History Channel - Last Days of World War II Set 2 (2005) Part 6 August 12-18
World War II was a long and brutal war. From Iwo Jima to the Potsdam Conference, take a look at the moments leading up to the end of the deadliest war. Follow the action in this series that details, week by week, the last six months of World War II and explores the high and low points of the march to war's end. As the deadliest war in history draws to an end, the bloodshed is far from over, and on the horizon stood a new type of conflict, the Cold War, as tensions between the Allies rise well before V-E Day. On September 9, 1945, the deadliest war the world has ever known formally came to an end. Four months earlier, the Third Reich had suffered its final defeat, the capture of Berlin. After that, the German forces across Europe began to surrender and Victory in Europe was declared on the 8th May 1945. However, across the Pacific, battle still raged. Despite being pushed back from all fronts, the culture of the Japanese meant that they were determined to go down fighting. The final nine months of the war in the Pacific produced some of the most brutal and deadliest fighting of World War II. The war was suddenly ended with the dropping of the atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Each week is minutely examined with high technology maps, rare archive film, the recollections of servicemen and state of the art 3D computer graphics which bring alive for today's viewer, the tactics and strategy employed to free the world by August 1945 from those who sought to destroy it. Week by week the series builds to the inevitable and exciting climax which culminates in the final Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay in August 1945.
Part 6 August 12-18
V-J Day
In Tokyo, the Japanese government at last accepts the inevitable and surrenders to the Allies unconditionally. President Truman declares that “this is the day we've been waiting for since Pearl Harbor.” Emperor Hirohito makes an emotional broadcast to the Japanese nation saying that they had to surrender to keep the country from being destroyed by “a new and most cruel bomb.” The surrender is formally made to General MacArthur at a ceremony aboard the U.S. battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay.
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