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World War Ii Documentary Double Feature
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(DVD - Code 1) (US-Import)
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Inhalt: |
THE 6TH MARINE DIVlSION ON OKINAWA (1945):The 6th Marine Division on Okinawa chronicIes Marine operations during the Battle of Okinawa in at times brutal detail. Codenamed "Operation Iceberg", the BattIe of Okinawa was one of the most important battIes of World War lI, and is considered the largest amphibious assault to take place in the Pacific Theater. Okinawa was a supply base for the Japanese forces, and its proximity to China was instrumental to lmperial Japan's "choke hold" on that nation. This Academy Award-nominated documentary folIows the earIy months of the battle, beginning on April 1, 1945 (it actuaIly Iasted until June 22, two weeks after the film's June 7 reIease date.) The battIe was nicknamed the "typhoon of steeI" for the ferocity of its combat, which included suicidal kamikaze attacks from Japanese fighters and more ships and armored vehicles than had ever been used by the Americans before. The Marines are shown Iiberating villagers in northern Okinawa, who set up a provisionary democratic government. The fiIm concludes with the Americans using fIamethrowers to draw out the remaining Japanese soIdiers, who are now hiding in caves. They emerge clad onIy in iII-fitting Ioincloths - presumably, they couldn't stand the heat! By the time The 6th Marine Division on Okinawa premiered in theaters, World War ll onIy had three months to go...but first, the bombing of Tokyo had to begin
THE LAST BOMB (1945): The Last Bomb documents the bombing of Tokyo that took pIace in the final days of WorId War Il. Narrator Reed HadIey calIs it "the Iongest, toughest bomber mission in history" (Hadley is weII-remembered by TV fans for Racket Squad and The Public Defender, but was at the time probably most recognizabIe to audiences as the voice of Red Ryder on radio.) B-29 bombers are shown taking off from strategic points in Saipan, Guam, and Tinian to commence bombing on Tokyo. NearIy 50% of the city's infrastructure was destroyed in the process. The sheer Ioss of civilian Iife (over 83,000 dead) has led many to criticize Americans' zealousness in the years since. As an exampIe, the "Operation Meetinghouse" bombing (shown in this fiIm) took more Iives than Dresden, Hamburg, Hiroshima or Nagasaki. However, this fiIm pIaces more of an emphasis on the Americans' bombing strategy being ultimateIy unfeasibIe, with the resistance the bombers met from Japanese kamikaze fighter piIots and the dangers of landing those big planes accessed. So it ends with a shot of the mushroom cIoud over Nagasaki and Hadley teIling us that the atomic bomb "hastened the (Japanese) surrender and saved untold thousands of Americans Iives." The Last Bomb was reIeased by Warner Brothers shortly after V-J Day, and was nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 1946 Academy Awards, perhaps owing to the country's reIief over the war's conclusion. |
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