Miniseries - The Pacific

[Blinky]

Could be this was already discussed but...

AMAZING! I've read Sledge's book and one of Leckie's (and several others on the Pacific War). The series stays very close to the true stories and it takes you about as close to the misery of that conflict as you can possibly go. Done by Hanks and Spielberg it's as good as Band of Brothers (which I think is the greatest series of all time) it initially comes off as a knockoff of BoB but rapidly surpasses it because of the shear inhumanity of the Pacific War.

It's not fun to watch but extremely rewarding. It also brings home how very different the Japanese were compared to the Germans and how civilized behavior broke down completely in those extreme conditions.

It leaves a lasting impression, I can't recommend it enough.

 

[SteveBullman]

i watched a couple but never got to see more, i might look it up online. just finished the 1st series of 'spartacus, blood and sand' which was absolutely fantastic, thoroughly recommend watching it.

 

[Bounce]

I just finished watching The Pacific myself. My wife's grandfather fought in Okinawa but never really talked about it. When he died recently the family discovered a box full of stuff that he had kept from his time there but never shown to anybody before. There were some gruesome pictures and some faded letters that he wrote but never mailed, along with some seashells and some black sand. It made me realize that I knew next to nothing about what he had been through and so when I saw this miniseries on Netflix I ordered it up. I'm glad I know more about it now, but it was a difficult thing to watch. I can see why he never talked about it.

 

[TheTreeWiseMen]

Last year, I worked for the only surviving veteran of both Iwo Jima and Okinawa left alive in NY state (maybe even anywhere). The stuff he talked about made me feel a little uneasy, to say the least. He told me that he had always admired the British......I told him 'I admire you mate!' Really nice, soft spoken old guy, in his 90s. I should call him, see how he is.

 

[woodworkingboy]

I have a hard time understanding the Jap"s brutality during the war. There is the part of their culture where the average person doesn't have the capacity for a lot of individualistic thinking, the way they are educated is more that everyone thinks alike, but they aren't a brutal people. I have met some folks who have a lifetime hatred for the Japanese, because of what they saw during the war. They won't at all entertain the argument that times have changed, are still shocked by the horrible things they saw, usually as children. I met a Filipino woman who was this way, and when she told me what she observed when the Japs entered her village, I could easily understand her feelings. Frig the emperor, merely a figurehead now, but a link to some bad mojo.

 

[Jed]

Yeah Sean: Same thing: My Grandfather fought over there. No one, and I mean no one, in our family could ever pry five words out of him as to what it was like, or even what happened.

 

[woodworkingboy]

Not that the yellow peril didn't get theirs... When they wouldn't come out of the caves, hell they just torched them. I have never encountered any bitterness that the sons didn't come home, just sadness.

 

[MasterBlaster]

I've heard the stories about the Jap soldiers tossing babies into the air and impaling them on their bayonets.

 

[sotc]

I just finished watching The Pacific myself. My wife's grandfather fought in Okinawa but never really talked about it. When he died recently the family discovered a box full of stuff that he had kept from his time there but never shown to anybody before. There were some gruesome pictures and some faded letters that he wrote but never mailed, along with some seashells and some black sand. It made me realize that I knew next to nothing about what he had been through and so when I saw this miniseries on Netflix I ordered it up. I'm glad I know more about it now, but it was a difficult thing to watch. I can see why he never talked about it.

What division? My gramps was in the 77th infantry. He was front lines in Ie Shima, Guam and Okinawa. Never talked about it either, never collected his medals. After he died I found his discharge papers listing some of those things

 

[Thor's Hammer]

The worst atrocities commited by the Japanese was in the invasion of China, and the rape of Nanking. I read the historical account of that period, and it made me cry.
Most guys here know how I feel about the use of nuclear weapons, but after Nanking, I think the Japanese thouroughly deserved the big bomb. As bad as it was, there had to be some kind of Karmic payback.

 

[Blinky]

Sean, you may want to get EB Sledge's book, 'With The Old Breed'. It's a very personal account.
Everybody committed atrocities. When surrender isn't an option extremes are all that remain. I can't understand how the Japanese were compelled to behave as they did, Rape of Nankiang and all that, but I do think they were going against their nature.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Anyone at war is going against their nature.

 

[stehansen]

My Dad was in the 7th division I think. They dropped the bomb while his troop ship was in the middle of the pacific. I have seen the first episode of The Pacific and I will have to check the rest of it out.

 

[woodworkingboy]

In Tokyo there is a shrine to the Japanese war dead. Whenever the in office prime minister goes there on an official visit to pay his respects, the Chinese get rather heated up and complain like crazy. A few minutes in and out by the pm and his entourage starts an issue between the countries.

 

[stehansen]

I just ordered it on Amazon.

 

[Thor's Hammer]

In Tokyo there is a shrine to the Japanese war dead. Whenever the in office prime minister goes there on an official visit to pay his respects, the Chinese get rather heated up and complain like crazy. A few minutes in and out by the pm and his entourage starts an issue between the countries.

That might be because the Japanese government has never officially apologised for the invasion and the subsequent atrocities the army committed.

 

[woodworkingboy]

Yeah, they aren't big apologizers for the reprehensible behavior. They need to update the textbooks too, but at least now they mention some aggressive behavior, I believe. :roll:

Every once-in-awhile some group that suffered at the hands of the Japs during the war will come over here and go through the courts to try to get compensation, or some formal apology, at least. In recent memory, some Filipino 'comfort women' tried, and some Australian prisoners of war, perhaps victims of the Batan death march...? The courts always throw it out, saying the amends have already taken place....old news.