Hell in the Pacific

This episode covers the early part of the war in the Pacific, one of the most bitter battle arenas of World War II. Pearl Harbor led America into the greatest conflict ever recorded.

After Pearl Harbor was attacked, Japanese forces swept across the Pacific. Thousands of Americans and Filipinos died on the Bataan Death March and prisoners were forced to labour.

How propaganda fuelled hatred. In cinemas, the Allies showed films Japanese survivors being machine-gunned in lifeboats. The Japanese scoured prison camps to find prisoners fit enough to act in films.

As the Allies neared Japan, the fighting got more savage. Tiny islands like Iwo Jima were carpeted with corpses. The Americans slaughtered wounded Japanese. Both sides looted and mutilated the dead.