Victory in the Pacific

The final years of World War Two's Pacific theater—1944 and 1945—saw the fiercest, bloodiest battles of the entire war, as Japan refused to surrender, throwing every soldier left against the Allies. The PBS-aired Victory in the Pacific, which combines archival footage and stills together with interviews featuring historians and firsthand reminiscences from both American and Japanese civilians and military personnel, chronicles the battles and decisions (on both sides) of the waning months of the war, culminating in the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Especially interesting and valuable to scholars is the insight into the Japanese rationale for continuing to fight against insurmountable odds, particularly Emperor Hirohito's unshakable faith that one victory would be all it would take to restore Japan's dominance in the Pacific. DVD extras include the Ronald Reagan-narrated film Target Tokyo (on the attacks on Tokyo) and The Bomb and the End of the War (a discussion about the decision to use the atomic bomb). Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (J. Carlson)