Their Sacrifice, Our Freedom: WWII in the South Pacific

File Summary

This documentary covers the war in the Pacific, from eyewitness accounts of the attack on Pearl Harbor, to the Japanese surrender ceremonies aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. It is an information-packed, chronological guide to the milestone events, key battles, causes and consequences of the war and the military and civilian leaders who drove strategy. Interviews with Navy and Marine Corps veterans punctuate the desperate struggle facing the U.S. after its Pacific Fleet was largely destroyed and the Japanese invaded and occupied Manchuria, Southeast Asia, the Philippines and most of the Pacific Island chains.

Hard fought U.S. victories on Guadalcanal and Midway and the island hopping campaigns of the Solomon, Mariana, Gilbert, Marshall and Aleutian Islands are all covered in this film, along with the Bataan Death March, Col. Jimmy Doolittle’s Raid over Tokyo, the shoot-down and death of Admiral Yamamoto due to U.S. code-breakers and Gen. MacArthur’s return to the Philippines. Navy and Marine veterans discuss the anxiety of waiting for orders to invade Japan and their relief when atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki resulted in surrender, ending the war.