All language subtitles for Battle.of.Okinawa.in.Color.2017.1080p.WEBRip.x264-CAFFEiNE_track3_[eng]

NEWSREEL NARRATOR:
Easter Sunday, 1 April 1945,

was the day of the landing.

It was designated as Love Day.

NARRATOR: Okinawa.

One of the last battlegrounds

of the last war of its kind
in human history.

MAN: We used bazookas,
flamethrowers...

and it was a slaughter.

NARRATOR: Bravery.

Tragedy.

Courage.

MAN: I never was scared,
but when I look back at it,

I get more scared
than I ever was.

NARRATOR: It's all captured
on film--in color.

Military cameramen risk their
lives to document the battle--

with unblinking eyes
and uncommon valor.

MAN: Hit by an airplane
at a high speed, you know it.

(explosion)

NARRATOR: Experience
the most brutal, unexpected

and deadly three months
of the Pacific War.

(explosion)

The battle of Okinawa in color.

(cheering)

Reveille is at 3:45
in the morning.

It's Easter Sunday.

The military calls it L-Day.

Many think it might be
their last day on Earth.

The morning light reveals
a stunning sight--

the largest amphibious assault

ever mounted in World War II's
Pacific theater.

It steams eastward in a line
of steel almost 8 miles wide.

Aboard the U.S.S. Hadley
is Doug Aitken.

DOUG AITKEN: I have never in
my life seen so many navy ships.

The aircraft carriers were
lined up as far as I could see.

NARRATOR: 1,500 ships.

Half a million men.

Many had never even heard
of Okinawa.

But they had heard of Normandy,
Saipan, and Iwo Jima,

where the enemy had mowed down
Americans by the thousands

as they came ashore.

Their briefing was
matter of fact and frightening.

Expect dug-in defenses
on the hills above the beaches.

Expect a storm
of repelling firepower.

Expect an 80% casualty rate.

Among the faces
is David McFaddin,

a kid from Ohio
who remembers the fear.

DAVID MCFADDIN:
There were hundreds of boys.

The only thing you could hear

was the ship's organ playing
"Nearer my God to thee."

And boy, don't you think

there weren't a lot of them
thinking that.

Young boys, really young.

(organ playing)

NARRATOR: Okinawa is
the last stepping stone

in the march toward
the Japanese Mainland

only 400 miles away.

From here, Americans

can stage a massive invasion

of Japan itself.

It is 70 miles long,
but quite narrow.

In square mileage it's no bigger

than the city of Los Angeles.

Its terrain features craggy

clusters of small mountains,

including ridgelines

that run east to west,

creating a natural barrier

to southward travel.

Americans have
limited intelligence going in.

Aerial reconnaissance
is lacking.

Maps are inaccurate.

They can only guess
at what lies ahead.

(speaking Japanese)

The Japanese consider Okinawa
home turf.

They are preparing to defend it
with more than 100,000 men--

and a fanatical devotion
to their cause.

They won't let the Americans in
without a fight.

(artillery fire)

Before the invasion,

the United States unleashes
ferocious firepower.

Aerial and naval bombardment

shreds the island
to soften defenses.

The Japanese nickname it
"The typhoon of steel."

MAN: Fire!

NARRATOR: It is three months
of solid pounding.

(artillery fire)

CLARENCE SHOCKEY:
They did this day and night.

I said to myself,

"Man, there can't even be
an island left after all that."

But there was.

NARRATOR: Then on April 1st,
the bombs stop...

and the invasion starts.

MAN: Go, go, go!

NARRATOR: David McFaddin
expects the worst.

MCFADDIN: I was thinking,
"Well, maybe in an hour from now

I won't have to worry
about anything anymore."

NARRATOR: But instead
of enemy fire,

they meet an eerie silence.

They move cautiously,
expecting a trap.

But there's no sign
of the enemy.

MAN: Move it on down!

(radio chatter)

NARRATOR: Some wonder if they've
landed on the wrong island.

1st lieutenant
Charles Kilpatrick

is as surprised as anyone.

CHARLES KILPATRICK: We were
expecting the usual

welcome committee
from the Japanese;

it didn't happen.

We didn't hear a shot fired.

NARRATOR: The only Japanese
soldiers they see

are already dead, usually
lying near a bomb crater.

Word gets back to the fleet--
there's no one to fight.

Subsequent waves of troops
come ashore.

They calmly grab their gear
and walk upright onto the beach.

Within hours, thousands of men

unload a city's worth
of infrastructure

onto the beaches of Okinawa.

Inland, things move as smoothly
as a training exercise.

Many keep their guns stowed
and never have to dig a foxhole.

Two nearby airbases--

considered big prizes that
would take days to capture--

are secured by noon.

The Americans can hardly believe
their luck.

One soldier remarks:

"I've already lived longer
than I thought I would."

The invasion presses forward.

In the first few days,
marines march unimpeded

through the midsection
of the island

and secure it coast to coast.

Americans thought it would take
two weeks of fighting.

Instead, it takes four days
of walking.

They tick off
military objectives

like a grocery list--

all while enjoying
a fine stretch of weather

on a subtropical island.

(horse snorts)

One general says to the press:

"I don't know
where the Japs are,

and I can't offer you
any good reason

why they let us come ashore
so easily."

In charge of the invasion

is General Simon Bolivar Buckner
Junior.

He is straight
from central casting--

tall, silver-haired,
and no-nonsense.

His private journal reveals
his confidence--so far.

GENERAL BUCKNER:
From start to finish

the landing was
a superb piece of teamwork.

The Japanese have missed
their best opportunity.

NARRATOR: For troops
that expected to be in hell,

Okinawa feels like heaven.

(instrumental music)

Instead of an invasion,
it seems like a vacation.

Soldiers pick ripe tomatoes
along the road.

They commandeer local horses
and take joyrides.

They avail themselves
of the local livestock

and try to one-up
each other's barbecue.

One soldier recalled
such a cookout

to be one of the best meals
of his life,

on what was supposed to be
the battlefield of his death.

So far, the Battle of Okinawa
is a cakewalk.

(music continues)

Instead of the Japanese army,
Americans find only civilians.

(instrumental music)

Okinawans are
an isolated people.

Mainland Japanese
consider them inferior--

little more
than rustic peasants.

By now, they are shell-shocked.

They had sheltered
in family tombs underground,

while their homes
and farm fields

were pounded by American bombs.

Now they are wary
of American generosity.

Troops provide food and medicine
to win them over

and herd them into camps
to keep them out of harm's way.

2nd Lieutenant David Straus
sees their suffering first-hand.

DAVID STRAUS: There were
literally hundreds or thousands

of Okinawan civilians
who were dying.

They just kept coming.

NARRATOR:
They have stories to tell.

Stories of terrifying propaganda

commanding them to avoid capture
at all costs.

Stories of Okinawan boys

taken and forced
into military service.

Stories that reveal the Japanese
army is out there--somewhere.

General Buckner's troops
are progressing rapidly.

He wonders what the enemy
is thinking

in a letter to his wife, Adele.

GENERAL BUCKNER:
Everything is now going well,

and so far my opposing general
has not displayed

any noticeable degree
of military brilliance.

I hope he keeps this up.

NARRATOR:
Buckner's Japanese counterpart

is Lieutenant General
Mitsuru Ushijima.

He is respected by his men,

cut right from
the Samurai tradition--

a tradition that includes
fighting to the death.

GENERAL USHIJIMA:
Do not suffer the shame

of being taken prisoner.

You will live for eternity.

NARRATOR: The Japanese
are about to reveal

their military strategy--
suddenly and lethally.

NEWSREEL NARRATOR:
Troops spliced their way

into the rugged interior to find
the enemy and destroy him.

NARRATOR: By the third day
of the invasion of Okinawa,

there is still no sign
of the enemy.

Commanding General Simon Buckner
sends a message to the marines.

GENERAL BUCKNER:
All restrictions removed

on your advance northward.

NARRATOR: Men and materiel
move up the island

and into the Motobu Peninsula,
a mountainous no-man's-land.

They approach a high, craggy
mass called Mount Yae-take.

(gunfire)

Suddenly, fire comes
from everywhere.

(gunfire)

(intense music)

Americans are pinned down
by mortars and machine guns,

no matter where they go.

Companies get split up
running for cover.

They barely know
where to return fire.

After days of easy
and rapid advance,

casualties pile up
by the hundreds.

(music continues)

And just as this reality hits
on the ground,

a fury comes from the sky.

(radio chatter)

April 6th dawns quiet
in the waters off Okinawa.

The calm did not comfort
Ensign Doug Aitken.

AITKEN: we knew that we were
going to be in for trouble.

We just knew it.

NARRATOR: On the nearby islands,
the Japanese had been gathering

every usable plane and pilot
remaining in their arsenal.

Some are inexperienced,
but no less devoted.

They call this mission Kikusui,
or "Floating Chrysanthemum."

They take off in waves.

They begin a Kamikaze spree that
dwarfs anything before or since.

(explosion)

In the next two days,

over 350 enemy planes
wreak absolute havoc.

(explosion)

American pilots try to stop them
in roller-coaster dogfights.

Navy gunners try to derail them

in white-knuckle
high-speed combat--

sometimes close enough
to see each other's faces.

General Buckner, an avid hunter,

describes the adrenaline rush
to his wife.

GENERAL BUCKNER: I have had
thrills in duck blinds,

but none comparable to that of
seeing an enemy plane shot down

when it was heading
directly at our ship.

NARRATOR: Some are cut down.

(gunfire)

But others get through.

(explosion)

AITKEN: Oh, we felt it.

Hit by an airplane
at a high speed, you know it.

NARRATOR: On April 6th alone,
three ships are sunk outright.

Another 15 are hit and damaged.

(airplane roaring)

(explosion)

The attacks leave a flotsam
of twisted steel and blood.

But it's only the beginning
of Kikusui.

Back at Mount Yae-take, marines
face an equally vicious battle.

Northern Okinawa
cannot be secure

until this mountain
is in American hands.

But every time the marines try
to storm up, they are hammered.

(gunfire)

The Japanese seem to anticipate
every line of attack,

with guns aimed exactly
where Americans approach.

(gunfire)

They rain shells at will.

LOWELL FOSS: That was an old
artillery training ground,

Okinawa,

and they knew every foot
of the island.

They could drop a shell
anyplace they saw us.

(gunfire)

NARRATOR: After almost a week
of uphill fighting,

there is little to show for it--

except for blood and bandages.

The Japanese have the advantage.

In the midst of this nightmare,
news reaches the front lines.

NEWSREEL NARRATOR:
The flag flies at half staff

as a grief-stricken nation
mourns the death

of Franklin Delano Roosevelt,
president of the United States.

NARRATOR: For 12 years,
he steered the nation

through some of its
darkest hours.

The troops on Okinawa
grieve publicly.

Many of them are so young

that Roosevelt is the only
president they ever knew.

WILLIAM WELLMAN: You'd see
grown men crying like babies,

because we had lost somebody
who was a father figure to us.

ROY SIMMONS:
We also wondered, now what?

Roosevelt was our man.

Who is this guy Truman?

NARRATOR: On Mount Yae-take,
officers rally the troops

with a new strategy:

attack from two directions,

pinch them
into a high, tight spot,

then use air
and artillery strikes

to pummel
the 1,200-foot mountaintop.

It's an uphill slog
against what one officer calls

"A phantom enemy."

(mortar fires)

For four more days,

they slowly move up the mountain
under withering fire.

(gunfire)

(airplane)

Then, marines finally take
the top of Mount Yae-take

and take a look around.

2,000 Japanese bodies

litter the peaks,
trenches, and tunnels.

Almost to a man, they had fought
to the death.

This one mountaintop cost the
marines almost a thousand men.

It was their first test

against the Japanese defenses
on Okinawa...

and they wonder if they've only
scratched the surface.

There have to be
more Japanese somewhere.

Americans suspect they are
hiding in southern Okinawa

and move cautiously.

MAN: Sure looks dug in up here.

(gunfire)

NARRATOR: Suddenly,
near the village of Shuri,

troops come under intense fire.

They answer with volleys
of their own.

(gunfire)

But when the Japanese charge

with machine guns
and flamethrowers,

Americans have to retreat.

Soon after, another company
endures a hailstorm of mortars

coming in at
more than one per second.

They lose 45 men.

All across the island,

U.S. Forces find themselves
pinned down by unrelenting fire.

They have run
into the Shuri Line,

a defensive colossus
built into a mountain range.

It is a masterstroke
of military design.

The Japanese are entrenched
on the reverse slope--

invisible
to approaching Americans.

Every hill is defended.

Every Japanese position
supports another.

Every American is caught
in crossfire.

(gunfire)

Mount Yae-take
was a single hill,

and it took a week to conquer.

The Shuri Line is an 8-mile-wide
coast-to-coast killing zone.

The worst elements
of Pacific warfare

are all rolled
into a single nightmare.

This is where America
realizes the brutal truth--

the Japanese are not
fighting to win.

They only want to turn
the conquest of Okinawa

into a drawn-out bloodbath

and give America second thoughts
about invading Mainland Japan.

As April turns to May,
it's working.

What started as a cakewalk
has become a meat grinder.

The Shuri Line has stalled
the American advance

and spilled rising amounts
of blood.

By mid-May, there are
18,000 casualties...

but also countless heroes.

At Hacksaw Ridge,
Army Medic Desmond Doss

runs into enemy fire
to rescue the injured--

without carrying a weapon.

Somehow, he saves
more than 70 men.

Medical units scramble
to treat every injury...

performing field surgery...

treating the wounded...

moving boxes and boxes of blood.

David McFaddin, who walked
ashore on L-Day with ease,

is now in the thick of combat.

MCFADDIN: This one boy--

I think he was
from Erie, Pennsylvania--

he showed me a picture
of his twins.

That night, they killed him.

And I'll never forget that.

NARRATOR: Back home,
officers escorted by chaplains

will knock on countless doors.

Okinawa is becoming the Pacific
Theater's black hole.

Then, from the European Theater,
news breaks.

(instrumental music)

(cheering)

NEWSREEL NARRATOR:
Throughout the world

throngs of people hail
the end of the war in Europe.

NARRATOR: On May 8th,
the world celebrates.

Hitler is dead,
Germany surrenders,

and Europe is at peace.

For most, more than five years
of global war is over.

But on this small island
in the Pacific,

the end is nowhere in sight.

The battle for Okinawa
has already dragged on

longer than Iwo Jima or Saipan.

Private 1st Class Thomas Durham
reaches his breaking point.

THOMAS DURHAM:
Well, I cracked up.

I was out of control.

I wanted to leave.

NARRATOR: Combat fatigue
spreads like a disease.

Some units are
on the front lines

almost four straight weeks
under constant bombardment.

Through May, nearly 14,000
troops are pulled back

with what the military calls
"non-battle" injuries.

CHARLES KILPATRICK:
We had a lot of people

who had what we call
a "thousand-yard stare,"

just looking off,
not thinking anything.

We lost a few that were just
completely gone.

NARRATOR: 1st Lieutenant
Charles Kilpatrick

sees one officer hit the wall.

KILPATRICK:
And he just broke down.

He said, "I can't do it anymore.

I can't send any more boys
out there to get killed."

NARRATOR: As the rest
of the world begins to heal,

those on Okinawa witness
only more hell.

Until they crack the Shuri Line,

they're trapped
in a slaughterhouse.

Overlooking the city of Naha

is a close triangle
of small peaks--

Horse Shoe, Half Moon,
and the now infamous Sugar Loaf.

KILPATRICK: Every hill
had to have a name on it,

to be sure we were talking
about the same piece of ground.

So we called that Sugar Loaf.

Didn't look like much.

(gunfire)

NARRATOR: On May 12th, a company
of marines starts to climb.

(gunfire)

The higher they get,
the more fire they take.

Half the company is wounded
or killed on the first day.

They retreat--

though marines
like Thomas Durham

claim not to know that word.

DURHAM:
The marines didn't retreat.

We made a rapid advance
to the rear.

Those Japs are
damn good fighters,

and they were ready to go meet
their honorable ancestors.

We were not.

NARRATOR: The Americans
realize that Sugar Loaf

is the western anchor
of the Shuri Line--

the defensive wall they've
already been pounding

for a month.

They can't break through
until they win this hill.

(artillery fire)

(instrumental music)

Seeking shelter
from the storm of combat,

Okinawans from
all over the island

stream into burgeoning
refugee camps--

sometimes 1,500 per day.

Managing them is a challenge.

So in one camp, Americans let
the Okinawans manage themselves.

NEWSREEL NARRATOR:
The invading marines brought

more than fire and steel
to Okinawa.

They brought democracy.

At Taira, an experiment
was begun.

The town council met
under American guidance

and proceeded
to govern the people.

Introduced to the democratic
way of life,

the Okinawan community
flourished.

At Taira, they found the promise
of a new Okinawa.

NARRATOR:
While American propaganda

touted such experiments,

reality is far grittier.

Their lives have been bombed,

razed, and scorched
down to the ground.

(baby crying)

They have no kinship
with the Japanese,

no loyalties to the Americans,

and no idea how
to get through it alive.

General Buckner writes:

GENERAL BUCKNER: A few Okinawans
had been given guns.

They don't know either how
to fight or how to surrender.

They shoot a few rounds
and go into caves,

but won't come out
and have to be killed.

(explosion)

NARRATOR: Okinawans endure
months of Japanese propaganda

painting Americans
as torturers and rapists,

promoting death over capture.

So when Americans approach,

some families descend
into murderous, suicidal chaos.

STRAUS: Jumping off of cliffs...

the rocks were just covered
with bodies.

DURHAM: Those civilians had been
pretty thoroughly brainwashed.

They were scared to death.

NARRATOR:
Children are most vulnerable.

If they aren't directly injured,
they are malnourished,

and surely confused
and terrified.

(instrumental music)

In one instance,
Americans come upon a girl

who refused to retreat
with Japanese troops.

As punishment,
they cut off her foot.

It will take a long time
for Okinawans to recover

from having their island
turned into a killing field.

And still, the war grinds on.

Americans are throwing
their biggest hardware

at the Shuri Line.

But General Ushijima
knew what was coming.

GENERAL USHIJIMA: Our battle
against the Americans

is a battle against the tanks.

NARRATOR: The Japanese
destroy American armor

more effectively in Okinawa than
anywhere else in World War II.

They hide anti-tank guns
inside caves, mounted on rails.

They roll them out to shoot
and roll them back in--

where they are impervious
to return fire.

With six months of ammunition
stored underground,

the Japanese are hunkered down
for the long haul.

The Shuri Line is
an unknown underground maze.

In one case, troops fire
phosphorous shells into a cave,

and smoke pours out
of 30 different holes.

(boom)

Finding the ones hiding
the enemy is a shot in the dark.

But here, they hit the mark.

(gunfire)

They can finally spot
the Japanese,

flushed out of one cave,
and scattering toward another.

(gunfire)

A surprise attack could come
from inside any one of them,

so Americans
don't take any chances.

(boom)

(boom)

(boom)

Explosions stun anyone inside.

Often, the enemy stumbles out.

Other times, it is civilians.

From Sugar Loaf hill all the way
across the Shuri Line,

progress is agonizingly slow.

(boom)

One general estimates

there are 70,000 Japanese
holed up underground.

(boom)

"I see no way to get them out,"
he says,

"but to blast them out
yard by yard."

The sluggish pace
of the ground war

doesn't make things easy at sea.

As the weeks drag on,
Admiral Chester Nimitz

increasingly views his fleet
as sitting ducks.

(explosion)

The pressure of the war
takes its toll.

And kamikazes keep coming.

By the end of April,
attacks are killing

an average
of 30 sailors per day.

(gunfire)

And there is no end in sight.

A zero is filmed

heading straight
for the U.S.S. Bunker Hill.

(gunfire)

(explosion)

600 are killed or injured.

Badly damaged, she has to
retreat from duty.

The U.S.S. Comfort--
a hospital ship--

also gets hit.

(explosion)

The plane rips
through three decks

and explodes in the surgery bay,

killing doctors, nurses,
and patients.

For sailors like Doug Aitken,

the horror is burned
into memory.

(siren)

AITKEN: And all of a sudden

"General quarters,
general quarters.

All hands man
your battle stations!"

(explosion)

HOWARD JONES: I was writing
a letter to my mom,

and the next thing I knew,
we were hit.

AITKEN: First of all,
power went out.

So we opened the doors,

and we could see all this
commotion and all this smoke.

JONES: The smoke went down
in the ship,

and so many guys suffocated.

KAY CLEMENTSON: The wounded.

We were trying to get them off,

and at the same time,
fighting the fire.

JONES: The flight deck
was practically burned off,

and all the planes were just
melted on the flight deck.

I could feel
the tremendous heat.

CLEMENTSON: Arms and legs
all over the deck, you know.

Seeing the dead
didn't bother me too much,

but the wounded,

when they're lying there
suffering and moaning...

that's what really hit me.

I just couldn't take that.

NARRATOR: Japan intentionally
crashes 1,900 planes

in suicide dives
around Okinawa--

the most intense
kamikaze attacks

of the entire Pacific campaign.

They sink 26 ships
and damage 164 more.

The Japanese consider it
noble sacrifice.

The Americans consider it
inhumane warfare.

JONES: The next day...
the worst part of my life was...

we had to get all these guys
together in, you know, the bags.

AITKEN:
You can't identify people.

(splash)

The right thing to do
is bury at sea.

(splash)

NARRATOR: It is the greatest
concentration of navy losses

since Pearl Harbor.

(instrumental music)

NEWSREEL NARRATOR:
At Sugar Loaf hill

the enemy was prepared
to make a final stand

in defense of his line.

NARRATOR: Since the first
failed attacks on May 12th,

Sugar Loaf has become
a massacre.

With Japanese holding
the other two hills nearby,

there is crossfire no matter
where the Americans charge.

(gunfire, explosions)

On May 14th, marines again try
to take the hill.

MAN: Go, go, go!

(gunfire)

After nonstop fighting
for two full days,

they are back
where they started--

less 400 casualties.

They try again on the 16th,
this time with 1,200 men.

Same result.

(gunfire)

By now, the equivalent of two
full regiments have attacked

and gotten nowhere.

Marine Charles Kilpatrick
remembers the fighting--

and the frustration.

KILPATRICK: We would go
up to the top...

then we'd run out of ammunition,
run out of grenades,

and we'd get kicked off
down to the bottom of the hill.

It was back and forth,
up and down, up and down.

NARRATOR: Sugar Loaf is nothing
more than a 50-foot mound,

but taking it should crack
the Shuri Line.

General Buckner
visits the front,

under pressure
to move it forward.

He admits to his wife Adele

the dangers of making
a wrong move.

GENERAL BUCKNER:
I'm eager to get this island

completely cleaned up,

but it can't be hurried
without heavy losses.

NARRATOR: For days on end
they fight over the same hill.

Marines throw grenades
from one side...

(explosion)

And take incendiary fire
from the other.

At times their trenches
are only 25 yards apart.

(gunfire)

On a single day,

the crest of the hill
changes hands 11 times.

DURHAM: This guy came up
behind me,

raised up on his knees and said,
"What's the scoop?"

That was the word in those days,
"What's the scoop?"

He raised up, and they got him
right through the chest.

NARRATOR: As dead and wounded
are carried off,

new troops rush in with no idea
what they are in for.

David McFaddin
remembers the chaos.

MCFADDIN: They commandeered as
many boys as they could muster.

Instead of a company
or battalion,

they threw them all together,

'cause they didn't have enough
to go around.

NARRATOR: But the enemy has no
replacements, no supply lines.

Eventually, the marines
wear them down.

After ten days, Americans
finally climb Sugar Loaf hill--

and hold it.

They stand on the shoulders
of nearly 4,000 fallen comrades.

(instrumental music)

A military historian
would later call the battle

"Unmatched for closeness
and desperation."

Some regiments lose
two thirds of their men.

It is one of the costliest
pieces of ground

in Marine Corps history.

MCFADDIN: We didn't have
much celebration.

They just wanted to go home,
and you couldn't blame them.

NARRATOR: With the Shuri Line
about to fall,

the exhausted Americans hope

they are nearing the end
of combat.

With this high ground secure,

they can try to take Okinawa's
largest city, Naha.

American bombs already reduced
Naha to rubble.

Now troops use
their own firepower

to muscle their way in.

(gunshot)

They are wary
of who could be hiding

in the maze of narrow streets.

(explosions)

But no one is hiding.

Naha is a ghost town.

Its origins date back
to the stone age.

Now, stone is
about all that's left.

(boom)

Americans pick through it

like the smoking embers
of an old fire.

A city of 65,000
is nearly deserted--

of citizens and of soldiers.

For General Buckner,
it's an ominous sign.

He bangs out a new order:

GENERAL BUCKNER:
Indications point

to possible enemy retirement
to new defensive position...

enemy must not--repeat--
not be permitted

to establish himself securely
on new position.

(thunder)

NARRATOR: But just
when Buckner thinks

he has the Japanese on the run,
rain soaks Okinawa--

almost 12 inches in 10 days.

GENERAL BUCKNER:
Heavy rain has stopped our tanks

and is impeding supply
just at a time

when rapid progress
is most desirable.

NARRATOR: What is already
difficult terrain

becomes nearly impassable.

Roads become rivers.

Camps become swamps.

And war becomes impossible.

KILPATRICK: The mud got so deep

that suddenly we stopped
getting supplies.

We weren't getting any shells,
any hand grenades,

any food, any water.

Even bulldozers would sink

as much as three feet down
in the mud,

so they couldn't haul it to us.

NARRATOR: Troops have to lug
ammunition to the front by hand.

Wounded have to be carried

all the way back
to rear medical units.

Sanitation measures break down.

Morale sinks.

(instrumental music)

The Japanese could retreat

into the relative comfort
of their caves.

The Americans
could only wait it out

in cold, wet misery.

KILPATRICK: As it rained,
the foxhole would start

filling up with water.

Everybody smelled.

You had blood on you
and parts of bodies on you.

Everybody got diarrhea
or dysentery.

NARRATOR: For more than a week,
it appears to be a standoff.

But the Japanese
are not standing still.

When the weather finally breaks
on Okinawa,

the Americans mobilize.

The Japanese defenses
on the Shuri Line are crumbling.

U.S. troops have been pounding
away at this one ridgeline

for two bloody months.

They have killed 50,000 Japanese
just to crest its heights.

Now they are closing in

on the enemy's headquarters
at Shuri Castle--

where they hope
General Ushijima himself

is holed up
for the final showdown.

But they find the castle blown
to bits by American artillery.

KILPATRICK: They must have shot

a million dollars' worth
of shells into that thing

just kicking it up in dust.

NARRATOR: Troops find it
unrecognizable, undefended...

and abandoned.

The Japanese have vanished.

Again.

During the ten days of rain,

Ushijima and his men
secretly retreated,

leaving only a skeleton defense
to hide their maneuver.

After taking
some 20,000 casualties

to finally break the Shuri Line,

the Shuri Castle
is a false summit.

American troops raise a flag,
but the victory is hollow.

By now they realize the enemy

is building up another line
farther south,

to extend the war
as long as possible.

June is an exhausting slog
to the bottom of the island.

The Japanese know
they cannot win back Okinawa,

but they're still fighting
to give the Mainland more time

to prepare for an invasion.

The Americans steadily advance
against weakening resistance.

By now many of the Japanese
are replacements

with little experience.

They are often caught
disorganized

and out of position.

(gunfire)

The retreating soldiers
are being killed

at a rate of 1,000 per day.

(instrumental music)

Yet they manage
to make Americans pay

for every mile they gain--

sometimes with a booby trap
for souvenir hunters.

DURHAM: We had a corporal who
had never been in combat before.

He pulled a flag off a bush,
and that blew him up.

They told him not to do it.

NARRATOR: Cave defenses
are still a threat.

Americans fire streams
of liquid flame

to incinerate anyone inside...

(instrumental music)

Then use explosives
to seal the cave shut.

(boom)

General Buckner describes
the procedure to his wife,

calling it
"Blowtorch and Corkscrew."

GENERAL BUCKNER:
We have killed over 55,000,

and we will still have
the privilege

of exterminating a lot more.

NARRATOR: Dehumanizing the enemy
is an ugly part of warfare.

But it becomes a lot harder
when standing face to face.

Capturing POWs is rare,

but offers a chance
to meet an enemy

that remained hidden
for so long.

Interrogations reveal
that their medical supplies

are down to simple bandages.

Japanese often leave
their wounded to die.

(instrumental music)

Compared to the war in Europe,

the Pacific Theater
produces few POWs.

The overall strategy is to fight
to the death, and they do.

Less than 10% of Japanese troops
will survive.

By early June, less than a third
of the Japanese army is left,

and they form a last line
of defense by the sea.

It's not nearly as strong
as the Shuri Line.

This is where General Ushijima
makes his last stand.

GENERAL USHIJIMA:
The present position

will be defended to the death,
even to the last man.

Needless to say,
retreat is forbidden.

NARRATOR: The Japanese
are running out of soldiers,

ammunition, and land.

They have their backs
to the sea.

David Straus is part
of the final push.

STRAUS: It was obvious
that it was a matter of time.

Everything was compressed

right down to the south end
of the island,

and it was a slaughter.

(boom)

NARRATOR: Americans try
to persuade civilians

to surrender rather than die.

In one case,
they lure 600 Okinawans

out of a single cave.

They are less forgiving
to the enemy.

Some refuse to take
any Japanese prisoners at all,

killing them on sight,
white flag or not.

NEWSREEL NARRATOR:
The 4th and 29th marines

advanced across the last
open field,

pinning Japanese soldiers
and Okinawan civilians

against the sea.

NARRATOR: By June 17th,
all the Japanese have left

are eight square miles,
with few places to hide.

Americans can see the coast,

and they are burning
their way to the sea.

(boom)

(boom)

Japanese leaders are huddled
in seaside caves.

It is so cramped
that General Ushijima

cannot stretch out his legs.

He receives a message
from General Buckner--

an offer to enter negotiations
for surrender.

GENERAL BUCKNER: You understand
as clearly as I

that the destruction
of all Japanese resistance

on the island
is merely a matter of days.

NARRATOR: Ushijima laughs it off
and does not reply.

On June 18th, a cameraman
captures General Buckner

visiting a forward
observation post

to see the final days
for himself.

Marines ask him to swap his
3-star helmet for a plain one,

to avoid provoking enemy fire.

Buckner bristles.

GENERAL BUCKNER:
I have no intention of hiding.

NARRATOR:
But he reluctantly agrees.

Minutes after this footage
is taken,

a shell explodes on a rock
right next to him.

A piece of it tears
through his chest.

In just ten minutes,
General Buckner is dead.

He drifts off to sleep as a
marine private holds his hand,

saying "You are going home,
General.

You are homeward bound."

As Americans approach the coast,

General Ushijima sends
his final message to Tokyo.

GENERAL USHIJIMA: We are about
to deploy all surviving soldiers

for a final battle--

in which I will apologize
to the emperor

with my own death.

NARRATOR: On a ledge
overlooking the sea,

Ushijima performs
the samurai ritual of Hara Kiri,

plunging a saber
into his own stomach.

The battle of Okinawa is
the only contest of the Pacific

to cost the lives
of both commanding officers.

82 days after L-Day--

when Americans came ashore

to wrestle Okinawa
from an unseen enemy--

they can finally
declare victory.

The island is theirs.

STRAUS: In Okinawa,
the war was over.

And there wasn't anything easy
about any of it.

NARRATOR: There is much
to celebrate.

But also, many to mourn.

The United States loses
12,520 lives in Okinawa.

(instrumental music)

More than 36,000 are wounded.

The Japanese toll is astounding.

Americans count
more than 100,000 bodies,

with the actual number
probably higher.

And about a third of
the Okinawan people are dead--

another 100,000--

unable to survive two vast
armies warring on their island.

With Japan looming

as World War II's
final battleground,

President Truman makes
a historic decision.

Rather than risk an estimated
one million casualties

on a ground invasion,

America levels Hiroshima
and Nagasaki with atomic bombs.

The future of war lay bare
in the radioactive aftermath.

Japan finally surrenders.

STRAUS: Well, of course
none of us had any inkling

there was a weapon like that.

I guarantee you
there was a lot of relief.

I don't know how many of us

would have survived
the invasion of Japan,

but not very many,
I don't think.

(explosions)

NARRATOR:
Okinawa may have witnessed

the last battle of its kind
on planet Earth.

Combat as raw, relentless,
and ruinous

may never be waged again.

Those who endured it
certainly hope so.

KILPATRICK: Finally, we got off

the island, and we looked back,

and of course we hoped we'd
never see that place again.