It is impossible to watch this series without tearing up at what these men went through. "War is hell" may have become something of a cliché, but every once in awhile we need to be reminded that what may be a cliché for those of us who never had to experience that horror, may well be a truth for those who do. With our armed forces fighting even now, it is a reminder clearly of the moment.
The series doesn't shy away from some of the philosophical questions raised by war. For example, there is a discussion in the fifth episode between the newly arrived Sledge and the more veteran Leckie on the question of evil in a world created by a just God. The question of ends justifying means is raised when a soldier loses it in the middle of the night, begins screaming, and needs to be silenced before he gives away their position. They also need to deal with an enemy trying to kill them even as they tend his wounds. There is even some implied explanation and justification of the use of a nuclear bomb to end the war.
War brutalizes everyone involved in it, and the series doesn't sugar coat the brutal behaviors of either side. We are shown how the Japanese used civilians as shields on Okinawa, and how, for example they turned one woman and her baby into a human bomb. But we are also shown marines digging gold teeth out of the mouths of dead Japanese soldiers. We see them taking pot shots at an enemy soldier who seems to be surrendering. While these things are not quite morally equivalent, they do suggest that there is inhumane behavior on both sides.
Still when all is said and done The Pacific is most importantly a testament to the self-effacing courage of the marines that fought and died for their country. One extra included in the DVD is a set of profiles of some of the men featured in the film. Friends and relatives talk about them. Those still living talk about themselves and the others. They explain what it was like to be there and how it felt to come home. To a man, they declined to call themselves heroes; to a man they questioned why they were the ones that made it out alive. To a man they talk about the nightmares that still haunt them after fifty years. It is to the series' credit that their service and the sacrifice of those who didn't make it home are never trivialized; they are presented with honesty and integrity.
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Article comments
1 - Realist
As brutal and graphic as "The Pacific" and the books which spawned it are, they remain somewhat cleaned up versions of that horrible experience.
One can get a glimpse of how much worse it really was by reading Into The Rising Sun by Patrick K. O'Donnell (ISDN 1439192588, available on AMAZON). In no other book covering the Pacific War have I read veterans' reports of cannibalism of dead Marines by starving Japanese troops, or of the homosexual attacks upon those captured alive as a means of entertainment and torture. One begins to understand why the veterans of the Pacific War were especially reticent to reveal their experiences - they are almost too horrible to contemplate when compared to the lives they left behind to fight.
I can understand why they wanted us to never have to experience those things and the many worse things that remain yet untold. I just wish that their desire to protect us could have been realized.
2 - Jeff Hohman
10/22/2010
Hello,
Because of the interest in HBO’s acclaimed series “The Pacific” and your blog, I thought you might be interested in the following about the award-winning documentary film “Peleliu 1944: Horror in the Pacific” that I produced. Thanks. Jeff Hohman, Producer
Kenwood Productions’ award-winning documentary film, Peleliu 1944: Horror in the Pacific, is available in DVD. Against a backdrop of rare archival film footage and photographs, the story of the Battle of Peleliu is told as never before by E. B. Sledge (author of With the Old Breed at Peleliu and Okinawa and featured in Ken Burns’ film The War, seen on PBS, and the HBO mini-series The Pacific), Bill Leyden, R. V. Burgin, and Jay de l’Eau (who are also characterized in The Pacific.) HBO licensed portions of Kenwoods’ exclusive Eugene Sledge interview to support their production of the The Pacific.
Peleliu 1944: Horror in the Pacific tells the true story of the men of Company K, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment and the ferocious Battle of Peleliu, “an island on fire.” In conditions that tested the sanity of each man, 9,000 Marines attacked 10,000 battle-hardened Japanese soldiers dug into hundreds of fortified and reinforced coral and limestone caves. Twenty-eight days of unrelenting battle with no quarter asked or given.
The Battle of Peleliu is as harrowing as any in the history of modern warfare. A battle of total annihilation fought in inhuman conditions.
To see film clips and get more information on this, and other Kenwood Productions’ films, go to www.americanherofilm.com.
After viewing the clips, we hope you’ll agree with the viewers who said the film “should be required viewing by every veteran or enthusiast” and “hearing the veterans speak and tell their stories was so powerful, it was all woven together with excellent narration and footage. Just hearing Eugene Sledge tell his stories is priceless.” Historian Paul Fussel wrote “One of the cassettes [of Peleliu 1944] I’m donating to the Imperial War Museum here so that the British will have some idea of the costs of the Pacific war. The other I’ll treasure forever, and with thanks always to you and to Gene Sledge.”
If you have questions or would like more information contact us at mail@americanherofilm.com or by phone at (612) 812-9489.
Thank you.
Jeff Hohman
Producer
Kenwood Productions, Inc.