How US Forces Adapted To Fight A Suicidal Enemy | WWII In The Pacific | War Stories 

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While I applaud the effort in this series, RU-vid needs to STOP blurring images! This is REAL and part of human history at its worst. People NEED to not only hear it, but see it!

stop the visual censorship if I want to watch blurred images I'll take off my glasses

Too bad RU-vid doesn’t blur-out the ads.

Japan to Americans: "We are not afraid to die for the glory of our Emperor"! Americans to Japanese: That's OK, we are not afraid to KILL YOU for the glory of your Emperor"!

Shame on RU-vid for blurring history.

The Japanese sowed the wind, and reaped the whirlwind!

Be better if some footage wasn’t blurred out, it’s history after all

The Flag at Iwo Jima was replaced not restaged. The original was too small to be seen so it was replaced with a larger one. The photographer always recoiled when people accused him of staging that moment.

I fail to comprehend the former Prime Minister of Australia apolgising to Japan for saving so many Allied lives.

My father was a Marine who was home on leave in August 1945 after having spent two years fighting in the Solomon islands. He almost certainly would have been part of any invasion of Japan itself. As you can imagine he was extremely happy when he heard about the Bomb being dropped. Quite possibly I would not have been born as well.

My Uncle was on a ship in Leyte Gulf on December 10th, 1944. His ship was hit by a kamikaze. He died of wounds 3 days later. His mother, my Grandmother, never recovered from the news. That was 78 years ago. He was my Dad’s brother. I never met him but I knew his other 4 brothers. This war still touches me and I wasn’t born until 1959.

My Dad wasin WWII. ABout the "banzai charge" he said" If the enemy wants to commit suicide the least you can do is provide th ebullets"

The Japanese were expected to die for their country. The Americans were expected to win. In this war both armies accomplished their goal.

Medals are not won, they are earned.

Another little known fact is that the B-29 program was more expensive than the Manhattan Project.

Just why are war docos censored on youtube? Gone are the days we saw the true carnage of war..

It would have been more accurate if this video explained that there were approximately 35k Japanese soldiers stationed in Hiroshima, AND most of the workers for Japan's only ship building center lived there. Nagasaki was a secondary bomb choice and only so because it was the location of Japan's largest remaining ball bearing factory. Other than leaving out that information, this video provided a good explanation of why the Japanese were nuked and the true facts that they ignored any calls for peace after the first bomb.

STOP BLURRING SECTIONS of the VIDEO!!. Leave the sections IN and just give a Warning at the beginning of what's to come!

You know your enemy was balls out when it took 2 nuclear bombs, for them to surrender.

Surrender was unthinkable... it was not an option. Death and thus defeat was. Until the death of Admiral Yamamoto they fought for victory. They were humbled - humiliated - by American victory at Midway and Guadalcanal. The death of Yamamoto snapped all reason and victory was forgotten. Death became the goal. America paid a hight the price but achieved that victory. Our will and our goal had not changed. The Japanese will was changed.

LeMay was not trying to look tough by smoking a cigar. I believe that he was struck with palsy on a long flight, which left him slobbering from one side of his mouth. I have read that he employed the cigar to soak up the saliva. Then, it became iconic.

What horrors would have befallen Japan once Lemay had access to the additional air assets transferred from Europe. The atomic bombs saved Allied and Japanese lives.

The Japanese military leaders didn't expect the war to last more than 2 years at most. They were aware of the "Europe first" agenda and thought that the Allies wouldn't commit to full scale war over the Pacific Islands, especially after their uninterrupted string of easy victories in the first 6 months. The Allies would sue for peace under terms very favorable to Japan was the thinking at the time, and that ended up being a miscalculation.

The Japanese Banzai attacks were a crazy idea. They were basically a way in which Japan lost manpower very quickly at relatively low cost to the US, while at the same time, Japan was in desperate need of manpower. The smart move would have been to evacuate lost positions wherever possible.

Boy you people have found some outstanding footage. Well done!

You keep censoring these documentaries. Stop it.

why are you blurring out some of the scenes for? the horrors of war need to be seen as well.

I highly recommend two books, "Bloody Okinawa" by Joseph Wheelan and "The Fleet at Flood Tide-America at Total War in the Pacific 1944-1945" by James D. Hornfischer. This video skipped over the invasion of Saipan which lasted over a month was the first taste of the fact that the Japanese forces would fight to the death. The Marianas were strategic because they provided a base for the B-29s. Iwo Jima was a great fighter base and an emergency landing base for damaged B-29s returning from raids to the Japanese mainland. Marines paid dearly for that island. But the battle for Okinawa convinced our admirals, generals and the president of the United states that we needed to use the atomic bombs.

First of all, if you want to blur the images, it could be done partially. Why do you have to blur the whole picture screen?

4,907 Sailors, 4.675 Soldiers and 2.938 Marines were KIA on Okinawa.

My Dad was on Guadalcanal and Okinawa. He was surely to be involved in the mainland invasion. Many many more lives on both sides would have been lost if the bomb had not been dropped.

20:12 Of the 6 Marines that raised our Flag, 3 did not survive the battle. Semper Fi. My Uncle Vince was 4Th MarDiv.

Almost 2,500 damaged B-29s, each with a crew of 10 airmen, made emergency landings on Iwo Jima before war's end.

The most surprising fact to me was that 55k army soldiers were killed in the Pacific theater out of 100k deaths. I was also surprised that there were more Naval deaths than Marines. I assumed…. Wrongly that the Marines had the most deaths due to the amphibious landings .

There are certain errors, though relatively minor ones. For example, the video states that the U.S. had no more atomic bombs. In fact the third bomb, a plutonium bomb, was on its way to Tinian Island when Japan surrendered. We had the capacity at that time to produce at least three a month, one uranium bomb and two plutonium bombs.

The Marines didn’t fight the Japanese on Iwo Jima. The Marines fought the Japanese IN Iwo Jima

I cant wait until their is a better platform for videos so that our content will not be censored

Why blur certain images ?

Why the blurring out? I don't approve.

History Hit and RU-vid: Stop altering these videos! We can handle it--it's war dammit!

Kokura was the intended target for the 2nd Atomic Bomb but the skies over it had become overcast so Nagasaki which was the alternate city to attack was also the bomb was detonated over a valley limiting some of the damage it would have done as opposed to being detonated directly over the city

Why is everything blurred out that has to do with casualties of war?

My uncle was an 18 year old Marine who fought on Iwo Jima and Okinawa. I didn't have an interest in the war in the Pacific so I never got to ask him about his experiences. I asked him in 2009 had he been on Iwo Jima and he said he also fought on Okinawa. He told my mom that he never took off his boots on Iwo Jima for 30 days and when he did, only the tops of his socks were left. Marines could tell how long you had been on Iwo Jima by the color of your uniform. Veterans had washed out uniforms and a recent arrival had a uniform like new. Iwo Jima was a desperate battle that killed thousands of Marines. The only battle where Americans deaths and injured exceeded the number of Japanese on the island at the beginning of the battle.

I don’t watch blurred videos.. to bad it could have been interesting. This blurring.. is that so we won’t become a psychological mess..at 80 yrs young I venture to say I can handle anything on film. Does it have something to do with money..? Over sensitivity weakens an individual or nation, and the source of it is subversive. Or does RU-vid have the temerity to attempt to set guidelines for our moral compass and emotional conditioning..? No sarcasm intended, whatever the reason to block out an event in history escapes me.

Thank you for sharing this great documentry. SEMPER FI 86-91

As I get older, the death toll of war really gets to me. All of the civilians killed in the firebombing is particularly heartbreaking.

A mention of the entry of the USSR into the war on the same day as the bombing of Hiroshima would have helped explain the reasons why the Japanese finally surrendered. Your description of the flag change at Iwo Jima was incorrect. It was redone with a larger flag, but with the same Marines. Tragically, three of them died after the event. Your explanation of the firebombing campaign and the reason for taking Iwo Jima was excellent.

It's surprising how many things this documentary gets wrong. I wonder what or who their sources were ,if they even bothered with such trivial things.

The second raising was not "re-staged." After the initial flag was raised various "powers that be" decided they needed a bigger flag. The second flag was from a naval vessel. And of course the Marines wanted the original flag that was raised on a Japanese home island. Ironically fitting that the most iconic image was Marines who had fought their way to the top of a volcanic peak are raising a very large Naval flag. But Hey, that's kinda the definition of a Marine.

Opinion: We all know about opinions though. They forgot to mention Russia attacking from Mongolia. The Japanese knew what the Russians would do to them. I always thought the Russians were the reason for Japan jumping on the surrender! Not the two bombs!

Not only do I salute these brave men but also those brave camera men too who were magnificent

Shout out to the cameramen!

I understand you need to remain monetized and guidelines and all that. Where can I find an uncensored version of this?

The constant blurring out of scenes is making this documentary almost unwatchable. I don't think I'll be watching any more of these.

08:37 "Each B-29 will drop its payload of eight 500-pound high explosive bombs..." Now, I'm not the greatest at math, but that looks like a lot more than only 8 bombs falling from each plane. (OK....OK... Just kidding!)

They adapted by hating. The Japanese deserved nothing else. They still haven’t apologized for their barbaric behavior.

Thank you America and please continue to do good for the world and mankind.

I wonder if Tojo was killed instead of Yamamoto would the date of surrender changed. The fanatics seemed to be thick on the Japanese land forces (IJA) side.

Shipped based 5” inch guns cause lots of damage!😮

Just recently, I’ve heard people on Podcasts saying that we should apologize to the Japanese for using nuclear weapons. Other people say that the nuclear weapons were not needed, that the Japanese were going to surrender anyway. I’m going to try to be politically correct now. Anyone who thinks that we didn’t need to nuke the Japanese, is definitely challenged 😊

My Uncle Larry, [now deceased] was a flame thrower operator with the U.S. Army fighting in the island hoping campaigns. He described how as a new green soldier ,he saw some U.S. Marines going out on a patrol on one of the Islands and he decided to go out with them. It saved his life, he claims because the Marines were veterans of a number of island battles, and his Army guys were brand new to the fighting. When he returned to his outfit after a few days being gone ,he almost got court-martialed by his commander, but he said the training he learned from the Marines, helped him pass the skills to his other soldiers. My dad was in the U.S. Navy fighting the Japanese in the Pacific as well.

I am a tour guide here in Hawaii on the battleship Missouri. The date of the surrender was September 2, 1945 not September 1

For people so ready to die for the god of Japan ,they went on a rampage to stop his recording announcement of surrender ? What a contradiction !

RU-vid STOP BLURRING THE VIDEOS. STOP ACTING LIKE A CHILD WE ARE ALL ADULTS HERE.

I've always wondered why the Army Air Corps did not firebomb the Imperial Palace.

Thank you to all those who fought to give the liberty we enjoy today.

I would like to see how effective the radar guided 40mm guns were in stopping the japanese airwar

The Japanese general on Okinawa used a complex system called the "Shuri Line" where they attack-retreat and establish a new line. So he used the same tactics as every competent leader in the history of war. Although most generals didn't allow 98% of their soldiers to be killed, so the Japanese general's military brilliance really showed.

The Japanese thought that if they raised the cost of victory high enough the allies would opt to negotiate for a settlement of the war. The Allies decided that they were not going to accept the enormous casualties that would result from an invasion of the Japanese home islands. Instead they chose to spare their troops from the slaughter and dropped the atomic bombs. The Japanese strategy completely fell apart and they had to surrender or be anihilated by air with no chance to inflict massive casualties on the allies.

Nagasaki wasn't the original target... Hence the Japanese say" the luck of Kokura."

- Samurai Moto: "Duty is heavy like a mountain, Death is lighter than a feather", explains why the Japanese fought the way they did.

44:45 I may be mistaken but I thought Nagasaki was the backup choice, I vaguely recall something about it being too cloudy over the 1st choice city and so they fell back on the 2nd choice rather than return without feeding the American blood god.

How? Fight fire with fire! Congratulations, captain, your destroyer has been volunteered for radar picket duty! 😊

My Dad was in the USAAF in training to be a B-17 pilot, and was almost finished with the training in August 1945. If the war lasted into 1946 he would have been deployed to the invasion of Japan.

The second raising of the American Flag on Mount Suribachi was not staged for the benefit of Joe Rosenthal. It was done to replace (with a larger Flag) the original American Flag. Read "Flags of our Fathers", it explains what happened.

Why does Utube have to sanitise everything, even so much as a paper cut on a finger is blurred out?

Ideological language explained: Enemy that fights to the last man: fanaticism. Your guys who fight to the last man: utmost heroism.

I don't want to belittle the US (or Japanese) losses in the Pacific, but the total loss of life for the Soviet Union in WW2 (including civilians) was around 27 million. Polish losses were 6 million and Chinese deaths totalled around 20 million, to name a few. Overall, the US suffered much fewer deaths than many other countries,especially when compared with its population size. The total number, including civilians, is about 420 thousand. I'm Dutch myself and we lost 301 thousand, including about 110,000 Jews, while in the Dutch East Indies, some 3.5 million people died. The most lethal war for the US has always been the Civil War. Note that estimates vary by source, due to lack of accurate historical sources.

Provide your enemy the opportunity to die for their country. You first, I insist.

A suicidal enemy requires extreme responses. Flame throwers, napalm, mass EXTERMINATION via nuclear weapons WERE WHAT IT TOOK. And after 2 atomics many were not ready to surrender! Can you imagine?

Best documentary channel!

HOW will mankind learn the True Cost & Stupidity of War when YOU pixelate the Horrors & Cost. Absolute disgrace to all who paid the ultimate sacrifice to give you your freedom. This is not a video game & there is NO reset button, How can this teach anyone the truth.

I used to work for Boeing in the photo department. The differences and improvements between a B-17 and a B-29 were quite dramatic.

The second flag raising was not done for the benefit of Joe Rosenthal. The CO 2/28 wanted the first flag back lest it fell prey to souvenir hunters, so a second (and larger flag) was rustled up and raised. Because the marines doing it did not bother to communicate this to Joe, he nearly missed it and the famous photo was simply a snapshot.

With all Japans home islands conquered, US bases all over the place, Japan's military in shambles and the country's industrial complex destroyed, supplied cut off etc., why would the US have to "take mainland Japan"? They were no longer any threat, and could also still be monitored and controlled for the future quite readily, strategically bombed etc., ensuring they wouldnt rise up anew in any significant way. For me this is an intriguing question that is rarely brought up. We know the narrative that the atomic bombs were dropped exactly because they knew how fanatically the Japanese would fight on their home soil, so it was about "saving lives" ultimately. But why not just leave Japan to rot? Was this even considered? Clearly the US didnt just want to remove the threat and cripple them, they were blood-thirsty for a surrender and complete occupation/capitulation for longer-term strategic reasons. Not saying it was the wrong or right thing to do, just that this nuanced factor is rarely mentioned in the narrative around the Pacific War and what the military leaders and politicos were thinking.

Great video. I would like to see an in-depth look at the Japanese point of view when knowing defeat is certain before the a bombs of course

The nukes were necessary. Many more Japanese would have died during an invasion than were killed by the nukes.

After watching hundreds of documentaries and having read many books on WW2 over fifty years, the Pacific theater of war was harder than the European theater, but gets less credit and attention.

@ 16:33 "prolonged and concerted bombardments of the war". While air power may have been wearing at Japanese resources for weeks, Howling Mad wanted ten days of naval bombardment, got an agreement for three that became barely 24 hours of shelling. It's tough to say based on the depth of Japanese construction what effect more shells would have done yet it certainly wasn't the greatest bombardment of the war.

Los alemanes eran grandes combatientes, pero cuando se les terminaban las balas, y las vias de escape, se rendian. De los prisioneros alemanes, no habia quejas. Obedecian. Solo hubo un aleman que logro escapar de la prision. Los japoneses cuando se le acababan las balas, atacaban con piedras cuchillos, y hasta mordizcos. Muy poco hablaban o entendian ingles. Hubo japoneses que quedaron aislados y escondidos en islas, por varios años.

Very good video coverage! Japanese fought back well.. they just had to learn the American forces were just to powerful! Americans always found a way to improve military forces! The tactical plans worked well after making some mistakes.. the Japanese were trained very well and eventually learned that American powers were more advanced... Japanese and Germany had to be stopped because of the atrocities they committed were unthinkable!! 🛑🎯🎯🛑

No point at all including scenes if you are just going to blur them, it makes a mockery of the documentary. This is historic so why pretend nothing nasty happened.

I always thought it was odd that they put up the flag but the battle was not over.

Another censored world war two video. Stop it. You're insulting everyone who gave their lives for this country. How dare you😮😢

Deepest gratitude to America and all Americans who fought in WW2, especially the men and women from the Manhattan Project. The world we know today won't exist if Japan had won the war. America had shown too much mercy to Japan for the unspeakable atrocities committed in China and SE Asia.

as yamanato said they were doomed to lose because they couldnt resupply themselves as well as USA so youd think usa could of just taken it easy and let japan collapse itself ie they unnecessarilly overfought the war

Super wonderful quality documentary shared by war stories channel....with informative coverage and obvious explanations...thank you

What's the deal with the blurring? War is ugly. And these soft fools need to see it. So it will never be repeated again.

Them young Japanese warriors really lived 'Death before dishonor'. I'm a proud American, but gotta give respect where it's due for better or for worse...