Payoff in the Pacific
Originally aired in two parts on the U.S. Army's documentary series The Big Picture.
One of the major differences between this film and some of the others that I have reviewed is that this one was done years after the war was over, so the Japanese were not made fun of or belittled as in some other documentaries closer to the time of the war. The term “Japanese” is used instead of “Jap,” and the Japanese soldiers are discussed as being tough soldiers to defeat.
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A background map. A military guy comes on and saves it's been a couple of decades since the end of the war.
FDR's “Day of Infamy” address plays over these images.
Victorious Japanese at some site, taking down a US flag.
The Bataan death march; April 9, 1942.
The Japanese take the US surrender on Corregidor.
Mac Arthur in a Australia.
The Doolittle raid on Tokyo, April 18, 1942.
Fighting near Australia.
The battle for Guadalcanal.
US planes attack Japanese ships attempting to reinforce their troops.
Airfield constructed for attacks on Rabaul. (There's an awful lot of really good combat footage in this documentary that I haven't seen anywhere else.)
Admiralty Islands, Los Negros, assault.
Bombing of two of the Aleutian Islands that were held by the Japanese.
Another step in the drive towards Japan.
Japanese resistance is overcome on the Marshall Islands.
B-25s bomb New Guinea's western portion.
Three Japanese airfields were attacked.
Japanese soldiers that have been captured.
The first part ends.
The narrator reviews what was covered in the first part of the documentary.
June 15, 1944, preparing to attack the Marianas.
The film talks about Japanese who refused to surrender, such as the one (or ones) in this cave/hold in the hillside. The guy running down the hill has just thrown a grenade in to the cave/hole.
A Japanese prisoner is used to try to convince other Japanese to surrender rather than be killed or buried alive.
November, 1944, B29s are first used to attack Japan, flying from bases in Saipan.
Flame-throwing vehicles were used in additional to hand-held flame-throwers.
Japanese ships trying to intercept the US invasion force at Leyte.
The Japanese ships are divided into three groups.
US ships join the battle of Leyte Gulf.
Japanese losses were considerable.
The US works with Philippine guerrillas who had already been fighting the Japanese, giving them better weapons.
US forces are welcomed as liberators.
What made things quite difficult was the entrenched Japanese soldiers in the mountainous area. Planes bombed it, but the resistance was still considerable.
The city of Manila is attacked by US forces.
Apparently there was a baseball field where the Japanese tried to hide in the grandstands. American troops in the infield fired point blank into their positions.
In the northern part of the Philippines Japanese resistance in mountainous areas continued.
The attack on Okinawa begins.
A Japanese airfield is bombed and strafed.
1,300 US naval vessels were involved in the bombardment of Okinawa.
Kamikazes attack. The term referred to them as “ill-famed.”
383 Japanese planes were shot down in a 36-hour period.
They still managed to score hits on the ships, though.
Fighters from Iwo Jima help protect B-29s bombing Japan, which, according to the film, went after “industrial targets.”
This was the earlier, high-altitude bombing.
The atomic bomb explodes over Hiroshima. It then very briefly mentions the bombing of Nagasaki and gives only a few word reference to the firebombing of Japanese cities.
The war ends.
American prisoners-of-war in Japanese camps are released.
The film goes on to talk about post-war occupation, including a free press, “after years of censorship.”
The surrender ceremony on the USS Missouri.
This was a very interesting documentary which gave a good capsule summary of the events that happened in the US drive on Japan.
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