The Final Graveyard.
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The Japanese prepare their defenses in the Philippines.
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The idea of taking the Philippines was to cut the Japanese supply route for their oil. Doing that would severely damage their ability to make war which is, of course, exactly what happened. By the end of the war the Japanese didn't have enough fuel for their training planes, their regular planes or their ships. Pretty much everything was considered a one-way trip since there was not enough fuel for a return trip.
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The central landing would be at Leyte. Some 738 US ships were involved.
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Douglas MacArthur returns to the Philippines.
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The Japanese Navy planned to attack the US ships that were supporting the beachhead at Leyte. This was yet another time when the Japanese military said this was the “ultimate” battle on which “the future of Japan” rested.
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There was a three-prong Japanese attack. One group (not shown) would be a decoy force to lure the US carriers away. Two other forces would come through by northern and southern routes to hit the invasion fleet and the transports.
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The Japanese Center Force is detected and attacked.
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The Japanese Southern Force is almost annihilated during a night battle.
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Halsey's force went after the Japanese decoys, leaving the northern approach open to the Center Force which had temporarily withdrawn.
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The Center Force comes back and attacks Taffy 3, a small US force between them and the invasion fleet. Four ships in Taffy 3 are sunk within a half hour, but the Japanese misidentify the ships of the force, thinking they are much more powerful ships than they actually are, and once again the Center Force turns away from the battle and withdraws.
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The US lost 3,500 dead at Leyte. Over 60,000 Japanese died.
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Next to be discussed is the battle for Iwo Jima.
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The Japanese dug numerous tunnels which protected them from the preliminary bombardment.
The Japanese waited until the US troops landed. They had the beaches zeroed in, and they opened fire with their artillery.
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The flag is raised on Mt. Surabachi. The first flag turned out to be too small to be easily seen, though, which is one of the reasons why a second, bigger, flag was raised.
Three of the six men who raised the second flag died on Iwo Jima, and two of the remaining three were injured in battle.
The fighting went on for weeks. Even during the fighting, though, a B-29 that was in trouble landed on the island. Neither the Americans nor the Japanese had seen that big of a plane before. Around thirty of the planes landed during the fighting.
Flamethrowers had been built into some of the Sherman tanks. 22,000 Japanese died on Iwo Jima. More than 6,000 Americans died.
The Japanese prepared for the next likely target, Okinawa.
The video then talks about the kamikaze.
The Japanese again developed underground fortifications.
The film then goes into the final voyage of the Yamato.
US ships were sunk, and over 1400 Japanese pilots and their planes were killed and destroyed. 368 other US ships were damaged.
Japan began to prepare for an invasion of the home islands.
After the dropping of two atomic bombs, the Japanese surrendered.
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