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(narrator) May 8 1945.

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V-E Day.

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Victory in Europe.

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After years of struggle,
an explosion of joy and of relief.

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(♪ "Knees Up Mother Brown"
by Harris Weston and Bert Lee)

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(crowd) ♪ Send him victorious

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♪ Happy and glorious

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♪ Long to reign over us...

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(Churchill) We may allow ourselves
a brief period of rejoicing.

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But let us not forget for a moment
the toils and eftorts that lie ahead.

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(narrator) There was still Japan.

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(narrator) Tokyo, just before midday
on 7 December 1942.

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(♪ Japanese national anthem)

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The Japanese people obserVed
the first anniversary

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of their imperial navy's destruction
of the American fleet at Pearl Harbour.

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lt was one year since they learned
that their nation of 80 million

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had engaged the combined might

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of over 200 million
Americans and British.

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Many had heard the news
of the Pearl Harbour attack soberly,

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even apprehensively.

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But then came victory after victory -
Hong Kong, Malaya, Singapore.

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Earlier fears were lost in exultation.

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(shouts in Japanese)

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(crowd cheers)

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(speaks Japanese)

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(narrator) Prime Minister
General Hideki Tojo,

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representative of the militarists

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who had made Japan
into an aggressive totalitarian state,

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had led his countrymen into the war.

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Now he promised them final victory.

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(translator) The nation will complete
the final round of this conflict.

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To overthrow America and Britain
we will fight until the last day.

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Then in the Greater Asian area

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we shall accomplish
the destruction of our enemies.

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Now, at the start of the second year,

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both myself and the nation
think about the men in the front line,

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and once again l express determination
for final victory.

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War work must be pushed on
and the struggle carried forward.

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(narrator) At this time,
Japan was not an industrial giant.

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But in this first year of war,

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they had seen the Japanese soldiers'
spiritual strength and discipline

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prevail over the materially stronger

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but morally inferior
Americans and British.

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The same dedication on the home front

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would make Japan's newly won empire
unassailable.

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(♪ fanfare)

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For some well-informed Japanese,

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the Pearl Harbour attack
had been an astonishing gamble.

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l came to work as usual
about nine o'clock

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and everybody was there.

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There was martial music playing

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and l almost fell over
when l saw the newspaper extra

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saying that the emperor had declared war
on United States and Great Britain.

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l think the man on the street
had the same feeling

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of being taken by complete surprise.

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(narrator) But now, propaganda film
could portray jubilant Japanese aviators

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smashing the American fleet
at Pearl Harbour.

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(shouts in Japanese)

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(narrator) Doubters were persuaded.

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Newsreels emphasised
the humbling of the arrogant whites.

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The Japanese believed that their own
soldiers always fought to the death.

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The sight of white prisoners
dwarfing the Japanese

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who herded them
into dishonourable captivity

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helped convince them
of their own invincibility.

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(woman) Japan was winning

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and every day we heard over the radio
all the victories.

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And the whole nation was very excited.

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And the thought l had at the time

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when l heard the news about the war was,
"What's going to happen?"

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But immediately all the victories
and big war songs

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and marches over the radio
all day long...

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So we are... quite excited

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and it was almost like a festival.

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(band plays march)

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(narrator) War had been with
the Japanese people for ten years.

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Since 1931 , their armies
had been fighting

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an endless, frustrating war in China.

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Victory in the Pacific
had been quick and complete.

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Here at last was something to celebrate.

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(air-raid siren)

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For years before Pearl Harbour,

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there had been mock air-raid drills
in every Japanese city.

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Not a precaution against
China's almost nonexistent air force,

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but part of the process of keeping
war-like emotion at a high pitch.

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(shouting in Japanese)

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(narrator) All took part.

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Neighbourhood Associations -
the Tonarigumi -

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ensured that every one
of the emperor's subjects at home

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was involved in the distant war.

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The Neighbourhood Associations
controlled all our life at that time.

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All the instructions from the government
were through the Tonarigumi,

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so we had to obey it.

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And we relied upon the Tonarigumi.

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(narrator) ln every neighbourhood,

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in schools, in playing fields
and on the streets,

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ordinary citizens patriotically
submitted themselves

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to regimentation of thought and act.

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(man shouts instructions in Japanese)

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(narrator) The inculcation
of patriotic virtues began in infancy.

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(piano plays)

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(children sing in Japanese)

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(narrator) From their earliest days,
children prepared mind and body

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to serVe a cause
greater than themselves -

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the family, the nation,

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the emperor.

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And if the nation was at war,
children had to be ready for that, too.

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(children continue singing in Japanese)

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(narrator) When school was over,

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it would be their duty and their
privilege to serVe their country

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in the imperial forces on land, on sea,

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in the air.

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High-school pupils
joined the air force for a day.

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lf they were lucky,

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they would have the chance
to join as adults before too long.

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(man) Of course,
the Japanese were brought up

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in three or four cardinal truths
from cradle to grave -

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that the emperor was divine,
the country was invincible,

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and it consisted of... a chosen race.

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Things like these,

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which were drummed into the Japanese
mind from kindergarten up.

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(narrator) Japanese boys were taught

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to imitate the martial code
of the samurai -

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archaic and ferocious,
devoid of pity for enemy or for self.

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For the samurai, to die in battle
was to fall at the moment of perfection,

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as the cherry blossom does.

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The worship of Buddha
had coexisted in Japan for centuries

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with the ancient Shinto worship
of spirits, of ancestors,

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of the sun goddess, Amaterasu.

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But in the 1920s and '30s,
the nationalists and militarists

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had insisted that Shinto
be made the state religion.

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Shinto was pure.
lt was strictly Japanese.

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And it was from the Shinto sun goddess,
the Japanese devoutly believed,

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that the nation's high priest
was directly descended -

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the emperor.

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The emperor was a god
and a warrior chief.

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The mystic belief that, through him,
the Japanese race

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was destined for conquest
was systematically propagated.

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The military acted
in the emperor's name,

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but they contrived that,
in spite of appearances,

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he retained little real power on Earth.

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The emperor
was deeply solicitous of peace,

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which means that he was opposed

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to starting hostilities with America.

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But his position was such

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that if the cabinet
recommended, unanimously,

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a certain line of policy,

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he could not disapprove of it,
although he might dislike it at heart.

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(narrator) ln a government
headed by a general,

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this meant doing what the army wanted.

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The ashes of Japan's war dead
were carried home, packed in boxes.

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Relatives of the fallen,
widows and mothers,

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had no more occasion for pride,

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no more right to tears
than the day they had said goodbye.

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To send sons or husband to die
for the emperor was the highest duty.

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"We'll meet at the Yasukuni Shrine,"

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where the ashes of the war dead
were consecrated,

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was the traditional farewell
of the soldiers leaving,

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wrapped in haramaki - the protective
belly band of a thousand stitches.

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(man) A girl stands
on the corners of the streets,

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say if in Tokyo, along the Ginza,

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and asks each passer-by woman
to make a stitch.

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She must collect a thousand stitches.

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This is given to a soldier. l got one.
You wrapped this round your belly.

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lt's supposed to keep your stomach warm

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so that you don't catch cold
or this or that,

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but also to ward oft bullets.

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Now, we all know this cannot be done,
but this is like a charm, also.

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And l used to think, now l don't know
whether l should say this,

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but l felt this is very unfair,

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especially when l got the order
to go overseas.

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The Japanese girls
are giving me this thousand stitches.

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l am going to die.
l have not experienced a woman.

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Why cannot they give me
their body to enjoy, and let me live,

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however short my life is,
to enjoy the fullness of it?

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Because sleeping with me
is not going to kill the girl, you know?

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Maybe she likes it, l don't know.

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But here l am about to die,
and all l get is a thousand stitches.

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(narrator) Wartime farewells were
supposed to be a spiritual experience -

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ceremonial, unsentimental.

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(all sing in Japanese)

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(narrator) Men recovered from wounds

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left hospital to the singing
of the Umi Yukaba.

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"l go to a lonely grave
far across the sea," they sang,

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and went oft to the war again.

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But suddenly, less than five months
after Pearl Harbour...

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..the war was not so far away.

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18 April 1942.

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16 Mitchell medium bombers, commanded
by Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle,

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set out from the US aircraft carrier,
Hornet,

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for the first-ever air raid on Japan.

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The American aim was to make
a token, but early, demonstration

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of Japan's vulnerability to air attack.

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ln this, they entirely succeeded.

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When Doolittle's raid was conducted

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over the sky of Tokyo,

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00:20:12,836 --> 00:20:18,257
that produced a...
produced a sort of consternation

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00:20:18,342 --> 00:20:21,677
because the military

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00:20:21,762 --> 00:20:26,974
repeatedly assured the public

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that the Japanese sky was impenetrable.

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(narrator) Doolittle's bombers
did penetrate Japan's skies

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to drop a mere 16 tons
of bombs on her cities.

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00:20:39,238 --> 00:20:41,948
The actual damage was not great.

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00:20:42,074 --> 00:20:43,741
The shock was.

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(man) The Japanese press
were told how to display the news.

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00:20:47,955 --> 00:20:52,291
The complexion
was put on as a cruel act -

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00:20:52,376 --> 00:20:56,545
indiscriminate bombing
of civilians and women and children.

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00:20:59,883 --> 00:21:03,427
(narrator)
Eight Doolittle flyers were captured.

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00:21:10,269 --> 00:21:15,064
For the Japanese, bombing was something
that happened to other people.

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00:21:15,148 --> 00:21:19,944
They were angry that this barbarity
had happened to them.

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00:21:24,032 --> 00:21:27,535
The prisoners were tried
by a military court.

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00:21:27,619 --> 00:21:30,246
Three were executed.

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00:21:38,797 --> 00:21:43,467
The main function of Japanese women
was to bear sons.

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00:21:43,552 --> 00:21:46,929
Skilled only in such feminine arts
as the tea ceremony,

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00:21:47,014 --> 00:21:49,056
they stayed in the background.

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00:21:49,141 --> 00:21:51,600
Now with the battle fronts
taking the men away,

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00:21:51,685 --> 00:21:53,686
they were directed to sterner things.

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00:22:01,403 --> 00:22:03,321
(man sings in Japanese)

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00:22:18,086 --> 00:22:21,297
Country women were used
to taking their place in the fields

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00:22:21,381 --> 00:22:23,174
alongside their men.

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00:22:23,258 --> 00:22:26,802
But for the women from the cities,
the war meant a complete change.

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To stock the nation's depleted larder,

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00:22:29,222 --> 00:22:32,558
they too were conscripted
to labour long hours.

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They mined coal to make the utmost use
of Japan's scanty resources

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00:22:44,529 --> 00:22:46,947
and keep the war machine moving.

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City girls were brought up
to be wives and mothers,

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00:23:07,844 --> 00:23:11,597
to be known
as the "honourable hidden one".

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00:23:11,723 --> 00:23:15,476
Now they came out of their seclusion
and learned new skills.

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00:23:21,316 --> 00:23:24,902
The women of Japan must take over
men's work, they were told,

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as their enemies had done,
to ensure victory.

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00:23:29,074 --> 00:23:31,158
(man sings in Japanese)

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00:24:08,613 --> 00:24:10,865
(woman) When we worked at the factory,

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00:24:10,949 --> 00:24:12,867
every other week we had to work

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00:24:12,951 --> 00:24:16,454
from three o'clock in the afternoon
until 1 1 o'clock.

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00:24:16,538 --> 00:24:21,083
And at 1 1 o'clock
when we finish our work,

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00:24:21,168 --> 00:24:27,590
they would take us to a dining room
and they would give us one bowl of soup.

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00:24:27,674 --> 00:24:35,055
Actually, it was hot salt water
with maybe two or three soy beans.

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00:24:35,140 --> 00:24:37,725
And we are very hungry.

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00:24:37,809 --> 00:24:42,938
Or maybe just one noodle at the bottom.

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00:24:43,023 --> 00:24:46,442
Everything we got through rations.

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00:24:46,526 --> 00:24:51,489
Unless we have a card for rations,
we couldn't get anything.

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00:24:51,573 --> 00:24:58,204
We have to do some self-supply,
and we grew potatoes in our gardens.

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00:24:58,288 --> 00:25:03,167
We worked very hard
to grow our own vegetables.

243
00:25:03,251 --> 00:25:05,461
Our everyday life,

244
00:25:05,545 --> 00:25:09,256
that life was very, very hard.

245
00:25:10,258 --> 00:25:12,968
(narrator) The empress herself
took on a new role,

246
00:25:13,053 --> 00:25:15,763
urging the nation
to more eftort, more sacrifice.

247
00:25:15,847 --> 00:25:18,724
Sacrifice was necessary for victory,

248
00:25:18,808 --> 00:25:21,769
and in final victory
their belief was still unshaken.

249
00:25:22,812 --> 00:25:26,607
None knew that by June 1942,

250
00:25:26,691 --> 00:25:30,027
the battle had already become
one simply for surVival.

251
00:25:43,917 --> 00:25:46,001
June 1942.

252
00:25:46,086 --> 00:25:49,755
United States war planes take oft
to intercept a Japanese armada

253
00:25:49,839 --> 00:25:52,174
attacking the island of Midway.

254
00:26:08,817 --> 00:26:13,779
To this battle, Admiral Yamamoto,
the Japanese naval commander-in-chief,

255
00:26:13,863 --> 00:26:18,701
had committed the four largest
aircraft carriers in the Japanese fleet.

256
00:26:18,785 --> 00:26:21,579
When the battle ended on 5 June 1942,

257
00:26:21,663 --> 00:26:26,750
Yamamoto's four carriers
were blazing wrecks or sunk.

258
00:26:26,835 --> 00:26:31,380
Midway was a defeat
from which Japan's navy never recovered.

259
00:26:31,464 --> 00:26:36,427
But the Japanese people were told
that Midway was a victory.

260
00:26:36,511 --> 00:26:40,347
The truth was concealed
even from members of the government.

261
00:26:40,473 --> 00:26:42,558
(speaks Japanese)

262
00:26:44,561 --> 00:26:48,105
(translator) We were told
that one aircraft carrier was sunk

263
00:26:48,189 --> 00:26:51,150
and one was severely damaged.

264
00:26:51,234 --> 00:26:54,445
Since there were four carriers
involved in the battle,

265
00:26:54,529 --> 00:26:56,905
the way we heard it,
three had come back,

266
00:26:56,990 --> 00:26:59,992
although one was severely damaged.

267
00:27:00,076 --> 00:27:04,913
But the Anglo-American side
was saying that all four had been sunk.

268
00:27:04,998 --> 00:27:07,833
This left some doubts in our minds.

269
00:27:07,959 --> 00:27:11,170
We pressed the navy
to give us more details,

270
00:27:11,254 --> 00:27:14,548
but they stuck
to their original announcement.

271
00:27:14,633 --> 00:27:16,717
(speaks Japanese)

272
00:27:19,304 --> 00:27:22,848
(translator) l was a news cameraman
in the Midway battle.

273
00:27:22,932 --> 00:27:26,310
When we got back to our base
in the Japan Sea,

274
00:27:26,394 --> 00:27:29,480
we were not even allowed
to write any letters.

275
00:27:29,564 --> 00:27:33,275
The wounded were kept
in the isolation wards.

276
00:27:33,401 --> 00:27:38,489
A top-secret order said that nothing
could be talked of the Midway battle,

277
00:27:38,573 --> 00:27:41,659
not even within the navy itself.

278
00:27:41,743 --> 00:27:44,119
l was virtually kept prisoner

279
00:27:44,204 --> 00:27:48,082
for about a month and a half
after returning to Japan.

280
00:27:48,166 --> 00:27:52,711
As a journalist, l was kept
under particularly strict surVeillance

281
00:27:52,796 --> 00:27:57,716
because we were reputedly great talkers
and loose with our tongues.

282
00:27:57,842 --> 00:28:02,346
And l was kept from going back to Tokyo
while the rest of the war lasted.

283
00:28:03,139 --> 00:28:09,853
The true situation was never broadcast
from the NHK, of course.

284
00:28:09,979 --> 00:28:15,025
Every news... broadcast

285
00:28:15,151 --> 00:28:19,279
was strictly censored in those days.

286
00:28:22,826 --> 00:28:28,205
The general public only knew
that the Japanese army and navy

287
00:28:28,289 --> 00:28:31,917
kept winning every battle they fought.

288
00:28:38,717 --> 00:28:41,385
(narrator) No news, just propaganda.

289
00:28:46,725 --> 00:28:48,642
Only one outcome was imaginable

290
00:28:48,768 --> 00:28:52,521
in the conflict ceaselessly portrayed
in the propaganda films.

291
00:28:52,605 --> 00:28:57,526
The white oppressors of Oriental people
overcome by the brave Japanese soldier.

292
00:29:08,371 --> 00:29:10,956
(shouts in Japanese)

293
00:29:15,795 --> 00:29:18,630
(shouting in Japanese)

294
00:29:21,050 --> 00:29:23,844
(narrator)
The spartan Japanese soldier, in turn,

295
00:29:23,928 --> 00:29:27,848
overcome by contempt and rage
at his white enemy's soft living.

296
00:29:27,932 --> 00:29:30,225
(shouts in Japanese)

297
00:29:35,523 --> 00:29:37,858
(band plays dirge)

298
00:29:41,696 --> 00:29:46,617
(narrator) Tokyo, 5 June 1943.

299
00:29:46,743 --> 00:29:50,788
The state funeral
for Admiral lsoroku Yamamoto,

300
00:29:50,872 --> 00:29:52,414
the great commander

301
00:29:52,499 --> 00:29:56,418
who had masterminded the victory
at Pearl Harbour.

302
00:29:56,503 --> 00:30:00,047
Yamamoto died a hero,
the Japanese people were told,

303
00:30:00,131 --> 00:30:04,927
in the front line,
meeting death gallantly in a war plane.

304
00:30:05,011 --> 00:30:08,764
His loss was greater
than many battleships.

305
00:30:17,148 --> 00:30:20,234
But this first public admission
of a defeat,

306
00:30:20,360 --> 00:30:23,403
although represented
as only symbolic of heroism,

307
00:30:23,488 --> 00:30:28,283
hid grimmer truths of which
Yamamoto himself had been well aware.

308
00:30:28,368 --> 00:30:33,497
He knew that the enemy's material
superiority, once fully mobilised,

309
00:30:33,623 --> 00:30:35,749
would be overwhelming.

310
00:30:35,834 --> 00:30:40,170
At Pearl Harbour, he had gambled
that the war would be a short one.

311
00:30:40,255 --> 00:30:43,382
At Midway, the gamble was lost.

312
00:30:55,395 --> 00:30:59,815
Yamamoto had been shot down in skies
now swarming with enemy planes,

313
00:30:59,899 --> 00:31:03,235
over seas now dominated
by the enemy's navy.

314
00:31:08,825 --> 00:31:13,662
By 1944, the scales had tipped
fully against Japan.

315
00:31:15,290 --> 00:31:18,292
Metal had become
a precious war commodity

316
00:31:18,418 --> 00:31:20,919
too valuable for ornament or ceremony.

317
00:31:23,506 --> 00:31:26,592
The war had been fought
to secure raw materials

318
00:31:26,676 --> 00:31:30,220
for a land where they were scarce -
above all, for oil.

319
00:31:30,305 --> 00:31:34,516
But now the resources General Tojo had
boasted would flow from their conquests

320
00:31:34,601 --> 00:31:37,936
were getting no nearer to Japan
than the bottom of the ocean.

321
00:31:38,021 --> 00:31:41,857
Not enough got through
to keep the war machine going.

322
00:31:43,067 --> 00:31:44,985
And food was scarce.

323
00:31:45,069 --> 00:31:48,989
The ofticial daily ration
of 1500 calories, subsistence level,

324
00:31:49,073 --> 00:31:50,616
was often not met.

325
00:31:50,700 --> 00:31:54,077
The rice harVest
was the worst for 50 years.

326
00:31:54,162 --> 00:31:56,496
StarVation hovered close.

327
00:31:58,708 --> 00:32:04,838
The victories of 1941 had placed Japan
behind a vast protective ring,

328
00:32:04,923 --> 00:32:07,007
defended in death.

329
00:32:08,426 --> 00:32:10,719
By the middle of 1944,

330
00:32:10,803 --> 00:32:15,057
General MacArthur's amphibious armies
had reduced this to an inner ring

331
00:32:15,141 --> 00:32:17,976
hinging on the island of Saipan.

332
00:32:19,520 --> 00:32:23,190
Saipan, within flying distance of Japan,

333
00:32:23,274 --> 00:32:28,403
was claimed by the Japanese military
to be a shield and an impregnable one.

334
00:32:28,488 --> 00:32:31,281
lt was vital that it should be.

335
00:32:31,366 --> 00:32:33,450
(speaks Japanese)

336
00:32:36,079 --> 00:32:39,164
(translator) lt was realised
that if Saipan was lost,

337
00:32:39,248 --> 00:32:42,709
we would be
in a very difticult position.

338
00:32:42,794 --> 00:32:46,296
The importance of Saipan
was that once it fell,

339
00:32:46,381 --> 00:32:50,342
the war would be
right in front of Japan's eyes.

340
00:32:52,220 --> 00:32:56,807
Japan would come within bombing range
of US planes.

341
00:32:56,891 --> 00:33:01,853
lt was an absolutely vital
defence area for Japan.

342
00:33:13,366 --> 00:33:15,325
(narrator) On 15 June 1944,

343
00:33:15,410 --> 00:33:19,579
after five days of saturation
bombardment by sea and air,

344
00:33:19,664 --> 00:33:23,041
American assault troops stormed ashore.

345
00:33:35,346 --> 00:33:39,016
As always, the Japanese garrison
fought to the last.

346
00:33:49,736 --> 00:33:52,487
Here, for the first time,
Japanese civilians -

347
00:33:52,572 --> 00:33:55,490
women and children -
were caught up in the battle.

348
00:33:55,575 --> 00:33:58,952
Some, dazed and docile, submitted.

349
00:34:08,296 --> 00:34:13,592
Saipan had deep-water harbours,
it had two airfields.

350
00:34:13,676 --> 00:34:15,844
Every rock was defended.

351
00:34:45,792 --> 00:34:50,921
ln three weeks, to take an island
only 85 square miles in area,

352
00:34:51,005 --> 00:34:54,674
the Americans
lost 15,000 dead and wounded.

353
00:35:01,599 --> 00:35:05,727
25,000 Japanese defenders
died to a man.

354
00:35:23,663 --> 00:35:29,543
And some civilians, like many soldiers,
chose suicide rather than surrender.

355
00:35:40,429 --> 00:35:44,224
They died in vain. Saipan was taken.

356
00:35:49,272 --> 00:35:51,898
Even before the last Japanese had died,

357
00:35:51,983 --> 00:35:56,528
American bombers were ready
to take oft for the mainland.

358
00:35:56,612 --> 00:36:01,158
The truth was now too close even for
the Japanese high command to conceal it.

359
00:36:01,784 --> 00:36:03,869
(speaks Japanese)

360
00:36:10,334 --> 00:36:15,130
(narrator) The situation, they told
the people, was grave but not hopeless.

361
00:36:15,214 --> 00:36:20,093
But the sacred homeland itself
was now directly threatened.

362
00:36:20,595 --> 00:36:26,266
The enemy, schoolchildren learned,
was within striking distance by air.

363
00:36:30,730 --> 00:36:34,566
The time had come for all,
young and old,

364
00:36:34,650 --> 00:36:39,362
to meet the threat with
the same defiance as their fighting men.

365
00:36:41,407 --> 00:36:46,411
Only a handful of trained pilots
remained of Japan's once proud air army,

366
00:36:46,495 --> 00:36:49,873
built for attack not defence.

367
00:36:49,957 --> 00:36:53,543
When war began,
their Zero fighters had ruled the skies.

368
00:36:53,628 --> 00:36:56,588
Now they were outdated and outgunned.

369
00:36:56,672 --> 00:37:00,800
These men pitted their machines
against giant American Superfortresses

370
00:37:00,885 --> 00:37:03,595
which now attacked the homeland.

371
00:37:06,224 --> 00:37:10,393
They were young and brave,
but they were very few.

372
00:37:10,478 --> 00:37:12,562
(shouting in Japanese)

373
00:37:23,324 --> 00:37:25,408
(man speaks Japanese)

374
00:37:27,161 --> 00:37:29,788
(translator) l felt that a Zero fighter

375
00:37:29,872 --> 00:37:32,791
was to me what a sword
was to the samurai,

376
00:37:32,875 --> 00:37:36,253
and l felt that l must
manipulate the plane

377
00:37:36,337 --> 00:37:38,880
just as if it were my own body.

378
00:37:38,965 --> 00:37:43,093
And l also believed that the cockpit
was a secret place

379
00:37:43,219 --> 00:37:45,470
which would be my death place.

380
00:37:50,559 --> 00:37:55,397
When we went on an attack,
we never took parachutes.

381
00:37:55,523 --> 00:37:57,565
This was because we believed

382
00:37:57,650 --> 00:38:04,239
we should never become prisoners
when shot down over enemy positions.

383
00:38:07,827 --> 00:38:11,871
From ancient days, it was the belief
of the Japanese warrior

384
00:38:11,956 --> 00:38:15,208
that to be taken prisoner alive
is sinful.

385
00:38:15,293 --> 00:38:19,963
We, too, were always taught
that the modern Japanese soldier

386
00:38:20,047 --> 00:38:24,926
should never become prisoner
because it is the greatest disgrace.

387
00:38:25,511 --> 00:38:27,887
(narrator)
With the imperial navy shattered,

388
00:38:27,972 --> 00:38:31,349
the Saipan shield pierced,
the Philippines conquered,

389
00:38:31,434 --> 00:38:34,561
only the islands of lwo Jima
and, finally, Okinawa,

390
00:38:34,645 --> 00:38:38,982
were left to bar the Allied advance
on Japan proper.

391
00:38:39,066 --> 00:38:43,069
By April 1945, lwo Jima had been taken.

392
00:38:44,113 --> 00:38:48,658
Now an American army, protected by
massed warships, threatened Okinawa,

393
00:38:48,743 --> 00:38:51,244
the last island before Japan.

394
00:38:53,247 --> 00:38:56,458
ln a desperate throw
to stave oft the ultimate assault,

395
00:38:56,542 --> 00:38:58,835
Japan once more
summoned its young men

396
00:38:58,919 --> 00:39:02,797
to fight and die
as their ancestors had done.

397
00:39:03,924 --> 00:39:06,009
Special squadrons were formed.

398
00:39:06,093 --> 00:39:09,637
The kamikaze - men of the divine wind -

399
00:39:09,722 --> 00:39:11,306
named for the typhoon

400
00:39:11,390 --> 00:39:15,310
which had destroyed the invasion force
of Kublai Khan centuries before.

401
00:39:15,394 --> 00:39:19,564
They drank a last cup of rice wine
and set oft to die.

402
00:39:29,658 --> 00:39:33,370
Their aircraft had been converted
into flying bombs.

403
00:39:35,956 --> 00:39:38,333
Their mission was to crash them

404
00:39:38,417 --> 00:39:41,628
onto the decks of enemy warships
round Okinawa.

405
00:40:03,609 --> 00:40:05,693
(speaks Japanese)

406
00:40:07,988 --> 00:40:10,490
(translator) As a commander,
l'm often asked

407
00:40:10,574 --> 00:40:14,327
whether l went through hell
in sending out these pilots.

408
00:40:14,412 --> 00:40:17,205
But, actually, the opposite is the case.

409
00:40:17,289 --> 00:40:20,250
We had a lot of pilots who volunteered,

410
00:40:20,334 --> 00:40:24,212
but it was only a very few
who could leave on one attack.

411
00:40:24,296 --> 00:40:27,715
And so it was more difticult
to choose a selected few.

412
00:40:27,800 --> 00:40:31,553
All the other volunteers said,
"Send me! Send me!"

413
00:40:31,637 --> 00:40:35,056
So it's difticult
to ask these people not selected

414
00:40:35,141 --> 00:40:37,892
if they'll wait until another day.

415
00:40:40,729 --> 00:40:44,232
On the other hand, those taking part
in the day's attack

416
00:40:44,316 --> 00:40:46,276
were in very high spirits,

417
00:40:46,360 --> 00:40:50,572
and so there's no difticulty
in sending these men out.

418
00:40:50,698 --> 00:40:52,866
But unlike an ordinary attack,

419
00:40:52,950 --> 00:40:58,121
these kamikaze pilots, once they
took oft, they never come back.

420
00:40:58,205 --> 00:41:00,415
And so there was this sadness
in knowing

421
00:41:00,499 --> 00:41:05,003
that the people you were sending out
you'd never see again.

422
00:41:18,476 --> 00:41:21,811
(narrator) The kamikaze
were shot out of the air.

423
00:41:22,897 --> 00:41:25,857
They did severe damage, but failed.

424
00:41:32,948 --> 00:41:35,492
The Americans invaded Okinawa.

425
00:41:46,337 --> 00:41:51,633
Okinawa was only 350 miles
from metropolitan Japan.

426
00:41:51,759 --> 00:41:56,304
The nearer to the mainland,
the more fanatical the fighting.

427
00:42:37,096 --> 00:42:41,224
On Okinawa,
only 7,000 Japanese soldiers surVived.

428
00:42:41,308 --> 00:42:45,395
Over 100,000 died,
many by their own hand,

429
00:42:45,479 --> 00:42:48,439
and 75,000 civilians.

430
00:43:08,210 --> 00:43:10,837
Mrs Yonaha, a student,

431
00:43:10,921 --> 00:43:13,423
was ready to die, too.

432
00:43:13,507 --> 00:43:15,592
(speaks Japanese)

433
00:43:16,885 --> 00:43:20,471
(translator) All around us,
the soldiers and the inhabitants

434
00:43:20,556 --> 00:43:23,766
were running helter-skelter,
obviously confused.

435
00:43:23,851 --> 00:43:28,646
For some reason, l followed the soldiers
and we got into a small shelter.

436
00:43:28,731 --> 00:43:31,941
lt was more to get out of the rain
than anything.

437
00:43:32,026 --> 00:43:36,070
We found several other soldiers
already in the hideout.

438
00:43:36,155 --> 00:43:40,950
We could hear the US army calling us
through loudspeakers to come out.

439
00:43:41,035 --> 00:43:44,329
Whoever it was
spoke a very beautiful Japanese,

440
00:43:44,413 --> 00:43:46,831
but we had been taught from a long time

441
00:43:46,915 --> 00:43:51,085
that we should never surrender
and become prisoners of war.

442
00:43:51,170 --> 00:43:55,173
So we let these broadcasts continue
all day long without any let-up.

443
00:43:55,257 --> 00:43:59,427
The shouts came from the sea -
"Come out. Come out."

444
00:44:03,140 --> 00:44:06,434
They were saying,
"We will not inflict any harm

445
00:44:06,518 --> 00:44:08,936
on women and children and old people,

446
00:44:09,021 --> 00:44:11,105
so please come out."

447
00:44:11,190 --> 00:44:17,070
l had already decided to die
and felt that l should commit suicide.

448
00:44:17,154 --> 00:44:22,283
One of the soldiers had a hand grenade
and said, "Let's all commit suicide."

449
00:44:22,368 --> 00:44:24,577
And we agreed.

450
00:44:24,662 --> 00:44:26,871
Once we had made that decision,

451
00:44:26,955 --> 00:44:31,417
l felt a great relief
and a calmness come over me.

452
00:44:31,502 --> 00:44:35,463
At first, of course,
l did not want to kill myself.

453
00:44:35,547 --> 00:44:39,258
l wanted to escape somehow
and keep on living.

454
00:44:40,302 --> 00:44:45,056
But the loudspeakers began to increase
in intensity and in volume.

455
00:44:45,140 --> 00:44:49,102
We felt that the Americans
were coming in closer and closer,

456
00:44:49,186 --> 00:44:53,314
so l asked the soldier to kill me,
together with himself.

457
00:44:53,399 --> 00:44:56,984
Just when l was waiting for the soldier
to pull the pin,

458
00:44:57,069 --> 00:44:59,612
one of the other soldiers
took out a sword

459
00:44:59,697 --> 00:45:01,739
and started waving it around saying,

460
00:45:01,824 --> 00:45:06,244
"You women and children get out.
You shouldn't die here."

461
00:45:06,328 --> 00:45:09,622
We were quite startled
by the sudden shouting,

462
00:45:09,707 --> 00:45:13,626
and so we stood up
and took a step backwards.

463
00:45:13,711 --> 00:45:17,004
The place in which we were hiding
was very small,

464
00:45:17,089 --> 00:45:20,717
so one step back
and we were outside the shelter.

465
00:45:20,801 --> 00:45:25,805
We looked up and saw two American
soldiers pointing pistols at us.

466
00:45:25,889 --> 00:45:30,184
They didn't say anything,
but kept gesturing with their pistols.

467
00:45:30,269 --> 00:45:32,437
"Come out. Come out."

468
00:46:08,515 --> 00:46:11,058
The soldiers we had left inside

469
00:46:11,143 --> 00:46:14,979
asked us not to tell the US soldiers
they were hiding

470
00:46:15,063 --> 00:46:18,316
because all of them
were going to commit suicide.

471
00:46:23,280 --> 00:46:27,825
(narrator)
On 2 July 1945, Okinawa fell.

472
00:46:27,910 --> 00:46:33,998
ln the home islands, the Japanese people
braced themselves for the storm to come.

473
00:46:34,082 --> 00:46:37,585
The first Superfortresses over Tokyo
a few months earlier

474
00:46:37,669 --> 00:46:41,881
were only the harbingers
of hundreds of others.

475
00:46:44,885 --> 00:46:47,970
These were now to spew out
fire and high explosive

476
00:46:48,096 --> 00:46:50,181
in a sustained aerial assault,

477
00:46:50,265 --> 00:46:54,602
systematically razing the cities
of Japan one after the other.

478
00:47:11,620 --> 00:47:14,622
There it is, the end of the line.

479
00:47:27,928 --> 00:47:30,847
(narrator) ln formations
of up to 2,000 at a time,

480
00:47:30,931 --> 00:47:35,977
round the clock, virtually unopposed,
they laid Japan's cities waste.

481
00:48:05,632 --> 00:48:10,303
Beneath them, the rush
to air-raid shelters as the sirens blew

482
00:48:10,387 --> 00:48:12,597
became a dreaded daily routine.

483
00:48:13,932 --> 00:48:17,059
(woman) l first ran into the shelter,

484
00:48:17,144 --> 00:48:24,567
but l didn't rely upon it
because it was very small and weak.

485
00:48:24,651 --> 00:48:28,738
All people in the shelter were so tired

486
00:48:28,822 --> 00:48:34,368
and always pale and silent and...

487
00:48:34,453 --> 00:48:36,037
What l say?

488
00:48:36,121 --> 00:48:40,708
The children... not so crying

489
00:48:40,792 --> 00:48:45,212
because they were too tired
and too terrible to cry, l think.

490
00:48:45,297 --> 00:48:47,965
So they were all silent.

491
00:48:59,811 --> 00:49:02,897
(narrator) Japan's wooden cities
burned easily,

492
00:49:02,981 --> 00:49:05,358
and their citizens in them.

493
00:49:05,484 --> 00:49:08,402
This man-made inferno in Tokyo

494
00:49:08,487 --> 00:49:13,074
was worse even than that following
the great earthquake of 1923,

495
00:49:13,158 --> 00:49:15,993
the capital's worst natural disaster.

496
00:49:20,916 --> 00:49:24,418
(woman) Some distance from my house,

497
00:49:24,503 --> 00:49:28,130
there was a lot of men died.

498
00:49:28,215 --> 00:49:33,344
And my best friend lost her father

499
00:49:33,428 --> 00:49:36,722
and brother and sister at that night.

500
00:49:36,807 --> 00:49:43,437
And her mother, suicide after that.

501
00:50:07,921 --> 00:50:10,339
The next morning,

502
00:50:10,424 --> 00:50:16,387
l thought l want to see my house.

503
00:50:16,471 --> 00:50:21,350
So l crossed the bridge
and went to my house.

504
00:50:21,435 --> 00:50:25,646
And whole houses were destroyed.

505
00:50:25,731 --> 00:50:27,982
l was so tired...

506
00:50:30,152 --> 00:50:34,864
..to think anything bad,
but l hated the war.

507
00:50:34,948 --> 00:50:37,283
And l hated the war.

508
00:50:37,367 --> 00:50:41,287
l was standing in pain

509
00:50:41,371 --> 00:50:44,165
and in silence, too.

510
00:50:45,917 --> 00:50:48,586
(narrator)
Tokyo was a charred wasteland.

511
00:50:48,670 --> 00:50:51,630
Only steel and concrete surVived.

512
00:50:51,715 --> 00:50:55,176
16 square miles of the capital
were flattened.

513
00:50:55,260 --> 00:50:58,471
The stench of death
hung heavy over the ruins.

514
00:50:58,555 --> 00:51:00,931
ln one raid, in one night,

515
00:51:01,016 --> 00:51:03,100
over 70,000 perished.

516
00:51:04,436 --> 00:51:09,440
ln air raids on Japan, nearly
a quarter of a million civilians died.

517
00:51:11,443 --> 00:51:14,278
Eight million were made homeless.

518
00:51:33,173 --> 00:51:36,258
Man and woman, boy and girl,

519
00:51:36,343 --> 00:51:39,512
the surVivors prepared
to defend their homeland,

520
00:51:39,596 --> 00:51:43,641
to drive the invaders back into the sea
with wooden rifles,

521
00:51:43,725 --> 00:51:47,686
bows and arrows, bamboo spears.

522
00:51:47,771 --> 00:51:52,900
But the end, when it came,
was to be from the sky -

523
00:51:52,984 --> 00:51:54,777
irresistible,

524
00:51:54,861 --> 00:51:57,238
unimaginable,

525
00:51:57,322 --> 00:51:59,406
mushroom-shaped.