PBS American Experience - Victory in the Pacific (2005)

Commemorating the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II, American Experience presents Victory in the Pacific. The two-hour program examines the final year of World War II in the Pacific, including the rationale for using the atomic bomb, and features the first-hand recollections of both American and Japanese civilians and soldiers – even a kamikaze pilot who survived his failed mission. Victory in the Pacific traces that fateful year, from the American capture of the Mariana Islands in the Central Pacific in July 1944 to the surrender broadcast of Emperor Hirohito in August 1945. “Take no prisoners. Fight to the bitter end.” Those were everyday words to combat troops on both sides at the end of World War II in the Pacific. And they led to an unprecedented orgy of slaughter. In this provocative, thorough examination of the final months of the war, American Experience looks at the escalation of bloodletting from both Japanese and American vantage points. As the film shows, most of Emperor Hirohito's inner circle was determined to continue the war even after losses in the Philippines in February 1945 cut off Japan's supply lines. And though he was warned that the country, brought to its knees by the conflict, might erupt in a Communist revolution, Hirohito believed that one last decisive battle could reverse Japan's fortunes. The Americans, for their part, were startled by the intensity and determination of the Japanese defenders in the South Pacific. “Do the suicides of Saipan mean the whole Japanese race will choose death before surrender?” wrote a reporter in TIME. From the U.S. capture of the Mariana Islands through the firebombing of Tokyo and the dropping of the atomic bomb, this program chronicles the dreadful and unprecedented loss of life, and the decisions made by leaders on both sides that finally ended the war.

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