It's utterly fucked that Hashimoto did more to help his former enemy captain than the man's own navy did. Hashimoto seems like an honorable man. War is Hell and almost no one fighting it actually wants to be there, or holds a real grudge against the common solider on the other side.
Not much has changed either, especially with some of the stories that have come out of Iraq/Afghanistan. Brass still has a habit of hanging enlisted and lower officers out to dry
He was probably appalled by the lack of support and competence from the navy. It might have been his job to attack the ship, but its the navy's job to support its soldiers. If they did, there wouldn't have been nearly so much loss of life.
People back in the believed the government complicity and information was not as accessible to them + they didn't have critical education like they do now. So to the families it was the government saying "this man is the reason your son is dead." Why wouldn't the believe a government they trust and think is saving them from thins like pearl harbor. They didn't understand it was corruption.
My grandfather was on this ship. He didn't speak about it. My family only found out when they saw his picture during a documentary about it. It's crazy to think that I wouldn't be here if it had taken another day or two for them to be rescued. When my grandpa got dementia he started thinking I was my grandma and he wanted to tell me what happened. It was heartbreaking. He passed away several years ago. I can't imagine how this must've haunted him. He was a good man, quiet with serious issues, but he did his best
Jeez....may his soul be at peace, now. It's sad that when the dementia hit, it still haunted him so much he wanted to talk about it. I'm sorry he suffered that.
The first time I heard about this was in the movie Jaws. Because the captain had such a seething hatred for sharks, and this was the explanation. It also makes his death that much worse. I wonder whether they interviewed actual survivors for the scene. Glad your gandpa survived and got to live his life with his wife and family. Survivor‘s guilt is a bitch, but I guess he did have good memories with all of you in the end. That‘s the best we all can hope for, in the end.
My grandfather was aboard the USS Indianapolis as well. Unfortunately I can't find any records of him being on there, but anyway, he was a Pastry Chef. ..Yeah. He was there when I was born but I never saw him again as he died soon after. EDIT: Okay so I do know that he was 100% on the USS Santa Fe, and from what I remember my father told me he eventually had to transfer to the USS Indianapolis. Yeah.
@MidnightDrake I can't even imagine what they went through. My grandpa joined when he was 16 (I'm tiny and I can't fit into his military coat). I'm not sure how old he was when they went down. Just a bunch of boys, it breaks my heart.
Hashimoto shows how soldiers are still people, following orders. This guy pretty much caused this tragedy, yet instead of using it to boost his name, he testified against the captain’s prosecution and even showed compassion to the survivors. Plus, he lost his family to the bomb that the Indianapolis helped create, yet he didn’t blame the surviving men and still prayed with them.
The respect soldiers have for one another is always impressive to me; you can be fighting each other, but still acknowledge how both sides are putting their lives on the line... In some cases, they don't believe in the reason to fight, but are forced to anyway
What a chad that doctor is while everyone is freaking out and stuff and the doctor is like "Imma show these sharks who the real apex predator is out here" while also saving a lot of lives what a legend.
TBH, that's pretty normal human behavior in extreme circumstances. Starving people all eventually reach a point where they're more afraid of their starvation and thirst than of literally anything else. People will just take a bite out of sharks or go foraging through bear shit for undigested berries and not think twice about it.
I can’t imagine the pain of losing 3/4s of your crew, seeing your captain be ridiculously blamed for it, and then discovering that this all happened because the US wanted to deliver half the worlds uranium supply unguarded
The captain being blamed and sent those letters will forever irk me. The man was placed in charge of 1,200 people, no radar, no other vessels, and the attack happened in the dark. Whatd they want him to do hop in the water every 5 minutes to see if anythings there? Did they want him to personally wrestle the missiles underwater when they were fired? The biggest cause of death here was negligence and complacency
Not really negligence just desperation to fill Enlistment numbers. Back then you were not required to know how to swim to join the Navy. After this incident you have to and the building where future sailors learn and train to swim in deep ice cold water is called the Indianapolis
Hashimoto, the sub commander that sunk the Indianapolis, lost his whole family to the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima, which is what the Indianapolis was delivering parts of. The fact he came to help the survivors and clear the Captain's name is beautiful.
Literally suffered Karmic justice after essentially being the one to cause the tragedy of the Indianapolis, like no ofense (and the US would've probably dropped the bomb anyway) but it is almost poetic.
@@Nobody-zl3kk Jesus Christ, dude! Civilians slaughtered in a nuclear bombing isn't "karmic justice". It was part of the basis for the Geneva Convention. However tragic the shipwreck of the U.S.S. Indiana is? The men aboard were 1. trained soldiers 2. in enemy waters 3. fulfilling a wartime mission. Their lives were gambled by their surperiors, they didn't have to die en masse, but everybody *knew* that price was on the table. Like... these things aren't comparable. It's horrifying to treat innocent lives as a valid price for some perverse justice.
hey, looks like your great grandpa probably knew my great grandpa edit: sorry, i was mistaken. my great grandpa was on the gambier bay, not the indianapolis, but hey, still a possibilty i guess lol
I expected so many people to just respond “Yeah sure he was bahhhh”. Since people on the internet will usually doubt anyone when they say their relative was involved in something. You can also check and yeah they aren’t lying
Your great grandpa served with my Sunday school teacher, then! He talked very vaguely about it, but obviously not in great detail since we were young kids. He was a good man, and I look forward to seeing him on the other side some day.
I feel so bad for the captain. Poor man already narrowly escaped death, had to deal with all the trauma that situation entailed, and what was his reward? To be blamed for not seeing a torpedo in the dark. Saddled with all the guilt by his own superiors.
Seriously, I teared up hearing how he died. Because you can so clearly imagine what happened just before. He probably saw that little sailor toy in a drawer or on the shelf, and what he saw was the faces of over 800 men he felt responsible for, and he just couldn't take it anymore.
Good men have to be destroyed so corrupt monsters can continue to rule us. That translator didn't lie unprompted, someone told him to. Hashimoto showed more decency than US Navy leadership was capable of for not just standing with the CO and the surviving men years later, but just in torpedoing the ship, because at least there was no illusion that they weren't the enemy force. Navy leadership, by contrast, claimed to care about the US sailors they killed.
Not to mention he was blamed for not zigzagging while cruising, because all his radios to base said he could go straight. The few messages that were worriesome just got pushed aside by lower crew mates because no concrete evidence was given for worry
The captain wasn't just blamed for not seeing a torpedo in the dark. He was blamed for not taking action in a situation with an inevitable result. Without sonar equipment or an escort from a ship that did, the Indianapolis stood no chance of even knowing the submarine was there. Hashimoto, a Navy Captain serving an elitist military, had more genuine respect for the soldiers he fought than the Navy they served did. Horrific.
The way the Captain died is so depressing. Committed suicide while clutching a toy sailor in his hand. Can't image what must've been going through his mind while holding that sailor.
"Plot a course to the night to a place I once knew. To a place where my hope died along with my crew. So I swallow my grief and face life's final test. To find promise of peace and the solace of rest. As the songs of the dead fill the space of my ears. Their laughter like children, their beckoning cheers. My heart longs to join them, sing songs of the sea. I remember the fallen, do they think of me? When their bones in the ocean forever will be" -Bones in the Ocean
It's the politicians that sentence these people to death, not soldiers. If the ones that start wars were forced to be first in line into battle, there would be no wars.
Oh yea it's insane and scary to think about honestly. We know more about space than we do our oceans and probably won't know anything for a really long time.
@@oskary2833 That and space is near or is infinitely voluminous compared to our oceans which are large...but only by the standards of a human who's perception of the ocean is large from our pov.
@@icycrusader1947 I just think that with space since it's infinite, not finding/exploring everything is a give-in and is more readily expected. Feasibly we can never know about all of space. But the ocean by contrast is limited space wise, readily accessible, and we STILL don't understand it very well. Speaking from the perspective of someone with wildlife interests, we just found out about giant squids only 20 or so years ago, we're still finding new organisms down below, and we still don't know how freshwater eels reproduce in the wild.
"Complacency about procedure" Literally sent a shiver up my spine. Thats how the worst things happen. Almost every industrial accident is caused by this.
@@ryanhouk3560 not just a class the entire building where the pool that pumps water straight from the Great Lakes is called the USS Indianapolis. It's also one of the strictest and hardest parts of basic training. They will withhold you from graduating for an eternity until you learn how to swim and float in deep cold water. They take it very seriously nowadays.
@RAAM855 different class but yeah. The swim test was fun honestly. Well in a stressful 2 months its a bit more enjoyable than just working out. The Indianapolis class im talking about was in that movie theater looking room near the pools.
The part about Hashimoto helping to clear McVay's name and praying with the surviving crew is one of the most beautiful things I've heard. I really enjoy your one off stories like this. I love both the more serious ones as well as the ones where you lean into the humor and absurdity of it. Please keep more of both types coming.
i dont think he did it out of kindess or whatever your thinking the japanese in this time were very nationalistic and was probably "heavily convinced" into participating in the trial
My great grandfather on my mother’s side died on that ship. His “official” cause of death has never been made. My grandpa basically spent his whole life trying to learn more about his father, and sadly, in 2017, he died without any answers... *So anyways* thank you for making this video! You never fail to make informative videos on not-so-covered subjects on this platform.
@@aquariusdog6 I doubt it, by now the official documents should be available. (Classified documents do eventually get revealed, as an example the Roswell incident was shown to actually be a weather balloon with a sonic piece that could theoretically detect a nuclear bomb be deployed, they officially said they hadn't wanted it to be known they had a method for it to avoid Russian spies learning about it) edit: otherwise, it's been too long, we can assume hypothermia or death by shark (maybe dehydration if they drank enough salt water?)
If you have your great grandfather's information while he was on the ship, maybe you can contact that group mentioned of survivors to see, being a blood relative, if they would potentially know more if you want to continue on your grandfather's hunt:) good luck if you do end up searching and my condolences to your family for your great grandfather's passing in such a horrifying situation.
@@ItWasRevealedToMeInMyDreams thank you! I tried replying to this a while ago and I guess it didn’t send. It’s extra hard to get info from anywhere, considering my grandpa was the only family member that bothered to think twice about it. My whole family is full of uuuhh some strange and rude people lol. I recently moved across the country to get away from them, and ironically so has my grandmother. I’ll have to find her contact information somehow. Hehe thank you for the tips!!
Yeah, that part really got to me. He didn’t deserve any of the hate. All because the Navy wanted to shift the blame and not take actual responsibility. RIP.
It makes me really happy that the survivors didn't hold any grudges against Hashimoto. War is an ugly hell and they most definitely understand that. He was doing what he could for is nation, for his family and so where they. It's really beautiful how they prayed together. May the men rest in peace and may a tragedy like this never happen again
@@TheSlammurai it can kinda just go to show even in times of war and fighting we can still have respect for one another. It almost gives you a little hope seeing that kinda stuff.
"He was doing what he could for his nation, for his family and so were they" Hashimoto was fighting for his nation and family. The americans were attacking a nation and threatening families - fk em all.
“McVay walked out onto his front yard with a toy sailor in one hand and his navy revolver in the other.” Jesus, man instant tears from me. I’ve lost a few friends in war. My best friend was the soldier who was killed in Kabul on the 26th of August at Hamid Karzai airport. You learn that every seasoned soldier, sailor, airman, or marine was just a kid playing soldier once upon a time.
That's fucked. I genuinely hope you're doing better these days. All of us, regardless of where we're from, were kids at one point. Many forced or indoctrinated into fighting each other.
@@AlmostCoolGuys and only 2 people, Him and God, know what he went through mentally all those years. PTSD, nightmares, horrific guilt, who knows what else that basically drove him to his lowest. In a way the navy murdered him and so did that translator because he was wrongfully accused
11:35 This event is the reason why the navy now teaches every recruit how to swim. In fact the facility they use to train recruits in water survival is named the USS Indianapolis.
The US Navy actually teaches new recruits about the USS Indianapolis during water survival training. They talked about how new technology was made so this incident would never happen again. Such as life rafts deploying underwater to the surface if they sink under a certain depth.
@@timetravelersdad1290 yeah they name the barracks after ships I was in the Arizona they named the pool and all the buildings they train in after instances that training was or should have been either utilized or utilized better my petty officer told me. I’m in aircrew school now I just graduate with the last div of the 8 week course before they move it to 10.
As a bit of a history buff when you said "Whenever we stop talking about stories we forget them." That hit. Thank you for not just covering how scary the things we imagine are but also how scary real life can be.
My great uncle served on the Indianapolis during ww2 but transferred to the uss Mississippi before the Indianapolis final journey he had major survivor guilt by not being there with his team for he served there for 3 years
From what was said Hashimoto really seems like a very Honorable man. He helped more in Mcvays case more then our own navy and he actually went to Pearl Harbor 49 years later after the bombing to grieve the men lossed. It was also really nice that the men accepted him in to pray with them and mourn. Shows the humanity a little bit that we all seem to forget at times. Great Video again Wendigoon.
@@birgbirg111it's silly to blame the Japanese as a whole, yes some Japanese individuals committed unspeakable crimes but it doesn't matter what country they are from! Every country has despicable individuals but that does not reflect on the behaviour of everyone from the same country.
I’ve lived in Indianapolis my whole life. I got to meet Dick Thelen, one of the last survivors in 2016. He described everything in such detail. It was a very traumatizing experience for him and he mentioned watching their numbers dwindle over the years is depressing. It’s important for everyone to remember stories like these.
Whaaaat? The Navy blaming other people for their own mistakes instead of taking responsibility? Impossible. They'd never do something like that, never.
I do believe the sailors being drenched in oil saved most of them from shark attacks, I don't know much about shark diets but I don't think they would choose an oily sailor with a masked scent over a "clean" one.
@@gwendalynnwatkins1296 Coulda told me that before I worked on my car 8 hours in the sun, was mostly inside the car but I got so burned the upper third of my back turned to liquid... that level of sunburn is a pain words do not do justice for.
@@InsanityPlusOne no guarantee, just as someone who's ended up in the hospital for sunburns, I know a lot of sun protection and I know that some sunscreens are "physical sunscreens" as in the physically reflect the sun's light away from you, so I'm theorizing that having their skin completely covered might've protected them
@@gwendalynnwatkins1296 Given how some of them were cooked to having no skin (judging by how close I got something that happens in maybe 12 hours of direct-ish sunlight, I had skin left there but most of it was a blend of melting off, blood and pus) it may have offered some protection or maybe that was the moisture from the water. Either way it ended poorly for the bulk of them, that much sun can not be good for you even if you're covered in the best uv protection.
The part at the end about not wanting to let these stories die with the people who took part in them hit me hard. My boyfriend is in the Navy, and I'm always worried that something is going to happen where he'll die and the Navy will cover up his death so that neither I nor his family will ever get an explanation or closure. That's why I'm so invested in keeping stories like this alive- militaries are made of real people with real lives and memories that continue on living after they're gone. Knowing and retelling these stories is the least I can do to make sure that that memory doesn't fade, which is what I hope people will do for my boyfriend in the unfortunate case that my deepest fears come true.
The sad reality is that that very well might happen to your boyfriend. Just look at the USS Nimitz and how that issue got covered up. Look at how the top brass threw many officers under the bus during COVID-19 and the botched Afghanistan evacuation.
Something interesting to know is that when WWII was reaching was near the end the Japanese also had to deal with gruesome animal attacks. There were apparently over 1000 Japanese soldiers that retreated into the swamp on Ramree Island and were attacked by saltwater crocodiles and was listed in Guinness Book of World Records for the deadliest crocodile attack to ever be recorded. So you have one side picked off by sharks then the other side picked off by crocodiles.
My high school US history teacher would only talk about historical events that interested him, the USS Indianapolis being on of them. It may be because we were in Indiana. It was a fun class. We learned the Cold War through the song “We Didn’t Start the Fire.”
Something I wanted to add, just regarding the Indianapolis' lack of an escort. The Captain requested one but was informed by Naval Intelligence that there were no subs around and the route was safe
@Gail Taylor yeah, I do enjoy sharing this stuff. It's overall a tragic story, captain was put into a kangaroo court, found guilty, court marshaled, and eventually committed suicide as a result of his guilt In the 2000s he was pardoned by the president (it was 2010 if I recall correctly)
Imagine surviving everything that captain went through, to be betrayed by your country and be brought to suicide…. RIP to that amazing man, I will surly tell my children about this story.
God, McVey's story made me feel emotional. He did his best, the politics screwed him over, and he ended his own life. Like shite. Hashimoto and the crew, and the kiddo fighting for his innocence is just, damn, it can never bring him back but it cleared his name and I hope wherever he was, he's at peace. You make topics like this interesting and not too heavy. I appreciate it. Like man, the entire situation is tragic but you make it easy to listen to while not lessening the severity of the situation and remains respectful. Thanks for your vids. Listening to them while working.
My dad is retired Navy and I have about 19 years experience in military settings (not actually served just hanging around my dads coworkers and such). I can say without a doubt, military does not care about its soldiers, sailors, airmen, or grunts. They just care about their image and who they can punt blame to.
Commander Hashimoto deserves some serious recognition... The love and respect it would take to show the Captain of the ship that delivered the most harrowing weapon ever unleashed on your people, that he would travel to the country he just waged war with in an attempt to exonerate him, and then spend his life doing everything he could to help? That's amazing.
It makes you wonder if we would ever fight if we got to know each other We should really make the leaders fight instead of young men with families and so much life to live
My great gramps survived the Indianapolis. He was my grandma’s second dad (her first one died after falling off a ladder) and always had trama about it and seeing his friends slowly die through it. My sympathies go out to everyone who’s family members went through this awful event.
@@cqqfjfghgz5704Yeah, but she had this thing where she called him her dad and not her step-dad. My family has just kind of kept it going for some reason.
Sorry my bad. It wasn’t my great step-grandpa. It was my original great grandpa. I just asked my grandma about it and it turns out my great grandma never actually remarried. Sorry my memory is so bad. But my grandma did ask him about what happened before he passed. He said that he remembered everyone was covered in oil and he remembered his friends disappear one at a time. He refused to tell any further, and my grandma and I respect him for that.
While my friend was serving in the USMC during the 80s, he said in the morning they would throw trash bags off the back end of the navy vessel they were on. In the morning light you could see the silhouettes of dozens of sharks. He said you could watch the trash bags get pulled under the water and ripped apart.
@@Lone_Star_Outdoors They still do that as of 2019 as far as I know, even the US Navy can't create and destroy matter so you gotta get rid of the trash somehow
That fuzz noise at 7:13 absolutely scared the shit out of me while working. Fastest I've ever spun around thinking someone was pulling at my headphones. Great video!!
It’s a shame that Hashimoto didn’t live to see McVay be exonerated, but at least it did happen eventually. Also, do the 8 hour World War 2 video, I’d love to watch it, and these one off videos are very nice as well.
My favorite scene from JAWS is when everything just stops and Quint tells his story of being on the USS Indianapolis realizing catching the Shark is personal to him. That scene got me interested in learning more and into battleships.
The way you’d do an 8 hour WWII video would make me go bonkers. I love learning about what REALLY happened in history and I think you’d do it a lot of justice.
Wendigoon, you should make a video talking about the different types of sea monsters every civilization seems to have and supposedly true stories about each one.
Wendigoon is actually just one of the sea men that invaded all those early civilizations, now he covers it up by saying he hates the sea, but somehow he still knows everything about the ocean
My great grandfather is one of the survivors of the uss Indianapolis and it means a lot that you would cover this story as it is truly both harrowing and remarkable.
Just realized why I like it when you cover these events. The jokes, the telling of the events are great. But it's easy to see that you respect the people involved, and that's what I love about this channel.
Same and there's no shame in bringing some kinda light out if a story like this. Like the guy trying to eat the shark and the the guy saying they got lost swimming.
I remember seeing a documentary about the Indianapolis when I was younger, and as someone with a fear of the ocean (and sharks) I can't imagine how horrible what those sailors went through was, or the negligence that allowed it to happen.
Generally sharks rarely attack human but due to the circumstances the sharks probably think it's food and human does not taste as good so they most likely bite due to curiosity.
I live in Indianapolis, this story has a special place in my heart, and if anyone in Indiana/ Indianapolis did not know, there is a monument/ memorial on the Canal walk downtown. Great job Wendigoon. another banger of a video
There are actually a surprisingly large amount of Japanese and Nazi soldiers that were found 20-40-60 years later. I'd love to hear a medley of their stories in one of your videos. Very interesting stuff.
Roger Spooner, a man who was a survivor of this shipwreck passed this year about the same time this came out. He was a great man who even at 98 years old ran and drove his trucking buisness until his death. It’s crazy to think of how much he witnessed during this and still persevered and loved his life to the fullest
something about the effort to clear capt. McVays name, even in death, to let him rest without the guilt that he carried from his life to his grave of a crime he didn’t commit, to relieve him of the weight of the families who lost someone on that ship, to bring about justice for a soul that is gone but not forgotten is to truly let him rest in peace. just hits so hard i teared up a bit a lot the kid and the remaining survivors and captain hashimoto too and then it worked!! they did it!! his name is cleared!! a beautiful ending and a very important story.
Another interesting fact I read from survivor stories is that the life jackets back then weren't made to be in water for days on end. They would become waterlogged. They would place sodden life jackets on the rafts, they would be squeezed as dry as possible (like sponges), then allowed them to further air dry atop the raft. That way, they could trade out the jackets and buy themselves more time.
I actually cried when I found out Hashimoto prayed with the survivors and was accepted as an honorary crewman That's what healing and growth is all about
My teacher actually brought in a guy who was on the ship and he talked about how the skin was so waterlogged that when pulled out of the water the skin would basically fall apart and that is probably the most horrific image In my mind
My dad was rushed to the hospital today and I had a terrible shift doing customer service for 9 hours. First thing that made me smile all day was seeing that Wendigoon uploaded. Thanks man.
My Great Uncle served in the Navy during WW1. He rarely spoke of the stuff that he saw during his service, except for one particular situation that’s strikingly similar to the one in this video. To make a long story short, he was aboard a warship somewhere in the Pacific Ocean that was sunk after a torpedo attack. The survivors (including my Great Uncle) we’re clinging to floating pieces of debris, awaiting rescue when the bodies of the already dead sailors started getting dragged under by sharks. After a while some of the wounded men began getting dragged beneath the waves and eaten too! Scary stuff man. So much respect for all our combat veterans; such a shame that they’re treated so poorly after risking their lives for our freedom.
Fun fact about 2nd and 3rd degree burns: the heat to make a burn like that is so hot that it kills the nerve endings making you feel nothing or near nothing until you take your body away from the heat allowing pain to properly register again. Moral of the story: Burning can quite literally feel like nothing at some points until you see that you are burning,
I met a man who was in the water after the ship wrecked. I'm a Marine myself so he went into full detail. It's horrifying hearing what he saw. Bodies and living men just being taken every few seconds at one point. I have a fear of crocodiles and sharks man. I love them but I hate the thought of something invisible lurking under me in the abyss.
The USS Indianapolis always fascinated me. My mom said my great uncle was on the boat and survived, was ordered to never talk about it, and he didnt. It's insane to hear all the horrible stuff he went through while he was out there :( thank you sm for making this!!
I think it’s cool that the survivors welcomed Hashimoto (I am totally butchering that and I am sorry) with open arms. It shows that just because we are different sides, soldiers are soldiers, and real respects real.
Seeing footage from the captured Russians talking with the Ukrainians it really dawned on me how no matter what sides we are human, as basic as it sounds. It’s heartbreaking to think how we kill each other just because we have to on someone else’s orders
@@realcade I haven’t seen that! I have seen that plenty of people (Russians especially) are speaking out against what the government is doing. Just because there are people who aren’t, doesn’t mean they don’t want to, they just can’t. It really is depressing to see…
My grandpa William nightingale was on the ship when it sank. He was one of the 316 men that lived. I never got to meet him I was born to late but I would've loved to hear his story.
16:33 sharks tend to do that. It's less to see if you're dead and more of a "taste test". The only reason they don't latch on afterwards is because they dislike the way humans taste due to our diets
@@DeerBonesBaby I hope nobody takes stories like these and actively goes out thinking it's okay to kill sharks though, as they are pretty endangered already and are a vital part of the ocean's ecosystem.
🚢I spent like a month in Oceanography class learning about this ship and we were going to meet one of the survivors, Adolfo but he passed away around thanksgiving. It was tragic, as I really wanted to meet him. Normally I don't like learning about stuff like this but this story just showed me how strong humans can be when they do come together in a crisis.🦈
My dad talks about this story constantly, he use to tell me about it as a kid. Not heavy details, just that a ship was ruined and a lot of people were killed by sharks, and how scary he thinks it would be to watch your mates slowly being picked off one by one by sharks. I'm so glad you made a video on it so I could know the full story and fully understand how bad it was, it's really nice to see that we're still remembering these stories all these year later, the only reason we have history is that we keep telling the stories of people of the past, it's nice to keep their story alive, no matter how sad it may have been
At 13:34, my jaw dropped seeing you talk about my Great Grandfather's account in one of your videos, kind of surreal actually. Were you using Doug Stanton's "In Harms Way" as one of your sources for this video? Anyways, thank you so much for covering this incident, it is a tragedy that barely anyone discusses the horrors they faced.
I just thought of something that really put into perspective just how thirsty (and hungry) these men treading water would have been. Remember being a kid on a pool day, after having fun in the pool and swimming for just a few hours? One thing I can remember EXTREMELY vividly is how insanely thirsty I would be after getting out of the pool. AND hungry as well. I remember always eating a ton after a pool day, being more hungry and thirsty than I ever would be normally. Times that by a million for those soldiers treading water for days and days. So that said...I can't blame those men who drank the sea water. I'm sure a lot of those who did knew full well it would kill them, but the desire for some kind of relief from thirst just outweighed it.
yeah as a former competitive swimmer and lifeguard i attest to this. swimming is a VERY intense workout because not only is it cardio but the resistance of the water adds an aspect of strength training to it as well. not to mention you are using your entire body, not just your legs or your arms like sailing and running. combine the restistance of the water with the weight of clothes??? wearing clothes would make it harder to simply float so there's no way to rest. with all that combined you've got yourself a very high intensity workout and with no source of food you have no way to replenish the insane amount of calories you are burning. those men would have been in excruciating pain and even if they didn't drink the seawater they would have eventually passed out from exhaustion and drowned.
It’s weird because I’ve always had kidney issues so my kidneys shut down my thirst cues so I’m no longer able to feel thirsty and if I try to drink even a full water bottle at one time I’ll puke it all up. I have no desire for fluids. I wonder if that would have helped or hindered me more in a situation like that. I wouldn’t feel as miserable, but I might die faster due to dehydration.
I once had a teacher that got stuck in the desert much longer then he wanted to hike, and he was so hot and so thirsty he started to dig for ant hopes of cool dirt to rub on his head. I remember him telling the class "it felt like instinct, my wife looked at me like I as crazy". When your body requires something it is extremly hard to fight urges. At the end of the day your brain is wired to think about the best way to take care of itself in the moment. It can make people do some wild things
My great grandpa, Norval “Jerry” Mitchell is one of the survivors. He passed in 2009, and was one of the last ones to pass away. Even though I was young when he was around, I remember playing with him in the yard, going over to his house, and him being such a good guy and great grandfather to me. My family says he didn’t like talking about the sinking, and I can see why. Rest in piece Great Grandpa Jerry ❤️
I remember watching The Infographics Show’s rendition of this story a year ago and was left shell shocked. I still imagine how it might have felt being bumped by sharks and them tearing you apart in the dark.
It makes my skin crawl just thinking about the waiting .... Knowing they are there and they can come and take you at any minute! Maybe they grab the guy next to you, maybe they just take a little bite... The thought of FEELING them down there and spending DAYS in the water....
I actually met a survivor of the Indianapolis a few years back. He did an interview for some short film or documentary in my families living room. A great man with a phenomenal story
@@chico9805 truly a human sentiment. All to often when that ship is brought up in conversations like this, the responses are usually "who cares, they were german" which is pretty disgusting
You're a wonderful story teller. The humor and honesty you present is why I come back for every video. This one really strikes a cord with me since I am a WW2 lover. We only lose things to time when we stop talking about them, thanks Wendigoon.
that man's crew unanimously deciding to help despite the fact that they had such a small plane, and would likely get put in danger themselves is really amazing. they didn't set off that day to do any of that, but they dropped everything to help those men in the water. even going so far as to wreck their plane.
My great uncle was a survivor. I never met him but all I heard was that he never talked about it. He’d just say he was in the navy and leave it at that. It was a thing where everyone knew, but never talked about.
You learn the basics of this story when you join the Navy, typically in boot camp and when getting certain warfare pins. I purposely avoided the "detailed" story until I got out because I didn't want to freak myself out while I was on the ship. The Indianapolis never fails to make my palms sweaty, and I can't imagine what those men went through. True American heroes
What a story. Let us never forget the brave individuals who served on the USS Indianapolis & all those brave souls who served for the freedom of the world throughout WWII.
My grandfather was on Admiral Nimitz's staff during this time and he fought to get Capt. McVeigh a commendation because he kept so many of his men together. Admiral Nimitz called my grandfather in his office and told him to drop it stating that this matter was bigger then you or me.
Im from Indianapolis and I learned about this when I was like nine. My dad told me about it after I saw jaws. I’ve thought about this a lot. Far more than necessary. New favorite episode.
Your timing for putting out videos is impeccable. You literally always throw a new one out right when I put my son down for a nap so I get to watch it immediately. God bless.
It will never cease to amaze me how old war enemies, even people that literally pulled the trigger to kill the other's friends, can come together after a war and not simply get along but be friends. This will never cease to inspire me on the good nature of humanity, There has got to be a lesson that Hashimoto and the survivors of the Indianapolis can teach us. Maybe one we really need to hear.
Apparently not 100% accurate to actual events, but still probably my favorite quote in cinema history... "Japanese submarine slammed two torpedoes into her side, Chief. We was comin' back from the island of Tinian to Leyte. Just delivered the bomb, the Hiroshima bomb. Eleven hundred men went into the water. Vessel went down in 12 minutes. Didn't see the first shark for about a half an hour. Tiger. 13-footer. You know how you know that when you're in the water, Chief? You tell by lookin' from the dorsal to the tail. What we didn't know, was our bomb mission had been so secret, no distress signal had been sent. They didn't even list us overdue for a week. Very first light, Chief, sharks come cruisin', so we formed ourselves into tight groups. You know, kinda like old squares in a battle, like you see on a calendar, like the Battle of Waterloo, and the idea was the shark come to the nearest man, that man he starts poundin', and hollerin', and screamin'. Sometimes the shark go away... Sometimes he wouldn't go away. Sometimes that shark, he looks right into ya. Right into your eyes. You know the thing about a shark, he's got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll's eyes. When he comes at ya, he doesn't seem to be livin'... until he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white and then... ah then you hear that terrible high-pitched screamin'. The ocean turns red, and despite all the poundin' and hollerin' they all come in and they... rip you to pieces. You know by the end of that first dawn, lost a hundred men. I don't know how many sharks, maybe a thousand. I don't know how many men, they averaged six an hour. On Thursday mornin', Chief, I bumped into a friend of mine, Herbie Robinson from Cleveland - Baseball player, boatswain's mate - I thought he was asleep. I reached over to wake him up. He bobbed up, down in the water, he was like a kinda top. Upended. Well, he'd been bitten in half below the waist. Noon the fifth day, Mr. Hooper, a Lockheed Ventura saw us, he swung in low and he saw us, he was a young pilot, a lot younger than Mr. Hooper, anyway, he saw us and he come in low, and three hours later a big fat PBY comes down to start to pick us up. You know that was the time I was most frightened. Waitin' for my turn. I'll never put on a lifejacket again. So, eleven hundred men went into the water. 316 men come out, the sharks took the rest, June the 29th, 1945. Anyway, we delivered the bomb."
Robert Shaw screwed up the first take cause he was so drunk, and he promised Spielberg he’d make it up to him the next day. Shaw came in and delivered that take in one go. The looks on Dreyfus’s and Sheider’s faces were their genuine reactions.
Man. This one still hits tough. Learning about this disaster in depth in boot camp terrified me of torpedos. Plenty of sleepless nights under the waterline in the south China sea
My stepfathers great grandpa was on this ship, he survived by holding on to a piece of floating hull wreckage for days with deep lacerations to his stomach area. He said he watched the oceanic white tips stalk the remaining sailors and would wait until night to come, every morning there were less sailors.
Hey Wendigoon, if you're going to do more war stories then I recommend looking up The Battle of Ramree Island Some very well-fed crocodiles in that "battle"...
@@yazminlares6000 Are you genuinely curious or is that rhetorical question because you tell us if it is the latter. It checks out the last time I looked into it.
@@DatcleanMochaJo I’m curious, sorry for the way I phrased the question. I remember reading an article that proved it to be fake years ago but I wouldn’t trust myself that much lmao
I highly recommend the book “In Harm’s Way” by Doug Stanton for anyone fascinated by this story. It’s a page turner for sure. The audiobook is about 8 hours.
My grandfather was a survivor and he spoke to Stanton about his experiences. Stanton showed up to my Grandfather's funeral later when he passed away, and I have lots of respect for him for doing that.
