Original subtitles

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By early 1943,

the Japanese empire was at its height.

The country had occupied Malaya and Burma,

the Philippines and the Dutch East Indies,

Indonesia today.

These territories had become vital sources

of strategic supplies such as oil and rubber.

Now the United States laid plans to roll back

the Japanese gains.

The aim was to cut the country's supply lines

by seizing the occupied territories.

Japan could then be gradually strangled to death.

But to win in the vast expanse of the Pacific,

the U.S. would need to develop new forms

of mobile warfare.

They would be based on amphibious landings

supported by aircraft flying from carriers.

The Japanese, unable to match American fire power,

resorted to increasingly desperate measures.

The country fell back on ancient notions

of 'military honour'

to create suicide units.

The result would be a terrible loss of life.

This would be a decisive phase in the war

in the Pacific

and would mark the end of Japan's dreams of empire.

But this was to come.

Back in the spring of 1943

the U.S. military chiefs faced a dilemma.

They had been presented with two options

for the defeat of Japan.

The flamboyant U.S. Army General,

Douglas MacArthur, commander of the U.S.

and Australian forces in the South-West Pacific,

favoured a primarily land based route.

His idea was to seize the Solomon Islands,

Papua New Guinea and the Philippines.

They could then be turned into a strategic barrier

that would cut off Japan from its

newly conquered lands in Burma, Malaya

and the Dutch East Indies.

Japan would be starved into surrender.

Equally importantly,

this plan would mean MacArthur could repay a debt.

Earlier in the war he had been kicked out

of the Philippines by the Japanese

and he had promised to return to liberate the country.

But the U.S. Navy had a different idea.

It would bypass the heavily defended

Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea

and the Philippines.

Instead it would seize a string

of much smaller islands scattered across

the central Pacific and close

to the Japanese homeland.

Rather than a barrier

the U.S. would have a series of strategic bases

from which to attack Japan's supply lines.

They argued it would be swifter

and much more economic.

The American military command put off the decision.

Both the Army and Navy were told to go ahead.

In June 1943, MacArthur's plan was launched.

It was called Operation Cartwheel.

The first target was the major Japanese military base

at Rabaul on New Britain in the Solomon Islands.

It would be a two pronged attack.

The eastern prong fought its way up

through New Georgia and Bougainville.

The western prong battled its way

through Papua New Guinea.

But the virtually impenetrable jungle,

and unhealthy climate, made progress slow.

It was nearly nine months before the pincers met

and the Japanese base at Rabaul was isolated.

Meanwhile as the U.S. army took control

of the Solomon Islands

the U.S. Navy mustered a mighty fleet.

It included the first four of the brand new

Essex class aircraft carriers.

They were bigger and faster than anything before.

The new carriers were equipped with

outstanding new planes like the Hellcat

and Corsair fighters,

Helldiver dive-bombers,

and Avenger torpedo bombers.

Together they both outperformed and outnumbered

their Japanese opponents.

The Navy's first targets were the Japanese garrisons

on the coral atolls of Tarawa and Makin

in the Gilbert Islands.

These were close to some of the most important

supply routes across the Pacific.

For a week the atolls were bombed

by carrier based aircraft.

Then on November 20th 1943

there was an amphibious landing.

Makin was captured with little difficulty.

But Tarawa was a different story.

Reconnaissance had failed to reveal that the water

was too shallow for the landing craft.

As the marines waded ashore,

they came under intense fire.

The island was honeycombed

with fortified machine-gun nests.

U.S. troops who made it to dry land

were pinned down on the beach.

By the end of the day,

over 1,500 of the 5,000 U.S. marines landed

had been killed or severely injured.

Over the next two days frontal assaults

pushed the Japanese back inch-by-inch.

Very often, only flamethrowers could eliminate

the Japanese strong points.

It took three days before the last pocket

of Japanese resistance was wiped out.

Of the 4,200 Japanese troops on the island

only 17 were captured alive.

Tarawa was a terrible forerunner

of what was to come.

The Japanese had shown

that there would be no question of surrender.

They would fight to the death.

It was a grim prospect.

In January 1944, America's naval offensive

in the Pacific moved on to the Marshall Islands.

Admiral Chester Nimitz,

the U.S. naval commander in the Central Pacific,

was anxious to avoid another bloodbath.

So aircraft from his carrier force

bombed Japanese airfields on the islands

for nearly two months.

Finally, on February the 1st 1944,

he sent in the assault forces.

The flat and open island of Roi was quickly overrun.

But the islands of Kwajalein, and Namur

were wooded and the Japanese resisted fanatically.

U.S. forces used flamethrowers and explosives.

The Japanese responded by launching suicidal

'Banzai' charges.

But the U.S. forces now knew what to expect.

The Japanese were beaten back.

Over 8000 Japanese soldiers died

for the loss of less than 400 U.S. lives.

Atoll after atoll in the Marshall Islands

now fell to the U.S. advance.

Kwajalein was followed by Eniwetok.

The island of Truk was bypassed and cut off,

though a small Japanese garrison would remain

undefeated until the end of the war.

The way was now clear for the next push,

1000 miles west towards the Mariana Islands.

If captured the islands would put

the Japanese mainland within range

of U.S. heavy bombers.

They would also enable America to block

Japan's supply lines from Southeast Asia.

On June 11, 1944,

the U.S. started to soften up the three main islands

in the Marianas.

Four days later marines stormed the beaches

of the northerly island of Saipan.

This time the terrain was mountainous.

With many caves,

and the preliminary bombardment had not disrupted

the Japanese defences as much as had been hoped.

Nevertheless, by the end of the day,

the American bridgehead was secure.

In Tokyo the news caused mounting alarm.

The Japanese High Command now sent a carrier fleet

to rescue the situation and save the Marianas.

But the task force was spotted by U.S. submarines.

The Americans sent their main carrier force

to intercept the Japanese.

On the morning of June 19th, 1944,

the Japanese launched air strikes

against the U.S. ships.

But U.S. radar saw them coming.

450 fighters were scrambled to intercept

the Japanese planes.

It turned into the largest aircraft carrier battle

ever fought.

The U.S. Task Force had 15 aircraft carriers

and more than 900 aircraft.

Ranged against it the Japanese had nine carriers

and nearly five hundred aircraft.

But Japan had lost many of its experienced aircrews

during the Solomon and Marshall Islands campaigns.

Its novice pilots faced battle-hardened U.S. fliers.

The Japanese were outgunned and outfought.

It would go down in history

as 'The Great Marianas Turkey Shoot'.

Half an hour into the battle

a torpedo from a U.S. submarine hit the newest

and largest Japanese carrier, the Taiho,

while she was still launching aircraft.

The battle of the Philippine Sea

had claimed its first major victim.

At around the same time another U.S. submarine

torpedoed the carrier Shokaku.

She was completely destroyed.

Nevertheless the Japanese commander decided

to continue with the operation,

hoping to stop further U.S. landings in the Marianas.

For much of the following day,

the U.S. forces tried to pin down the exact location

of the remaining Japanese carriers.

Seven, zero, nine, six.

It took them until the afternoon

to find them.

It was late in the day to launch an attack

and the aircraft would have to fly at the limit

of their range.

But the U.S. Task Force commander,

Admiral Marc Mitscher, decided to gamble and attack.

A third Japanese carrier, the Hiyo, was hit and sunk.

The Japanese had lost over 300 aircraft.

But as the U.S. planes now returned,

dangerously short of fuel,

they ran into a problem.

In the gathering darkness

they couldn't find their own carriers.

Many ran out of fuel and had to ditch in the sea.

Mitscher, in an act of extraordinary courage,

ordered his carriers to switch on their lights

to guide in the returning aircraft.

Fortunately for the Americans

there were no Japanese submarines to see them.

Nevertheless over 80 U.S. planes were lost,

either through having to ditch in the sea

or through crashing while they landed.

But Japanese losses had been even greater.

Three carriers,

and most of the aircraft needed to equip

its remaining carrier fleet,

were gone.

From now on,

the United States Navy would dominate the Pacific,

striking when and where it wanted.

The Japanese naval defeat in the Philippine Sea

meant the United States could now press on

with its assault on the Marianas.

The Japanese forces on Saipan

held out for three weeks

before they were overcome on July 9th, 1944.

The final horror came

when thousands of Japanese civilians

were persuaded to jump to their deaths

from the cliffs rather than be captured

by the Americans.

The last Japanese troops then launched their now

inevitable suicide charge.

Virtually the entire 32,000-strong garrison

was killed.

Over 3,000 Americans also died.

Two weeks later U.S. marines landed on the islands of Guam

and Tinian, also in the Marianas.

Once again they faced suicidal

Japanese counterattacks.

But they failed to stop the American advance.

The U.S. Navy had seized the Marianas.

Both the U.S. Army and Navy offensives

had now completed the first phase

of their separate strategies to isolate Japan.

The U.S. military planners now had to make a choice.

Should they continue to back MacArthur's strategy

and move on to the capture of the Philippines?

Or should they go with the naval plan

and send a fleet across the Pacific to seize Taiwan

or the Ryukyu Islands?

The Naval option would isolate Japan

without the need for an almost certainly lengthy

and bloody operation to take the Philippines.

But at a meeting in Hawaii on July 26th, 1944,

MacArthur charmed President Roosevelt

into backing his plan to liberate the Philippines.

The Navy was instructed to support it

before returning to its island hopping strategy.

It was a decision that would cost a horrendous number

of both military and civilian lives.

The following month U.S. forces landed

on the Philippine island of Leyte.

They took the Japanese by surprise.

They had expected the first U.S. landing

to be on the main island of Luzon.

Within hours MacArthur was striding ashore

with press photographers in attendance.

He later made a broadcast to the Philippine people.

I see that the old flagpole still stands.

Have your troops hoist the colours to its peak,

and let no enemy ever haul them down.

But the Japanese soon recovered

and launched an ambitious plan to use the remains

of their naval power to counter-attack.

Operation Sho, meaning Victory,

was typically complex.

The main strength of the Japanese fleet

was divided into two groups to form a pincer.

One pincer would approach through the

San Bernardino Straits and attack the U.S. landing

from the north.

The second would come in through

the Surigao Straits and attack from the south.

Meanwhile, a decoy group of Japan's

last four carriers would approach the Philippines

from the north-east,

hoping to lure away the main U.S. carrier force

covering the landing.

The northern arm of the Japanese pincer

came under air attack almost immediately.

After nearly two days of bombardment,

the super-battleship Musashi was sunk.

The northern pincer then appeared to retreat.

It was now that the U.S. commanders

got into a muddle.

The man in charge of the main carrier force

covering the landings

was Admiral William 'Bull' Halsey.

He now got word of the Japanese carriers

approaching from the north east.

Halsey, believing the northern pincer

was no longer a threat, set off to intercept them.

He had fallen for the Japanese decoy.

The force protecting the U.S. landing

was now severely weakened.

But the commander of this force

now inadvertently compounded the problem.

Unaware that Halsey had taken off,

he sent his battleships to ambush the southern arm

of the Japanese pincer.

It looked like a spectacular success.

But then disaster struck.

The northern arm of the Japanese pincer

had only pretended to retreat.

Under cover of darkness it turned round

and headed back.

It then attacked the hugely depleted force

protecting the U.S. landing.

Only a handful of small escort carriers and destroyers

faced the Japanese super-battleship Yamato

and three other battleships.

It was now the turn of the Americans

to put up a desperate fight.

The Japanese tactic had caught

the U.S. aircraft unprepared.

They were armed with high explosives

for land operations rather than armour piercing bombs

for ships.

Then, just as it seemed the Japanese

must break through,

they suddenly turned tail.

Their commander had worried

he was sailing into a trap.

Meanwhile to the north,

Halsey's headlong rush to intercept

the Japanese decoy force, finally paid off.

On October the 25th, 1944,

all four Japanese carriers were sunk.

The battle of Leyte Gulf

had completely finished off Japan's

once proud navy.

There was now little hope of holding back

the American advance.

For Japan it was time for desperate measures.

The stage was set for a terrible climax

to Macarthur's plan.

By the autumn of 1944

the Allies had isolated the Japanese forces

in the Philippines.

Their naval support had been destroyed.

Japan needed a new tactic if it was to hold back

the American advance.

The Japanese commander in the islands

called for volunteers to join special units.

They were called the Kamikazes or Divine Wind.

And drew on the Japanese military code of honour

that it was better to die than live as a coward.

They were suicide units.

On October 25th, 1944,

the first Kamikaze unit took a final ceremonial drink

before taking off.

Its target was the U.S. fleet.

The escort carrier St Lo was sunk

and two others badly damaged.

Further Kamikaze attacks followed.

Not all were restricted to the air.

The Japanese troops now began strapping mines

to their bodies and deliberately diving

under U.S. tanks.

The American advance through the Philippine island

of Leyte slowed.

It would take two months before the island

was finally secured.

Over 70,000 Japanese troops had lost their lives.

The Americans had lost nearly 16,000 men.

But MacArthur was undaunted.

He now moved on to the main Philippine island

of Luzon.

The defences were, as usual,

softened up by air attacks.

The U.S. troops went ashore virtually unopposed.

But as they advanced, Japanese resistance stiffened.

Tanks, artillery, mortars and flame throwers

were used to destroy a succession

of Japanese strongholds.

Painfully the U.S. forces battled forward.

By January the 23rd, 1945,

they had reached the major airbase of Clark Field,

60 miles from the capital Manila.

A week later they were approaching the capital itself.

Manila was famous for its architectural beauty.

The Japanese regional commander

had taken a decision to preserve its buildings

by not defending it.

But the junior Japanese garrison commander

disobeyed orders and refused to withdraw.

His 20,000 troops pledged to defend Manila

to the death.

There now began a ferocious, month long battle

to seize the Philippine capital.

The U.S. troops fought their way into the city.

At first they too tried to preserve the major buildings.

But as they ran into snipers, machine-gun nests

and hidden artillery,

they were forced to reduce much of the city to rubble.

By the end of February

the Japanese defenders had been driven back

into the 16th-century citadel of Intramuros.

It would take another week of fierce fighting

to flush them out.

Finally, on April 13th, 1945,

U.S. forces mounted an amphibious attack

on Manila Bay's last fortification,

Fort Drum, the 'Concrete Battleship' in the harbour.

Its ventilation shafts were packed with kerosene,

white phosphorous and explosives.

None of the defenders survived.

The battle for Manila had been an horrific affair.

Thousands of Japanese and U.S. soldiers had died.

But the real horror was that some 100,000 civilians

also lost their lives.

Many massacred indiscriminately by the Japanese

during the final days of fighting.

Elsewhere in the Philippines

there were more than 50 U.S. landings

on other smaller islands.

But it would take until the end of the war

before the last pockets of Japanese resistance

were finally flushed out.

MacArthur's conquest of the Philippines

had proved as difficult and costly in lives

as his critics had feared.

It may also have been unnecessary.

By now U.S. submarines had virtually cut off Japan

from its supply lines and the Navy was closing in

on the homeland itself.

The Japanese merchant fleet

was particularly vulnerable.

It was rarely organised into convoys

and anyway there weren't enough escort vessels

to protect them.

By the end of 1944 so many Japanese merchant ships

had been sunk,

the U.S. Navy was having problems

finding new targets.

U.S. submarines now moved in ever-closer

to the shores of the Japanese home islands.

Japan was being starved of fuel,

food and raw materials.

The U.S. Navy's submarines in the Pacific

had succeeded where German U-boats in the Atlantic

had failed in bringing an island nation close to defeat.

But now the U.S. forces faced the daunting prospect

of invading its fanatical enemy's homeland.

By spring 1945 U.S. forces were closing in on Japan

from the south and east.

But to the west in China, Burma and India

a separate campaign had been unfolding.

Japan had invaded China in 1937.

The United States had regarded the Chinese leader,

Chiang Kai-Shek, as a western ally, and sent aid.

Much of it went in through British controlled Burma

along the so-called Burma Road over the mountains

to southern China.

Then in 1942 Japan invaded Burma

and kicked out the British.

The Burma road was shut down.

Six months later Britain launched the first of a series

of attacks to retake Burma and re-open the road.

The first, in late 1942

advanced down the Burmese coast from India.

But the Japanese crushed it.

The second, nine months later,

tried a different approach.

Instead of sending in a conventional force,

small groups of soldiers were infiltrated

deep behind Japanese lines.

They were known as Chindits

and were the brainchild of an unconventional officer,

called Orde Wingate.

Their task was to destroy railway lines

and disrupt Japanese communications.

'Chindits.

That's the name of the guardian statues

which stand up the steps of Burmese pagodas.

A name from legend that's becomes flesh and blood.

Living guardians of Burma's liberty.

But the Japanese soon began to hunt them down.

By mid-April in 1943

over one-third of the Chindit forces had been killed.

The remainder were forced back into India.

The struggle to re-take Burma

was becoming a serious problem.

So in late 1943 the Allies turned to U.S. General,

Joseph Stilwell.

We got run out of Burma,

and it's humiliating as hell.

I think we ought to find out what caused it,

go back and re-take the place.

Stillwell had spent years helping to

overhaul the forces of neighbouring China.

The Allies now decided to put them to the test.

Stilwell's Chinese soldiers reinforced by

an elite U.S. group of jungle fighters

known as Merrill's Marauders

would be sent into Burma.

On October 1943, they crossed the border

and made their way down the east side of the country.

Meanwhile, the British India Army

launched a diversionary strike along the Burmese coast.

Finally, Chindits moved into northern Burma,

deep behind enemy lines

to cut Japanese supply routes.

The Japanese fell for the diversionary tactic

and sent forces to counterattack along the coast.

Two divisions of troops from British India

came under fierce fire.

But the Allied forces stood their ground.

They were re-supplied from the air.

They could now fight back and two weeks later

the Japanese withdrew.

But it was only a temporary reprieve.

The Japanese launched a counter-offensive

of their own.

In March 1944, they invaded India

in an attempt to disrupt Allied preparations

for further attacks.

For two weeks there was intense fighting.

The towns of Kohima and Imphal were besieged.

But there was stiff resistance

and the Japanese were finally forced to withdraw.

Over 65,000 of them were killed.

It was a major blow to their military strength

in the region.

Meanwhile in Burma, Stillwell's Chinese forces

had fought their way down the east side

of the country and by May 1944

had reached the important cross-roads town

of Myitkyina on the old Burma road.

For three months the Japanese held them off.

But in early August 1944, Myitkyina was over-run.

The way was now clear for Stillwell's men

to push further on down the east side of the country.

They were soon joined by a fresh force of

Anglo-Indian troops under British General

William Slim.

This began advancing into the centre of the country.

In early March 1945, Slim's forces took

the important communications centre of Meiktila.

Soon afterwards they seized Mandalay.

With the monsoon season now approaching

Stillwell's forces dug in on the East.

But Slim's forces pushed on towards

the Burmese capital of Rangoon.

They were slowed down by the rain.

But by early May 1945

the Allied troops were 20 miles north of Rangoon.

Allied reinforcements were now sent in from the south

to support them.

Gurkhas parachuted into the Irrawaddy delta.

An Indian division came in by sea.

On May the 3rd 1945,

the Allied forces finally entered Rangoon.

But the city was empty.

The Japanese had pulled out

rather than risk being cut off.

The monsoon was now in full flow.

But the campaign to clear the Japanese out of Burma

was effectively over.

The next stop in the war in South-East Asia

would be Malaya.

But for all the success,

allied losses in the war against the Japanese

had been terrible.

The Americans were desperate to find a way

to bring the war to an end

without having to invade the Japanese homeland.