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00:00I hope the United States will keep out of this war.
00:16I believe that it will.
00:19And I give you assurance and reassurance that every effort of your government will be directed
00:26toward that end.
00:29As long as it remains within my power to prevent, there will be no blackout of peace in the
00:39United States.
01:29After World War I, there was a surge of isolationism, feeling that we had no reason for us becoming
01:42involved in World War I, and we'd made a mistake, and that there were a lot of debts which were
01:48owed by European countries, and the country went isolationist.
01:53I haven't the slightest idea of European affairs.
01:56But you're a fighter-bomber.
01:57Another war?
01:58That's for me.
01:59This time America should keep out, and I know I will.
02:02If war breaks out in Europe, I think that this country should heed the advice of its
02:06first president and avoid all foreign entanglement.
02:11In early 1940, Britain's ambassador in Washington reported that nine out of ten Americans were
02:17determined to keep America out of the war.
02:20A few, like the American Nazi Party, were even determined that America should aid Britain's
02:24enemies.
02:25The Jewish mosque shall directly dominate you.
02:42Their country was enormously divided.
02:45There was the America First Movement, which was advocating isolationism.
02:49On the other hand, there was the William Allen White Committee, the committee to defend America
02:52by aiding the Allies.
02:54It was on the other side.
02:56We had these curious voices such as Charles Lindbergh's and so on, which were the voices
03:00of isolationism.
03:01In the past, we have built with a Europe dominated by England and France.
03:07In the future, we may have to deal with a Europe dominated by Germany.
03:11If we desire to keep America out of the war, we have to keep it out of the war.
03:12Charles Lindbergh, thanks to his extraordinary exploit, was a very popular figure.
03:17He was almost a folk hero, and so he would have influence.
03:20I suppose that celebrities of all characters do have influence, otherwise they wouldn't
03:25be endorsing products all the time.
03:28But it should not involve the internal affairs of Europe.
03:32They never were and never will be carried on according to our desires.
03:41There was a strong anti-British antipathy in certain parts of the country.
03:46And it was felt that Britain was trying very hard to drag us into its war.
03:591940 was presidential election year in the United States, and Roosevelt's main concern
04:04that summer was to get himself re-elected.
04:07Ladies and gentlemen, the 22nd Convention of the Republican Party will now come to
04:18order.
04:19Even as we meet, lights are going out in Europe.
04:25Blackouts of dictators take the place of lighthouses of free men.
04:31Ours is the grave responsibility to preserve the lighthouses of liberty.
04:38In the name of the people, of the whole United States, I place in nomination that valiant
04:51American, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
04:57After Francis' fall, most Americans were disposed to aid Britain in some way, but still
05:03more were strongly opposed to entering the war on Britain's side.
05:07The third term candidate has not kept faith with the American people.
05:13Roosevelt's opponent in the presidential election that autumn was an out-and-out anti-war
05:17candidate, Wendell Wilkie.
05:21In his promise to keep our boys out of foreign wars is no better than his promise to balance
05:29the budget they're already almost on the transport.
05:38But with the Nazis triumphant everywhere, Roosevelt couldn't afford to wait to be re-elected
05:43before putting America on some sort of war footing.
05:47The Congress has debated without partisanship and has now enacted a law establishing a selective
05:55method of augmenting our armed forces.
05:59We must and we will marshal our great potential strength to fend off war from our shores.
06:09More than 16 million young Americans are reviving the 300-year-old American custom of the muster
06:18by which from the earliest colonial times, every able-bodied citizen was subject to the
06:24call for service in the national defense.
06:38The first number drawn by the Secretary of War is serial number 158.
06:51I'm honored to be one of those first called and I'll try very hard to make a real good
07:00soldier.
07:01And I'm proud of you.
07:03If you elect me President of the United States, I shall never send an American boy to fight
07:11in any European war.
07:15I consider it a public duty to answer falsifications with facts.
07:22I will not pretend that I find this an unpleasant duty.
07:33I am an old campaigner and I love a good fight.
07:41Roosevelt got his good fight, though to stay in the race he had promised, like his opponent,
07:47not to send American boys to fight in foreign wars.
07:52Name, please?
07:53Franklin D. Roosevelt.
07:55November the 5th, 1940, was Election Day, and by midnight, America's choice of president
08:01for another four years was clear.
08:03The results are now conclusive.
08:05Roosevelt wins.
08:23Now re-elected, Roosevelt felt he had a mandate to give Britain all aid short of war.
08:29But he could only move slowly, for America was still deeply divided.
08:33Many of the war measures, such as steps to give aid to Britain at the time when England
08:38was standing alone and was beleaguered, many just squeaked by in Congress.
08:43Even a program of armament, of preparedness, was military preparedness, got through Congress
08:51on very, very close votes, one-vote margins in a total of 400 votes.
08:58Then the extraordinary piece of legislation, which was Lend-Lease, was proposed in December
09:03of 1940, but that became law in March of 41.
09:07And under that, the president did everything he possibly could to give aid to Britain.
09:12Now my instructions, when I went over to represent him, were very simple, very brief.
09:20They were to contact the British government to find out what we could do to help Britain
09:27short of war.
09:29And we began at once doing all sorts of things which were not really neutral under the literal
09:35interpretation.
09:36For instance, we were preparing British naval vessels in American ports, and we escorted
09:42your convoys across the Atlantic as far as Iceland, and we transferred two million tons
09:47of ships.
09:50The immediate problem was to get people to understand what it was.
09:55In this, I think Mr. Roosevelt's very simple analogy of lending your neighbor a fire hose
10:02when there's a fire was the most persuasive kind of simple illustration.
10:09People of Europe who are defending themselves do not ask us to do their fighting.
10:16They ask us for the implements of war, the planes, the tanks, the guns, the freighters,
10:23which will enable them to fight for their liberty and our security.
10:29We must be the great arsenal of democracy.
10:34For us, this is an emergency as serious as war itself.
10:40In those days, the business community regarded Roosevelt at a minimum as a major deputy
10:51of the devil, and Roosevelt was deeply suspicious of the businessmen, so that the people who
10:58were associated with the mobilizing of the war had a divided interest.
11:05Some of them felt that their main purpose in being in Washington was to put a curb on
11:10the socialist excesses of the New Deal.
11:13Some of them were uneasy about being there.
11:16They had something of the feeling of people who were playing in an orchestra in a brothel,
11:22and there was also a great unwillingness.
11:29We hear now about the military-industrial complex.
11:33In those days, there was a great unwillingness to convert from civilian industry.
11:39There was a feeling that war production would be a very unprofitable business.
11:44You would lose markets for automobiles, for tires, for chemicals, and so forth.
11:51There was a problem with some of the unions up until June of 1941,
11:59until Russia was in the war, and in the days of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact,
12:04there was foot-dragging on the part of some of the union leaders, and there were strikes.
12:09Four times as many workers were on strike in 1941 as in the year before.
12:14That spring, nearly half a million coal miners struck for almost a month,
12:19while on the West Coast, a walkout that summer at North American Aviation
12:23delayed deliveries of planes to Britain for several weeks.
12:27It took troops to get production moving again.
12:41But although Roosevelt was still reluctant to lead America into war,
12:45the war was now catching up with America.
12:48June 11, 1941.
12:51An American freighter, the Robin Moore, was sunk by a U-boat.
12:55Roosevelt used this as a pretext for occupying Iceland
12:58and relieving the British garrisons there.
13:01September 4.
13:03The U.S. destroyer Greer was attacked by a U-boat near Iceland.
13:07Roosevelt now told his navy to shoot on sight.
13:11October 16.
13:13The U.S. destroyer Kearney was struck by a German torpedo
13:16while escorting a convoy in mid-Atlantic, and 11 of her crew were killed.
13:20Roosevelt used this incident to push through Congress
13:23the repeal of the Neutrality Act.
13:25We have wished to avoid shooting,
13:29but the shooting has started,
13:33and history has recorded who fired the first shot.
13:40In the long run, however,
13:43all that will matter is who fired the last shot.
13:51The repeal of our Neutrality Act
13:54will be the last step on the road to war.
13:58If we load our ships with contraband of war
14:03and send them into combat zones,
14:06they will most certainly be sunk.
14:09And that means war,
14:11a war which, in the opinion of many of us,
14:15although designed to save democracy abroad,
14:18will surely destroy it at home right here in America.
14:23On October 30,
14:25the U.S. destroyer Reuben James was sunk
14:28with the loss of 115 lives.
14:30Officers in all hands forward had perished.
14:33Myself and 45 men were all of us alive.
14:38But despite pressure from Churchill,
14:40who dearly wanted America in the war,
14:42Roosevelt now did nothing.
14:44It was becoming clear it would take much more
14:46than the drowning of 100 or so American seamen
14:48to bring America into the war.
14:50There was even sentiment,
14:52I remember this being expressed,
14:54to the effect that England would fight to the last American.
14:58There were steps that were developing,
15:00the gradual steps to be sure,
15:03somewhat comparable to the steps that took place in World War I.
15:07You know, one incident after another,
15:09I remember the torpedo in Sussex got us excited
15:11and then there was the Lusitania episode.
15:14In the same way, I think, that with the moves that Mr. Roosevelt were making,
15:18the cash-and-carry program that he had,
15:22the protection of the convoys, the destroyer deal,
15:27one thing or another was occurring
15:29that would be apt to produce, I think,
15:31an incident that would set the war off.
15:34The incident, when it came, was massive,
15:37and it came in an unexpected place, Pearl Harbor.
15:40All Army and Navy bases on the island of Oahu in Hawaii
15:44are now under air attack.
15:46For the latest news, keep tuned to this station.
15:49I found that my superior,
15:51who was in charge of all of the civilian operations of the war, was away.
15:55So I was then sent on to the great meeting of the wartime leaders
16:00that convened in Washington on the night of Pearl Harbor.
16:04I remember my sense of mission
16:07in going into that meeting.
16:09We had all seen the war coming.
16:11Here was the day, and here was the hour,
16:13and here was I attending the meeting with the other great men.
16:17We got to the meeting,
16:19and the other great men, myself included,
16:23were one hell of a disappointment
16:25because nobody could think of anything to say or do.
16:27And it seemed like a good idea to see
16:29what materials were threatened by the Japanese advance.
16:33Everybody was coming in during the course of this,
16:36some in sport jackets and some in tennis shoes.
16:41And it became terribly evident
16:45that nobody had any real information
16:47as to where these strategic commodities came from.
16:50And eventually the whole discussion bogged down, I remember,
16:54on the question of CAPOC.
16:57CAPOC, everybody thought, was a strategic...
17:00It was clearly listed as a strategic material.
17:03It evidently came from that part of the world,
17:06and nobody could think, for God's sake,
17:08what the stuff was used for.
17:18I ask that the Congress declare
17:23that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan
17:31on Sunday, December 7, 1941,
17:37a state of war has existed
17:42between the United States and the Japanese Empire.
17:50Even now, Roosevelt couldn't bring himself to ask
17:53that the United States declare war on Germany.
17:56Although Britain had already allied herself with the U.S. against Japan,
18:00Hitler decided for him.
18:03For some unexplained reason,
18:06Hitler declared war on the United States,
18:08which relieved Roosevelt of all of his difficulties.
18:11Well, it was practicing law in Chicago at that time.
18:14That is, at the time of Pearl Harbor.
18:16And I can tell you that if Hitler had not made this decision,
18:20if he had simply done nothing,
18:23that there would have been an enormous sentiment
18:26in the United States, in many parts of the United States,
18:29that the Pacific War now was our war,
18:32that the European War was for the Europeans,
18:35and that we should concentrate all our efforts against the Japanese.
18:48Oh, give me land, lots of land
18:51On the starry skies above
18:54Don't fence me in
18:57Let me ride through the wide open country
19:00That I love
19:02Don't fence me in
19:04People were selling their homes at a fraction of their value.
19:07They were certain that the West Coast would be under attack,
19:10that we'd be bombed here.
19:12There were even blackouts along the West Coast,
19:14as there were along the East Coast.
19:16And there were even some false alerts here.
19:27Not everybody took these precautions seriously.
19:57To European eyes, America's going to war had moments
20:00both ludicrous and familiar.
20:27The men will cheer, the boys will shout,
20:42The ladies, they will all turn up
20:44And they'll all sing, sing, sing
20:46When the time is done
20:49Living among us are those we call alien.
20:54We must remember that our parents,
20:57or our grandparents, or our great-grandparents,
21:02all were aliens in their day.
21:06If you believe you have knowledge of any improper activity of any alien,
21:12you should report the fact to the nearest FBI office.
21:17Don't try to be the law yourself.
21:24There was a tremendous change,
21:26the change being that we were the same individuals prior to December 7.
21:30December 8, when we went to school,
21:32many of our classmates and friends called us dirty Japs,
21:36teased us, harassed us,
21:39and our so-called friends were no longer friends.
21:42In the First World War, as you know, the Germans were hated thoroughly,
21:45and there was a great deal of discrimination and harassment of the Germans.
21:50In the Second World War, there were at war with three different nationalities,
21:54the Italians, the Germans, and the Japanese.
21:56And I remember that, you know,
21:58Thomas Mann and Bruno Walters spoke up for the Germans
22:02and said they couldn't be removed because there would be the last despair,
22:06having fled Nazi Germany to be again put into a concentration camp.
22:10And Joe DiMaggio's mother spoke up, you know,
22:13and that was a very moving effect in San Francisco, I remember.
22:17But the Japanese had really nobody.
22:19I think the picking on the Japanese was partly a kind of a logistically rational thing that the army could handle.
22:32They said, no, we can't handle the Germans, but we can handle the Japanese.
22:36After all, they couldn't have moved all the Germans and the Italians in this country.
22:42They would have had to move half the people out of New York City.
22:45I mean, it would have been ridiculous.
22:48These people had always been rather unpopular
22:52because they competed with the American farmers in truck gardening and things of that kind
22:58and worked very much harder and cultivated their land very much more efficiently
23:02so that a lot of people took advantage of their situation to create antipathy toward them.
23:08And the government acted hastily and rather brutally.
23:11It's not a very attractive chapter.
23:13More than 100,000 Japanese Americans were interned en masse, mostly those on the West Coast,
23:19whereas the 600,000 German and Italian Americans were treated individually.
23:24Although we had heard rumors of an evacuation,
23:27we didn't realize that it was going to indeed take place.
23:31We were told that we could only take what we could carry.
23:38Evacuees had three choices.
23:40Evacuees had three choices.
23:42They either had to sell their property, abandon it, or store it.
23:46And in many cases, because of the uncertainty of the situation,
23:50many people just disposed of their property as best as they could.
23:54We were then put on buses and taken to assembly centers.
24:01From the assembly centers, we lived in horse stalls or in quickly made tar paper barracks.
24:07The mental anguish that my mother went through,
24:10having four of her sons in the service of the United States government
24:14and having her husband labeled a dangerous enemy alien.
24:28We had guards, watchtowers, machine guns.
24:32It was a picture of incarceration.
24:35We felt that we were prisoners, prisoners in our own country.
25:05The one thing that was certain was that there was going to be no more rubber for a while
25:20and that we'd have to make do with the stock of rubber tires that we had.
25:24And it wasn't in the authority of our agency to stop the sale of rubber tires,
25:28so we drew up an order anyway.
25:30And we had an anonymous young man circulated through all the offices
25:34in the Office of Production Management that had to clear all pieces of paper.
25:38It was already very bureaucratic.
25:40Walked in and says, here's the rubber, here's the tire order, sir.
25:43Everybody signed it.
25:49And we froze the whole nation's stock of rubber tires.
26:04And we froze the whole nation's stock of rubber tires.
26:24Everybody got work.
26:26This was very much appreciated after the long, deep depression of the 1930s.
26:31You might have thought that inflation would have been the major problem
26:34because in most countries, in most wars, it's always been a major problem.
26:37But very early, we mobilized, we put in rationing,
26:42and although there was a small amount of grumbling,
26:45it's amazing how well the rationing system worked.
26:48I think there was a tendency to accept shortages, and with one exception.
26:52People were very resistant to gasoline rationing.
26:56Clothing shortages, food shortages, coffee, sugar,
27:00people would accept.
27:02But there was no form of rascality, chicanery, thievery, larceny
27:08that people wouldn't engage in to get extra gasoline.
27:12I think the thing that they most resented
27:15was the extreme youth of many of us who were doing it.
27:20The Office of Price Administration, as I look back on it,
27:23must have been very hard to take.
27:26I was then 31.
27:28David Ginsberg, my immediate associate general counsel, was 29.
27:32And most everybody else was younger than we were,
27:37including Richard Nixon,
27:39who was one of the more obscure employees of the agency.
27:42There's a famous wartime picture of Sewell Avery,
27:46a great tycoon of the last age
27:48who was the head of Montgomery Ward
27:50and who had brought it out of the Depression,
27:52being carried out of his office by two American soldiers in uniform
27:55because he wouldn't comply with the War Labor Board.
27:59Our war program for the coming fiscal year
28:04will cost $56 billion.
28:09That means taxes and bonds,
28:14and bonds and taxes.
28:17And we have a squeal with each argument, ladies and gentlemen.
28:22I'm new at this, though.
28:23Can you get your order over this way, please?
28:25Yeah.
28:28$2,250. This is really a handsome thing to have.
28:30You're getting this as a premium for a war bond for $2,250.
28:34So it's really a good purchase for anybody.
28:37Now, you see it?
28:38Hope is looking at the shoe.
28:40He may increase his bid to $2,255.
28:44You're going to come up a little, aren't you, Flabby?
28:49We got $2,250.
28:50I'll go $2,250, but I'll go $2,500.
28:53Our enemies aren't pushovers.
28:56They're savage, skillful, and relentless.
28:59They've trained for years for just this chance to enslave the world,
29:02and that's just what they intend to do.
29:04And they'll use every trick and tool.
29:07But on the other hand, they aren't supermen.
29:11They didn't come down from Mars.
29:14They can be licked, and they will be licked by men.
29:21We fought in 1917 from da-da-dum-dum-dum
29:26And drove the tyrants from the sea from da-da-dum-dum-dum
29:30We're in a bigger, better war for your patriotic hush time
29:35We don't know what we're fighting for, but we didn't know the last time
29:39So load the cannon, draw the blade from da-da-dum-dum-dum
29:44Come on and join the big parade
29:51Drum-ta-da-dum-dum, drum-ta-da-dum-dum, drum-ta-da-dum-dum-dum
29:56Let the drums roll out, let the trumpet call
30:00While the people shout, strike up the band
30:04It was airplanes in the hands of a treacherous foe that brought my husband to his death.
30:09And if I can qualify as an airplane worker at Vega,
30:12and with my hands help to keep him flying,
30:15I will feel that I am carrying on for him.
30:17Hear the cymbals ring, calling one and all
30:22To the marshal's swing, strike up the band
30:26There is work to be done, to be done
30:28There's a war to be won, to be won
30:30Come you son of a son of a gun, take your stand
30:35On a night he bows, come along let's go
30:40Hey, leaders, strike up the band
30:43We are doing our share, but we're going to do infinitely more than we have done.
30:48We have in our town today two mothers,
30:52each of whom has given two sons already.
30:56And as I said before, we'll give our sons, we'll give our lives,
31:01but by the help and grace of God we will not give up
31:05a free America or our democratic way of life.
31:09Strike up the band
31:14Yankee doo doo doo doo doo
31:16We'll come through doo doo doo doo
31:18For the red, white, doo doo doo
31:20Lend a hand
31:23With a flag unfurled
31:25We can make the world
31:27Hey, leaders, strike up the band
31:39On the night of Pearl Harbour, one man had been happy,
31:43Winston Churchill, for now he knew Britain was saved.
31:47A few days later, he journeyed to Washington
31:50to make sure the war was going to be fought
31:52on the British plan of Europe first and the Pacific second,
31:56and to cement the new Anglo-American alliance.
32:00What kind of a people do they think we are?
32:04Is it possible they do not realise
32:07that we shall never cease to persevere against them
32:11until they have been taught a lesson
32:13which they and the world will never forget?
32:25Time, Churchill knew, was on the Allies' side.
32:30With America's industrial might behind them,
32:33they could not lose.
32:38Bang! Bang!
32:42Bang! Bang!
32:451942 began badly for the Americans in the Pacific.
32:49Manila, capital of the Philippines,
32:51fell to the Japanese on January 1st.
32:57The Japanese pushed the American forces on the Philippines
33:00back into the narrow peninsula of Bataan.
33:03The American plan was to hold out there for six months or so, until reinforcements came.
33:14But the reinforcements never did come, and nor had Bataan been really prepared for a siege.
33:44The American troops besieged at Bataan had no air support, were short of medical supplies, and their morale was poor.
33:52Even their commander-in-chief, General MacArthur, had left them for safer shores.
34:00Their bitter ballad?
34:01We are the battling bastards of Bataan.
34:04No mama, no papa, no uncle Sam.
34:06No aunts, no uncles, no cousins, no nieces, no pills, no planes or artillery pieces.
34:13And nobody gives a goddamn.
34:18Cock-a-hoop with the ease of their victory so far, the Japanese called on the Americans beleaguered in Bataan to surrender.
34:27The voice of the Philippines is calling the attention of everyone, everywhere.
34:34Everyone, everywhere. All Filipinos and Americans all over the country.
34:40All of you Filipinos and Americans.
34:44They tried leaflets too,
34:49aimed mostly at the Filipino soldiers among the American forces.
34:56The Japanese closed in for the kill.
35:09In early May 1942, the Philippines was in the hands of the Japanese.
35:16The Japanese were in control of Bataan.
35:19The Japanese were in control of Bataan.
35:22The Japanese were in control of Bataan.
35:25The Japanese were in control of Bataan.
35:27The Japanese were in control of Bataan.
35:29The Japanese were in control of Bataan.
35:31The Japanese were in control of Bataan.
35:33The Japanese were in control of Bataan.
35:35The Japanese were in control of Bataan.
35:37In early May 1942, the American commander in the Philippines, General Wainwright, bowed to the inevitable and surrendered the remainder of his forces.
35:47I decided to accept, in the name of humanity, the formal surrender of all American and Philippine army troops in the Philippine Islands.
36:01You will, I take will, surrender all troops to the proper Japanese officers.
36:10Eighty thousand Americans surrendered, the largest mass capitulation in American military history.
36:19The Japanese made the Americans march in the blazing sun to prison camps a hundred or so miles from Bataan.
36:25Deprived of water and medicine, starved and brutally beaten, some ten thousand soldiers died along the way, more than had been killed in the actual fighting for Bataan.
36:47By that spring of 1942, the Japanese conquests were at their peak.
36:52Surely the British and Americans would now want to make peace, argued Tokyo, a peace that would allow the Japanese to retain their conquests.
37:00But already, bold steps were being taken to strike back at the Japanese, here, in the heart of their empire, Tokyo.
37:09I was on this cruiser called the Northampton, and we were several days out at sea when we saw the Hornet coming up.
37:17And the Hornet had very unusual planes on deck. You could see them from a long way.
37:22They were large, land-based planes, B-25s.
37:28We had only one real worry. That would have been a dead comm.
37:36Under those conditions, taking off the carrier deck with the heavy loads that we had would have been, at best, precarious.
37:43The worst thing that we thought might happen would be a completely alerted Japan waiting for us.
37:49What did happen was that the morning, just before takeoff, we encountered two Japanese fishing boats.
37:58They spotted our task force, sent a message to the mainland, but unfortunately for the Japanese, were sunk before they could repeat the message.
38:13So we achieved almost complete surprise.
38:16The actual amount of damage done was minimal.
38:43We were 16 airplanes, each with one ton of bombs.
38:47In the later stages of World War II, the 20th Air Force under LeMay was sending out 500 airplanes, each with 10 tons of bombs.
38:57So we dropped 16 against a later rate of 5,000.
39:01So the damage was not at all great.
39:04However, it did have some advantages.
39:07One, we had had nothing but bad news at home.
39:10So it was the first good news our folks got, and it was appreciated as good news.
39:16It caused the Japanese to question their warlords, who had informed them that Japan would never be attacked.
39:26The Doolittle Raid stung Japan's leaders, made them careless.
39:31Ever since Pearl Harbor, Japan's Navy had been looking for a decisive battle with America's Navy.
39:37A battle that would decide, once and for all, mastery of the Pacific.
39:49In early June 1942, the Japanese carriers rendezvoused close to Midway Island, some 1,300 miles northwest of Hawaii.
40:06We had ceased to be as wary as before.
40:10The Americans knew in advance that we would attack Midway.
40:14They were waiting for us, and we walked into their trap.
41:36But while the Japanese Navy's attention was focused on Midway Island,
42:02the American Navy were preparing to strike back at the Japanese carrier fleet.
42:06We had a wonderful advantage. We were breaking their code, and they didn't know it.
42:11So we had some idea what was going to happen there.
42:14We were on the scene with the carrier force, in the right spot to meet them.
42:36The Doolittle Raid
43:06Midway, one of the greatest sea battles of all time, meant the U.S. regained naval control of the Pacific,
43:31and was the end of Japan's hope of any further conquests.
43:36The same four Japanese carriers that had launched the raid on Pearl Harbor six months before
43:42were destroyed by planes from the very American carriers that had been at sea and escaped destruction that day.
43:54The Battle of Midway doomed Japan.
43:58The Midway Battle was, many people say, the turning point of the Pacific War.
44:03That is, the turning point from complete retreat on our part,
44:09or at least attempt to establish a stalemate, and offensive.
44:14Turning point, not just at sea, but on land too.
44:21The island of Guadalcanal in the Solomons, the southernmost limit of the Japanese conquests.
44:33In August 1942, the Allies returned.
44:37For the Americans, it was their first invasion of the war.
44:40We had such a tiny fraction of America's force, and money resources, and manpower resources.
44:47Ninety percent went to Europe.
44:50We had such a tiny little thread of existence down there.
44:55It was our first offensive in the Pacific, and we went in with only one division.
45:03The Japanese were tough fighters, and they never would give up.
45:24We had isolated a Japanese regiment in what was known as the Gifu strongpoint,
45:29and they fought until we actually had to annihilate them.
45:33We used the loudspeakers after we had surrounded them,
45:37and tried to persuade them to surrender, but they wouldn't surrender.
45:40The Japanese shouldn't have made such great efforts in the Guadalcanal.
45:47They could have saved their strength.
45:59The Guadalcanal
46:29At long last, the tide had turned for the Allies in the Pacific,
46:33but it was still as yet only a sideshow.
46:36The main energies were being reserved for Europe.
46:39It was really a little odd to the Americans in the general public at that time
46:45that we were spending so little effort in the Pacific.
46:49President Roosevelt made up his mind that the defeat of Hitler
46:53was by far the most important to achieve first.
46:57He was the most dangerous of the enemies,
47:01and he was very skillful in keeping the American public opinion directed towards Europe,
47:07although we did have a very major operation in Japan,
47:11and a very successful operation after we recovered from the tremendous blow,
47:15the loss of a very substantial part of our navy at Pearl Harbor.
47:18I think that generally public opinion had the feeling,
47:22as we say in baseball, the big league was in Europe,
47:27and in the United Kingdom, and I include that in Western Europe.
47:32The decision was made early that Europe came first,
47:37and it was a wise decision,
47:40in spite of the fact that we got the devil knocked out of us in the Pacific for a long time.
47:46That was the right decision, and I think everybody recognized it.
47:50Now, of course, the navy protested at being left way underpowered in the Pacific,
47:58and it did put us up to very heavy casualties and all of that,
48:05but I think the country in general agreed with the decision
48:11that the real threat was in Europe.
48:14We could take care of the Japs in our own good time,
48:17but the real thing that had to be met was on the continent.
48:48Here we teach you how to kill and get the opponent down on the ground
48:52in the quickest manner possible, snuff out his life,
48:55by kicking with both feet, one foot, the flat of the hand,
48:58the rabbit punch, gouging the eyes out, ripping the mouth.
49:01The gentle art of killing a man is to get him on the ground and kick in this manner.
49:06See?
49:08Get him through and I'll kick him.
49:12Come on, all of you do that.
49:15Do what the buglers command
49:20They're in the army and not in a band
49:24This is the army, Mr. Brown
49:27You and your baby went to town
49:31He had you worried, but this is war
49:35And he won't worry you anymore
49:38Mr. Jones, Mr. Green, Mr. Brown
49:44Mr. Churchill did have a real antipathy, I think,
49:50toward getting ashore, what he would call prematurely,
49:54onto the European continent.
49:57He had very vivid memories of the sacrifice of a British generation
50:02in World War I, Poshendale and the Somme.
50:06There were always nightmares to him.
50:08After all this passion that had been aroused as a result of Pearl Harbor
50:12and our being in the war and marching and counter-marching and training,
50:16we just had to get ashore someplace.
50:19In view of the British attitude, which didn't feel that we were prepared
50:23to go into the main theater, we looked around for another spot
50:27to express our strength and it turned out it was Africa.
50:30Over there, over there
50:34Send the word, send the word over there
50:38That the eggs are coming, the eggs are coming
50:43The drums are coming everywhere
50:47So sing fair, say a prayer
50:51Send the word, send the word everywhere
50:56We'll be over, we're coming over
51:00And we won't come back here, over, over there
51:09And we won't come back here, over, over there
51:16November 1942.
51:18Six hundred ships loaded with men and materials set sail for North Africa.
51:23Operation Torch.
51:25Said Roosevelt when he heard the news,
51:27at last we're on our way.
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