Stories about war are something that many Americans find it difficult to visualize. There have been critical moments in the European war that features important events. There were several events like that of the liberation of Paris and the bombing of London where the events of the war were known to everyone. However, there were troops that were sent to stop the Japanese from taking control of the South Pacific. These troops would go into obscure islands and the nature of the war was largely unknown. The use of historical narrative fiction can be used to expound such unknown events that could appear as meaningless. The Pacific miniseries employs proper story structure to enlighten events about the Pacific war and the sacrifices and trauma that soldiers went through.
About the series
The Pacific miniseries is an American television series produced in the year 2010 by HBO. The series focuses on the actions undertaken by the United States Marine Corps during the Pacific Theater of Operation in the Pacific War. The series has been closely linked and compared to the series Band of Brothers that focused on the adventures undertaken by the men of East Company within the European Theater. The Pacific is centered on the stories and experiences of three different marines; Eugene Sledge, Robert Leckie, and John Basilone. The three were from different regiments and were in the 1st Marine Division.
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The Pacific features various battles undertaken by the 1st Marine division in different areas such as Okinawa, Peleliu, Cape Gloucester, and Guadalcanal. It also features the involvement of Basilone in the Battle of Iwo Jima. Eugene Sledge is featured in at Peleliu and Okinawa while Robert Leckie is featured in the title Helmet for My Pillow. The series also features the memoirs of Chuck Tatum who was a Marine that fought with Basilone in Iwo Jima.
The Pacific had a significant impact upon its release and many years afterward because it served as a reminder about the sacrifices in war. The series educates about the horrors that were endured by men and women in the United States during the events of World War II. The series serves as a token of appreciation for the impressive bravery that the soldiers showed throughout various events in the war. By watching the series, many can come to appreciate the sacrifices made by various veterans today. They went through hard times and sacrifices as they fought for their country.
Sacrifices that soldiers went through
The focus of the series is on the true stories of three real-life soldiers. It recreates various events that took place in the Pacific Theater between the years 1941 and 1945. The focus on the three men is because they had to endure difficult struggles and situations that were extremely challenged. They appeared to be directly plunged into hell throughout the war. The nature of the hardship and the events make the series to have an emotional power of a profound degree. The series showcases the loss of each and every one of those Marines in the thousands. They are seen to be lying dead in the jungle areas and the beaches. The entire region appears sorrowful as the jungles and beaches become blood-soaked battlegrounds.
The recreation of the series with the use of technology makes it as intense and unforgiving as the various events that took place in World War II. The series is filled with horror as the US Marines carve valuable gold teeth from the mouths of Japanese soldiers that were killed. There are crabs and rats moving about everywhere and there appear to be all kinds of mental and physical illness among the soldiers. There are frequent rain and mud that make it difficult to live and move around in the hot and humid climate. The Marines also face the ever-present threat of snipers that were Japanese soldiers. The Japanese soldiers are depicted as stubborn and stern killing machines. The series has several punctuations where the men catch glimpses of who they are on the inside. The war has taken toll of them and most of them are devastated with their experiences. 1
Many people love historical truth and the best stories told in any film come from the portrayal of truth. The best stories come from historical facts and it can be difficult to make stories exciting or more compelling than anything that had happened in the world. Combining the stories of the three men allowed the producers to take advantage of the miniseries format in the storytelling process. It allowed for the exploration of the character in a way that a simple movie could never show. For instance, one episode features the main character being in a mental institution for half of the episode. This was the fate that befell Leckie as a result of the mental turmoil in the war. The series showcases in detail the mental toll that the Pacific war took on the men that fought in the war.
The events in the Pacific Theater
Japanese expansions in East Asia started in 1931 where they invaded Manchuria and went on to 1937 with a brutal attack on China. Japan signed a Tripartite Pact with Italy and Germany and entered a military alliance. This caused the United States to impose economic sanctions on Japan. They were faced with severe shortages in natural resources and were driven by ambitions to displace the United States as the dominant power in the Pacific. Japan launched a surprise attack on the United States Pacific fleet at the Pearl Harbor in December 1941. The United States responded by declaring war on Japan after Germany had declared war on the United States.
The declaration of the war saw the start of the Asian-Pacific Theater, a theater of operations undertaken by the United States forces throughout World War II. It carried out in the Pacific War from 1941 to 1945. From the mid-1942 to the end of the war in 1945, two operations were carried out by the United States commands within the Pacific. The region was divided into the Central Pacific Area, the South Pacific Area, and the North Pacific Area. Each area had its own commander and the entire region was known as Pacific Ocean Areas (POA). There was no specific commander that was the head of the entire region since there were complementary roles undertaken by the United States Navy and the United States Army 2 .
Japan had a series of military successes as they went forth and invaded various regions and places occupied by the United States and the British. The turning point of the war came about with naval victory at the Battle of Midway which took place in June 1942. Allied forces were able to gain naval air supremacy in the Pacific and moved methodically from one island to the next. They would conquer one island step by step and sometimes sustained significant casualties. However, the Japanese were able to defend the positions successfully within the Chinese mainland until the year 1945.
The United States Army Air Force was able to drop an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The result was that tens of thousands of people died in the first explosion while many more died as a result of exposure to the radiation. The United States later dropped another atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Nagasaki three days later. The Soviet Union also declared war on Japan and invaded Manchuria, a region that had been occupied by the Japanese. Estimates were that approximately 120,000 civilians died due to the two blasts. Japan agreed to Surrender on August 1945 and American forces started to occupy Japan. Japan in September 1945. 3
Distinct features of the Pacific Theater
The war against Japan in the Pacific was slightly different from the war which was against Hitler. The differences can be seen in both the topographical, physical, and psychological difficulties that the soldiers faced. World War II that was fought in Europe was a form of mechanized horror and death and was a throwback. The war was the last greatest land war that was fought in Europe and was fought in places with great names. Even though the armies that fought in Europe and other wars did not fully understand about the geopolitics of the war, they recognized the need for the war and fought in it.
The soldiers that participated in the war at the Pacific knew exactly what they were going into. The Pacific miniseries makes this clear in the early episodes where most of the soldiers were informed of the geopolitics of the war. The reason for participating in the war appeared to be quite simple. Japan had attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor and it was now time for the U.S troops to get their territory back. While most of the soldiers were ready for the war, they were not ready for the events and the nature of the war. The kind of war which they undertook was scarcely what they had imagined. They went to islands which they had no information about and they could not imagine the cost that would be paid. The jungle was different from other regions such as London and Paris that could easily get aid and assistance. It was different in the Pacific which was full of malaria and jungle rot.
Instead of finding tank columns and European cities that had been protected, the soldiers would find disease, heat, and enemy that would attack using guerilla tactics. The enemies could go at lengths and engage in suicide missions while some of them were disguised as civilians. Most of the wells they would find were poisoned and they had bugs in their rice. 4 The showcase of the miniseries about the Pacific is in part a horror and partly a historical movie. There are very tense scenes in the movie where soldiers have to fight in the dark.
Unlike other historical films and stories, The Pacific pays a close attention to the fighting done by the grunts. There is little attention paid on the strategy of the war and various activities that were undertaken by the generals. The miniseries pays a close attention to the fighting and the lives of the different soldiers. By focusing mainly on the stories of the three Marines, the showcases a depth view of the effects of the war on the personal lives of the people that engaged in the battles.
The experiences of soldiers in the series
The Pacific follows the story of three real-life Marines. Robert Leckie was a budding journalist before he got enlisted into the Marines. The role is played by James Badge Dale. Leckie was an aspiring writer but had severe struggles to keep his body and mind intact throughout the war. Dale plays the role of quite well as he showcases Leckie personal traits as a soulful rogue. John Basilone was a national celebrity in wartime and a recipient of the Medal of Honor. The nature of heroism he displayed enabled him to win a trip back home where he can sell war bonds, an activity he finds very uncomfortable 5 . The role is played by Jon Seda. Eugene Sledge was a young man that had a medical condition which almost kept him away from serving. He had a heart murmur but chose to enlist even after the objections of his father. His father fears that he would come back broken and dead-eyed like other men from World War II. The three characters engaged in heroic acts and played in roles that demanded heart-felt challenging events. The characters played by the men served as an honor to the men and women that participated in World War II. It was also an honor to the families, friends, and loved ones that supported the men at home.
The deeper the soldiers get into the war, the more difficult it gets. Sledge begins to see that his father was right after all. The Pacific War is one that tries the minds and souls of the soldiers. They experience several hardships and the threats seem to come from everywhere. Several rumors fly around that the Japanese have poisoned the coconuts, one of the main sources of food. Looking at the atrocities and the incomprehensible willingness of the enemy to die takes a toll on the soldiers.
The entire course of events reveals the ugliness inherent in some soldiers and those that endure showcasing their best selves. The film is filled with acts of self-sacrifice and bravery in some soldiers while others have sheer racism to the Japanese whom they refer to as yellow monkeys. For instance, after one battle, some of the Marines decide to please themselves by taking photos of a stuck enemy soldier. Leckie is disgusted and chooses to kill him by dispatching him with a sidearm.
The Marines move from one island to another and the movement is like that of one deadly place to the next. The Pacific turns into a territory with moral decay and is similar to watching a Vietnam movie. At the later stages of the film, there are horrible images in Okinawa where some of the civilians are mixed up in the fighting. One of the Marines shoots directly at a civilian stating that they were there to kill the Japanese. Sledge scolds the man for his heinous acts. Shortly after the incident, the Marines discuss that the United States had just dropped a bomb which vaporized Hiroshima and killed lots of Japanese. 6 The Pacific does not draw any lines or pass judgments but tries to showcase the events in the war.
In conclusion, The Pacific miniseries sought to bring out the events of the Pacific Theater in World War II. The Pacific Theater involved the United States attacking the Japanese to take hold of the Pacific. The miniseries takes a look at the personal lives of the men that participated in the war. The series showcases some of the sacrifices that were undertaken by the soldiers in the war. While many people know of the battles that took place in the European Theater, little is known of the Pacific Theater. The series tries to explore the hardships and challenges that the soldiers faced throughout the war. The story is brought out in an eloquent manner that tells how men fight and die and the long-lasting effects if they survive. The series ends with the good guys winning and is historically accurate.
References
Appleman, Roy Edgar. United States Army in World War II, War in the Pacific: Okinawa, The Last Battle (Paperbound) . Vol. 11, no. 1. Government Printing Office, 2000.
Cook, Joan M., David S. Riggs, Richard Thompson, James C. Coyne, and Javaid I. Sheikh. "Posttraumatic stress disorder and current relationship functioning among World War II ex-prisoners of war." Journal of Family Psychology 18, no. 1 (2004): 36.
Greeley JR, Brendan. "Reflections on the Literature and Lives that Inspired HBO's New World War II Miniseries." Naval History 24, no. 2 (2010): 70.
Frank, Richard B. "An Overdue Pacific War Perspective." Naval History 24, no. 2 (2010): 14.
Heffer, Jean. The United States and the Pacific: History of a Frontier . Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2002.
Shi, David E., and George Brown Tindall. America: A narrative history . WW Norton & Company, 2016.
1 Joan M. Cook, David S. Riggs, Richard Thompson, James C. Coyne, and Javaid I. Sheikh, Posttraumatic stress disorder and current relationship functioning among World War II ex-prisoners of war, (Journal of Family Psychology 18, 2004), 36.
2 Jean Heffer, The United States and the Pacific: History of a Frontier , (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2002), 17.
3 David E Shi. and George Brown Tindall, America: A narrative history , (WW Norton & Company, 2016).
4 Richard B. Frank, An Overdue Pacific War Perspective, ( Naval History , 2010), 14.
5 Brendan Greely Jr, "Reflections on the Literature and Lives that Inspired HBO's New World War II Miniseries." ( Naval History , 2010), 70.
6 Roy Edgar Appleman, United States Army in World War II, War in the Pacific: Okinawa, The Last Battle (Paperbound) . (Government Printing Office, 2000), 2.
