Documentary Review: The War #7: A World Without War by Ken Burns

 The seventh of the series by Ken Burns tells several different stories:  The Battle of Okinawa and the kamikaze planes that inflicted heavy loses on the Navy.  The death of President Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman takes over.  The Soviets begin the final assault on Berlin and the suicide of Adolph Hitler.  The concentration camps are liberated with the Holocaust is made known to the world.  Victory Europe Day is celebrated, but the war against Japan goes on.  USS Indianapolis is sunk after delivering atomic bomb; only 300 of 1100 survive.  800 went into the water but sharks and hyperthermia claimed many.  The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  The Japanese surrender and victory Japan Day.  The return of the service men to civilian life.  Some do better than others and shell shock leaves permanent scars.  African Americans return to a segregated world.  Japanese are freed from the holding centers.  Civilian prisoners are freed in the Phillipines but many starve before the liberation.  Prisoners in Japan are freed.  Some were thought dead.

The War #1 A Necessary War

The War #2 When Things Get Tough

The War #3 A Deadly Calling

The War #4 Pride of Our Nation

The War #5 FUBAR

The War #6 The Ghost Front

The War #7 A World Without War

Documentary Review: World War II in Colour: Victory in Japan: episode 13

This is the final episode brought to us by BBC television.  In this the end of the war in the Pacific is presented started with Iwo Jima.  Iwo Jima was an important battle because it would give the Allies airstrips close enough to Japan to support the fire bombing raids with fighter escorts.  The U.S. had given up on tactical bombing and went with fire bombing which was highly effective, but would also destroy entire communities, with spreading flames faster than someone could run.  One such raid was attributed with 100,000 deaths.
Iwo Jima was a battle in which the Japanese refused to surrender, fighting to the death.  Of the 21,000 Japanese defending the island, 18,000 were killed in the fighting.  Only about three hundred were captured in the fighting.  The Japanese had ingrained in them the terrible things the Americans would do to them if they were caught.  About 3000 Japanese continued living in the caves and tunnels after the fighting was over, coming out at night to scavenge for food.  They slowly surrendered, the last surrendering in 1949.
The next major jump after Iwo Jima was Okinawa.  Here the commander swore he would make the Americans pay in blood.  Even though the landing was not resisted heavily, the defensive lines the Japanese were able to create on the island proved large obstacles to over come.  Just as the Americans began to make progress, the Japanese would fall back to another defensible line, and thus there was a series of battles and defensive lines.  Finally the Americans had to land another wave of Marines behind these lines.
The Battle at Sea was also terrible at Okinawa.  The Japanese employed Kamikaze pilots, in planes and jets, submarines and even a Kamikaze battle ship on a suicide mission.  It never reached the Americans as it was spotted and sunk by planes from the aircraft carriers.
However after Iwo Jima and Okinawa, the Americans were well aware of the cost in invading the Japanese mainland.  It also appeared the fire bombing would never bring the Japanese to surrender.  A much larger weapon was needed.  When President Truman succeeded to the presidency, he learned of the nuclear weapons.  There were two prototypes, a uranium bomb and a plutonium bomb.  It was decided to use both weapons if needed.  The bomb "Little Boy" was used on Hiroshima, and caused over 100,000 immediate deaths, with more deaths later due to radiation sickness, burns and starvation.  The second plutonium bomb "Fat Man" was dropped on Nagasaki.  It was actually the more powerful bomb, but missed its target causing about 40,000-80,000 deaths.  Again half were immediate with the others coming later.
About this same time, the Russians declared war against Japan.  They were actually trying to fatten their own territories, invading Manchuria and Mongolia.  Even after the Japanese surrendered, the Russians fought on trying to gain more territory.
Japan announced its surrender August 15, 1945.  The formal document of surrender was signed September 2 aboard the USS Missouri.  General Douglas McCarthy took over temporary leadership of Japan.

Documentary Review: Suicide for Glory; Victory at Sea

In a last stand, and a last ray of hope, the Japanese sent over 250 kamikaze pilots against the United States fleet off of Okinawa.  In my min there is nothing scarier than a kamikaze.  Someone who has already decided to give up his life, if he can just take some with him.  Almost 200 kamikaze were part of the attack at Okinawa.  They had previously been used in the Philippines.  If the could trade a plane for a ship, then they would be well worth it.  This seemed possible for a time.  24 of the 196 kamikaze crashed into ships.  Many of the others inflicted damage, but were destroyed before striking a vessel.  The Japanese also employed other planes.  The battle for Okinawa was a difficult fight, as the Japanese had 130,000 defenders on the island.  The Americans put 180,000 men on the island.  The also had 300 warships and 1100 other ships.  It was a costly battle.  As many as 125,000 Japanese soldiers were killed.  The U.S. lost 7300 men on land and 5000 at sea, with many more, almost 40,000 wounded.  The leader of the Japanese ground forces killed himself just before the battle was over.  The U.S. lost 36 ships, and 400 others damaged.  They also lost 763 aircraft.  The Japanese lost 4000 planes 16 ships sunk.
This presentation also documents the death of President Franklin Roosevelt.