The Pacific

[rbbailey]

The HBO Series The Pacific begins this Sunday. If possible, it may be better than Band of Brothers. I wanted to start this thread to discuss all things WWII Pacific Theater of Operations (PTO).

This is my first year teaching this stuff, and I've never known much about the PTO anyway. So as I've been reading these past few days, I've been happy to see that my teaching, and the way I've described things to my students is pretty accurate. I must be getting a more history-minded mind, because I'm able to think my way through events a lot better than I used to.

Anyway, I'm going to be watching the series, and I wish I had the time to read the book(s) to go with it, but that will have to wait till this summer when I'm done with my degree.

The Pacific
Helmet for my Pillow
The Old Breed

[Josh]

Too bad I can't watch it Sounds great!

I've always known more about the European theater, but have spent increasing time learning about the Pacific theater. What's your favorite aspect of it?

[rbbailey]

In general, I am intrigued by how desperate the fighting was. How different it was from Europe. There was a very specific strategy right from the start, and it's interesting to see that play out as I study it. Europe also had a specific strategy, but it was driven and bent and modified by the politics, the weather, Hitler's whim, etc.... Lot's of comparisons, lots of things to contrast from the European theater.

It was WWII, but different. I'm looking forward to learning more about it -- sort of like when one travels, learning about and enjoying different places for different reasons, but not that one is better than the other.

[rbbailey]

An hour is too short.

[Josh]

One thing that has always befuddled me a bit was "island hopping". I understand that the point was airbases, but was that always the case? Or was there ever just a stubborn take back every inch of ground at whatever cost attitude?

[rbbailey]

A little of that, yes.

But the main reason was the simple fact that there was no way to actually attack Japan without first taking the islands. I suppose one could argue that taking a few of the closer islands first might have worked... but taking Guadalcanal alone was a... I want to say six month event!! By that time the enemy would have surrounded what carrier task force we could have out there.

Basically, it was a question of technology -- the carriers had to be within no more than 600 miles to launch what bombers they had. The B-25 and the B-17 need to be within about 1000 miles of their target, and the B-29 could double that, but it didn't fly till late 1944 (not sure I remember that date correctly).

China was effectively out of the fight because it was too far over the mountains from the west (see: Flying the Hump), Russia was busy with Germany, and China itself was barely holding on as it was -- we couldn't have got there from the east, Japan would have stopped us.

The only answer was a breakthrough in the ability to launch real medium to heavy duty bombers from a carrier, and to be able to defend that carrier along the way. Or to take Okinawa and Iwo Jima as bases -- which is exactly what we did. And that brings us back to getting to Okinawa and Iwo in the first place. You couldn't just get there without being attacked.

Guadalcanal (the Solomons) and the Gilbert Islands were the starting line, Okinawa and Iwo were the finish line.

We did skip a lot of the 1000's of islands out there. Some were being fought for while the rest of the force went on to the north. Others were so small that we just waved as we went buy. Many of them were occupied by the Japanese anyway, and they were supposed to be just sitting there waiting to see the U.S. fleet come so they could send a signal back to home base -- and many of them never saw a single ship or any action at all for the entire war. Many of them were serving on those islands for some time after the war was over, never knowing anything of the outside world... in fact... the last Japanese soldier to walk out of the jungle, to give up, came out in 1990!! Needless to say, he may have been a little loopy in the head though, so it may not officially count as a true last hold-out from the war.

[rbbailey]

www.wanpela.com/holdouts/list.html

[Josh]

There was a Gilligan's Island episode where they found that guy!

[rbbailey]

The Last Flight of Noah's Ark

I modified that date -- it was 1980!!!!!!

[Josh]

Ben, I just bought the companion book for this at Costco yesterday. I'm excited to get into it!

[rbbailey]

I'm going to have to get that -- I bought 'With the Old Breed' with that gift certificate you sent me! It starts slow, he has a very casual way of writing, almost like he's just trying to get through it, but picks up about half way through.

[Josh]

Started the book Pacific last night. It's pretty engaging so far! I'm learning more about the Phillippines/ Corregidor than I ever knew previously

[ryan]

I have to say that I am intrigued by this project, but unfortunately it has become something I a little wary of at present. Tom Hanks made some rather unfortunate remarks about the nature of the Pacific campaign that lead me to question whether this series has an almost anti-American bias to it. Has anyone noticed this? Specifically he called American troops racists.

[Josh]

Well, certainly some American troops were racist, no? And certainly the American military had some racist policies?

What exactly was the statement?

[ryan]

Certainly many Americans held a racist view of Japanese to some extent or another, but Hanks referred to the War in the South Pacific as a war of terror and racism.

"'The Pacific' is coming out now, where it represents a war that was of racism and terror. And where it seemed as though the only way to complete one of these battles on one of these small specks of rock in the middle of nowhere was to - I’m sorry - kill them all. And, um, does that sound familiar to what we might be going through today? So it's-- is there anything new under the sun? It seems as if history keeps repeating itself." - Tom Hanks

I think that this view is a little extreme.

[Josh]

Yeah, that comments seems to belie a misunderstanding of the facts, which is odd for a person so closely associated with the project!

[rbbailey]

We watched the character bios last night, I would recommend it, before tonight's episode! There is also an overview of Guadalcanal and Okinawa. These are available in the Comcast On-Demand section, so I don't know if everyone has the ability to get it, but I thought I'd throw it out there.