World War II with Tom Hanks (2026) s01e19 Episode Script

1
For almost four years,
American soldiers and Marines
in the Pacific
have struggled across beaches,
through jungles
and atop mountains to subdue
a nation that refuses to surrender.
The effort has been immense.
More is required.
In the spring of 1945,
the United States
will start the final push
to defeat the Japanese empire.
All wars changed the world,
but none of them changed the world
like the Second World War did.
Japan's on the march,
Germany's on the march.
No one can imagine the nightmare
they're about to unleash.
The most destructive war
in human history.
Suddenly the world
is turned upside down
and all hell is let loose.
The West is stunned by
the speed of the advance.
You get the allies
led by the big three:
Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin.
Men who are dealing with immensely
complicated questions.
It's the biggest military
operation of human history.
The allies have to come together,
not just militarily,
but industrial scale.
It's a global perspective.
They have to fight
in every climate,
from the Arctic
to the jungles of the Pacific,
to the deserts of Africa
and the depths of the ocean.
But there was no
certainty of victory.
It was going to be
a horrific bloodbath.
We see humans
at their absolute worst,
how they treat other human beings,
and we see them
at their absolute best,
willing to give their lives
that others might live.
World War II was a struggle
in which there could be one victor
and vanquished.
With the Rhine's west bank secured,
Britain expects other crossings
of Germany's river of destiny,
after a law to build up
our own strength,
and after that, the end of the
European war should not be far off.
In America
in the spring of 1945,
there is hope that the war
in Europe is nearing its end.
Husbands and fathers,
boyfriends and brothers
might finally be coming home.
It is front and centre
on the American mind.
How quickly can we get to Berlin
and get the soldiers home?
The public get this sort of
an attitude that, you know,
hey, the war's almost over.
They'll be coming home,
but it's almost like a marathon
and you see the finish line
in the distance,
and so you know you can give one
last kick and then somebody says,
"Actually there's another
three miles to go."
Victory in Europe
seems within reach.
Victory over Tokyo
remains on the far horizon.
For months, hundreds of B-29s
have been striking Japanese cities
to marginal effect.
The army air forces believed
that a sufficient amount of
pinpoint bombing from high altitude
would take out Japanese industry
and make it impossible for them
to continue the war.
It didn't work.
Bombing from 30,000 feet,
the winds were too strong,
blew the bombs all over the place.
Under the command
of General Curtis LeMay,
the Air Force alters its tactics.
On March 9th, 1945,
LeMay's B-29s will attack Tokyo from
only 5,000 feet using a new weapon.
Bombs filled with napalm.
Napalm is this gel combined with
gasoline that will stick to things
and then it catches fire and it
makes it very, very hard to put out.
It's for starting fires that are
designed to just go out of control.
And the reason it's gonna be
so destructive is that Tokyo is
mostly made of wooden paper
and this is just going to explode.
It'll be incredibly inflammable.
The argument was that
if you destroy the housing units
of the Japanese workers,
they wouldn't be able to go to work
and build the planes and tanks.
They needed to continue
the conflict.
But the outcome
was absolutely horrific.
It is just complete
devastation in Tokyo.
100,000 people were killed.
We think of Dresden as
being the worst single moment
in the European Theatre
of Operations.
The fire storm at Dresden,
25,000 were lost there,
but in Tokyo
there's a 100,000 killed
in a single operation.
The whole city was a sea of fire.
It was so hot
that canals start to boil
and the fires eat up so much of
the oxygen that a lot of the people
who die asphyxiate
because there's no oxygen left.
A huge proportion of the city
is simply gone in one night.
The destruction is immense.
16 square miles of Tokyo
are obliterated.
After this one raid, a million
Japanese no longer have a home.
It's unprecedented.
General LeMay later I recall that
he would've been tried
as a war criminal
if United States lost in the war.
To survey the damage,
Emperor Hirohito emerges from his
bunker beneath the Imperial Palace.
Emperor Hirohito has been pretty
isolated throughout the war,
but he does have a sense
that the war is not exactly
going as his generals
and admirals are telling him.
So when the fire bombing
in Tokyo happened,
that only intensifies his desire
to start looking for ways
to end the war.
For Emperor Hirohito,
the big concern is not what might
happen to the ordinary
Japanese people,
but if the Americans
make it onto Japanese soil,
what might happen to him?
What might happen
to the imperial line
that goes back centuries in Japan?
He says,
"I can't possibly face my ancestors
having sacrificed the throne."
The emperor of Japan
is considered to be divine
with immense authority
over his people.
But Hirohito rarely
exerts that authority
in political or military matters.
There's the committee for the
supreme direction of the war,
which is six people,
two people from the army,
two people from the navy, the prime
minister and the foreign minister.
Those six are the only six that
had any real say within Japan.
The civilian leaders understood
they couldn't win the war,
but the military
are determined to fight on.
Japanese military leaders
have lived their whole life
under a professional code.
That surrender is so dishonourable
you would rather die,
no matter what the suffering,
the warrior does not surrender.
For all the firebombing,
for all the destruction
already rained on Japan,
there's no sign of surrender.
The American high command
now believes that the Japanese
would not surrender
short of an invasion
and occupation of the Japanese
home islands.
The United States is gathering
its forces for the next phase
of its assault on Imperial Japan.
The capture of Okinawa,
the largest island
on the Ryukyu chain.
Okinawa is just 400 miles
south of Kyushu,
which is the most southerly
of the Japanese home islands,
and therefore can be used
to launch an invasion fleet.
So Okinawa is absolutely
vital to the Americans.
Okinawa would be defended
by about 100,000
Japanese frontline troops
and also native Okinawan
militia forces.
They know that the Americans
have overwhelming superiority
in the air and at sea.
The plan for the defence
of Okinawa
is don't go for a Banzai charge.
Instead, they will prepare
these defensive fortifications,
let the Americans come to them
and take them out that way.
Using native
Okinawans as forced labour,
the Japanese build a network
of bunkers and tunnels.
And the idea
was kill four, five Americans
before you are killed yourself.
The Japanese overall strategy
is to make the Americans pay
so much for Okinawa that an invasion
of the Japanese home islands
would be unthinkable.
The garrison on Okinawa
is only half the Japanese strategy
for defending the island.
The other element of the plan
is to use kamikaze,
but in far greater numbers
than ever been used before.
The Japanese recognise that
when the Americans conduct
these amphibious landing operations,
the ships offshore are the lifeline
that's keeping the battalions ashore
in the fight.
So they came up with this idea
of these organised waves
of kamikaze attacks.
And if you launch 300
kamikaze at the American fleet
and you take out seven aircraft
carriers or something,
that is a war-changing thing.
The Battle of Okinawa
starts with the largest invasion
of the war in the Pacific.
A massive effort combining
naval, air and ground support.
60,000 soldiers and marines are
bound for Okinawa's western beaches.
The invasion force
will land on Hagushi Bay,
then the Marines will sweep north,
and the army south,
to take control of
the entire island.
The biggest danger
in an amphibious operation
is the actual landing because
you are incredibly vulnerable.
You are out in the open.
The combat troops going up first.
Both Marine and Army have been
told to expect up to 80% casualties.
So if you've drawn the unlucky straw
of being one of the first units,
you're pretty convinced not
many of you're gonna survive.
They get to the beaches
start walking up it,
body's tense waiting
for the bullets to come
and there is nothing.
They're experiencing
virtually no opposition.
And so there was a thought that
hey, maybe Okinawa's not gonna turn
out to be a big bloodbath after all.
The first few days go
very well for the landing forces.
They cut across all the way
to the other side of the island
against minimal opposition.
It's looking too good
to be true at this stage.
Military leaders believed
that Japan must fight to protect
the honour of the country.
And these kamikaze pilots
are the chosen ones
to go to this divine mission
to protect their homeland.
They really believe that that
would turn the tide of the war.
The pilots are young,
many of them are teenagers,
they're ill-trained.
They don't even have enough
fuel to come back from this flight
if they wanted to.
They know they're going to die.
So when they get to the first
American ship they see,
they attack.
For the first five days
of the invasion of Okinawa,
there's no opposition to the massive
US fleet surrounding the island.
But just after noon on April 6th,
the Japanese arrive in force.
Imagine we're on the bridge
of one of these destroyers
80 miles north of Okinawa.
The kamikaze come from starboard,
from port, from high, from low.
So you feel like you're in a boxing
ring with about five other boxers
attacking you from every direction.
Hundreds of kamikaze at a time
thrown against the invading fleet.
They thought with the sheer numbers,
they could take out
the capital ships;
that's battleships
and aircraft carriers
and drive off the US fleet
in its entirety.
The kamikaze don't
really have much success
against aircraft carriers
but 300+ ships
are targeted by the kamikazes.
More than 36 of them sink.
It is more devastating than
any conventional bombing attack
has been in the war so far,
but it's not enough.
What the kamikaze tells me is that
the Japanese knew the war was lost,
at least by conventional means.
There's nothing more dangerous
in warfare than a cornered enemy.
The Japanese
are gonna go down in flames
but will never surrender, never.
For the US Navy,
the battle against the kamikaze
at Okinawa
is bloodier than any
previous confrontation
of the entire Pacific War.
And American ground forces
are now facing
increasing resistance as well.
The force that had landed on
the beaches is pushing south toward
a place called Kakazu Ridge
where they encounter
the first line of Japanese defences.
It's the first time the
Americans meet serious opposition
and it stops them dead.
The Japanese have created
a defensive system that goes
right across the whole
width of the island,
so they can't be out-flanked.
American troops endure
days of non-stop enemy fire.
This is attritional,
grizzly, meat grinding fighting,
and that's just the first line
of defence.
There are gonna be
many more beyond this.
What we thought was gonna
be a cakewalk is anything but.
April 12th.
The American people learn
Franklin Delano Roosevelt,
the man they elected four times
is dead.
Vice president Harry S. Truman,
a former judge and senator
from Missouri
is sworn in hours later.
Roosevelt had led the country
through the Great Depression
and through the war.
In the 82 days that Truman
had been vice president,
he met with Roosevelt all of twice.
He really knows nothing about
what's going on with the war effort.
He didn't think
he was up to the job
and there are people
who would say he was right.
The new president
is immediately confronted
with enormous challenges.
It's important for the wartime
president to demonstrate
that he has a plan for bringing
this war to a successful conclusion
and as rapidly as possible.
It's clear to the American
population that Germany
is on its last legs,
but Japan is still fighting hard.
The question really is,
how many American lives am
I going to lose to end this war?
That's the whole ball game
for Harry Truman.
Truman meets with
Secretary of War Henry Stimson
and Army General Leslie Groves.
The agenda is classified.
They hand Truman a document.
Truman opens it up and reads it
and the memo begins
with these dramatic words.
"Within four months, we shall,
in all probability, have completed
the most terrible weapon
ever known in human history,
one bomb which can
destroy a whole city."
The Manhattan Project,
the top secret American program
to develop the world's
first atomic bombs.
For three years, thousands
of scientists and engineers
have worked on the most powerful
weapon in history.
It is set to be tested mid-summer.
Truman and his commanders
are ready to pay any price
to bring this war to an end.
But an invasion of
the Japanese home islands
will be bloody
on an unimaginable scale.
Higher losses than
any previous campaign,
either in the Pacific War
or in the war in Europe.
The Manhattan project, the attempt
to develop atomic weapons.
If that proves to be successful,
if those tests prove out,
then that is an alternative.
The war in Europe is over.
The Nazi Third Reich
has been destroyed.
But for war-weary America
and its allies,
the war in the Pacific continues,
and many of the men
who helped defeat Germany
may now be required to fight Japan.
At this point,
people in the military knew
that a lot of these units are
gonna need to be transferred.
Just because the war in Europe
is over, don't get excited.
We're gonna need those troops
in the Pacific.
After two months
of ceaseless combat,
Marine and Army units break through
the main Japanese defensive line
on Okinawa.
Japanese troops
are forced to retreat
and attempt a last stand
on the Kiyan Peninsula.
By this point,
the Japanese soldiers on Okinawa
are low on ammunition,
they are starving,
they're exhausted,
but they realise that the next step
for the allies after Okinawa
is the home islands.
They are all that stand between
the allies and their families,
their homes.
They are the last line of defence
and everyone is depending on them.
Although the Americans
have gained ground
the more you push and the more
terrain that has been captured,
the more dangerous and costly
the battle is becoming.
But the Americans know
we're making progress.
If war is a clash of wills,
the United States is a nation
willing to fight it out to the end.
Organised resistance on Okinawa
ends On June 22nd.
The Japanese army's
commanding general
and his chief of staff both
commit suicide by ritual seppuku.
100,000 Japanese
servicemen are killed.
On the American side, the casualties
are 50,000 killed and wounded.
These are the worst of battle
casualties in the Pacific War
for the Americans,
worse than all of that are
the number of civilians killed.
Up to 125,000,
which is a third of the population
caught in the crossfire.
This is just Okinawa.
What happens when we
get to their home islands?
The cost is gonna be enormous.
This war ain't over.
It's not even close to being over.
American leaders understand
the Battle of Okinawa
is a frightening preview
of what to expect
when Japan's home islands
are invaded.
Truman has a meeting
with General Marshall
and the joint chiefs of staff
on Operation Downfall;
the invasion of the Japanese
home islands.
This plan goes back to
the Roosevelt presidency.
Planning is going forward
and the most interested person
at the meeting is George Marshall.
He wants Truman to sign off on it.
Operation Downfall will be
a two-pronged operation,
the first called Operation Olympic.
The idea of Operation Olympic is to
invade the southern island of Kyushu
and seize naval bases and air bases
while pushing Japanese forces north.
The critical phase, though,
of Operation Downfall
is what's code-named
Operation Coronet.
It's the invasion of Honshu,
which is where Tokyo itself sits.
So this would inevitably end
in either the destruction
or capture of the Japanese capital.
Think about the scale of
Operation Downfall as a whole.
5 million men involved,
up to a million British
and Commonwealth troops,
4 million American troops,
and this is gonna dwarf D-Day
in the logistics and the naval of
forces that are gonna be involved.
Then the forces that
are actually gonna land
and most importantly of all is gonna
dwarf the number of casualties.
If the allies
had to invade Japan,
that would be the largest amphibious
assault ever undertaken.
And the Americans were gonna
bear almost the entire weight of it,
and the President understood that
better than most of
the American public did.
Truman specifically
says to his chiefs of staff,
I don't want an Okinawa from
one end of Japan to the other.
So Truman, in June of '45,
is looking at a brutal final act
against Japan.
But it is very important
to Harry Truman
that he always be
seen as the decider.
The buck stops here.
Truman understands that this
war with Japan needs to end,
the invasion looks horrible.
But what's option B
in this situation?
Even at this late date in June,
there's no sense that the Manhattan
Project is going to work.
They really don't know
if they have a bomb yet.
And so Truman signs off
on Operation Downfall,
the two big invasions of Japan.
Stage one, Operation Olympic
is set for November 1st.
The clock is ticking.
The Japanese army's plan
is to fight to the bitter end
with a decisive and final battle
in the home islands.
For a while now,
the Japanese army had been planning
what they call Operation Ketsugo,
which means operation decisive.
It's a plan to defend Kyushu.
They think they've got
perhaps a million men that
they can put into the field.
They also want to put civilians
into the field.
Their idea is that they will
make things so terrifying,
that it will stop the Americans
trying to do anything anywhere else
in the home islands.
Women and children were
going through the military drills
where everybody was
given a bamboo spear.
They are essentially mobilising
everybody older than 12 years old
to fight to the death.
In July, for the first time,
President Truman
meets with both British Prime
Minister Winston Churchill
and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin
at Potsdam,
formerly the home of Prussian kings
and the German Kaiser.
Europe is devastated.
It's a massive disaster zone.
The point of the Potsdam Conference
is for these three governments
to come together
and figure out how these countries
are gonna be rebuilt.
But Truman has his eyes on
a completely different problem.
He huddles with
Secretary of War Stimson,
and what are they talking about?
They're talking about the Pacific.
With Operation Downfall
months away,
President Truman seeks
assurance that the Soviets
will participate in the war
against Japan as pledged.
All this time, Japan and
the Soviet Union had been neutral.
They had not been at war
with one another.
Stalin promised within 90 days
of the end of the war in Europe,
he'll join the war against Japan.
He promised that to Roosevelt
back at Yalta.
So Truman hopes that's a go.
But at the start
of the conference,
Stimson receives a coded cable
from the War Department.
"Operated on this morning,
diagnosis not yet complete,
but results seem satisfactory.
Dr Groves is pleased."
Truman now knew that the atomic bomb
had been detonated successfully.
In this moment,
we have this amazing window
into Truman's thinking,
because he was keeping a diary.
Truman realises this bomb could be
a short circuit to ending the war.
When Truman hears that
the atomic bomb actually works,
he knows they have to use it,
but he wants to give the Japanese
one last chance to surrender
before he does.
President Truman, along
with Churchill and Chiang Kai-shek,
the leader of the Republic of China,
issue the Potsdam Declaration,
a warning to Japan of what awaits
if they don't surrender
unconditionally.
But Stimson suggests
they consider allowing Hirohito
to keep his throne.
Stimson understands the
constitutional and cultural position
that the emperor plays in Japanese
life, this kind of demigod status.
So he insists on inserting
into the declaration,
assurance that they won't try
the emperor for war crimes.
But beyond that, it will be
unconditional surrender,
and no other terms
will be acceptable.
Also in this document is wordage
that does not mention
the atomic bomb,
but it does say that if
unconditional surrender
is not coming, the destruction was
going to be historic and massive.
The Office of War Information
releases the Potsdam Declaration
and the Japanese receive it
via radio from San Francisco.
Prime Minister Suzuki
and Emperor Hirohito
are of the opinion that
the Potsdam Declaration
is not really vindictive.
They see some hope.
Emperor Hirohito himself,
at this point,
he is open to accepting it, but he
understands his role as an emperor.
There are only certain times
for him to weigh in.
The emperor
and the Peace Party
are in an impossible position here.
I mean, if they respond
positively to the ultimatum,
the military might
turn against them,
but if they completely ignore it,
there's a danger that the Americans
are actually gonna carry out
what they suggest.
Two days later,
Japan's Prime Minister Kantaro
Suzuki holds a press conference.
When press asks
about Potsdam Declaration,
Suzuki uses the word "mokusatsu."
The best translation for that
is "no comment"
or I'm not going to respond
to that question.
However, the word mokusatsu can
also mean we're going to ignore it.
I think the Japanese media,
they're very quick to interpret it
in the most hostile
and negative way.
Then the American media pick it up,
then that becomes the view of the
American administration as well
that the Japanese are rejecting
the Potsdam Declaration.
And to Truman, the Japanese
response is plain and clear.
He believes that the Japanese
told him to go to hell.
By early 1945,
Tinian Island in the Marianas
is the largest air base on Earth.
Hundreds of B-29s have taken off
from its multiple runways
to bomb Japan.
But there's a very mysterious
restricted area
at one part of the base.
No one really knows
what's going on up there.
It belongs to some unit called
the 509th Composite Group.
These are the preparations
for the arrival of the atomic bomb.
Components for the atomic
bombs are delivered in late July
and carefully assembled
over the following days.
So the Manhattan Project was
able to produce enough uranium
and plutonium for three bombs.
And after the Trinity test,
the Americans only had
two bombs in the arsenal.
Truman makes
the decision to drop the bomb.
He legitimately wants
to save US casualties
and bring this war
to an end rapidly.
At the same time, he wants to assert
his authority as president.
It is one of the most
consequential decisions that
any nation has ever made,
and no one knows
what was gonna happen.
But President Truman did understand
that this was of a different
scale and scope.
He compares it to the biblical flood
in his diary,
"As the world was once destroyed
by water for Noah,
perhaps now it'll be destroyed
by fire and destruction."
By design, the target
of the first atomic bomb is a city
relatively unscathed by the war.
American military leaders
want the Japanese to understand
the awful destructive power
of this new weapon.
That morning in Hiroshima
is an ordinary morning.
People are going
about their business.
Some people are going
into the factories to work.
They're still wondering why
they've not yet been bombed
and they're expecting it
more or less any day.
And then people see
this light in the sky,
sun shining off a single aircraft.
The first thing is
the flashing light
as if sun explodes,
then a noise and a shock.
The people who were near
the epicentre evaporate.
The casualties mount
until you get between 90,000
and 160,000 people who've died.
The dominant image that
survivors give of Hiroshima
is of one of the Buddhist hells.
One thing really difficult
for historians to jive with
is this idea that Truman
has chosen military targets
and he writes even in his diary, the
words, "And not women and children."
We'll never really know.
Did he really feel that
this was a military target
or was he writing that in his diary
understanding that
history for generations
was gonna judge him for this?
Truman is at sea
coming home from Potsdam
when he received the news.
Later that same day,
he goes on the airwaves to address
the American people and to tell them
what has just happened.
He says it's a new type of bomb
that America has used it
and will continue to use it
until Japan surrenders.
If they do not now
accept our terms,
they may expect a rain of ruin
from the air,
the like of which has never
been seen on this earth.
Even with Hiroshima in ruins,
Japanese leaders do not surrender.
The peace camp
pushed for immediate acceptance
of the Potsdam Declaration,
but the military side insists
on continuing the war.
The reasoning is that may be
the only atomic bomb that they had.
So they're still at the stalemate.
And then the Soviet Union
declares war on Japan.
Just as Stalin promised,
exactly 90 days after
the surrender of Germany,
one and a half million Soviet troops
pour across the border into
Japanese occupied Manchuria.
The Japanese aren't
aware that for months the Soviets
have amassed their armour
on the borders with Manchuria.
But now the Russians
are rolling into Manchuria
and they're rolling over
the Japanese.
And now you've got the prospect
of the Soviets,
not just making their way
into Manchuria,
but possibly across to the Japanese
home islands.
For Japan, it's a complete disaster.
On the same day the Red Army
moves into Manchuria,
B-29s appear over Nagasaki.
One carries an atomic bomb.
The US has
just one more atom bomb left.
But the whole idea is to give Japan
the impression
that the US has an unlimited stock
and that if Japan won't surrender,
the US will continue to unleash
atom bombs on Japan.
Between 60 and 70,000 people
are killed instantly.
Prime Minister Suzuki
convenes the war council
and the discussion is, are we gonna
accept the Potsdam Declaration?
And the answer
from the military is no.
You've had two atomic bombs.
You've had the Soviet
invasion of Manchuria,
and yet the Supreme War Council
is still split.
The war faction, the military,
they're absolutely not willing to
consider unconditional surrender.
That's when Prime Minister
Suzuki makes the very important move
saying that we need
to ask the emperor.
This is a standout moment.
This is something you
would never normally do.
There's a sense Hirohito
is semi-divine
and shouldn't be troubled with
the decision making process.
It's a really extraordinary step.
But Hirohito, I think,
sees the gravity of the situation.
He sees that this is a moment
where it's his responsibility
to step up as the leader
effectively.
And he says,
"We must bear the unbearable
and suffer the insufferable.
We will end the war
and then move on."
I have received this afternoon
a message from the Japanese
government.
I deem this reply, a full acceptance
of the Potsdam Declaration,
which specifies the unconditional
surrender of Japan.
And people go nuts.
Tens of thousands of people gather
at the gate of the White House.
The world has been holding
its breath since the war began.
Now it is over
and there is great celebration.
One of the crucial factors
in ending this war is that you have
Harry Truman, an accidental
president who had to be briefed
on the wartime situation
when he enters the Oval Office.
And Hirohito, who has never
really made political decisions.
They assert themselves and bring
the war to an end in August of 1945.
Batan, Guadalcanal,
Iwo Jima, Okinawa,
once obscure points on a map,
now each place has a new meaning.
In Japan on August 15th,
Emperor Hirohito addresses a nation
that has never surrendered.
Most Japanese had never
heard the emperor's voice before,
but the Jewel Voice Broadcast
as it became known,
is essential to getting most
Japanese used to the idea
of laying their arms
and admitting surrender.
When the Japanese
hear that the war is over,
there has to be a combination
of feelings.
We sacrificed all these people,
all this money
and these cities of Japan,
and we lost.
Shock, sadness,
but also this incredible sense of
grief that we let the emperor down.
Our lack of effort let
the emperor down.
The Japanese accepted
the idea of surrender.
The allies accepted
the idea of Hirohito
remaining on the Japanese throne,
and that was the end of the war.
September 2nd, 1945,
on the deck of the USS Missouri
anchored in Tokyo Bay,
the Japanese sign the instrument
of surrender,
the largest conflict
in world history
closes with a signature
and a speech.
Douglas MacArthur
marks the occasion.
"It is my earnest hope
and indeed the hope of all mankind,
that from this solemn occasion,
a better world shall emerge out of
the blood and carnage of the past."