood.

Now Americans are
wiser and wearier.

They expect an 80
percent casualty rate.

Among the faces
is David McFadden,

a kid from Ohio who
remembers the fear.

LT MCFADDEN: There
were hundreds of boys.

The only thing you could
hear was the ship's organ

playing "Nearer,
My God, to Thee."

And boy, don't you
think there weren't

a lot of them thinking that.

Young boys, really young.

NARRATOR: This is the last stop

in the island-hopping campaign
toward the Japanese mainland.

From Okinawa,
Americans can stage

a massive
invasion of Japan itself.

It is 70 miles long.

In square mileage it's no bigger
than the city of Los Angeles.

Its terrain features craggy
clusters of small mountains,

including ridgelines
that run east to west,

creating a natural
barrier to southward travel.

Americans have limited
intelligence going in.

Aerial
reconnaissance is lacking.

They can only guess
at what lies ahead.

This Japanese film offers clues.

For three years,
Americans have been

pushing them back
across the Pacific.

Okinawa is their last stand.

The Allies expect
a final showdown.

(cannon fire)

NARRATOR: Before the
invasion, the United States

unleashes ferocious firepower.

Aerial and naval
bombardment shreds the island

to soften defenses.

The Japanese nickname
it "the typhoon of steel."

It is three months
of solid pounding.

(explosions)

Invasion day, Easter
Sunday, is nicknamed L-Day.

MAN: Go! Go! Go!

NARRATOR: The men coming
ashore expect the worst.

LT MCFADDEN: I was thinking,

well, maybe in an hour from now

I won't have to worry
about anything anymore.

NARRATOR: But
instead of enemy fire,

they meet an eerie silence.

They move
cautiously, expecting a trap.

But there's no
sign of the enemy.

(radio chatter)

Some wonder if they've
landed on the wrong island.

First Lieutenant
Charles Kilpatrick

is as surprised as anyone.

LT KILPATRICK: We were expecting
the usual welcome committee

from the Japanese,
and it didn't happen.

We didn't hear a shot fired.

NARRATOR: The only
Japanese soldiers they see

are already dead, usually
lying near a bomb crater.

Word gets back to the fleet
-- there is no one to fight.

♫ ♫

Subsequent waves of
troops come ashore.

They calmly grab their gear and
walk upright onto the beach.

Within hours,
thousands of men unload

a city's worth of infrastructure
onto the beaches of Okinawa.

♫ ♫

Inland, things move as smoothly
as a training exercise.

Many keep their guns stowed, and
never have to dig a foxhole.

The invasion presses forward.

In the first few days,
Marines march unimpeded

through the
midsection of the island

and secure it coast to coast.

♫ ♫

They tick off
military objectives

like a grocery list --

all while enjoying a
fine stretch of weather

on a subtropical island.

One general says to the press,

"I don't know
where the Japs are,

and I can't offer
you any good reason

why they let us
come ashore so easily."

Americans think 100,000
Japanese are defending Okinawa.

The question is -- where?

For troops that
expected to be in hell,

Okinawa feels like heaven.

Instead of an invasion,
it seems like a vacation.

Soldiers pick ripe
tomatoes along the road.

They commandeer local
horses and take joyrides.

They avail themselves
of the local livestock

and try to one-up
each other's barbecue.

One soldier
recalled such a cookout

to be one of the
best meals of his life,

on what was supposed to be
the battlefield of his death.

So far, the battle of
Okinawa is a cakewalk.

In charge of the invasion

is General Simon
Bolivar Buckner Junior.

He is straight
from central casting --

tall,
silver-haired, and no-nonsense.

He is surprised
things are going so smoothly

and wonders what
the enemy is thinking

in a letter to his wife Adele.

GEN BUCKNER:
Everything is now going well,

and so far my opposing
general has not displayed

any noticeable degree
of military brilliance.

I hope he keeps this up.

NARRATOR: Buckner's
Japanese counterpart

is Lieutenant
General Mitsuru Ushijima.

He is respected by his men --

cut right from the
Samurai tradition.

A tradition that
includes fighting to the death.

GEN USHIJIMA: Do not suffer the
shame of being taken prisoner.

You will live for eternity.

NARRATOR: The Japanese will
soon reveal their strategy --

suddenly, and lethally.

By the third day
of the invasion,

there is still no
sign of the enemy.

Commanding General Simon Buckner

sends a message to the Marines.

GEN BUCKNER: All
restrictions removed

on your advance northward.

NARRATOR: Men and
materiel move up the island

and into the Motobu Peninsula,
a mountainous no-man's land.

They approach a high, craggy
mass called Mount Yae-Take.

(gunfire)

Suddenly, fire
comes from everywhere.

(gunfire)

♫ ♫

Americans are pinned down
by mortars and machine guns

no matter where they go.

Companies get split
up running for cover.

They barely know
where to return fire.

After days of easy
and rapid advance,

casualties pile
up by the hundreds.

And just as this
reality hits on the ground,

a fury comes from the sky.

April 6th dawns quiet
in the waters off Okinawa.

The calm did not
comfort Ensign Doug Aitken.

ENS AITKEN: We knew that we were
going to be in for trouble.

We just knew it.

NARRATOR: On the
nearby islands, the Japanese

had been gathering
every usable plane and pilot

remaining in their arsenal.

Some are inexperienced,
but no less devoted.

They call this mission Kikusui,
or "floating chrysanthemum."

♫ ♫

They take off in waves --

and begin a kamikaze spree

that dwarfs
anything before or since.

In the next two days,
over 350 enemy planes

wreak absolute havoc.

American pilots try to stop them
in roller-coaster dogfights.

Navy gunners try to derail them

in white-knuckle
high-speed combat --

sometimes close enough
to see each other's faces.

On April 6th alone,
three ships are sunk outright.

Another 15 are hit and damaged.

(explosion)

The attacks leave a flotsam
of twisted steel and blood.

But it's only the
beginning of Kikusui.

In the midst of this nightmare,
news reaches the front lines.

ARCHIVAL NARRATOR: The
flag flies at half staff

as a grief-stricken
nation mourns the death

of Franklin Delano Roosevelt,
President of the United States.

NARRATOR: For 12
years, he steered the nation

through some of
its darkest hours.

The troops on
Okinawa grieve publicly.

Many of them are so young

that Roosevelt is the
only president they remember.

SSGT WELLMAN: You'd see
grown men crying like babies,

because we had lost somebody
who was a father figure to us.

ROY: We also wondered, now what?

Roosevelt was our man.
Who is this guy Truman?

NARRATOR: Back at Mount Yae-Take

it's been week
of uphill fighting,

and there is
little to show for it --

besides blood and bandages.

It is an uphill slog

against what one officer
calls "a phantom enemy."

For four more days, they
slowly move up the mountain

under withering fire.

(gunfire)

♫ ♫

Then, Marines finally take
the top of Mount Yae-Take --

and take a look around.

Two thousand Japanese bodies

litter the peaks,
trenches, and tunnels.

Almost to a man, they
had fought to the death.

This one mountaintop cost the
Marines almost a thousand men.

It is their first test

against the Japanese
defenses on Okinawa...

and they wonder if they've
only scratched the surface.

There have to be
more Japanese somewhere.

Americans move cautiously.

Suddenly, near
the village of Shuri,

troops come under intense fire.

They answer with
volleys of their own.

(gunfire)

But when the Japanese charge

with machine guns
and flamethrowers,

Americans have to retreat.

Soon after, another company
endures a hailstorm of mortars

coming in at more
than one per second.

They lose 45 men.

US forces find themselves pinned
down by unrelenting fire.

They have run
into the Shuri Line,

a defensive colossus
built into a mountain range.

It is a masterstroke
of military design.

The Japanese are entrenched
on the reverse slope --

invisible to
approaching Americans.

Every Japanese
position supports another.

Every American is
caught in crossfire.

(gunfire)

Mount Yae-Take
was a single hill --

and it took a week to conquer.

The Shuri Line is
an eight-mile-wide

coast-to-coast killing zone.

The worst elements
of Pacific warfare

all rolled into
a single nightmare.

This is where America
realizes the brutal truth --

the Japanese are no
longer fighting to win.

They only want to turn
the conquest of Okinawa

into a drawn-out bloodbath --

and give America second thoughts
about invading mainland Japan.

As April turns to
May, it's working.

What started as a cakewalk
has become a meat grinder.

The Shuri Line has
stalled the American advance --

and spilled
rising amounts of blood.

So far there are
20,000 casualties.

More than Tarawa
& Saipan combined.

Medical units scramble
to treat every injury.

Back home, officers
escorted by chaplains

will knock on countless doors.

Okinawa is becoming the
Pacific theater's black hole.

Then, from the
European theater, news breaks.

♫ ♫

(crowd cheers)

NEWSREEL NARRATOR:
Throughout the world

throngs of people hail
the end of the war in Europe.

NARRATOR: The world celebrates.

Hitler is dead,
Germany surrenders,

and Europe is at peace.

But on the other side of the
world, Japan still won't budge.

♫ ♫

The battle for Okinawa
has already dragged on

longer than Iwo Jima or Saipan.

The war seems endless. Combat
fatigue spreads like a disease.

Some units are on
the front lines for

almost four straight weeks
-- under constant bombardment.

Through May, nearly
14,000 troops are pulled back

with what the military
calls "non-battle" injuries.

LT KILPATRICK: We
had a lot of people

who had what we call a
"thousand-yard stare."

Just looking off and
not thinking anything.

We lost a few that
were just completely gone.

NARRATOR: First
Lieutenant Charles Kilpatrick

sees one officer hit the wall.

LT KILPATRICK: And
he just broke down.

He said, "I can't do it anymore.

I can't send any more
boys out there to get killed."

NARRATOR: Until they
crack the Shuri Line,

they're trapped
in a slaughterhouse.

Overlooking the city of Naha is
a close triangle of small peaks

-- Horse Shoe, Half Moon, and
the now infamous Sugar Loaf.

♫ ♫

On May 12th, a company
of Marines starts to climb.

The higher they get,
the more fire they take.

Half the company is wounded
or killed on the first day.

They retreat -- though
Marines like Thomas Durham

claim not to know that word.

PVT DURHAM: The
Marines didn't retreat.

We made a rapid
advance to the rear.

Those Japs are
damn good fighters,

and they were ready to
meet their honorable ancestors.

We were not.

NARRATOR: The Americans
realize that Sugar Loaf is the

western anchor of the Shuri
Line -- the defensive wall

they've already been
pounding for a month.

They can't break through
until they win this hill.

♫ ♫

On Okinawa,
civilians can't escape

the armies
torching their home island.

Their lives are
turning into ashes.

♫ ♫

Seeking shelter from
the storm of combat,

they stream into
burgeoning refugee camps --

sometimes more than 1,000 a day.

They have no
kinship with the Japanese,

no loyalties to the Americans,

and no idea how to
get through it alive.

GENERAL BUCKNER WRITES:

GEN BUCKNER: A few
Okinawans had been given guns.

They don't know either how
to fight or how to surrender.

They shoot a few
rounds and go into caves

but won't come out
and have to be killed.

(explosion)

NARRATOR: The only life they
ever knew has been blown apart.

They are shell shocked.

Children are most vulnerable.

If they aren't directly
injured, they are malnourished,

and surely
confused and terrified.

In one instance,
Americans come upon a girl

who refused to
retreat with Japanese troops.

As punishment,
they cut off her foot.

It will take a
long time for Okinawans

to recover from
having their island

turned into a killing field.

Elsewhere in the
Pacific, Americans have help.

On Borneo, Australians
lead the invasion of Labuan.

♫ ♫

It's a big Japanese supply hub.

From here they've been
shipping local oil and rubber

back to Japan.

Journalist William
Courtenay is filming

from the open hatch
of an Australian bomber.

Gunners inside take aim.

They target the ships first.

Here a long plume of black
smoke pours from an oil tanker.

The waist gunner tries to
finish it off, tracers blazing.

(artillery fire)

They leave dozens of Japanese
transports burning on the beach.

Then, 90 American
and Australian ships

get into position.

With one signal,
the barrage begins.

(rocket fire)

Rockets arc into the beachhead.

Twenty-millimeter
shells pierce the air.

LEO: We blasted the island

with everything we
could possibly throw at them.

NARRATOR: Yankee
gunners clear the way

as Aussie troops brace
themselves for combat.

TED: To say we were scared
would be an understatement,

but we were joking
amongst ourselves,

which steadied our nerves.

NARRATOR: Finally,
they land -- unopposed.

The pre-landing
bombardment does its job.

The Australian
troops stroll onto Labuan.

It's like
Okinawa, an eerie calm.

Just hours later, two
commanders come ashore --

Australia's
Lieutenant General Morshead

and America's General MacArthur.

MacArthur never likes to
be seen breaking a sweat.

On Borneo in June, he relents.

They survey the scene --
including dead Japanese.

Most, they learn, are
dug in further inland.

It will be up to the
Aussies to dislodge them.

They heave shells
into the rugged interior

with a British field gun.

It's a start, but they know

they'll have to
go in themselves.

(shells exploding)

When they do,
they pay the price --

mostly from
landmines and booby traps.

♫ ♫

The Japanese fight to the end,
preferring death to capture.

Only 200 survive
out of 2,000 troops.

But civilians
carry the biggest scars.

Under Japanese occupation, they
were neglected, if not abused.

Now they welcome
Australian troops,

hoping the big men in the funny
hats signal better days ahead.

The boys from down
under are taking back Borneo

and bringing back peace.

(explosion)

On Okinawa, peace
is still a pipe dream.

Americans are throwing
their biggest hardware

at the Shuri Line -- Japan's
colossal line of defense.

It's an unknown
underground maze.

A surprise attack
could come from anywhere,

so Americans
don't take any chances.

(explosions)

Explosions stun anyone inside.

Often, the enemy stumbles out.

Other times, it is civilians.

From Sugar Loaf Hill all
the way across the Shuri Line,

progress is agonizingly slow.

One general estimates
there are 70,000 Japanese

holed up underground.

"I see no way to
get them out", he says,

"but to blast them
out yard by yard."

The sluggish pace of
the ground war on Okinawa

doesn't make things easy at sea.

As the weeks drag on,
Admiral Chester Nimitz

increasingly views his
fleet as sitting ducks.

The pressure of
war takes its toll.

And kamikazes keep coming.

(explosions)

At their peak,
attacks kill an average

of 30 sailors per day.

There is no end in sight.

A zero is filmed
heading straight for

the USS Bunker Hill .

(explosion)

Six hundred are
killed or injured.

She has to retreat from duty.

The USS Comfort -- a
hospital ship -- also gets hit.

The plane rips
through three decks

and explodes in the surgery bay,

killing doctors,
nurses, and patients.

For sailors like Howard Jones,

the horror is
burned into memory.

SN JONES: The smoke
went down in the ship

and so many guys suffocated.

SN CLEMENTSON: Seeing the
dead didn't bother me too much,

but the wounded,

when they're lying
there suffering and moaning...

that's what really hit me.

I just couldn't take that.

NARRATOR: Japan intentionally
crashes 1,900 planes

in suicide dives
around Okinawa --

the most intense
kamikaze attacks

of the entire Pacific campaign.

They sink 26 ships
and damage 164 more.

The Japanese
consider it noble sacrifice.

The Americans
consider it inhumane warfare.

SN JONES: The next day... the
worst part of my life was...

we all had to get
all these guys together

in, you know, the bags.

ENS AITKEN: You
can't identify people.

The right thing to
do is bury at sea.

NARRATOR: It is the greatest
concentration of Navy losses

since Pearl Harbor.

Since the first failed attacks,

Okinawa's Sugar Loaf
Hill has become a massacre.

With Japanese holding
the other two hills nearby,

there is crossfire no matter
where the Americans charge.

Two days into it,
Marines charge up again.

(shouting and gunfire)

After 48 hours of
nonstop fighting,

they are back where they
started -- less 400 casualties.

♫ ♫

They try again, this
time with 1,200 men.

Same result.

By now, the equivalent of two
full regiments have attacked --

and gotten nowhere.

For days on end they
fight over the same hill.

♫ ♫

Marines throw
grenades from one side...

and take incendiary
fire from the other.

At times their trenches
are only 25 yards apart.

On a single day,
the crest of the hill

changes hands 11 times.

As dead and
wounded are carried off,

new troops rush in with no
idea what they are in for.

David McFadden
remembers the chaos.

LT MCFADDEN: They
commandeered as many boys

as they could muster.

Instead of a
company or battalion,

they threw them all together,

'cause they didn't
have enough to go around.

NARRATOR: But the enemy has no
replacements, no supply lines.

Eventually, the
Marines wear them down.

After 10 days, Americans finally
climb Sugar Loaf Hill --

and hold it.

They stand on the shoulders of
more than 9,000 fallen comrades.

A military historian
would later call the battle

"unmatched for
closeness and desperation."

Some regiments lose
two-thirds of their men.

It is one of the
costliest pieces of ground

in Marine Corps history.

LT MCFADDEN: We didn't
have much celebration.

They just wanted to go home,
and you couldn't blame them.

NARRATOR: With the
Shuri Line about to fall,

the exhausted Americans hope

they are nearing
the end of combat.

But just when Americans think
the Japanese are on the run,

rain soaks Okinawa --
almost 12 inches in 10 days.

GEN BUCKNER: Heavy
rain has stopped our tanks

and is impeding
supply just at a time

when rapid
progress is most desirable.

NARRATOR: What is
already difficult terrain

becomes nearly impassable.

Roads become rivers.

Camps become swamps.

And war becomes impossible.

LT KILPATRICK:
The mud got so deep

that suddenly we
stopped getting supplies.

We weren't getting any
shells, any hand grenades,

any food, any water.

Even bulldozers
would sink as much as

three feet down in the mud,
so they couldn't haul it to us.

NARRATOR: Troops have to lug
ammunition to the front by hand.

Wounded have to be
carried all the way back

to rear medical units.

Sanitation measures break down.

Morale sinks.

The Japanese could retreat into

the relative
comfort of their caves.

The Americans could only wait
it out in cold, wet misery.

LT KILPATRICK: As
it rained, the foxhole

would start
filling up with water.

Everybody smelled.

You had blood on you
and parts of bodies on you.

Everybody got
diarrhea or dysentery.

NARRATOR: For more than a week,
it appears to be a standoff.

But the Japanese
are not standing still.

When the weather
finally breaks on Okinawa,

the Americans mobilize.

The Japanese defenses on
the Shuri Line are crumbling.

US troops have been pounding
away at this one ridgeline

for two bloody months.

So far 20,000
Americans have been wounded

and 50,000 Japanese killed
-- just to crest its heights.

Now they are closing in
on the enemy's headquarters

at Shuri Castle --

where they hope
General Ushijima himself

is holed up for
the final showdown.

They find the castle blown
to bits by American artillery.

LT KILPATRICK: They must have
shot a million dollars' worth

of shells into that thing
just kicking it up in dust.

NARRATOR: Troops find it
unrecognizable, undefended...

and abandoned.

The Japanese
have vanished. Again.

American troops raise a flag,
but the victory is hollow.

By now they realize
the enemy is building up

another line farther south,

to extend the war
as long as possible.

For the soldiers on Okinawa,

June is an exhausting slog
to the bottom of the island.

♫ ♫

The Americans slowly advance
against weakening resistance.

(gunfire)

The retreating
soldiers are being killed

at a rate of one
thousand per day.

Yet they manage
to make Americans

pay for every mile they gain.

Cave defenses
are still a threat.

Americans fire
streams of liquid flame

to incinerate anyone inside...

then use explosives
to seal the cave shut.

(explosion)

General Buckner
calls this method

"blowtorch and corkscrew."

Okinawa is now about
killing, not capturing.

At sea, it's the same equation.

Kill first, take
prisoners later.

Far from Okinawa in
the South China Sea,

the submarine USS
Pampanito patrols the area

after torpedoing two
distant Japanese ships.

Four days later they
spot desperate survivors

clinging to floating wreckage.

The submarine
commander gets a shock.

LCDR DAVIS: They
were speaking English.

K.L.: My eyes
were paining with oil,

but we got a rope
and were taken aboard.

NARRATOR: These men are

Australian and
British prisoners of war.

♫ ♫

LCDR DAVIS: We
had a devil of a time

trying to get them on board.

They were too slick to pick up.

NARRATOR: Two thousand
of them were crammed onto

two Japanese cargo ships,

when they were
torpedoed by the Americans.

Most of the POWs are dead
-- sunk by their own side.

The lucky ones
survive -- barely --

after four days on the open sea.

One hundred and
fifty are rescued.

LCDR DAVIS: They
were very thankful.

They said, "You bloody Yanks,

you sink us one night
and pick us up the next."

But they said they were
darn glad they were sunk,

and that they would cheer
every time hit their ship,

because they wanted to
see the sons-of-guns go down.

K.L.: Can you
imagine the shock we got?

Water, tomato
soup and crackers --

something that we never
had in two and a half years.

LCDR DAVIS: The
crew gave them clothes

and wrote letters for them.

It was amazing to see
their brotherly spirit.

NARRATOR: As the
survivors gain strength,

they unspool a
story that defies belief.

They come from a secret
prison camp deep in Thailand

with enough POWs
to fill a city --

a quarter of a million men,

including 60,000 British,
Australians, and Dutch --

and at least 1,000
missing Americans.

They were brought
here to build a railroad

from Thailand to Burma
across the river Kwai.

The men are beaten and tortured,
forced to live as slaves.

Reuben Kandler -- a British
POW (DESCRIBES THE HORROR):

REUBEN: The appalling conditions
have made us dangerously thin.

We have no beds, inadequate
shelter, atrocious diet

and no sanitation.

We have lost all
our clothes, shoes,

and have taken to wearing
our shirts as loincloths.

In almost no time we
have become skeleton men.

NARRATOR: Nearly one third
of the POWs die in captivity.

Survivors have no end in sight.

All they see are their
own comrades wasting away.

Back on Okinawa, exhaustion
is crippling both sides.

Less than a third of
the Japanese Army is left,

and they form a last
line of defense by the sea.

It's not nearly as
strong as the Shuri Line.

But this is where General
Ushijima makes his last stand.

GEN USHIJIMA: The present
position will be defended

to the death,
even to the last man.

Needless to say,
retreat is forbidden.

NARRATOR: The
Japanese are running out of

soldiers, ammunition, and land.

They have their
backs to the sea.

Americans try to
persuade civilians

to surrender rather than die.

In one case, they lure 600
Okinawans out of a single cave.

They are less
forgiving to the enemy.

Some refuse to take any
Japanese prisoners at all,

killing them on
sight, white flag or not.

By June 17th, the
Japanese on Okinawa

have only eight square miles
left, with few places to hide.

Americans can see the coast,

and they are burning
their way to the sea.

(explosions)

Japanese leaders are
huddled in seaside caves.

It is so cramped
that General Ushijima

cannot stretch out his legs.

He receives a message
from General Buckner --

an offer to enter
negotiations for surrender.

GEN BUCKNER: You
understand as clearly as I that

the destruction of all Japanese
resistance on the island

is merely a matter of days.

NARRATOR: Ushijima laughs
if off and does not reply.

Soon after, a cameraman
captures General Buckner

visiting a
forward observation post

to see the final
days for himself.

♫ ♫

Minutes after
this footage is taken,

a shell explodes on a
rock right next to him.

A piece of it
tears through his chest.

In just 10 minutes,
General Buckner is dead.

He drifts off to sleep

as a Marine private
holds his hand, saying,

"You are going home, General.
You are homeward bound."

As Americans approach the coast,

General Ushijima sends
his final message to Tokyo.

GEN USHIJIMA: We
are about to deploy

all surviving
soldiers for a final battle --

in which I will apologize to
the Emperor with my own death.

NARRATOR: On a ledge
overlooking the sea,

Ushijima performs the
Samurai ritual of hara-kiri,

plunging a saber
into his own stomach.

The battle for Okinawa is
the only contest of the Pacific

to cost the lives of
both commanding officers.

♫ ♫

Eighty-two days after L-Day --

when Americans came
ashore to wrestle Okinawa

from an unseen enemy --

they can finally
declare victory.

The island is theirs.

DAVID: In
Okinawa, the war was over.

And there wasn't
anything easy about any of it.

NARRATOR: There is
much to celebrate.

But also many to mourn.

The United States loses
12,520 lives in Okinawa.

More than 36,000 are wounded.

The Japanese toll is astounding.

Americans count more
than 100,000 bodies,

with the actual
number probably higher.

And about a third of the
Okinawan people are dead --

another 100,000 --

unable to survive two vast
armies warring on their island.

♫ ♫

America is now at
Japan's doorstep.

But the body count on Okinawa
makes the military shudder

at the thought of
invading Japan itself.

They increase their casualty
estimate for the invasion --

to a million men.

President Truman will
have to weigh those numbers

against a new option --

one that will forever
change the course of warfare.

♫ ♫