2 00:00:15,682 --> 00:00:18,892 (narrator) May 8 1945. 3 00:00:21,563 --> 00:00:23,939 V-E Day. 4 00:00:24,024 --> 00:00:26,108 Victory in Europe. 5 00:00:30,989 --> 00:00:36,243 After years of struggle, an explosion of joy and of relief. 6 00:00:57,098 --> 00:01:01,101 (♪ "Knees Up Mother Brown" by Harris Weston and Bert Lee) 7 00:01:51,736 --> 00:01:57,032 (crowd) ♪ Send him victorious 8 00:01:57,117 --> 00:02:01,912 ♪ Happy and glorious 9 00:02:01,996 --> 00:02:06,041 ♪ Long to reign over us... 10 00:02:06,126 --> 00:02:13,215 (Churchill) We may allow ourselves a brief period of rejoicing. 11 00:02:19,931 --> 00:02:26,019 But let us not forget for a moment the toils and eftorts that lie ahead. 12 00:02:27,313 --> 00:02:30,482 (narrator) There was still Japan. 13 00:03:28,958 --> 00:03:34,087 (narrator) Tokyo, just before midday on 7 December 1942. 14 00:03:34,172 --> 00:03:36,715 (♪ Japanese national anthem) 15 00:03:53,524 --> 00:03:56,443 The Japanese people obserVed the first anniversary 16 00:03:56,527 --> 00:04:01,365 of their imperial navy's destruction of the American fleet at Pearl Harbour. 17 00:04:01,449 --> 00:04:05,160 lt was one year since they learned that their nation of 80 million 18 00:04:05,245 --> 00:04:07,412 had engaged the combined might 19 00:04:07,497 --> 00:04:11,083 of over 200 million Americans and British. 20 00:04:11,167 --> 00:04:14,878 Many had heard the news of the Pearl Harbour attack soberly, 21 00:04:14,963 --> 00:04:17,547 even apprehensively. 22 00:04:20,176 --> 00:04:26,139 But then came victory after victory - Hong Kong, Malaya, Singapore. 23 00:04:26,224 --> 00:04:28,558 Earlier fears were lost in exultation. 24 00:04:28,643 --> 00:04:30,727 (shouts in Japanese) 25 00:04:32,397 --> 00:04:34,523 (crowd cheers) 26 00:04:40,822 --> 00:04:42,864 (speaks Japanese) 27 00:04:47,453 --> 00:04:50,122 (narrator) Prime Minister General Hideki Tojo, 28 00:04:50,206 --> 00:04:52,291 representative of the militarists 29 00:04:52,375 --> 00:04:55,627 who had made Japan into an aggressive totalitarian state, 30 00:04:55,712 --> 00:04:58,046 had led his countrymen into the war. 31 00:04:58,172 --> 00:05:01,800 Now he promised them final victory. 32 00:05:03,636 --> 00:05:07,472 (translator) The nation will complete the final round of this conflict. 33 00:05:07,557 --> 00:05:13,061 To overthrow America and Britain we will fight until the last day. 34 00:05:16,482 --> 00:05:18,358 Then in the Greater Asian area 35 00:05:18,484 --> 00:05:21,945 we shall accomplish the destruction of our enemies. 36 00:05:22,030 --> 00:05:24,364 Now, at the start of the second year, 37 00:05:24,449 --> 00:05:27,993 both myself and the nation think about the men in the front line, 38 00:05:28,077 --> 00:05:33,040 and once again l express determination for final victory. 39 00:05:33,124 --> 00:05:37,669 War work must be pushed on and the struggle carried forward. 40 00:05:41,924 --> 00:05:46,178 (narrator) At this time, Japan was not an industrial giant. 41 00:05:46,262 --> 00:05:47,804 But in this first year of war, 42 00:05:47,889 --> 00:05:51,975 they had seen the Japanese soldiers' spiritual strength and discipline 43 00:05:52,060 --> 00:05:54,311 prevail over the materially stronger 44 00:05:54,395 --> 00:05:58,148 but morally inferior Americans and British. 45 00:06:03,946 --> 00:06:06,114 The same dedication on the home front 46 00:06:06,240 --> 00:06:09,785 would make Japan's newly won empire unassailable. 47 00:06:10,870 --> 00:06:12,746 (♪ fanfare) 48 00:06:18,419 --> 00:06:20,379 For some well-informed Japanese, 49 00:06:20,463 --> 00:06:24,049 the Pearl Harbour attack had been an astonishing gamble. 50 00:06:24,133 --> 00:06:28,762 l came to work as usual about nine o'clock 51 00:06:28,846 --> 00:06:31,640 and everybody was there. 52 00:06:31,724 --> 00:06:34,434 There was martial music playing 53 00:06:34,519 --> 00:06:38,939 and l almost fell over when l saw the newspaper extra 54 00:06:39,023 --> 00:06:44,111 saying that the emperor had declared war on United States and Great Britain. 55 00:06:44,195 --> 00:06:46,988 l think the man on the street had the same feeling 56 00:06:47,115 --> 00:06:49,616 of being taken by complete surprise. 57 00:06:52,954 --> 00:06:57,290 (narrator) But now, propaganda film could portray jubilant Japanese aviators 58 00:06:57,375 --> 00:07:01,002 smashing the American fleet at Pearl Harbour. 59 00:07:02,422 --> 00:07:11,638 (shouts in Japanese) 60 00:07:29,115 --> 00:07:32,325 (narrator) Doubters were persuaded. 61 00:07:35,997 --> 00:07:40,542 Newsreels emphasised the humbling of the arrogant whites. 62 00:07:50,678 --> 00:07:55,765 The Japanese believed that their own soldiers always fought to the death. 63 00:07:55,850 --> 00:07:58,852 The sight of white prisoners dwarfing the Japanese 64 00:07:58,936 --> 00:08:01,855 who herded them into dishonourable captivity 65 00:08:01,939 --> 00:08:05,442 helped convince them of their own invincibility. 66 00:08:20,291 --> 00:08:22,042 (woman) Japan was winning 67 00:08:22,126 --> 00:08:27,172 and every day we heard over the radio all the victories. 68 00:08:27,256 --> 00:08:31,885 And the whole nation was very excited. 69 00:08:31,969 --> 00:08:35,138 And the thought l had at the time 70 00:08:35,223 --> 00:08:39,935 when l heard the news about the war was, "What's going to happen?" 71 00:08:40,061 --> 00:08:44,481 But immediately all the victories and big war songs 72 00:08:44,565 --> 00:08:48,527 and marches over the radio all day long... 73 00:08:48,611 --> 00:08:52,531 So we are... quite excited 74 00:08:52,615 --> 00:08:55,951 and it was almost like a festival. 75 00:08:56,035 --> 00:08:59,246 (band plays march) 76 00:09:10,758 --> 00:09:14,344 (narrator) War had been with the Japanese people for ten years. 77 00:09:14,428 --> 00:09:16,972 Since 1931 , their armies had been fighting 78 00:09:17,056 --> 00:09:19,766 an endless, frustrating war in China. 79 00:09:20,476 --> 00:09:23,353 Victory in the Pacific had been quick and complete. 80 00:09:23,437 --> 00:09:26,439 Here at last was something to celebrate. 81 00:09:40,621 --> 00:09:42,872 (air-raid siren) 82 00:09:48,379 --> 00:09:50,422 For years before Pearl Harbour, 83 00:09:50,506 --> 00:09:54,968 there had been mock air-raid drills in every Japanese city. 84 00:09:57,597 --> 00:10:01,224 Not a precaution against China's almost nonexistent air force, 85 00:10:01,309 --> 00:10:06,146 but part of the process of keeping war-like emotion at a high pitch. 86 00:10:18,117 --> 00:10:19,909 (shouting in Japanese) 87 00:10:23,414 --> 00:10:25,498 (narrator) All took part. 88 00:10:27,084 --> 00:10:30,670 Neighbourhood Associations - the Tonarigumi - 89 00:10:30,755 --> 00:10:33,882 ensured that every one of the emperor's subjects at home 90 00:10:33,966 --> 00:10:36,384 was involved in the distant war. 91 00:10:37,470 --> 00:10:42,724 The Neighbourhood Associations controlled all our life at that time. 92 00:10:42,808 --> 00:10:47,103 All the instructions from the government were through the Tonarigumi, 93 00:10:47,188 --> 00:10:50,357 so we had to obey it. 94 00:10:50,441 --> 00:10:54,569 And we relied upon the Tonarigumi. 95 00:11:00,743 --> 00:11:02,911 (narrator) ln every neighbourhood, 96 00:11:02,995 --> 00:11:05,872 in schools, in playing fields and on the streets, 97 00:11:05,956 --> 00:11:09,209 ordinary citizens patriotically submitted themselves 98 00:11:09,293 --> 00:11:11,711 to regimentation of thought and act. 99 00:11:12,880 --> 00:11:15,215 (man shouts instructions in Japanese) 100 00:11:24,684 --> 00:11:29,270 (narrator) The inculcation of patriotic virtues began in infancy. 101 00:11:29,355 --> 00:11:31,439 (piano plays) 102 00:11:35,152 --> 00:11:38,196 (children sing in Japanese) 103 00:11:46,539 --> 00:11:50,458 (narrator) From their earliest days, children prepared mind and body 104 00:11:50,543 --> 00:11:53,670 to serVe a cause greater than themselves - 105 00:11:53,754 --> 00:11:56,464 the family, the nation, 106 00:11:56,549 --> 00:11:58,258 the emperor. 107 00:12:05,766 --> 00:12:10,645 And if the nation was at war, children had to be ready for that, too. 108 00:12:10,730 --> 00:12:14,065 (children continue singing in Japanese) 109 00:12:35,254 --> 00:12:37,088 (narrator) When school was over, 110 00:12:37,173 --> 00:12:40,884 it would be their duty and their privilege to serVe their country 111 00:12:40,968 --> 00:12:44,053 in the imperial forces on land, on sea, 112 00:12:44,138 --> 00:12:46,222 in the air. 113 00:12:53,647 --> 00:12:57,275 High-school pupils joined the air force for a day. 114 00:12:57,359 --> 00:12:58,526 lf they were lucky, 115 00:12:58,611 --> 00:13:02,405 they would have the chance to join as adults before too long. 116 00:13:06,660 --> 00:13:09,496 (man) Of course, the Japanese were brought up 117 00:13:09,580 --> 00:13:13,583 in three or four cardinal truths from cradle to grave - 118 00:13:13,667 --> 00:13:17,462 that the emperor was divine, the country was invincible, 119 00:13:17,546 --> 00:13:22,550 and it consisted of... a chosen race. 120 00:13:22,635 --> 00:13:24,177 Things like these, 121 00:13:24,261 --> 00:13:27,806 which were drummed into the Japanese mind from kindergarten up. 122 00:13:31,352 --> 00:13:33,353 (narrator) Japanese boys were taught 123 00:13:33,437 --> 00:13:35,855 to imitate the martial code of the samurai - 124 00:13:35,940 --> 00:13:40,026 archaic and ferocious, devoid of pity for enemy or for self. 125 00:13:45,616 --> 00:13:51,454 For the samurai, to die in battle was to fall at the moment of perfection, 126 00:13:51,539 --> 00:13:53,706 as the cherry blossom does. 127 00:14:03,509 --> 00:14:07,220 The worship of Buddha had coexisted in Japan for centuries 128 00:14:07,304 --> 00:14:11,182 with the ancient Shinto worship of spirits, of ancestors, 129 00:14:11,267 --> 00:14:14,102 of the sun goddess, Amaterasu. 130 00:14:30,119 --> 00:14:33,997 But in the 1920s and '30s, the nationalists and militarists 131 00:14:34,081 --> 00:14:39,002 had insisted that Shinto be made the state religion. 132 00:14:41,672 --> 00:14:45,925 Shinto was pure. lt was strictly Japanese. 133 00:14:46,010 --> 00:14:50,096 And it was from the Shinto sun goddess, the Japanese devoutly believed, 134 00:14:50,180 --> 00:14:54,183 that the nation's high priest was directly descended - 135 00:14:54,268 --> 00:14:56,352 the emperor. 136 00:14:59,648 --> 00:15:03,276 The emperor was a god and a warrior chief. 137 00:15:03,360 --> 00:15:06,404 The mystic belief that, through him, the Japanese race 138 00:15:06,488 --> 00:15:09,908 was destined for conquest was systematically propagated. 139 00:15:18,000 --> 00:15:21,252 The military acted in the emperor's name, 140 00:15:21,337 --> 00:15:24,130 but they contrived that, in spite of appearances, 141 00:15:24,214 --> 00:15:26,633 he retained little real power on Earth. 142 00:15:29,386 --> 00:15:34,140 The emperor was deeply solicitous of peace, 143 00:15:34,224 --> 00:15:36,893 which means that he was opposed 144 00:15:36,977 --> 00:15:43,024 to starting hostilities with America. 145 00:15:43,108 --> 00:15:46,069 But his position was such 146 00:15:46,153 --> 00:15:51,324 that if the cabinet recommended, unanimously, 147 00:15:51,408 --> 00:15:54,577 a certain line of policy, 148 00:15:54,662 --> 00:16:00,416 he could not disapprove of it, although he might dislike it at heart. 149 00:16:01,043 --> 00:16:03,711 (narrator) ln a government headed by a general, 150 00:16:03,796 --> 00:16:05,922 this meant doing what the army wanted. 151 00:16:11,720 --> 00:16:17,350 The ashes of Japan's war dead were carried home, packed in boxes. 152 00:16:18,477 --> 00:16:22,313 Relatives of the fallen, widows and mothers, 153 00:16:22,398 --> 00:16:24,774 had no more occasion for pride, 154 00:16:24,858 --> 00:16:28,695 no more right to tears than the day they had said goodbye. 155 00:16:28,779 --> 00:16:34,867 To send sons or husband to die for the emperor was the highest duty. 156 00:16:34,952 --> 00:16:37,495 "We'll meet at the Yasukuni Shrine," 157 00:16:37,579 --> 00:16:40,081 where the ashes of the war dead were consecrated, 158 00:16:40,165 --> 00:16:43,209 was the traditional farewell of the soldiers leaving, 159 00:16:43,293 --> 00:16:48,047 wrapped in haramaki - the protective belly band of a thousand stitches. 160 00:16:51,385 --> 00:16:54,178 (man) A girl stands on the corners of the streets, 161 00:16:54,263 --> 00:16:56,431 say if in Tokyo, along the Ginza, 162 00:16:56,515 --> 00:17:00,685 and asks each passer-by woman to make a stitch. 163 00:17:00,769 --> 00:17:03,271 She must collect a thousand stitches. 164 00:17:03,355 --> 00:17:08,443 This is given to a soldier. l got one. You wrapped this round your belly. 165 00:17:08,527 --> 00:17:10,987 lt's supposed to keep your stomach warm 166 00:17:11,071 --> 00:17:13,865 so that you don't catch cold or this or that, 167 00:17:13,949 --> 00:17:15,908 but also to ward oft bullets. 168 00:17:15,993 --> 00:17:20,621 Now, we all know this cannot be done, but this is like a charm, also. 169 00:17:20,706 --> 00:17:25,918 And l used to think, now l don't know whether l should say this, 170 00:17:26,003 --> 00:17:28,421 but l felt this is very unfair, 171 00:17:28,505 --> 00:17:31,090 especially when l got the order to go overseas. 172 00:17:31,175 --> 00:17:35,094 The Japanese girls are giving me this thousand stitches. 173 00:17:35,179 --> 00:17:39,515 l am going to die. l have not experienced a woman. 174 00:17:39,600 --> 00:17:44,812 Why cannot they give me their body to enjoy, and let me live, 175 00:17:44,897 --> 00:17:48,441 however short my life is, to enjoy the fullness of it? 176 00:17:48,525 --> 00:17:52,153 Because sleeping with me is not going to kill the girl, you know? 177 00:17:52,237 --> 00:17:54,030 Maybe she likes it, l don't know. 178 00:17:54,114 --> 00:17:59,243 But here l am about to die, and all l get is a thousand stitches. 179 00:18:03,457 --> 00:18:08,044 (narrator) Wartime farewells were supposed to be a spiritual experience - 180 00:18:08,128 --> 00:18:10,713 ceremonial, unsentimental. 181 00:18:10,798 --> 00:18:12,882 (all sing in Japanese) 182 00:18:52,840 --> 00:18:54,966 (narrator) Men recovered from wounds 183 00:18:55,050 --> 00:18:58,386 left hospital to the singing of the Umi Yukaba. 184 00:18:58,470 --> 00:19:02,557 "l go to a lonely grave far across the sea," they sang, 185 00:19:02,641 --> 00:19:05,309 and went oft to the war again. 186 00:19:10,941 --> 00:19:15,695 But suddenly, less than five months after Pearl Harbour... 187 00:19:17,948 --> 00:19:20,950 ..the war was not so far away. 188 00:19:29,209 --> 00:19:32,086 18 April 1942. 189 00:19:32,171 --> 00:19:36,674 16 Mitchell medium bombers, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle, 190 00:19:36,758 --> 00:19:39,302 set out from the US aircraft carrier, Hornet, 191 00:19:39,386 --> 00:19:42,972 for the first-ever air raid on Japan. 192 00:19:53,734 --> 00:19:57,361 The American aim was to make a token, but early, demonstration 193 00:19:57,446 --> 00:19:59,864 of Japan's vulnerability to air attack. 194 00:19:59,948 --> 00:20:02,658 ln this, they entirely succeeded. 195 00:20:03,994 --> 00:20:09,040 When Doolittle's raid was conducted 196 00:20:09,124 --> 00:20:12,752 over the sky of Tokyo, 197 00:20:12,836 --> 00:20:18,257 that produced a... produced a sort of consternation 198 00:20:18,342 --> 00:20:21,677 because the military 199 00:20:21,762 --> 00:20:26,974 repeatedly assured the public 200 00:20:27,059 --> 00:20:31,312 that the Japanese sky was impenetrable. 201 00:20:32,064 --> 00:20:35,441 (narrator) Doolittle's bombers did penetrate Japan's skies 202 00:20:35,525 --> 00:20:39,153 to drop a mere 16 tons of bombs on her cities. 203 00:20:39,238 --> 00:20:41,948 The actual damage was not great. 204 00:20:42,074 --> 00:20:43,741 The shock was. 205 00:20:43,825 --> 00:20:47,870 (man) The Japanese press were told how to display the news. 206 00:20:47,955 --> 00:20:52,291 The complexion was put on as a cruel act - 207 00:20:52,376 --> 00:20:56,545 indiscriminate bombing of civilians and women and children. 208 00:20:59,883 --> 00:21:03,427 (narrator) Eight Doolittle flyers were captured. 209 00:21:10,269 --> 00:21:15,064 For the Japanese, bombing was something that happened to other people. 210 00:21:15,148 --> 00:21:19,944 They were angry that this barbarity had happened to them. 211 00:21:24,032 --> 00:21:27,535 The prisoners were tried by a military court. 212 00:21:27,619 --> 00:21:30,246 Three were executed. 213 00:21:38,797 --> 00:21:43,467 The main function of Japanese women was to bear sons. 214 00:21:43,552 --> 00:21:46,929 Skilled only in such feminine arts as the tea ceremony, 215 00:21:47,014 --> 00:21:49,056 they stayed in the background. 216 00:21:49,141 --> 00:21:51,600 Now with the battle fronts taking the men away, 217 00:21:51,685 --> 00:21:53,686 they were directed to sterner things. 218 00:22:01,403 --> 00:22:03,321 (man sings in Japanese) 219 00:22:18,086 --> 00:22:21,297 Country women were used to taking their place in the fields 220 00:22:21,381 --> 00:22:23,174 alongside their men. 221 00:22:23,258 --> 00:22:26,802 But for the women from the cities, the war meant a complete change. 222 00:22:26,928 --> 00:22:29,138 To stock the nation's depleted larder, 223 00:22:29,222 --> 00:22:32,558 they too were conscripted to labour long hours. 224 00:22:40,400 --> 00:22:44,445 They mined coal to make the utmost use of Japan's scanty resources 225 00:22:44,529 --> 00:22:46,947 and keep the war machine moving. 226 00:23:04,841 --> 00:23:07,760 City girls were brought up to be wives and mothers, 227 00:23:07,844 --> 00:23:11,597 to be known as the "honourable hidden one". 228 00:23:11,723 --> 00:23:15,476 Now they came out of their seclusion and learned new skills. 229 00:23:21,316 --> 00:23:24,902 The women of Japan must take over men's work, they were told, 230 00:23:24,986 --> 00:23:28,114 as their enemies had done, to ensure victory. 231 00:23:29,074 --> 00:23:31,158 (man sings in Japanese) 232 00:24:08,613 --> 00:24:10,865 (woman) When we worked at the factory, 233 00:24:10,949 --> 00:24:12,867 every other week we had to work 234 00:24:12,951 --> 00:24:16,454 from three o'clock in the afternoon until 1 1 o'clock. 235 00:24:16,538 --> 00:24:21,083 And at 1 1 o'clock when we finish our work, 236 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. 237 00:24:27,674 --> 00:24:35,055 Actually, it was hot salt water with maybe two or three soy beans. 238 00:24:35,140 --> 00:24:37,725 And we are very hungry. 239 00:24:37,809 --> 00:24:42,938 Or maybe just one noodle at the bottom. 240 00:24:43,023 --> 00:24:46,442 Everything we got through rations. 241 00:24:46,526 --> 00:24:51,489 Unless we have a card for rations, we couldn't get anything. 242 00:24:51,573 --> 00:24:58,204 We have to do some self-supply, and we grew potatoes in our gardens. 243 00:24:58,288 --> 00:25:03,167 We worked very hard to grow our own vegetables. 244 00:25:03,251 --> 00:25:05,461 Our everyday life, 245 00:25:05,545 --> 00:25:09,256 that life was very, very hard. 246 00:25:10,258 --> 00:25:12,968 (narrator) The empress herself took on a new role, 247 00:25:13,053 --> 00:25:15,763 urging the nation to more eftort, more sacrifice. 248 00:25:15,847 --> 00:25:18,724 Sacrifice was necessary for victory, 249 00:25:18,808 --> 00:25:21,769 and in final victory their belief was still unshaken. 250 00:25:22,812 --> 00:25:26,607 None knew that by June 1942, 251 00:25:26,691 --> 00:25:30,027 the battle had already become one simply for surVival. 252 00:25:43,917 --> 00:25:46,001 June 1942. 253 00:25:46,086 --> 00:25:49,755 United States war planes take oft to intercept a Japanese armada 254 00:25:49,839 --> 00:25:52,174 attacking the island of Midway. 255 00:26:08,817 --> 00:26:13,779 To this battle, Admiral Yamamoto, the Japanese naval commander-in-chief, 256 00:26:13,863 --> 00:26:18,701 had committed the four largest aircraft carriers in the Japanese fleet. 257 00:26:18,785 --> 00:26:21,579 When the battle ended on 5 June 1942, 258 00:26:21,663 --> 00:26:26,750 Yamamoto's four carriers were blazing wrecks or sunk. 259 00:26:26,835 --> 00:26:31,380 Midway was a defeat from which Japan's navy never recovered. 260 00:26:31,464 --> 00:26:36,427 But the Japanese people were told that Midway was a victory. 261 00:26:36,511 --> 00:26:40,347 The truth was concealed even from members of the government. 262 00:26:40,473 --> 00:26:42,558 (speaks Japanese) 263 00:26:44,561 --> 00:26:48,105 (translator) We were told that one aircraft carrier was sunk 264 00:26:48,189 --> 00:26:51,150 and one was severely damaged. 265 00:26:51,234 --> 00:26:54,445 Since there were four carriers involved in the battle, 266 00:26:54,529 --> 00:26:56,905 the way we heard it, three had come back, 267 00:26:56,990 --> 00:26:59,992 although one was severely damaged. 268 00:27:00,076 --> 00:27:04,913 But the Anglo-American side was saying that all four had been sunk. 269 00:27:04,998 --> 00:27:07,833 This left some doubts in our minds. 270 00:27:07,959 --> 00:27:11,170 We pressed the navy to give us more details, 271 00:27:11,254 --> 00:27:14,548 but they stuck to their original announcement. 272 00:27:14,633 --> 00:27:16,717 (speaks Japanese) 273 00:27:19,304 --> 00:27:22,848 (translator) l was a news cameraman in the Midway battle. 274 00:27:22,932 --> 00:27:26,310 When we got back to our base in the Japan Sea, 275 00:27:26,394 --> 00:27:29,480 we were not even allowed to write any letters. 276 00:27:29,564 --> 00:27:33,275 The wounded were kept in the isolation wards. 277 00:27:33,401 --> 00:27:38,489 A top-secret order said that nothing could be talked of the Midway battle, 278 00:27:38,573 --> 00:27:41,659 not even within the navy itself. 279 00:27:41,743 --> 00:27:44,119 l was virtually kept prisoner 280 00:27:44,204 --> 00:27:48,082 for about a month and a half after returning to Japan. 281 00:27:48,166 --> 00:27:52,711 As a journalist, l was kept under particularly strict surVeillance 282 00:27:52,796 --> 00:27:57,716 because we were reputedly great talkers and loose with our tongues. 283 00:27:57,842 --> 00:28:02,346 And l was kept from going back to Tokyo while the rest of the war lasted. 284 00:28:03,139 --> 00:28:09,853 The true situation was never broadcast from the NHK, of course. 285 00:28:09,979 --> 00:28:15,025 Every news... broadcast 286 00:28:15,151 --> 00:28:19,279 was strictly censored in those days. 287 00:28:22,826 --> 00:28:28,205 The general public only knew that the Japanese army and navy 288 00:28:28,289 --> 00:28:31,917 kept winning every battle they fought. 289 00:28:38,717 --> 00:28:41,385 (narrator) No news, just propaganda. 290 00:28:46,725 --> 00:28:48,642 Only one outcome was imaginable 291 00:28:48,768 --> 00:28:52,521 in the conflict ceaselessly portrayed in the propaganda films. 292 00:28:52,605 --> 00:28:57,526 The white oppressors of Oriental people overcome by the brave Japanese soldier. 293 00:29:08,371 --> 00:29:10,956 (shouts in Japanese) 294 00:29:15,795 --> 00:29:18,630 (shouting in Japanese) 295 00:29:21,050 --> 00:29:23,844 (narrator) The spartan Japanese soldier, in turn, 296 00:29:23,928 --> 00:29:27,848 overcome by contempt and rage at his white enemy's soft living. 297 00:29:27,932 --> 00:29:30,225 (shouts in Japanese) 298 00:29:35,523 --> 00:29:37,858 (band plays dirge) 299 00:29:41,696 --> 00:29:46,617 (narrator) Tokyo, 5 June 1943. 300 00:29:46,743 --> 00:29:50,788 The state funeral for Admiral lsoroku Yamamoto, 301 00:29:50,872 --> 00:29:52,414 the great commander 302 00:29:52,499 --> 00:29:56,418 who had masterminded the victory at Pearl Harbour. 303 00:29:56,503 --> 00:30:00,047 Yamamoto died a hero, the Japanese people were told, 304 00:30:00,131 --> 00:30:04,927 in the front line, meeting death gallantly in a war plane. 305 00:30:05,011 --> 00:30:08,764 His loss was greater than many battleships. 306 00:30:17,148 --> 00:30:20,234 But this first public admission of a defeat, 307 00:30:20,360 --> 00:30:23,403 although represented as only symbolic of heroism, 308 00:30:23,488 --> 00:30:28,283 hid grimmer truths of which Yamamoto himself had been well aware. 309 00:30:28,368 --> 00:30:33,497 He knew that the enemy's material superiority, once fully mobilised, 310 00:30:33,623 --> 00:30:35,749 would be overwhelming. 311 00:30:35,834 --> 00:30:40,170 At Pearl Harbour, he had gambled that the war would be a short one. 312 00:30:40,255 --> 00:30:43,382 At Midway, the gamble was lost. 313 00:30:55,395 --> 00:30:59,815 Yamamoto had been shot down in skies now swarming with enemy planes, 314 00:30:59,899 --> 00:31:03,235 over seas now dominated by the enemy's navy. 315 00:31:08,825 --> 00:31:13,662 By 1944, the scales had tipped fully against Japan. 316 00:31:15,290 --> 00:31:18,292 Metal had become a precious war commodity 317 00:31:18,418 --> 00:31:20,919 too valuable for ornament or ceremony. 318 00:31:23,506 --> 00:31:26,592 The war had been fought to secure raw materials 319 00:31:26,676 --> 00:31:30,220 for a land where they were scarce - above all, for oil. 320 00:31:30,305 --> 00:31:34,516 But now the resources General Tojo had boasted would flow from their conquests 321 00:31:34,601 --> 00:31:37,936 were getting no nearer to Japan than the bottom of the ocean. 322 00:31:38,021 --> 00:31:41,857 Not enough got through to keep the war machine going. 323 00:31:43,067 --> 00:31:44,985 And food was scarce. 324 00:31:45,069 --> 00:31:48,989 The ofticial daily ration of 1500 calories, subsistence level, 325 00:31:49,073 --> 00:31:50,616 was often not met. 326 00:31:50,700 --> 00:31:54,077 The rice harVest was the worst for 50 years. 327 00:31:54,162 --> 00:31:56,496 StarVation hovered close. 328 00:31:58,708 --> 00:32:04,838 The victories of 1941 had placed Japan behind a vast protective ring, 329 00:32:04,923 --> 00:32:07,007 defended in death. 330 00:32:08,426 --> 00:32:10,719 By the middle of 1944, 331 00:32:10,803 --> 00:32:15,057 General MacArthur's amphibious armies had reduced this to an inner ring 332 00:32:15,141 --> 00:32:17,976 hinging on the island of Saipan. 333 00:32:19,520 --> 00:32:23,190 Saipan, within flying distance of Japan, 334 00:32:23,274 --> 00:32:28,403 was claimed by the Japanese military to be a shield and an impregnable one. 335 00:32:28,488 --> 00:32:31,281 lt was vital that it should be. 336 00:32:31,366 --> 00:32:33,450 (speaks Japanese) 337 00:32:36,079 --> 00:32:39,164 (translator) lt was realised that if Saipan was lost, 338 00:32:39,248 --> 00:32:42,709 we would be in a very difticult position. 339 00:32:42,794 --> 00:32:46,296 The importance of Saipan was that once it fell, 340 00:32:46,381 --> 00:32:50,342 the war would be right in front of Japan's eyes. 341 00:32:52,220 --> 00:32:56,807 Japan would come within bombing range of US planes. 342 00:32:56,891 --> 00:33:01,853 lt was an absolutely vital defence area for Japan. 343 00:33:13,366 --> 00:33:15,325 (narrator) On 15 June 1944, 344 00:33:15,410 --> 00:33:19,579 after five days of saturation bombardment by sea and air, 345 00:33:19,664 --> 00:33:23,041 American assault troops stormed ashore. 346 00:33:35,346 --> 00:33:39,016 As always, the Japanese garrison fought to the last. 347 00:33:49,736 --> 00:33:52,487 Here, for the first time, Japanese civilians - 348 00:33:52,572 --> 00:33:55,490 women and children - were caught up in the battle. 349 00:33:55,575 --> 00:33:58,952 Some, dazed and docile, submitted. 350 00:34:08,296 --> 00:34:13,592 Saipan had deep-water harbours, it had two airfields. 351 00:34:13,676 --> 00:34:15,844 Every rock was defended. 352 00:34:45,792 --> 00:34:50,921 ln three weeks, to take an island only 85 square miles in area, 353 00:34:51,005 --> 00:34:54,674 the Americans lost 15,000 dead and wounded. 354 00:35:01,599 --> 00:35:05,727 25,000 Japanese defenders died to a man. 355 00:35:23,663 --> 00:35:29,543 And some civilians, like many soldiers, chose suicide rather than surrender. 356 00:35:40,429 --> 00:35:44,224 They died in vain. Saipan was taken. 357 00:35:49,272 --> 00:35:51,898 Even before the last Japanese had died, 358 00:35:51,983 --> 00:35:56,528 American bombers were ready to take oft for the mainland. 359 00:35:56,612 --> 00:36:01,158 The truth was now too close even for the Japanese high command to conceal it. 360 00:36:01,784 --> 00:36:03,869 (speaks Japanese) 361 00:36:10,334 --> 00:36:15,130 (narrator) The situation, they told the people, was grave but not hopeless. 362 00:36:15,214 --> 00:36:20,093 But the sacred homeland itself was now directly threatened. 363 00:36:20,595 --> 00:36:26,266 The enemy, schoolchildren learned, was within striking distance by air. 364 00:36:30,730 --> 00:36:34,566 The time had come for all, young and old, 365 00:36:34,650 --> 00:36:39,362 to meet the threat with the same defiance as their fighting men. 366 00:36:41,407 --> 00:36:46,411 Only a handful of trained pilots remained of Japan's once proud air army, 367 00:36:46,495 --> 00:36:49,873 built for attack not defence. 368 00:36:49,957 --> 00:36:53,543 When war began, their Zero fighters had ruled the skies. 369 00:36:53,628 --> 00:36:56,588 Now they were outdated and outgunned. 370 00:36:56,672 --> 00:37:00,800 These men pitted their machines against giant American Superfortresses 371 00:37:00,885 --> 00:37:03,595 which now attacked the homeland. 372 00:37:06,224 --> 00:37:10,393 They were young and brave, but they were very few. 373 00:37:10,478 --> 00:37:12,562 (shouting in Japanese) 374 00:37:23,324 --> 00:37:25,408 (man speaks Japanese) 375 00:37:27,161 --> 00:37:29,788 (translator) l felt that a Zero fighter 376 00:37:29,872 --> 00:37:32,791 was to me what a sword was to the samurai, 377 00:37:32,875 --> 00:37:36,253 and l felt that l must manipulate the plane 378 00:37:36,337 --> 00:37:38,880 just as if it were my own body. 379 00:37:38,965 --> 00:37:43,093 And l also believed that the cockpit was a secret place 380 00:37:43,219 --> 00:37:45,470 which would be my death place. 381 00:37:50,559 --> 00:37:55,397 When we went on an attack, we never took parachutes. 382 00:37:55,523 --> 00:37:57,565 This was because we believed 383 00:37:57,650 --> 00:38:04,239 we should never become prisoners when shot down over enemy positions. 384 00:38:07,827 --> 00:38:11,871 From ancient days, it was the belief of the Japanese warrior 385 00:38:11,956 --> 00:38:15,208 that to be taken prisoner alive is sinful. 386 00:38:15,293 --> 00:38:19,963 We, too, were always taught that the modern Japanese soldier 387 00:38:20,047 --> 00:38:24,926 should never become prisoner because it is the greatest disgrace. 388 00:38:25,511 --> 00:38:27,887 (narrator) With the imperial navy shattered, 389 00:38:27,972 --> 00:38:31,349 the Saipan shield pierced, the Philippines conquered, 390 00:38:31,434 --> 00:38:34,561 only the islands of lwo Jima and, finally, Okinawa, 391 00:38:34,645 --> 00:38:38,982 were left to bar the Allied advance on Japan proper. 392 00:38:39,066 --> 00:38:43,069 By April 1945, lwo Jima had been taken. 393 00:38:44,113 --> 00:38:48,658 Now an American army, protected by massed warships, threatened Okinawa, 394 00:38:48,743 --> 00:38:51,244 the last island before Japan. 395 00:38:53,247 --> 00:38:56,458 ln a desperate throw to stave oft the ultimate assault, 396 00:38:56,542 --> 00:38:58,835 Japan once more summoned its young men 397 00:38:58,919 --> 00:39:02,797 to fight and die as their ancestors had done. 398 00:39:03,924 --> 00:39:06,009 Special squadrons were formed. 399 00:39:06,093 --> 00:39:09,637 The kamikaze - men of the divine wind - 400 00:39:09,722 --> 00:39:11,306 named for the typhoon 401 00:39:11,390 --> 00:39:15,310 which had destroyed the invasion force of Kublai Khan centuries before. 402 00:39:15,394 --> 00:39:19,564 They drank a last cup of rice wine and set oft to die. 403 00:39:29,658 --> 00:39:33,370 Their aircraft had been converted into flying bombs. 404 00:39:35,956 --> 00:39:38,333 Their mission was to crash them 405 00:39:38,417 --> 00:39:41,628 onto the decks of enemy warships round Okinawa. 406 00:40:03,609 --> 00:40:05,693 (speaks Japanese) 407 00:40:07,988 --> 00:40:10,490 (translator) As a commander, l'm often asked 408 00:40:10,574 --> 00:40:14,327 whether l went through hell in sending out these pilots. 409 00:40:14,412 --> 00:40:17,205 But, actually, the opposite is the case. 410 00:40:17,289 --> 00:40:20,250 We had a lot of pilots who volunteered, 411 00:40:20,334 --> 00:40:24,212 but it was only a very few who could leave on one attack. 412 00:40:24,296 --> 00:40:27,715 And so it was more difticult to choose a selected few. 413 00:40:27,800 --> 00:40:31,553 All the other volunteers said, "Send me! Send me!" 414 00:40:31,637 --> 00:40:35,056 So it's difticult to ask these people not selected 415 00:40:35,141 --> 00:40:37,892 if they'll wait until another day. 416 00:40:40,729 --> 00:40:44,232 On the other hand, those taking part in the day's attack 417 00:40:44,316 --> 00:40:46,276 were in very high spirits, 418 00:40:46,360 --> 00:40:50,572 and so there's no difticulty in sending these men out. 419 00:40:50,698 --> 00:40:52,866 But unlike an ordinary attack, 420 00:40:52,950 --> 00:40:58,121 these kamikaze pilots, once they took oft, they never come back. 421 00:40:58,205 --> 00:41:00,415 And so there was this sadness in knowing 422 00:41:00,499 --> 00:41:05,003 that the people you were sending out you'd never see again. 423 00:41:18,476 --> 00:41:21,811 (narrator) The kamikaze were shot out of the air. 424 00:41:22,897 --> 00:41:25,857 They did severe damage, but failed. 425 00:41:32,948 --> 00:41:35,492 The Americans invaded Okinawa. 426 00:41:46,337 --> 00:41:51,633 Okinawa was only 350 miles from metropolitan Japan. 427 00:41:51,759 --> 00:41:56,304 The nearer to the mainland, the more fanatical the fighting. 428 00:42:37,096 --> 00:42:41,224 On Okinawa, only 7,000 Japanese soldiers surVived. 429 00:42:41,308 --> 00:42:45,395 Over 100,000 died, many by their own hand, 430 00:42:45,479 --> 00:42:48,439 and 75,000 civilians. 431 00:43:08,210 --> 00:43:10,837 Mrs Yonaha, a student, 432 00:43:10,921 --> 00:43:13,423 was ready to die, too. 433 00:43:13,507 --> 00:43:15,592 (speaks Japanese) 434 00:43:16,885 --> 00:43:20,471 (translator) All around us, the soldiers and the inhabitants 435 00:43:20,556 --> 00:43:23,766 were running helter-skelter, obviously confused. 436 00:43:23,851 --> 00:43:28,646 For some reason, l followed the soldiers and we got into a small shelter. 437 00:43:28,731 --> 00:43:31,941 lt was more to get out of the rain than anything. 438 00:43:32,026 --> 00:43:36,070 We found several other soldiers already in the hideout. 439 00:43:36,155 --> 00:43:40,950 We could hear the US army calling us through loudspeakers to come out. 440 00:43:41,035 --> 00:43:44,329 Whoever it was spoke a very beautiful Japanese, 441 00:43:44,413 --> 00:43:46,831 but we had been taught from a long time 442 00:43:46,915 --> 00:43:51,085 that we should never surrender and become prisoners of war. 443 00:43:51,170 --> 00:43:55,173 So we let these broadcasts continue all day long without any let-up. 444 00:43:55,257 --> 00:43:59,427 The shouts came from the sea - "Come out. Come out." 445 00:44:03,140 --> 00:44:06,434 They were saying, "We will not inflict any harm 446 00:44:06,518 --> 00:44:08,936 on women and children and old people, 447 00:44:09,021 --> 00:44:11,105 so please come out." 448 00:44:11,190 --> 00:44:17,070 l had already decided to die and felt that l should commit suicide. 449 00:44:17,154 --> 00:44:22,283 One of the soldiers had a hand grenade and said, "Let's all commit suicide." 450 00:44:22,368 --> 00:44:24,577 And we agreed. 451 00:44:24,662 --> 00:44:26,871 Once we had made that decision, 452 00:44:26,955 --> 00:44:31,417 l felt a great relief and a calmness come over me. 453 00:44:31,502 --> 00:44:35,463 At first, of course, l did not want to kill myself. 454 00:44:35,547 --> 00:44:39,258 l wanted to escape somehow and keep on living. 455 00:44:40,302 --> 00:44:45,056 But the loudspeakers began to increase in intensity and in volume. 456 00:44:45,140 --> 00:44:49,102 We felt that the Americans were coming in closer and closer, 457 00:44:49,186 --> 00:44:53,314 so l asked the soldier to kill me, together with himself. 458 00:44:53,399 --> 00:44:56,984 Just when l was waiting for the soldier to pull the pin, 459 00:44:57,069 --> 00:44:59,612 one of the other soldiers took out a sword 460 00:44:59,697 --> 00:45:01,739 and started waving it around saying, 461 00:45:01,824 --> 00:45:06,244 "You women and children get out. You shouldn't die here." 462 00:45:06,328 --> 00:45:09,622 We were quite startled by the sudden shouting, 463 00:45:09,707 --> 00:45:13,626 and so we stood up and took a step backwards. 464 00:45:13,711 --> 00:45:17,004 The place in which we were hiding was very small, 465 00:45:17,089 --> 00:45:20,717 so one step back and we were outside the shelter. 466 00:45:20,801 --> 00:45:25,805 We looked up and saw two American soldiers pointing pistols at us. 467 00:45:25,889 --> 00:45:30,184 They didn't say anything, but kept gesturing with their pistols. 468 00:45:30,269 --> 00:45:32,437 "Come out. Come out." 469 00:46:08,515 --> 00:46:11,058 The soldiers we had left inside 470 00:46:11,143 --> 00:46:14,979 asked us not to tell the US soldiers they were hiding 471 00:46:15,063 --> 00:46:18,316 because all of them were going to commit suicide. 472 00:46:23,280 --> 00:46:27,825 (narrator) On 2 July 1945, Okinawa fell. 473 00:46:27,910 --> 00:46:33,998 ln the home islands, the Japanese people braced themselves for the storm to come. 474 00:46:34,082 --> 00:46:37,585 The first Superfortresses over Tokyo a few months earlier 475 00:46:37,669 --> 00:46:41,881 were only the harbingers of hundreds of others. 476 00:46:44,885 --> 00:46:47,970 These were now to spew out fire and high explosive 477 00:46:48,096 --> 00:46:50,181 in a sustained aerial assault, 478 00:46:50,265 --> 00:46:54,602 systematically razing the cities of Japan one after the other. 479 00:47:11,620 --> 00:47:14,622 There it is, the end of the line. 480 00:47:27,928 --> 00:47:30,847 (narrator) ln formations of up to 2,000 at a time, 481 00:47:30,931 --> 00:47:35,977 round the clock, virtually unopposed, they laid Japan's cities waste. 482 00:48:05,632 --> 00:48:10,303 Beneath them, the rush to air-raid shelters as the sirens blew 483 00:48:10,387 --> 00:48:12,597 became a dreaded daily routine. 484 00:48:13,932 --> 00:48:17,059 (woman) l first ran into the shelter, 485 00:48:17,144 --> 00:48:24,567 but l didn't rely upon it because it was very small and weak. 486 00:48:24,651 --> 00:48:28,738 All people in the shelter were so tired 487 00:48:28,822 --> 00:48:34,368 and always pale and silent and... 488 00:48:34,453 --> 00:48:36,037 What l say? 489 00:48:36,121 --> 00:48:40,708 The children... not so crying 490 00:48:40,792 --> 00:48:45,212 because they were too tired and too terrible to cry, l think. 491 00:48:45,297 --> 00:48:47,965 So they were all silent. 492 00:48:59,811 --> 00:49:02,897 (narrator) Japan's wooden cities burned easily, 493 00:49:02,981 --> 00:49:05,358 and their citizens in them. 494 00:49:05,484 --> 00:49:08,402 This man-made inferno in Tokyo 495 00:49:08,487 --> 00:49:13,074 was worse even than that following the great earthquake of 1923, 496 00:49:13,158 --> 00:49:15,993 the capital's worst natural disaster. 497 00:49:20,916 --> 00:49:24,418 (woman) Some distance from my house, 498 00:49:24,503 --> 00:49:28,130 there was a lot of men died. 499 00:49:28,215 --> 00:49:33,344 And my best friend lost her father 500 00:49:33,428 --> 00:49:36,722 and brother and sister at that night. 501 00:49:36,807 --> 00:49:43,437 And her mother, suicide after that. 502 00:50:07,921 --> 00:50:10,339 The next morning, 503 00:50:10,424 --> 00:50:16,387 l thought l want to see my house. 504 00:50:16,471 --> 00:50:21,350 So l crossed the bridge and went to my house. 505 00:50:21,435 --> 00:50:25,646 And whole houses were destroyed. 506 00:50:25,731 --> 00:50:27,982 l was so tired... 507 00:50:30,152 --> 00:50:34,864 ..to think anything bad, but l hated the war. 508 00:50:34,948 --> 00:50:37,283 And l hated the war. 509 00:50:37,367 --> 00:50:41,287 l was standing in pain 510 00:50:41,371 --> 00:50:44,165 and in silence, too. 511 00:50:45,917 --> 00:50:48,586 (narrator) Tokyo was a charred wasteland. 512 00:50:48,670 --> 00:50:51,630 Only steel and concrete surVived. 513 00:50:51,715 --> 00:50:55,176 16 square miles of the capital were flattened. 514 00:50:55,260 --> 00:50:58,471 The stench of death hung heavy over the ruins. 515 00:50:58,555 --> 00:51:00,931 ln one raid, in one night, 516 00:51:01,016 --> 00:51:03,100 over 70,000 perished. 517 00:51:04,436 --> 00:51:09,440 ln air raids on Japan, nearly a quarter of a million civilians died. 518 00:51:11,443 --> 00:51:14,278 Eight million were made homeless. 519 00:51:33,173 --> 00:51:36,258 Man and woman, boy and girl, 520 00:51:36,343 --> 00:51:39,512 the surVivors prepared to defend their homeland, 521 00:51:39,596 --> 00:51:43,641 to drive the invaders back into the sea with wooden rifles, 522 00:51:43,725 --> 00:51:47,686 bows and arrows, bamboo spears. 523 00:51:47,771 --> 00:51:52,900 But the end, when it came, was to be from the sky - 524 00:51:52,984 --> 00:51:54,777 irresistible, 525 00:51:54,861 --> 00:51:57,238 unimaginable, 526 00:51:57,322 --> 00:51:59,406 mushroom-shaped.