For reasons I never quite understood, the United States during World War II put most of their focus into the European Theater of the war, even though Japan represented a much more intimate threat (at least in my eyes). While Hitler was working on projects that never saw the light of day, such as intercontinental bombers and missiles that could hit targets as far away as New York, the japanese demonstrated that they already had the ability to strike at America's land itself when they hit Pearl Harbor. This film, dated as it may be, provides a good but somewhat rushed overview of america's operations in the Pacific. Because most weapons, vehicles and personnel were being allocated to Europe in order to bring down germany, the men fighting in the sweltering heat of countless miserable islands always seemed overstretched. The film says how america was led to victory in the pacific due to two legendary commanders and how each of them conducted the so called "island hopping" campaigns. The US Army and Marines would attack japanese held island after island, often in locations where they weren't expected so they could easily secure a beachhead or staging area. The two aforementioned commanders who orchestrated these operations were Douglas MacArthur and Admiral Nimitz. MacArthur led forces in the south pacific, with Nimitz's troops advancing across northern pacific areas. Before all the successful campaigns, america suffered badly at the hands of the japanese. When the US entered the war, japan controlled an area of the pacific ocean that dwarfed all of continental america. Early in 1942, japanese forces invade the Philippine island of Luzon, and overwhelmed american and filppino forces retreat to the Bataan Peninsula. In April, all are subdued, and it is the largest mass surrender in american military history. The japanese proceed to beat and torture defenseless men as they march toward captivity in the brutal sun in what is now called the bataan death march. MacArthur is forced to flee to Australia, but promises to come back to the philippines when the time is right. Meanwhile, america's huge industrial might begins to wear down the japanese, who are dealt a savage blow at Midway. New Guinea is also attacked in order to make sure japan can't fulfill their dream of invading australia. In late 1944, after more than two years, MacArthur keeps his word and returns to the philippines during the Battle of Leyte. The film doesn't make any mention of the fact that american ships under Admiral Halsey were led away from Leyte by a japanese task force specifically meant to decoy him. Although this dumb decision was known about even as the war was still going, the film just flaunts america's naval prowess by telling us that japan sends ships in order to intercept the landings at Leyte, and they are beat back by an equal sized american force. In 1945, american forces witness urban devastation not yet seen in the pacific theater when they try to take back the philippine capital of Manila from the japanese. The month long bloodbath causes the complete razing of the city and japanese forces murder any civilians they can get their hands on. Once american and filippino troops triumph here, islands even closer to the japanese mainland began to fall. Iwo Jima and Okinawa soon follow, and with japanese infrastructure being habitually pounded by hundreds of bombers flying out of the Marianas, america finishes what their enemy started almost 4 years earlier by deploying the only nuclear weapons used in a war. American forces occupy japan, and MacArthur, Nimitz, and other Allied commanders meet the japanese surrender delegation aboard the battleship USS Missouri in September 1945. World War 2 is over. While this film did kind of gloss over the moments toward the end of the war a little too fast for my liking, its core advantage is the archive footage. There's many things here that I've never seen before, such as a more complete version of MacArthur giving his speech during the surrender ceremony. World at War's episode on the atom bomb has this, but a shortened variant. I feel like the film focused a little too much on the philippines, as they talk again and again about Corregidor, Leyte, Manila, and all these other places in the country. The inclusion of captured japanese footage was interesting, as was the film showing the fighting in Manila. It was mostly unheard of for the war in the pacific to take place in an urban setting, but seeing videos of it, you get the impression that it was basically the Asian Stalingrad. Savage house to house fighting against an enemy that doesn't know the meaning of giving up, so every room or hiding place in sight had to be blasted with machine gun fire, flamethrowers or grenades. Overall, Appointment in Tokyo wasn't really anything special, and I'm sure I'll probably forget I even saw this a few months from now (maybe even sooner). It might sound like I'm putting it down too much, but when you watch as many ww2 related things as I do, they tend to blend together and feel indistinguishable.
Review of Appointment in Tokyo
