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President Franklin Delano
Roosevelt is a transformative

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figure in American history.

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He steers the country
out of the Depression

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and away from isolationism.

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In the summer of 1944, Allied
forces are battling across France,

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and heavy bombers are striking
the Japanese home islands,

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but forcing the Axis powers
to submit to FDR's demand,

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unconditional surrender still
requires enormous effort

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from America and its Allies.

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All wars change the world,

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but none of them changed the world
like the Second World War did.

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Japan's on the march;
Germany's on the march.

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No one can imagine the nightmare
they're about to unleash.

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The most destructive
war in human history.

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Suddenly,
the world is turned upside down,

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and all hell is let loose.

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The West is stunned by
the speed of the advance.

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You get the Allies
led by the Big Three:

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Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin.

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Men who are dealing with immensely
complicated questions.

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It's the biggest military
operation of human history.

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The Allies have to come together,
not just militarily,

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but industrial scale.
It's a global perspective.

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They have to fight
in every climate,

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from the Arctic
to the jungles of the Pacific,

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to the deserts of Africa,
and the depths of the ocean.

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But there was no
certainty of victory.

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It was going to be
a horrific bloodbath.

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We see humans
at their absolute worst,

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how they treat other human beings,

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and we see them
at their absolute best,

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willing to give their lives
that others might live.

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World War II was a struggle
in which there could be one victor

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and one vanquished.

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Summer, 1944.

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While American forces
combat Germany in Europe

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and Japan in the Asia Pacific,

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in the United States,
it's an election year.

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Even though his nation is at war,
the Commander In Chief,

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the most powerful man in the world,
must seek the approval of voters.

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Franklin Roosevelt is trying to do
something no American has ever done,

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which is be elected to
a fourth term as President,

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and the country is not ready
to turn Franklin Roosevelt out,

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but they're not thrilled
about rehiring him either.

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Roosevelt wasn't in robust health

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when he first ran
for president in 1932.

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He was a polio victim as a young
man; he's in a wheelchair.

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Those who've known him before
the war always come away a bit

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shocked at how dramatically
he seemed to age.

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The stress of the war
has ground him down,

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so he's got to demonstrate to
the American people that he is still

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firmly in command in this war and
can bring it to a successful close.

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Roosevelt decides
to sail over to Hawaii

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to hold a wartime conference
with his top leaders.

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By being on a warship
at the site where the war started,

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for the Americans,
he has the ability to project

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an image of continued vitality
and strength.

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The primary purpose
of the Pearl Harbor Conference

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is to determine American strategy
against Japan in the Pacific.

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Roosevelt looks at Japan
and sees a country infected

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with a kind of militarism...

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...A desire to conquer
its neighbours,

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a notion of racial superiority
over all the other peoples in Asia.

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To prevent
another Pearl Harbor,

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he's going to have to stick to
the policy he declared in 1943:

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unconditional surrender.

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The United States
controls most of the Pacific,

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including New Guinea and the
recently captured Mariana Islands.

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The Navy wants to push on and
take Formosa, modern-day Taiwan,

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as a prelude to invading Japan.

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General Douglas MacArthur
has other ideas.

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Douglas MacArthur is one of the
most famous American generals

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in history,
also one of the most controversial.

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He's got an ego
that is unbelievable.

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In Hawaii, he shows up late.

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He keeps the President
waiting on purpose.

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And then rolls in,
in this leather jacket,

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decidedly casual,
in complete contrast to the Navy,

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which is all turned out
in their dress whites.

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MacArthur believes
he's more important to the country

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than the President.

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In fact, he believes
he is the country,

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that his will and his desires
in some way embody the will

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and desire of the American people.

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MacArthur insists American forces

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must return to the Philippines for
reasons both strategic and personal.

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Douglas MacArthur
had a long-standing affiliation

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with the Philippines.

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He had a real affinity
for the Filipino people.

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He had lived there before the war,

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and then in 1941 and 1942,

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he was the commander in chief
of that garrison

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when it was attacked by the Japanese
at the very beginning of the war.

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When Japanese forces
overran the Philippines in 1942,

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Roosevelt ordered General MacArthur
to evacuate to Australia.

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He understood MacArthur's
personal value to the morale

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of the American public.

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After months of bitter fighting,

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American and Filipino troops
surrendered to the Japanese.

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In the cruellest conditions,

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they were marched
off the Bataan Peninsula

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and into captivity:
the Bataan Death March.

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During the Japanese occupation,

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hundreds of thousands of Filipinos
are killed.

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Women are forced into sex slavery;

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entire villages are destroyed
in mass executions.

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As he is about to leave, MacArthur
makes this famous pronouncement:

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I shall return.

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It's not "we shall return";
it's "I shall return."

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This is a vow that becomes
really a rallying cry for Americans,

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not only in the Philippines
who are captured,

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but also for Americans back home.

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At Pearl Harbor,
MacArthur presses the President

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to strike Japan through the
Philippines instead of Formosa.

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The problem with the Philippines
is it's not just an island;

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it's an archipelago.

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And there's a very large Japanese
army on these islands,

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hundreds of thousands of troops.

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That could lead to protracted
fighting with the Japanese.

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But MacArthur has some
arguments on his side as well.

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The Philippines are
an American possession.

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They're a commonwealth.

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To simply bypass the Philippines
and go to Taiwan

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will make America look
like a very inconstant partner,

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not to mention abandoning the
survivors of the Bataan Death March.

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Roosevelt leaves the conference
without making a decision.

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A week later, though, he sends
a letter to General MacArthur

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agreeing to his plan.

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On October 20th,

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over a hundred thousand US troops

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backed by the Seventh
and Third US Fleets

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land on Leyte, a central island
in the Philippines

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with a protected gulf.

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MacArthur's campaign
to retake the country has begun.

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He had the Army
Signal Corps of Engineers

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go ahead on the beach ahead of him,

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so by the time he got there,
he gives his radio address.

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People of the Philippines,

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I have returned.

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The fact that MacArthur
is able to return

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to fulfil that promise
is a morale boost.

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But the theatre of MacArthur saying,
"I have returned,"

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does not translate into
straightforward Allied victory.

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The Japanese know
that General MacArthur

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has promised to return,

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and so they anticipated the next

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decisive battle may
be over the Philippines.

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The Philippines sit between
Japan and the Dutch East Indies,

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Japan's primary source of oil.

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So if the Philippines get captured,

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it will cut off the supply lines,

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and the military runs out of oil.

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The Japanese already have
a plan to defend the Philippines:

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Operation Sho-Go, or victory.

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They will send all their warships to
destroy the US fleets in Leyte Gulf,

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then trap General MacArthur's
troops on the island.

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The Japanese position is

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it's absolutely imperative to
carry out this operation now.

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We've got oil, we've got warships.
We better use them or lose them.

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This is almost like one
last banzai charge at sea

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that can have a material effect
on the outcome of the war.

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That's the kind of spirit

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in which the Japanese
are heading into this battle.

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The Allies have promised the
Japanese that the war's gonna go on

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until unconditional surrender
of the Japanese empire.

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But deep down inside, I'm not
sure the Japanese believe that.

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They still think they can
inflict enough casualties

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on the United States
that eventually,

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despite all the talk of
unconditional surrender,

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the Americans
will be willing to talk.

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As MacArthur and his troops
land on Leyte,

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the Japanese fleets move
towards the Philippines.

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At this point in the war,

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the Japanese have suffered
terrible losses in the Pacific,

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from Midway to Guadalcanal,

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but they still have a tremendously
powerful fleet.

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They have these super battleships,
the Musashi and the Yamato.

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These are the biggest battleships
ever built,

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and this has always been
the US Navy's fear.

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If these massive Yamato-class
battleships get loose in amongst

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MacArthur's troop ships,
the invasion support vessels,

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the devastation could be immense.

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Two Japanese fleets,

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a central fleet
and a southern fleet,

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will converge on Leyte Gulf,

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where US naval forces are
protecting MacArthur's landing.

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Success depends on a third fleet

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moving towards the gulf
from the north:

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a decoy fleet.

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There's another aspect.

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There's essentially a carrier task
force that sails towards Leyte Gulf

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from the north.

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It has four aircraft carriers in it.

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It's designed to try to
lure American ships away

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from protecting MacArthur.

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And this is the brilliance
of the Japanese move.

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They decide to use
the carriers as bait.

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The entire Japanese strategy
is to trap MacArthur,

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trap this famous general himself, potentially.

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They're gonna bring these two
heavily armed and armoured pincers

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against the American landing force
while it is still unloading cargo

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and supplies and troops
at Leyte and annihilate it.

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General MacArthur has
landed 130,000 troops on Leyte,

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the first step in the American
liberation of the Philippines.

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But as US troops establish
a secure beachhead,

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the Japanese Navy enacts
Operation Sho-Go.

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The Japanese have to
figure out how to sneak their forces

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close to the landing beaches
without being discovered,

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because if they come under heavy
air attack, they're in real trouble.

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So they plan to lure most of the
American forces out of the fight.

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There are two American fleets
supporting MacArthur's forces:

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the US Third Fleet led
by Admiral Bull Halsey,

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and the Seventh led by
Admiral Thomas Kinkaid.

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As the Japanese cross
the Sibuyan Sea,

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they're spotted by one
of Halsey's scout planes.

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The Americans
attack from the air,

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and their better focus was
on the largest ships they see,

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which was the super battleships
Yamato and Musashi.

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Musashi is an absolute giant.

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She has 18.1-inch naval guns,
the largest naval guns ever mounted.

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The Japanese have even developed
a special anti-aircraft shell

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for them as well,

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which explodes in
this enormous cloud,

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and it's supposed to destroy
any American planes

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that are flying through it.

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But the attacks that are launched
by these American planes

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gradually start whittling away
at her defensive capabilities.

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Torpedo after torpedo
streaks towards the Musashi,

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hitting and exploding
below the waterline.

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17 to 19 torpedoes,

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more than a dozen bombs...

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...finally get her to go down.

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The Musashi sinks
along with a thousand of her crew.

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The Japanese central fleet retreats.

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That night, Kinkaid's fleet,

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including battleships that had
been damaged at Pearl Harbor,

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decimates the Japanese
southern fleet.

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But Halsey again spots Japanese
warships north of Leyte Gulf,

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including four aircraft carriers:

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the Japanese decoy fleet.

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In Halsey's mind,
as a carrier commander himself,

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any enemy carrier fleet represents
the most dire threat to his mission,

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which is protecting
the invasion forces.

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So Halsey takes his entire fleet
and goes charging off after it.

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And so Halsey's
played into the Japanese hands

246
00:15:16,200 --> 00:15:18,120
exactly as they had hoped.

247
00:15:20,000 --> 00:15:23,840
Halsey's taken all
the major firepower north with him,

248
00:15:24,000 --> 00:15:27,680
and that puts MacArthur's invasion
at risk.

249
00:15:32,640 --> 00:15:36,000
Halsey moves north,
but the Japanese central fleet

250
00:15:36,160 --> 00:15:40,440
under Admiral Takeo Kurita
returns to Leyte Gulf.

251
00:15:42,160 --> 00:15:46,200
From the battleship Yamato,
Kurita sees that only a portion

252
00:15:46,360 --> 00:15:49,680
of the Seventh Fleet is left
to protect MacArthur's invasion.

253
00:15:49,840 --> 00:15:54,040
For Kurita,
this is a heaven-sent opportunity.

254
00:15:54,200 --> 00:15:55,800
The dawn breaks,

255
00:15:57,920 --> 00:16:03,360
and now there is an American fleet
sitting directly under his guns.

256
00:16:03,520 --> 00:16:05,280
All he has to do is sink them.

257
00:16:06,480 --> 00:16:09,320
The American vessels
that are still around Leyte

258
00:16:09,480 --> 00:16:13,840
primarily provide support
for the landing forces going ashore.

259
00:16:14,000 --> 00:16:17,200
So there's only a token force
of light escort carriers

260
00:16:17,360 --> 00:16:18,600
and destroyers.

261
00:16:20,080 --> 00:16:24,040
Escort carriers are small,
extremely vulnerable.

262
00:16:24,200 --> 00:16:27,280
They can carry
25 to 30 aircraft max.

263
00:16:27,440 --> 00:16:31,320
They're designed for ground
support for the troops ashore.

264
00:16:31,480 --> 00:16:32,600
That's their role.

265
00:16:32,760 --> 00:16:35,600
It is not to get themselves
into stand-up fights

266
00:16:35,760 --> 00:16:38,120
against large enemy warships.

267
00:16:39,760 --> 00:16:41,680
The escort carriers
launch their planes

268
00:16:41,840 --> 00:16:43,640
against Kurita's much larger fleet.

269
00:16:45,080 --> 00:16:47,760
These escort carriers, mostly what
they do is turn around and run,

270
00:16:47,920 --> 00:16:51,000
because they are not designed
to fight a threat like this.

271
00:16:53,000 --> 00:16:55,800
The only force that
can match the Japanese,

272
00:16:55,960 --> 00:16:57,960
Admiral Halsey's Third Fleet,

273
00:16:58,120 --> 00:17:00,520
remains a hundred miles
to the north.

274
00:17:00,680 --> 00:17:03,760
His commander in chief,
Admiral Chester Nimitz,

275
00:17:03,920 --> 00:17:05,840
requests his location.

276
00:17:06,000 --> 00:17:08,960
Halsey receives
a message from Nimitz:

277
00:17:09,120 --> 00:17:14,480
"Where, repeat, where, is Task
Force 34? The world wonders."

278
00:17:14,640 --> 00:17:17,080
Traditionally, naval messages
begin and end

279
00:17:17,240 --> 00:17:20,920
with sort of a nonsense phrase
to confuse code breakers.

280
00:17:21,080 --> 00:17:23,600
The nonsense phrase they used
in this message, though, is

281
00:17:23,760 --> 00:17:25,480
"The world wonders."

282
00:17:25,640 --> 00:17:28,600
And "The world wonders"
line should have been removed

283
00:17:28,760 --> 00:17:31,240
by his cipher officer, but wasn't.

284
00:17:31,400 --> 00:17:34,560
I've always wondered
if Admiral Nimitz was also sticking

285
00:17:34,720 --> 00:17:37,600
a little barb in Halsey as to,
"What are you doing up there?"

286
00:17:38,600 --> 00:17:42,480
And the result is that
Halsey just goes into conniptions,

287
00:17:42,640 --> 00:17:46,280
throws his cap on the floor,
swearing up and down.

288
00:17:46,440 --> 00:17:51,200
His chief of staff has to tell him
to get a grip on this situation.

289
00:17:52,800 --> 00:17:54,880
Halsey realises the danger.

290
00:17:55,040 --> 00:17:59,880
He sends his fastest battleships
back to Leyte Gulf, then continues

291
00:18:00,040 --> 00:18:02,120
after the Japanese carriers.

292
00:18:02,280 --> 00:18:04,280
Now,
what the Americans don't know

293
00:18:04,440 --> 00:18:06,520
is that the Japanese carriers
lying to Halsey's north

294
00:18:06,680 --> 00:18:08,120
don't have many planes on them.

295
00:18:08,280 --> 00:18:10,480
In fact, most of the planes
have been offloaded already

296
00:18:10,640 --> 00:18:14,240
and flown to the island of Luzon
for what is about to come,

297
00:18:14,400 --> 00:18:16,920
because a new and terrifying weapon
emerges from this battle...

298
00:18:20,440 --> 00:18:21,760
...the kamikaze.

299
00:18:38,920 --> 00:18:41,440
At an airfield on Luzon,

300
00:18:41,600 --> 00:18:44,880
Japanese pilots are assembled
for a unique mission.

301
00:18:46,720 --> 00:18:48,800
Japanese pilots,
at the beginning of the war,

302
00:18:48,960 --> 00:18:52,760
were the cream of the crop,
elite, hand-selected,

303
00:18:52,920 --> 00:18:54,640
and carefully trained.

304
00:18:54,800 --> 00:18:56,200
But by this point in the war,

305
00:18:56,360 --> 00:19:01,160
Japan just doesn't have the time or
the resources to train its pilots.

306
00:19:02,880 --> 00:19:05,520
The Japanese
military leadership

307
00:19:05,680 --> 00:19:10,400
has to make a tough decision
to make a cost-efficient way

308
00:19:10,560 --> 00:19:13,840
of destroying American enemy ships.

309
00:19:15,240 --> 00:19:20,240
And one way to do it is to
undertake one-way flight

310
00:19:21,640 --> 00:19:25,760
that will end with crashing a plane.

311
00:19:27,640 --> 00:19:30,240
This new unit of 24 pilots,

312
00:19:30,400 --> 00:19:33,880
led by 23-year-old
Lieutenant Yukio Seki,

313
00:19:34,040 --> 00:19:38,520
is Japan's first organised
special attack unit.

314
00:19:38,680 --> 00:19:41,320
They will soon become
known as kamikaze:

315
00:19:42,400 --> 00:19:44,000
the divine wind.

316
00:19:46,080 --> 00:19:48,200
So the kamikaze
in some ways represents

317
00:19:48,360 --> 00:19:52,720
a perversion of traditional Japanese
bushido doctrine, the samurai code,

318
00:19:52,880 --> 00:19:57,800
this idea of sacrificing one's life
for Japan and for the emperor.

319
00:19:58,800 --> 00:20:01,200
It's hard to generalise
about their motivations.

320
00:20:01,360 --> 00:20:04,640
You find some of them saying,
"I'm doing this for the emperor."

321
00:20:05,600 --> 00:20:07,760
Other pilots talk
about their village,

322
00:20:07,920 --> 00:20:11,160
they talk about families, and
they say, "I'm doing this for you."

323
00:20:12,880 --> 00:20:16,120
For the Japanese, what they're doing
was not regarded as suicide.

324
00:20:16,280 --> 00:20:17,920
It's a death in combat.

325
00:20:19,040 --> 00:20:21,120
So it's this sense
that these young men

326
00:20:21,280 --> 00:20:22,880
are becoming something
really special,

327
00:20:23,040 --> 00:20:26,680
that almost to give this level of
self-sacrifice makes you a samurai.

328
00:20:32,600 --> 00:20:34,000
In Leyte Gulf,

329
00:20:34,160 --> 00:20:36,840
the American escort carriers
of the US Seventh Fleet

330
00:20:37,000 --> 00:20:40,160
confront a new and lethal threat
from the air.

331
00:20:50,920 --> 00:20:54,680
Stopping a kamikaze plane
is almost impossible.

332
00:20:57,480 --> 00:20:59,880
The American carriers
can only do two things.

333
00:21:00,040 --> 00:21:02,920
One is manoeuvre away,

334
00:21:04,040 --> 00:21:07,520
and the second is put up
a huge curtain of flak.

335
00:21:09,240 --> 00:21:13,080
But often-times the kamikazes
can break through that flak curtain.

336
00:21:14,600 --> 00:21:17,320
You could fire every
anti-aircraft gun in the world,

337
00:21:17,480 --> 00:21:21,720
but unless you get something like
a direct hit that kills the pilot,

338
00:21:23,040 --> 00:21:24,680
that plane's gonna hit your ship.

339
00:21:28,320 --> 00:21:31,280
There's a psychological
effect as well.

340
00:21:31,440 --> 00:21:34,480
Japanese kamikaze are giving up
their lives in the most violent ways

341
00:21:34,640 --> 00:21:36,640
possible simply to kill Americans.

342
00:21:36,800 --> 00:21:40,240
This is something that is difficult
for Americans to understand,

343
00:21:40,400 --> 00:21:44,280
that this is a human being
who has chosen to do this to you.

344
00:21:44,440 --> 00:21:46,400
How do you fight
against an enemy like this?

345
00:21:47,600 --> 00:21:50,480
Lieutenant Seki crashes
his plane into the flight deck

346
00:21:50,640 --> 00:21:54,920
of an American escort carrier,
the USS St. Lo.

347
00:21:55,080 --> 00:21:58,400
It's the first ship to be sunk
by kamikaze attack.

348
00:22:00,120 --> 00:22:03,320
Six other vessels are struck
and barely stay afloat.

349
00:22:06,600 --> 00:22:10,960
But Admiral Kurita's central fleet
also faces an aerial attack.

350
00:22:11,120 --> 00:22:13,880
Despite the pounding
the Americans have taken,

351
00:22:14,040 --> 00:22:17,400
it is actually Kurita who is under
a major disadvantage here.

352
00:22:17,560 --> 00:22:20,200
He's up against 350 American planes,

353
00:22:21,920 --> 00:22:24,520
and because Kurita
is being constantly attacked

354
00:22:24,680 --> 00:22:29,320
by American aircraft,
he becomes increasingly paranoid

355
00:22:29,480 --> 00:22:32,160
that he is now surrounded
by American carriers.

356
00:22:33,440 --> 00:22:35,760
So after these
moments of tension where Kurita

357
00:22:35,920 --> 00:22:38,960
could have potentially wreaked havoc
on the American fleet in Leyte Gulf,

358
00:22:39,120 --> 00:22:41,080
he actually withdraws.

359
00:22:41,240 --> 00:22:45,960
Kurita retreats ahead of
Admiral Halsey's returning warships,

360
00:22:46,120 --> 00:22:49,440
but the Japanese have lost
a third of their navy.

361
00:22:50,440 --> 00:22:52,840
It's the largest naval
battle in human history.

362
00:22:53,000 --> 00:22:55,680
More than 200,000
combatants involved,

363
00:22:55,840 --> 00:22:58,840
and the American victory really
knocks the Japanese Imperial Navy

364
00:22:59,000 --> 00:23:00,760
out of the war in the Pacific.

365
00:23:00,920 --> 00:23:02,040
But without a doubt,

366
00:23:02,200 --> 00:23:03,920
the Japanese are
not gonna surrender.

367
00:23:04,080 --> 00:23:06,120
This perversion of the bushido code,

368
00:23:06,280 --> 00:23:08,880
it has manifested itself on islands
throughout this war,

369
00:23:09,040 --> 00:23:11,720
and now it's manifesting
itself in the sea and in the air.

370
00:23:11,880 --> 00:23:15,600
So it's starting to get in the mind
of the Allies about how costly

371
00:23:15,760 --> 00:23:19,200
it will be to achieve that
unconditional surrender of Japan.

372
00:23:21,360 --> 00:23:24,640
Over two months of fighting
in dense jungle terrain

373
00:23:24,800 --> 00:23:26,680
against fierce Japanese resistance,

374
00:23:26,840 --> 00:23:30,440
General MacArthur's troops
retake Leyte.

375
00:23:31,640 --> 00:23:33,760
Luzon is next.

376
00:23:33,920 --> 00:23:37,080
Luzon in particular is
gonna be a very tough nut to crack,

377
00:23:37,240 --> 00:23:40,800
because not only is it a large
island with mountain chains

378
00:23:40,960 --> 00:23:42,880
the Japanese can fortify,

379
00:23:43,040 --> 00:23:45,320
but there's also this enormous
capital of Manila

380
00:23:45,480 --> 00:23:48,320
with about a million people
sitting in the middle of the island.

381
00:23:48,480 --> 00:23:51,840
And if the American forces get
involved in urban combat there,

382
00:23:52,000 --> 00:23:54,960
the casualties are likely
to be very, very heavy.

383
00:23:58,560 --> 00:24:01,120
12 days after
the victory at Leyte Gulf,

384
00:24:01,280 --> 00:24:03,600
it's election night
in the United States.

385
00:24:03,760 --> 00:24:06,240
At Hyde Park,
a victorious President greets

386
00:24:06,400 --> 00:24:08,080
townspeople on election night.

387
00:24:08,240 --> 00:24:11,880
Franklin D Roosevelt
wins an unprecedented fourth term.

388
00:24:12,920 --> 00:24:16,360
The unconditional surrender
of Japan and Germany

389
00:24:16,520 --> 00:24:18,080
remains his highest priority.

390
00:24:26,600 --> 00:24:28,920
On January 9th, 1945,

391
00:24:29,080 --> 00:24:32,080
MacArthur's troops land
on Luzon in the Philippines.

392
00:24:32,240 --> 00:24:35,240
Quickly, special operation forces
trek inland

393
00:24:35,400 --> 00:24:37,720
to liberate Japanese POW camps.

394
00:24:43,320 --> 00:24:46,240
At the end of two years
of captivity in Japanese hands,

395
00:24:46,400 --> 00:24:48,200
these men are in terrible condition.

396
00:24:49,120 --> 00:24:50,520
A third of them have already died.

397
00:24:51,560 --> 00:24:56,920
There are also a number of American
civilian detainees that are in camps

398
00:24:57,080 --> 00:24:58,720
that are near Manila,

399
00:24:59,720 --> 00:25:03,360
so there's a ticking clock here
as far as MacArthur is concerned.

400
00:25:03,520 --> 00:25:07,600
He needs to liberate these
camps as rapidly as possible.

401
00:25:10,440 --> 00:25:11,800
In early February,

402
00:25:11,960 --> 00:25:14,280
American forces surround
the capital of Manila.

403
00:25:14,440 --> 00:25:16,680
Most Japanese troops
have retreated north

404
00:25:16,840 --> 00:25:19,280
to create an extensive
defensive line,

405
00:25:19,440 --> 00:25:23,480
but one group stays with orders
to fight to the last man.

406
00:25:26,800 --> 00:25:29,960
The real problem of urban
warfare in the modern era

407
00:25:30,120 --> 00:25:33,480
is that the city
is a gigantic sponge.

408
00:25:33,640 --> 00:25:35,880
You can have a million-man army,

409
00:25:37,160 --> 00:25:39,640
and suddenly it's split up
all over the place.

410
00:25:40,680 --> 00:25:42,920
So the Americans
find themselves having to fight

411
00:25:43,080 --> 00:25:45,080
street by street,
building by building,

412
00:25:46,040 --> 00:25:50,160
and it really turns Manila
into Stalingrad of the Pacific.

413
00:25:57,520 --> 00:26:01,240
MacArthur's men are supported
by Filipino resistance fighters

414
00:26:01,400 --> 00:26:04,400
who provide intel,
disrupt Japanese supply lines,

415
00:26:04,560 --> 00:26:07,480
and help secure key routes
into the city.

416
00:26:07,640 --> 00:26:11,760
There have been
active groups of Filipino guerrillas

417
00:26:11,920 --> 00:26:14,200
in existence since 1942,

418
00:26:16,200 --> 00:26:19,280
and those guerrillas have been
carrying on a very successful

419
00:26:19,440 --> 00:26:22,480
campaign of resistance
against the Japanese occupiers.

420
00:26:27,000 --> 00:26:30,480
The Japanese response,
like the Nazis in Europe,

421
00:26:30,640 --> 00:26:35,480
was to use guerrilla activity
as an excuse to murder civilians.

422
00:26:38,400 --> 00:26:40,760
So whether
it's a school, a hospital, homes,

423
00:26:40,920 --> 00:26:43,480
Filipino people are being bayoneted,

424
00:26:43,640 --> 00:26:47,520
they're being shot, beheaded,
sometimes burned alive,

425
00:26:47,680 --> 00:26:49,160
corpses left to rot.

426
00:26:50,240 --> 00:26:52,720
There's a sense of scorched earth,

427
00:26:52,880 --> 00:26:56,000
a sense that we will leave
nothing for the Americans.

428
00:26:56,960 --> 00:26:59,000
The Japanese
will ultimately take the lives

429
00:26:59,160 --> 00:27:01,480
of a hundred thousand
Filipino civilians.

430
00:27:02,400 --> 00:27:03,760
The Battle of Manila,
in a lot of ways,

431
00:27:03,920 --> 00:27:05,400
is a harbinger of what's to come.

432
00:27:07,960 --> 00:27:11,320
Roosevelt
and his top military advisors

433
00:27:11,480 --> 00:27:15,160
are aware of the increasingly
dire implications

434
00:27:15,320 --> 00:27:17,840
of a longer war with Japan,

435
00:27:18,000 --> 00:27:22,080
but the American people are focused
on what's going on in Europe,

436
00:27:22,240 --> 00:27:25,640
and they think the war
is now winding down.

437
00:27:26,680 --> 00:27:29,280
President Roosevelt's
just been re-elected.

438
00:27:29,440 --> 00:27:31,040
He's looking at the horrors,

439
00:27:31,200 --> 00:27:33,440
the brutality of the fighting
in the Philippines,

440
00:27:33,600 --> 00:27:35,480
and he's been peppered
with letters from the mums

441
00:27:35,640 --> 00:27:38,120
of America saying, "Where is my boy?
What is he doing?

442
00:27:38,280 --> 00:27:40,520
What God-forsaken island
is he fighting on this time?"

443
00:27:40,680 --> 00:27:44,160
He needs to find a way
to strengthen the will and resolve

444
00:27:44,320 --> 00:27:45,680
of the American people,

445
00:27:45,840 --> 00:27:47,960
because he knows things
are going to get a lot worse

446
00:27:48,120 --> 00:27:49,200
before they get better.

447
00:27:56,080 --> 00:27:59,040
Roosevelt meets with British
Prime Minister Winston Churchill

448
00:27:59,200 --> 00:28:02,800
in Malta to discuss the strategy
for ending the war in Europe

449
00:28:02,960 --> 00:28:04,480
and in the Pacific.

450
00:28:05,440 --> 00:28:07,640
The question is,
if we have an enemy willing

451
00:28:07,800 --> 00:28:10,680
to sacrifice young men
in kamikaze attacks,

452
00:28:10,840 --> 00:28:14,240
an enemy that seems willing
to fight on beyond reason,

453
00:28:14,400 --> 00:28:16,560
how are we going to
bring this to an end?

454
00:28:16,720 --> 00:28:20,880
Roosevelt's advisors are arguing
that the Japanese will not give up.

455
00:28:21,040 --> 00:28:22,520
This war will not end

456
00:28:22,680 --> 00:28:26,800
until there is actually an invasion
of the home islands.

457
00:28:28,720 --> 00:28:32,160
Churchill and Roosevelt
are in Malta on the way to Yalta

458
00:28:32,320 --> 00:28:33,880
early in 1945,

459
00:28:34,040 --> 00:28:37,560
and this is where Operation Downfall
first crystallises:

460
00:28:37,720 --> 00:28:39,320
the invasion of Japan.

461
00:28:41,680 --> 00:28:44,280
The sense is that after the war
in Europe would be over,

462
00:28:44,440 --> 00:28:46,200
and all of the resources,
all the men,

463
00:28:46,360 --> 00:28:49,560
all the equipment that they could
muster would be transferred into

464
00:28:49,720 --> 00:28:53,000
the Far East theatre
for a massive, massive operation,

465
00:28:53,160 --> 00:28:55,800
the kind of which
history has never seen before.

466
00:28:55,960 --> 00:28:57,160
This would occur

467
00:28:57,320 --> 00:28:59,560
after a protracted strategic
bombing campaign,

468
00:28:59,720 --> 00:29:04,560
which as of early 1945 is beginning
to take more and more effect.

469
00:29:05,760 --> 00:29:08,840
At first, the Marines
are ordered to take Iwo Jima.

470
00:29:12,600 --> 00:29:15,160
Japan has
an airfield on Iwo Jima,

471
00:29:15,320 --> 00:29:19,640
and as the B-29s start operating
out of Saipan and the Marianas,

472
00:29:19,800 --> 00:29:24,400
they're using it to spot the B-29
formations on their radar scopes.

473
00:29:26,280 --> 00:29:28,840
Iwo Jima becomes
a logical place to, first of all,

474
00:29:29,000 --> 00:29:31,400
remove something
from the Japanese control.

475
00:29:31,560 --> 00:29:34,520
Second, don't allow them
to have any Japanese fighter

476
00:29:34,680 --> 00:29:36,840
on there or early warning systems.

477
00:29:37,000 --> 00:29:40,760
And third, for all those B-29s
that are making those long flights

478
00:29:40,920 --> 00:29:44,760
over 1,200 miles, it creates a place
to land if they have engine trouble,

479
00:29:44,920 --> 00:29:46,880
if they run into any difficulties.

480
00:29:47,040 --> 00:29:48,360
So Iwo Jima has gotta go.

481
00:29:50,080 --> 00:29:52,400
That needs to become
an American airfield.

482
00:29:53,720 --> 00:29:56,640
American intelligence tells
the Marines that there are about

483
00:29:56,800 --> 00:29:58,320
13,000 Japanese defenders,

484
00:30:00,160 --> 00:30:02,640
but there are actually 23,000,

485
00:30:03,800 --> 00:30:06,920
nearly double what the intelligence
estimates listed.

486
00:30:08,680 --> 00:30:11,000
As a result,
you have an American invasion force

487
00:30:11,160 --> 00:30:15,280
that's going to be meeting a much
tougher defence than it expected.

488
00:30:34,320 --> 00:30:36,760
Japanese troops on Iwo Jima

489
00:30:36,920 --> 00:30:41,080
have been preparing for an American
attack for over three months.

490
00:30:42,120 --> 00:30:45,120
The Japanese strategy
is to make the battle

491
00:30:45,280 --> 00:30:47,280
last as long as possible.

492
00:30:47,440 --> 00:30:49,720
Each day that that battle lasts

493
00:30:49,880 --> 00:30:51,680
is a day where the people
at the home islands

494
00:30:51,840 --> 00:30:54,240
are spared of an American
invasion.

495
00:30:55,240 --> 00:30:58,560
So the commander of the Japanese
on Iwo Jima, Kuribayashi,

496
00:30:58,720 --> 00:31:02,440
says we're going to prepare these
defensive fortifications and wait,

497
00:31:02,600 --> 00:31:05,560
draw the Americans in,
and then attack them.

498
00:31:07,720 --> 00:31:11,520
The Japanese aren't on Iwo
Jima; they're actually in Iwo Jima.

499
00:31:13,800 --> 00:31:16,280
They have miles and miles
of tunnels that they have dug

500
00:31:16,440 --> 00:31:20,120
out of this soft volcanic terrain
on the island.

501
00:31:21,240 --> 00:31:25,040
And they've also fortified the most
prominent landmark on Iwo Jima,

502
00:31:25,200 --> 00:31:27,040
which is Mount Suribachi.

503
00:31:27,880 --> 00:31:30,640
Looming over the
Marines' landing beaches,

504
00:31:30,800 --> 00:31:33,320
Mount Suribachi provides
the Japanese

505
00:31:33,480 --> 00:31:35,880
with a perfect defensive position.

506
00:31:36,040 --> 00:31:39,320
It's gonna be this
defensive hive that the Americans

507
00:31:39,480 --> 00:31:42,320
will have to reduce cave by cave,

508
00:31:42,480 --> 00:31:45,040
bunker by bunker,
one thing at a time.

509
00:31:46,360 --> 00:31:50,120
On Iwo Jima, Japanese
soldiers are issued orders to kill

510
00:31:50,280 --> 00:31:51,840
10 Americans before they die.

511
00:31:54,520 --> 00:31:57,480
We see very few Japanese
who attempt to surrender.

512
00:31:57,640 --> 00:32:00,840
There's a view that this is a great
dishonour, not only to oneself

513
00:32:01,000 --> 00:32:03,680
and one's family,
but to the emperor as well.

514
00:32:05,960 --> 00:32:08,480
If you look at
the letters that Kuribayashi writes

515
00:32:08,640 --> 00:32:10,880
home to his family,
he's clear right from the beginning

516
00:32:11,040 --> 00:32:12,600
that no one on the Japanese side

517
00:32:12,760 --> 00:32:14,960
is coming home
from the Iwo Jima campaign.

518
00:32:15,120 --> 00:32:18,360
He starts to issue these orders
very clearly to his men saying,

519
00:32:18,520 --> 00:32:20,840
"Fight to the death,"
but he doesn't want a banzai charge.

520
00:32:21,000 --> 00:32:24,080
He doesn't want pointless
suicidal acts.

521
00:32:24,240 --> 00:32:27,560
He wants to show the Americans
the cost to them

522
00:32:27,720 --> 00:32:29,880
of going as far as the Japanese
home islands.

523
00:32:38,880 --> 00:32:41,920
The Navy bombarded
Japanese positions for three days.

524
00:32:45,280 --> 00:32:49,640
Now the Marines plan to land
60,000 men across Iwo Jima's

525
00:32:49,800 --> 00:32:53,760
southern beaches, push north,
and take the island.

526
00:32:55,880 --> 00:32:58,480
So at 8:59
on the 19th of February,

527
00:32:58,640 --> 00:33:00,840
the first 10,000 men land,

528
00:33:01,000 --> 00:33:02,960
and it's quiet.

529
00:33:05,680 --> 00:33:07,520
But then at 10 o'clock
in the morning...

530
00:33:10,680 --> 00:33:12,960
...every Japanese soldier
with a mortar, machine gun,

531
00:33:13,120 --> 00:33:16,080
or a piece of artillery will now
start to shell the landing beach.

532
00:33:26,200 --> 00:33:28,520
In the face of withering fire,

533
00:33:28,680 --> 00:33:31,840
the Marines struggle up dunes
of 15 feet or more.

534
00:33:34,240 --> 00:33:38,840
Iwo Jima is not sand;
it's volcanic ash.

535
00:33:39,000 --> 00:33:41,400
Your feet just sink
up to your knees.

536
00:33:41,560 --> 00:33:43,640
It's like walking in coffee grounds.

537
00:33:47,040 --> 00:33:49,760
It's incredibly deadly
to try and move forward.

538
00:33:52,200 --> 00:33:55,280
Bulldozers are called in
to clear a path through the dunes,

539
00:33:55,440 --> 00:33:58,040
allowing the Marines
to continue their advance.

540
00:34:00,520 --> 00:34:02,880
As the Marines finally
make their way off the beaches,

541
00:34:03,040 --> 00:34:04,760
they're getting attacked
from everywhere,

542
00:34:04,920 --> 00:34:06,280
people coming out of tunnels,

543
00:34:06,440 --> 00:34:08,080
of mortars coming off
of Mount Suribachi,

544
00:34:08,240 --> 00:34:10,080
of hidden artillery emplacements
all over the place

545
00:34:10,240 --> 00:34:13,000
with snipers' firing positions
they can't even see.

546
00:34:13,160 --> 00:34:17,760
Individual soldier has to
somehow get up close with a grenade

547
00:34:17,920 --> 00:34:20,480
that he can put through
the firing slit

548
00:34:20,640 --> 00:34:22,040
and kill the crew that's in there.

549
00:34:24,600 --> 00:34:27,560
Ultimately, one of the
greatest weapons that the Marines

550
00:34:27,720 --> 00:34:30,040
have is what they'd call
Zippo tanks,

551
00:34:30,200 --> 00:34:33,240
which are tank-sized flamethrowers

552
00:34:34,240 --> 00:34:36,320
that can shoot long distances,

553
00:34:38,200 --> 00:34:41,320
and that becomes the weapon
of choice for Marines on Iwo Jima.

554
00:34:49,480 --> 00:34:53,240
By the end of the first day,
the Marines have secured an airfield

555
00:34:53,400 --> 00:34:56,160
and prepared to attack
Mount Suribachi.

556
00:34:57,800 --> 00:35:01,560
On Iwo Jima,
two strategies come into conflict.

557
00:35:01,720 --> 00:35:03,920
One says, no surrender,
that's the Japanese,

558
00:35:04,080 --> 00:35:07,560
and then unconditional surrender,
and that's the American position.

559
00:35:07,720 --> 00:35:12,280
And on Suribachi, the Americans
make a determined statement

560
00:35:12,440 --> 00:35:14,920
that it's going to be
unconditional surrender.

561
00:35:15,080 --> 00:35:18,560
There is no position on planet Earth
held by the Japanese army

562
00:35:18,720 --> 00:35:21,320
that American troops cannot take.

563
00:35:28,760 --> 00:35:31,360
After securing the beaches,

564
00:35:31,520 --> 00:35:35,160
US Marines on Iwo Jima
attack Mount Suribachi.

565
00:35:36,800 --> 00:35:39,920
The force that goes up the
hill fights off Japanese resistance,

566
00:35:42,600 --> 00:35:44,800
and upon reaching the summit,

567
00:35:44,960 --> 00:35:48,800
they find a water pipe that had been
associated with a Japanese cistern.

568
00:35:48,960 --> 00:35:52,400
They attach a small American
flag to that water pipe,

569
00:35:52,560 --> 00:35:54,320
and then they raise that flag.

570
00:35:58,240 --> 00:36:00,160
But they
realise the flag's too small.

571
00:36:00,320 --> 00:36:01,360
We need a bigger flag.

572
00:36:03,640 --> 00:36:05,920
So what they're gonna do is
they're gonna take a ship's flag

573
00:36:06,080 --> 00:36:09,120
and they're gonna send it up there.
And about noon, it gets up there.

574
00:36:09,280 --> 00:36:12,720
Six Marines plant
the second American flag.

575
00:36:12,880 --> 00:36:17,560
Joe Rosenthal, an Associated Press
photographer, captures the moment.

576
00:36:19,680 --> 00:36:22,720
All the ships offshore
begin blowing their horns.

577
00:36:25,680 --> 00:36:27,640
Everyone on the island can see it.

578
00:36:34,800 --> 00:36:36,880
It's a snapshot in time.

579
00:36:37,040 --> 00:36:38,960
The composition's nearly perfect,

580
00:36:39,120 --> 00:36:41,360
although he basically shoots it
off his hip without even using

581
00:36:41,520 --> 00:36:43,400
his rangefinder as he did it.

582
00:36:43,560 --> 00:36:45,320
You can't see anybody's face.

583
00:36:45,480 --> 00:36:48,400
And so really it becomes
everybody's picture.

584
00:36:50,360 --> 00:36:54,200
Two days later, Rosenthal's
photograph is on the front page

585
00:36:54,360 --> 00:36:56,840
of newspapers across America.

586
00:36:57,000 --> 00:37:00,520
President Roosevelt immediately
understands how inspirational

587
00:37:00,680 --> 00:37:02,360
this single image is.

588
00:37:03,400 --> 00:37:05,760
FDR was always
a frustrated journalist.

589
00:37:05,920 --> 00:37:08,240
He had been the editor
of the Harvard newspaper.

590
00:37:08,400 --> 00:37:11,400
He understood visual imagery.

591
00:37:13,000 --> 00:37:17,160
It's American determination
embodied in a single photograph.

592
00:37:18,240 --> 00:37:20,280
They're all working together,

593
00:37:20,440 --> 00:37:22,840
and so it tells a national story.

594
00:37:23,000 --> 00:37:26,160
It's not just those guys on top
of the hill that raised the flag.

595
00:37:26,320 --> 00:37:28,800
It's a nation that put that flag
on top of the hill.

596
00:37:30,720 --> 00:37:35,080
But it's striking that
the flag isn't fully planted.

597
00:37:35,240 --> 00:37:38,600
It's as if the struggle
is still unfolding,

598
00:37:38,760 --> 00:37:42,520
and that fit FDR's mood
at that point.

599
00:37:42,680 --> 00:37:44,080
This isn't over.

600
00:37:44,240 --> 00:37:47,160
We're getting closer,
but we haven't gotten there yet.

601
00:37:47,320 --> 00:37:51,400
To FDR, these six Marines
are the perfect symbol

602
00:37:51,560 --> 00:37:53,760
of America's wartime effort.

603
00:37:53,920 --> 00:37:55,920
He calls the Marines and says,
"Find me these guys.

604
00:37:56,080 --> 00:37:57,760
I want to bring them
to the Oval Office.

605
00:37:57,920 --> 00:37:59,840
I want to send them
on a war bond drive."

606
00:38:00,000 --> 00:38:03,040
So the Marine Corps
sends somebody to the island,

607
00:38:03,200 --> 00:38:06,400
but they find that three men who
were in the photo were dead already.

608
00:38:06,560 --> 00:38:08,840
They died within days
of the photograph being taken.

609
00:38:11,520 --> 00:38:15,840
US Marines suffered
26,000 dead, wounded, and missing.

610
00:38:17,320 --> 00:38:21,640
Almost every Japanese
soldier on Iwo Jima is killed.

611
00:38:24,080 --> 00:38:25,680
Kuribayashi himself,
who never believed

612
00:38:25,840 --> 00:38:27,640
he was getting off Iwo Jima alive,

613
00:38:27,800 --> 00:38:30,040
he retreats,
and he takes his own life.

614
00:38:32,240 --> 00:38:35,200
It's the only battle in the
Pacific where the Americans actually

615
00:38:35,360 --> 00:38:37,680
take more casualties
than the Japanese take.

616
00:38:37,840 --> 00:38:39,280
So for American military planners,

617
00:38:39,440 --> 00:38:41,000
the lesson of Iwo Jima
seems pretty clear,

618
00:38:41,160 --> 00:38:43,120
that if you're going to launch
Operation Downfall,

619
00:38:43,280 --> 00:38:45,640
if you're actually going to invade
the Japanese home islands,

620
00:38:45,800 --> 00:38:49,160
the cost is going to be immense,
because at this point in the war,

621
00:38:49,320 --> 00:38:53,080
most Americans have concluded that
Japan is never going to surrender.

622
00:38:55,640 --> 00:39:00,280
After victory on Iwo Jima, the
Marine Corps sends three surviving

623
00:39:00,440 --> 00:39:02,240
flag raisers back to Washington,

624
00:39:02,400 --> 00:39:04,880
but they will not meet
their president.

625
00:39:09,160 --> 00:39:10,800
Ladies and gentlemen,

626
00:39:10,960 --> 00:39:13,440
the tragic news of the President's
death came to Washington today

627
00:39:13,600 --> 00:39:15,960
as a complete shock,
except to a very few people

628
00:39:16,120 --> 00:39:17,720
who knew of his condition.

629
00:39:21,000 --> 00:39:25,920
Franklin Roosevelt
had loomed so large for so long.

630
00:39:26,080 --> 00:39:28,280
An entire generation of Americans

631
00:39:28,440 --> 00:39:31,000
really only knew him
as their president.

632
00:39:31,880 --> 00:39:34,120
Supposedly during
the funeral procession,

633
00:39:34,280 --> 00:39:37,600
a man is so overcome by his emotions

634
00:39:37,760 --> 00:39:40,880
and another man says,
"Did you know the President?"

635
00:39:41,760 --> 00:39:45,440
And he says, "No, but he knew me,"

636
00:39:45,600 --> 00:39:48,240
and that's how people felt
about Franklin Roosevelt.

637
00:39:49,360 --> 00:39:52,480
Roosevelt had been
a very, very active President,

638
00:39:52,640 --> 00:39:57,480
a very, very powerful personality,
the kind of caretaker to the people,

639
00:39:57,640 --> 00:40:01,280
and he knew you can't fight
an endless war if you want

640
00:40:01,440 --> 00:40:03,280
to maintain your democratic ideals.

641
00:40:04,520 --> 00:40:08,000
He also knew how difficult
unconditional surrender

642
00:40:08,160 --> 00:40:10,720
can be to put into actual practice.

643
00:40:12,520 --> 00:40:14,840
During years
of fear and uncertainty,

644
00:40:15,000 --> 00:40:17,080
Roosevelt was uniquely able to lead

645
00:40:17,240 --> 00:40:19,840
America's colossal
fight against fascism.

646
00:40:20,000 --> 00:40:23,720
Now, this job will fall to his
vice president, Harry Truman.

647
00:40:27,640 --> 00:40:31,200
Mrs Roosevelt summons
Truman to the White House.

648
00:40:31,360 --> 00:40:34,880
He says, "Is there anything
we can do for you?"

649
00:40:35,040 --> 00:40:39,200
And Mrs Roosevelt says, "No, Harry,
is there anything we can do for you?

650
00:40:39,360 --> 00:40:42,280
For you are the one in trouble now."

651
00:40:44,840 --> 00:40:49,000
On assuming the presidency,
Truman told reporters,

652
00:40:49,160 --> 00:40:50,720
"I felt like the moon, the stars,

653
00:40:50,880 --> 00:40:53,720
and all the planets
had fallen on me."

654
00:40:53,880 --> 00:40:56,960
Harry Truman of Missouri
is now responsible

655
00:40:57,120 --> 00:41:01,720
for the successful conclusion of the
largest conflict in human history,

656
00:41:01,880 --> 00:41:05,240
including the final destruction
of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich.

657
00:41:05,400 --> 00:41:07,080
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