by rick grant rickgrant01@comcast.net
Since WWII ended in 1945, many scribes and filmmakers have released comprehensive documentaries on this worldwide conflict. Millions died in this global war, which had clearly defined combatants–good versus evil. Many of these works are historical docudramas such as Spielberg’s adaptation of Stephen Ambrose’s Band of Brothers. Each work probes certain aspects of WWII, delving into various cause-and-effect scenarios of this cataclysmic event. Its scope is so broad, that up until Burns’ work, it seemed impossible to cover the entire War.
Now, in what could be the definitive documentary work on WWII, Ken Burns’ incredibly detailed seven-part documentary strikes the viewer in the heart. In Burns’ trademark style, he has woven together archival footage, some of which has never been seen, with surviving veterans’ accounts of their experiences, into an emotional thunderbolt. Burns takes us to four towns and cities as he follows each veteran into combat, personalizing each story as we watch naďve boys turn into men overnight.
Burns shows how ill-equipped our armed forces were to face the Axis nightmare when the United States entered the War after Pearl Harbor. Japan possessed a mighty Navy, and fight-to-the-death fanatical troops. Hitler had amassed an awesome mechanized war machine. American draftees were given old WWI bolt-action rifles, rode horses and trained with cardboard tanks, while Hitler smashed Poland in his fast moving blitzkrieg–a fearsome rolling thunder with advanced tanks and thousands of well-trained troops. To say we were unprepared for Hitler’s race to world domination was an understatement.
Each episode approaches the war from Sacramento, California, Mobile, Alabama, Luverne, Minnesota, and Waterbury, Connecticut as each town gives up the cream of their youth, who willingly rushed to join the War effort. In Sacramento, huge defense plants sprang up employing mostly women who had never held a wrench or a rivet gun in their lives. Overnight, the country went from the Great Depression to ninety-seven percent employment. Shanty towns sprang up near the factories as dirt poor, dust-bowl refugees finally got a pay check and slowly improved their lives.
Our inauspicious entrance into the War in the Pacific was on-the-job-training as our Marines and Army infantry soldiers quickly learned about the principle of kill or be killed. As the war dragged on, America gradually evolved into an industrial giant, supplying better weapons to the troops, such as the M1 Garand semi-automatic rifle that was superior to the German and Japanese single-shot bolt-action rifles.
The entire population of the United States was fervently into the War effort, either fighting it as soldiers or working in the defense industry building tanks, ships, planes, and munitions. All civilian manufacturing was halted. Automakers converted their factories to produce War machines. At first, we needed everything, but this monumental effort quickly supplied our beleaguered troops with enough weapons to turn the tide of the War.
Burns found rare unseen footage of our bloody island-hopping campaign to defeat the Japanese. Each island had to be taken by rooting out and killing each Japanese soldier who considered surrender an act of cowardice. It was brutally hot, humid, and vicious hand-to-hand combat that quickly hardened our troops to the grim reality of “war is hell.” Young idealistic men who went into the war with a sense of adventure, were turned into cynical killers who looted the enemy’s bodies. This grim footage of the mass carnage on each of the islands has never before been seen because it has only recently been declassified.
Each veteran’s personal story draws the viewer into the war. One will feel vicarious grief and sorrow as millions of young Americans made the ultimate sacrifice to defeat the enemy. One veteran tells a gut-wrenching story of his experiences on a Japanese held island. “I spotted a Jap coming out of his bunker, and I raised my rifle. I shot him four times in the chest. I was so close, I heard the thuds of bullets striking him and saw his face contorted in pain. For the rest of my life, I have lived with that memory. I killed many more Japs but I’ll never forget that one Jap’s face as he died.”
For people in my age group, born at the start of WWII (1941) , they will feel nostalgic and remember the rationing of most everything including eggs, meat, cigarettes, gasoline, and sugar. Burns’ overview of the War underscores how our government covered up many disturbing facts of the war, including the shocking casualty figures and atrocities committed by American troops in the Pacific theater.
Jokingly, for those of us who got through the seven CDs or 14 hours of the viewing, we deserve an honorary WWII medal. However, once I started to watch it, I was hooked and made time to see the entire series. I recommend buying the box set so you can view it on your own time. But the entire miniseries will run on PBS Television WJCT Sept. 23rd through 26th at 8 pm.
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EU Critic’s Choice Awards
