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WAR, THE: EPISODE 7: A WORLD WITHOUT WAR (TV) {LETTERBOX}

Summary

Part seven of seven. One in this series of documentaries which uses archival footage and photos, present-day interviews with veterans, and celebrity readings of soldiers' letters and related material to tell how citizens in four American towns -- Luverne, Minnesota; Mobile, Alabama; Sacramento, California; and Waterbury, Connecticut -- experienced World War II.

As the program opens, Marine pilot Sam Hynes of Luverne tries to define "evil" and how it pertains to his experiences in the war. Emma Belle Petcher of Mobile remembers taking a train to New York and observing a sea of flag-draped caskets at the station in St. Louis, Missouri. Hynes then recalls being part of the massive assault prepared to take the island of Okinawa, which would allow Allies to proceed on to Japan's mainland. Maurice Bell of Mobile, a gunner on the U.S.S. Indianapolis off Okinawa, speaks of the Japanese forces entrenched in the island's caves, as well as the determination of kamikaze pilots to kill as many Americans as possible. He tells how a kamikaze jet struck the ship and caused the death of nine crew members. Joseph Vaghi of Bethel, Connecticut, was among the Navy members who took part in the island's invasion on April 1. He was shocked by being able to walk onshore without gunfire, a landing in which Eugene Sledge of Mobile also took place. However, the Army soon encountered resistance in the southern part of the island, with hundreds of kamikaze attacks simultaneously inflicted on the ships at bay.

Glenn Frazier of Mobile recalls being in his fourth prisoner-of-war camp since the fall of Bataan, and thinking that he would be killed by his captors if Japan was defeated. Katharine Phillips of Mobile remembers hearing that President Franklin D. Roosevelt had died of a cerebral hemorrhage, and that Harry S. Truman would be sworn in to succeed him. Burt Wilson of Sacramento, describes the news hitting him as "catastrophic," despite being a young boy whose Republican parents hated FDR. Infantry member Paul Fussell of Pasadena talks about his sadness over FDR not living to see the American victory for which he had struggled so diligently. Daniel Inouye of Honolulu was stationed in the hills of Northern Italy as a member of the Japanese-American infantry unit when he heard the news, after which he and his troop began an unauthorized attack on the enemy as a tribute to "the old man."

Quentin Aanenson of Luverne tells how he had difficulty with the concept of returning home on leave, even though he was traveling to Louisiana to see his fiancee, Jackie Greer. Aanenson and Greer describe how they got married two weeks later in Baton Rouge. In Europe, General Dwight Eisenhower decreed that Russian forces advancing from the east would be allowed to take Berlin, while Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler vowed a fight to the end. In Northern Italy, Inouye led a charge against the German forces and was badly injured, resulting in the amputation of his right arm without an anesthetic. He tells how he survived his injuries, going on to become a senator representing Hawaii.

In Berlin, Russian forces decimated the city, prompting Hitler's suicide in his bunker. Fussell tearfully recalls the subsequent liberation of the death camps, with Allies unable to believe how the Nazis had rounded up Jews and other "enemies of the Reich" and imprisoned men, women, and children alike. He describes the number of corpses and human remains found in crematoriums. Burnett Miller of Sacramento tells about discovering 110,000 survivors of Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria. He remains convinced that locals in the town of Mauthausen lied to soldiers when saying they never knew of the camp's existence, stressing that anyone could immediately "smell all the death." Ray Leopold of Waterbury describes being near the Hadamar concentration camp when he came upon a castle in which the Nazis had conducted medical experiments on prisoners. As a Jewish medic, he recalls being "profoundly affected." He says that the magnitude of six million dead Jews is a horror that will always remain with him, and that no apology can ever atone for what he saw. Dwain Luce of Mobile describes finding a concentration camp near Ludwigslust, where soldiers made the locals bury the corpses in the town square, so that they could never be forgotten.

Germany's surrender on May 3, 1945 marked the conclusion of the war in Europe. However, celebrations were tempered by ongoing fighting in the Pacific. A letter from Sledge tells how the victory in Europe had little effect in Okinawa, with all realizing that the Japanese would continue to fight to the death, and that Tokyo must be invaded. Sledge recalls little progress as Marines tried to gain control of the southern end of Okinawa, but remained under constant fire. Hynes talks about the seeming impossibility of an Allied victory there --which occurred three weeks later. The Okinawa battle tally of 12,000 dead American soldiers made for the worst losses of the Pacific war. When Japan ignored the edicts of the Allies' Potsdam conference, calling for Japan's unconditional surrender, U.S. officials began to estimate the projected casualties for an invasion of Japan, with Truman considering other options.

Bell recalls how, in July 1945, the now-repaired U.S.S. Indianapolis picked up a mysterious package in California and delivered it to the Marianas Islands before proceeding toward the Philippines. Four days after the drop-off, a Japanese submarine torpedoed the ship, instantly killing about 300 crew members. The 900 remaining crew members jumped into the water and were surrounded the following day by sharks on a feeding frenzy. In the water for four days and five nights, Bell recalls how some men went crazy while others were pulled under by sharks. He was among the 321 survivors to be rescued by the Navy.

Bell later realized that the package carried by the Indianapolis was an atomic bomb meant to be loaded onto a plane called the Enola Gay. Dropped over Hiroshima on Aug, 6, 1945, the bomb obliterated the city and its 40,000 inhabitants. Within days, another 100,000 had died of burns and radiation while another 100,000 would die of radiation poisoning within five years. When Emperor Hirohito still refused to surrender, Russia declared war upon Japan and the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki on Aug. 9. Hirohito, erroneously thinking that the U.S. had more atomic bombs, surrendered, bringing an official end to the war. Leopold admits to having mixed feelings about the atomic bomb and its effects, while Phillips calls it "the greatest thing that they ever came up with."

Frazier tells how, after Japan's fall, his prison guards walked away and he took a train to Tokyo. Frazier recalls kissing the ground in San Francisco when he and his fellow prisoners-of-war arrived on American soil. He describes calling his family, all of whom had been told that he was dead. After his mother, sister, and aunt fainted, Frazier finally got through to his father, who claimed that he never believed the reports. Though telling how he has had torturous nightmares since the war, Frazier states that he got married and opened a trucking business. Earl Burke of Sacramento recalls being in San Francisco for V-E Day, when the city seemed to "blow up" with festivities. Anne De Vico and Olga Ciarlo, both of Waterbury, tell about V-E Day being a unique mix of happiness and sadness. Ciarlo recalls when the body of her brother, Corado, nicknamed "Babe" who had been killed in Anzio, was finally brought home. Tom Galloway of Mobile describes why returning home was a strange, sometimes difficult time for everyone. Leopold tells how Waterbury's industry waned in the post-war days, after which he moved away and become a fundraiser.

Aanenson tells how every soldier is a victim of "internal casualties," even if they look the same. He tells why he decided to live in Louisiana and entered the insurance business after the war, though he's often "pulled back into the whirlpool" of war flashbacks. Sascha Weinzheimer of Sacramento talks about what it was like to return to her family's farm after having been a prisoner-of-war with her family on Manila for four years. She explains that no one was able to understand what the family had endured, so they stopped talking about it. Though Sacramento's resurgence remained in place after the war, many Japanese-American from the area who were forced into internment camps struggled to regain their property. Robert Kashiwaga of Sacramento, who served in the now-celebrated Japanese-American fighting unit, found work with the California Highway Department, and still experienced anti-Japanese prejudice.

A letter from Sledge tells of his jubilation after V-J Day and returning to Mobile, which had ceased to thrive without the deluge of defense jobs. John Gray of Mobile found just as much discrimination against blacks as there had been before the war. After going to college, Gray became a teacher, then a school principal in Mobile. While Phillips became an airline stewardess before marrying, her brother Sidney decided to become a doctor. However, he was unable to help his best friend Sledge. Despite marriage, a career as a biologist, and author of a book about his World War II experiences, Sledge remained mentally troubled until his death in 2001. Fussell then concludes that his memories of the war have never gone away, and never can.

Finally, a montage of those who fought in the war, and those who suffered on the home front, accompanies a rendition of "American Anthem." Includes three program-sponsored commercials.

Cataloging of this program was made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Details

  • NETWORK: PBS
  • DATE: October 2, 2007 8:00 PM
  • RUNNING TIME: 2:04:46
  • COLOR/B&W: Color
  • CATALOG ID: 101232
  • GENRE: Public affairs/Documentaries
  • SUBJECT HEADING: World War II
  • SERIES RUN: PBS - TV, 2007
  • COMMERCIALS:
    • TV - Commercials - Anheuser-Busch beer
    • TV - Commercials - Bank of America banking
    • TV - Commercials - General Motors products

CREDITS

  • Ken Burns … Executive Producer, Producer, Director
  • Pam Tubridy Baucom … Coordinating Producer
  • Lynn Novick … Producer, Director
  • Sarah Botstein … Producer
  • Delfeayo Marsalis … Producer
  • Karen Kenton … Producer
  • Peter Miller … Co-Producer
  • David McMahon … Co-Producer
  • Meghan Horvath … Associate Producer
  • Taylor Krauss … Associate Producer
  • Dayton Duncan … Consulting Producer
  • Vivian Connolly … Animation Producer
  • Ben Spivak … Animation Producer
  • Geoffrey C. Ward … Writer
  • Wynton Marsalis … Music by
  • Gene Scheer … Music by
  • Keith David … Narrator
  • Tom Hanks … Voice
  • Josh Lucas … Voice
  • Quentin Aanenson
  • Maurice Bell
  • Earl Burke
  • Corado "Babe" Ciarlo
  • Olga Ciarlo
  • Anne De Vico
  • Dwight D. Eisenhower
  • Glenn Frazier
  • Paul Fussell
  • Tom Galloway
  • John Gray
  • Jackie Greer
  • Hirohito
  • Adolf Hitler
  • Daniel Inouye
  • Robert Kashiwagi
  • Ray Leopold
  • Dwain Luce
  • Burnett Miller
  • Emma Belle Petcher
  • Katharine Phillips
  • Sidney Phillips
  • Franklin D. Roosevelt
  • Eugene Sledge
  • Harry S. Truman
  • Joseph Vaghi
  • Sascha Weinzheimer
  • Burt Wilson
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