00:23February 1942, Japanese objective.
00:30A regidor.
00:52A president's order to leave.
00:56A soldier's promise to return.
01:00A soldier's hope.
01:01An appointment in Tokyo.
01:31May 5th, 1942.
01:34The enemy lands on Corregidor.
01:39General Jonathan Wainwright, defender of the rock.
01:51Skinny Wainwright's pen wrote deep into the American memory.
02:13From Mara Venis on Bataan.
02:15The death march.
02:36The Japs moved on.
02:52Until Australia itself lay open to invasion.
02:57At his Melbourne headquarters, General MacArthur faced grim facts.
03:01Against nearly 3,000 Jap planes, he had barely 500.
03:06Against Jap millions, he had 11 poorly equipped divisions.
03:11Australians, Australians, Americans.
03:18Against him were thousands of miles of Jap-infested islands and Jap-controlled seas.
03:24Against him was time and space and power and preparation.
03:29Against him was an area that made the vast United States seem small.
03:36American industry and labor were converting from the non-essentials of peace to the necessities of war.
03:51Conversion was slow.
04:09Conversion was slow.
04:11In the andes.
04:11A supply line won and secured by naval victory in the Coral Sea.
04:16Land victories at Guadalcanal in the Solomons.
04:43But the Japs were still on the move.
04:48March 2nd, 1943.
04:51A strong enemy convoy was crawling through the Bismarck Sea.
04:57General Kenney's 5th Air Force struck with every plane he could get off the ground.
05:21Score? 22 shattered hulks.
05:24Every enemy ship.
05:27A decisive aerial victory had been gained in a critical hour.
05:31The Japs had been stopped.
05:33This was the turning point.
05:36The job of fighting back to the Philippines and beyond to Japan required the closest teamwork of sea, land, and
05:43air forces.
05:44This brought together Douglas MacArthur and Chester Nimitz.
05:48Washington had a plan.
05:50Two roads back to the Philippines.
05:52One from Hawaii, along the string of coral fortresses, the Gilberts, Marshalls, Marianas, to Palau.
06:00This was the job for naval and army forces under Admiral Nimitz.
06:04Another from Australia would cut through the jungle of New Guinea, up the stairway of islands to Moratai.
06:11This was the job for the army and navy forces under the soldier who had made a promise to return.
06:40First, the air arm reached ahead.
06:53Second, amphibious assault.
06:56Hit them where they ain't.
07:07Up from Australia and across jungle-clad New Guinea,
07:11we learned amphibious warfare and used the sea lanes for surprise
07:15until we had cut off Jap-packed Rabaul and stood on the admiralties.
07:24By now, the Japs were dug in and ready at WeWAC.
07:28So we surprised Hollandia.
07:31WeWAC bypassed.
07:43Strategy, surprise, up the stairway of islands.
07:57Moratai.
07:57The G.I.s of the Southwest Pacific were dug in and ready for the main event.
08:02To get here, they had left a lot of Japs behind them.
08:07Box score?
08:09A hundred and fifty-two thousand dead.
08:12A hundred and sixty thousand bypassed.
08:16This total of three hundred and twelve thousand Japs
08:20had cost us 13,000 dog tags nailed to white crosses.
08:40Meantime, the forces commanded by Admiral Nimitz in Hawaii
08:42faced a different kind of war.
08:44There were no places to hit them where they ain't.
08:48Every coral atoll we invaded
08:50would have to be taken Jap by Jap.
08:55The G.I.s of the Kings
08:57will have to be taken away from the
08:57to the settlers in Hawaii.
08:58Yes!
09:00Yes!
09:02Yeah!
09:15Yes!
09:24Westward through the Central Pacific.
09:26New names in American history.
09:31Tarawa in the Gilberts.
09:34Kwajalein in the Marshalls.
09:37Saipan and Guam in the Marianas.
09:44Palau.
09:48Palau and Moratai.
09:50We had bridged the Pacific.
10:15In early October, 1944, a combat-loaded convoy from Pearl Harbor was on its way to strike
10:20the enemy stronghold at Yap.
10:25One afternoon, a top-secret code message broke radio silence.
10:30For three years, our expanding Navy and Air Forces had prowled the Pacific, cutting Jap
10:36supply lines, smashing airstrips, blasting garrisons, until Jap losses made possible a big change
10:44of plans.
10:52From Admiral Nimitz, instructions to change course.
10:57Jap invasion canceled.
10:58Bandibu with task forces headed for a new objective, the Philippines.
11:08Now, guess this.
11:10These are the Philippines.
11:12Up at the top is Luzon, the most important island.
11:16Manila, Oregidor.
11:19The Japs are expecting us here.
11:22Down at the bottom is Mindenau, another place the Japs are expecting us.
11:27Got it?
11:29Okay.
11:31So we don't hit Luzon.
11:33We don't hit Mindenau.
11:35We hit here, right in the middle, at Lacy's.
11:40Now, remember, don't get callous.
11:43They're the same kind of Japs they've always been.
11:46Any questions?
11:49Questions?
11:51Sure.
11:52The silent kind.
11:59Yes, there are always questions.
12:09And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people, and I have heard their cry by
12:16reason of their taskmasters, and I am come down to deliver them out of that land.
12:23And unto a good land.
12:27An army is a collection of men.
12:30And a man is a collection of needs.
12:33One of these needs is prayer.
12:36And prayer is a form of remembering.
12:39Remember.
12:41Yeah.
12:43Back in those canvas hotels in the staging area.
12:47Where two can live as cheap as 2,000.
12:50Yeah, I remember.
12:53I remember Joe getting all polished up to go nowhere.
12:58What a character.
13:01Funny how the unimportant things were important.
13:05Like the first beer you had in nine months.
13:10Like Texan's accordion.
13:13Like Texan's accordion.
13:17And you remember packing.
13:20Cutting down to just what you need.
13:21Because what you take, you take on your back.
13:26And you remember the things you left behind.
13:31To the lone prairie.
13:34All the things you wanted to say and couldn't.
13:36And when I die.
13:38And all the things you wanted to take.
13:41And couldn't.
13:44Meet the western sky.
13:49On the lone prairie.
13:53To the sky.
13:56Keep going.
14:08To the stars.
14:12To the stars.
14:15To the stars.
14:22You remember watching the submarine net slip by, thinking, well, this is it.
14:28I'm on my way.
14:35We were all underway, and there wasn't much to do about it.
14:39Just sit around and wait for the Navy to take us to the Japs.
14:58It's funny how you remember all those things at a time like this.
15:34October 20th, 1944.
15:39The men of MacArthur have returned.
15:58The men of MacArthur have returned.
16:39The first to land, some the first to fall.
16:56The men of MacArthur have returned.
16:58Captured Jap film.
16:59The enemy waits.
17:02General Yamashita commanding.
17:10The men of MacArthur will be the most important line wearing shoes.
17:10The men of MacArthur have returned.
17:29Interesting.
17:31Keyboard and MacArthur have returned.
17:31The men of MacArthur have returned.
17:34The men of MacArthur can be saved.
17:39Let's go.
18:04Let's go.
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32:18Okay.
32:35Okay.
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