Thanks for watching! Just want to point out that our research team made some mistakes, and 'Robert Leckie' photos portrayed at 0:07, 0:45 & 1:13 are incorrect. Information about the Robert Leckie we're referring to can be found here - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Leckie_(author)

My dad spent 2 1/2 years fighting in the Pacific. One day, watching television, someone on a news program commented that nuclear weapons were the most terrible weapons ever invented. My dad turned to me and said, “That person’s never seen anyone killed with a flamethrower”.

My dad fought in ww2 Okinawa as a marine. He could relate to my uncle his little brother who fought in Vietnam as a marine. But not to me as I fought in a tank in the desert. Our experiences are so different but still horrible. Now my oldest can relate too as a combat vet.

My great uncle was a medic during D-Day, and I always asked him what his experience was like. He never wanted to talk about what he saw during war. I could see he had a lot of trauma from what he experienced so I stopped asking at some point. He passed 2 years ago, and it wasn't until his funeral I found out he had wrote a book about his experience's. The man saved 21 people from a plane crash, received tons of medals, saved tons of people on the Beach's, and he had attended countless funerals for the people he couldn't save. And I had never heard any of this. It really breaks my heart sometimes because I wish I could tell him at how much of a hero he was, but he didn't feel that way about it. A true selfless man. Don't find many like him anymore.

My grandfather fought in the Pacific. As a kid I noticed he and those like him didn't relate to veterans that fought in Europe. Pacific veterans were more solitary and unlikely to find relief in veterans organizations. They also identified strongly with the tropic climate and topography of the Pacific and would gravitate to similar places back home, like Florida. They were also more likely to be cynical of the war and the service.

I have talked to thousands of American WWII veterans, and from what I have been told time and time again that being in the Pacific was decidedly worse. Constant disease, bad supply lines overland, horrific environment, no meaningful R&R, and on top of that, the enemy was at another level of fanaticism. I wouldn't want to be in either theater, but I'd jump on Europe if given the choice in a heartbeat.

The same could be said for German soldiers who fought on the Eastern vs those on the Western front

If you were an US soldier and fell into German captivity, you had a very high chance of surviving the war. If you fell into Japanese captivity, assuming they even took you prisoner, your chances of survival were very slim. I think this pretty much points out to which of those theaters was worse.

WW2 messed my Polish grandfathers head up monumentally. He was angry and abusive to my mum and her siblings as children. I didn't want to know him before he died but when I grew up and started to understand what he went through I wondered what kind of father he would have been without all of that trauma.

My great grandfather was a Italian immigrant, he joined the U.S. army and was deployed to the European theater, he took part in the invasions of Italy and Sicily and had to invade his home town. His fellow soldiers had actually captured members of his extended family.

My grandfather, father’s father, fought from North Africa to Germany 1st infantry division. My great grandfathers on my mother’s side, fought in the Pacific. One was a marine who fought on Guadalcanal and Peleliu before being wounded by having his foot blown off by a mortar round. His brothers, my great-great uncles, were both in the Navy and were stationed at Pearl Harbor when the attack happened. One was on the USS Arizona, the other was on shore leave. Both miraculously survived, although the one who was on the Arizona had a piece of his ear torn off by shrapnel. The one on shore leave was killed later in the Philippines in 1944. The other great grandfather was an Army Air Force bomber crewman, a belly gunner on a B17. He was shot down, captured, tortured, escaped and returned to service to fly missions over Europe. My great uncle on my father’s mother’s side was a British Royal Marine. Other than the one sailor who died in the Philippines in ‘44, it was miraculous that all of these great men survived the war and I had the honor of getting to know them. And they all had the same thing to say- Fuck war. Edit: I did not expect this to blow up. I thought it would just be kind of glossed over.

My war experience in Iraq and Afghanistan was different from my uncle that fought in Europe in WW2, and my father in Korea and Vietnam. I lost friends and saw the outcome of our firepower in our enemy. I was deployed for one year on each occasion. For me, it was traumatic to go out on a walking patrol, and I don't know if a sniper or IED would hurt me or a friend. In the case of my dad, it was constant violence for a whole year, and see friends, enemy soldiers, and civilians in pieces. My dad was my hero and I pray to God that I did not disappoint him and that I did my duty.

We talk a lot about the trauma of WWII troops and the difference between the ETO and PTO. We have tons of info on the trauma Vietnam vets went through. Why does nobody ever talk about the trauma Korean War vets experienced? Horrible weather (from sweltering heat to Siberian deep freeze), relentless night time human wave attacks from a numberless enemy, and then 2 years of WWI-style trench warfare. And then the added trauma of having fought in a war everybody keeps forgetting…

When the 50th anniversary of D-Day rolled around in 1994, I was working with a guy that was WW2 veteran that had served in the Pacific. I asked if he could remember what his thoughts were at the time about the landings and he replied, “I didn’t give a damn. We were getting ready to land on Saipan and that was my focus. Couldn’t care less about what was going on in Europe.”😅

I talked with a vet who fought in the Ardennes. Incredibly well decorated. He was adament about telling myself and some of my friend's about what happened, gruesome and heartwrenching stories that made him cry. He said he had to tell them no matter how much it hurt becaise someone had to remember his friends. He told us the greatest honor we could show them was to live happy, good lives.

My grandfather fought and was captured on Corregidor and spent 3.5 years as a POW of the Japanese. In the early 1950's, according to my aunt, the family had a cook out and all my uncles had been in Europe during the war, and swapped war stories all day. My grandfather, she said, never said and word and she doubted that he was actually in the war. He just couldn't relate to their experiences, or thought maybe they would never have understood his.

My grandfather was a Army veteran that survived Leyte. He was awarded a Silver Star and two Purple Hearts, then spent a year convalescent in a VA hospital. He talked very little about his experiences there. These are the things heros are made of.

Basically the GIs in Europe after liberation European cities would get wines and girls ,while the GIs in Pacific had to combat Japanese and Malaria at the same times

I don't know where to start here. To begin with, I am German and grew up in a Village with a population of 1.500 in the 70s and 80s. I lived with my parents and my grandparents - dad's parents, and as it was usual these days, my parents had a grocery store at one half of the building and my grandparents a tavern on the other half. Our living room was next to the tavern, and sometimes the noise from there was louder than the TV. But we weren't allowed to turn the TV louder, because it could disturb the customers. Grandpa was born in 1905 and too old and un-fit to serve anywhere in an active combat unit, so he was drafted into the Landsturm, where he served along with other men of his age or veterans of the first world war as a dispatch rider at a nearby Luftwaffe ammunitions factory. So he was no combat veteran per sé, but somehow after the war our tavern became a watering hole for many of the veterans of the defeated nazi-german army, who fought and suffered everywhere battles took place. There was a U-Boat man, a Fallschirmjäger, who lost an arm on Kreta, the guy who "left" his legs in afrika, one half blind, one with only three fingers. And the other ones, with "only" scars or invisible injuries. Normally, there were the usual pub-talks: joking, bragging, cursing about stupid bosses, complaints over taxes, government, the wifes, which farmer bought which tractor... Same stuff as today. But on some occasions, the talk came to the war. Remember, it was in the 70s and 80s, and the men, who fought in it were the same age as I am today, or a little bit older. I always liked it to sneak in the adjacent club-room, open the sliding door a little bit and listen to the banter of the guests. I sometimes thought, the men were fighting in different wars, wich must have absolutely been possible, because they were so old from my perspective. The submariner was always about french women and some big parties in the harbor and the british enemy. The man without legs talked about the desert, and the heat, and the flies and the thirst - among other themes. The Fallschirmjäger didn't take part in conversations, he must have had his bit and according to his grand-children, with which i went to school, he never ever lost a word about the war. Most men of this party of the mangled and injured had served on the eastern front, and the only thing you heard about that was pretty much like "that was hell", "that was sh*t", "terrible, you can't imagine". And there was Onkel Herbert, who occupied norway until the end and got a comfy boad-ride back to germany after the end of the war. But that was ok for the others, because he was still a teenager then. Maybe, also on the axis side the perception of the war and experience was different from soldier to soldier, depending on which enemy he was facing. Western Allies in France, Afrika and Italy, the navies on the atlantic or the russians on the eastern front. It is remarkable, that the veterans from the russian front usually talked about the cold, the lack of food, villages with poor people, dust and endless marching days and very rarely about actual combat while the ones from the other fronts were more freely about their experiences. In a war this big, the experiences can only differ, depending on where you were in it.

Following the years after the war, Sledge ended up connecting with one of his fraternity brothers, Buck Marsh, who was an infantryman attached to the 3rd armored division in Europe and who personally witnessed the legendary Cologne Panther-Pershing tank duel of which Adam Makos writes about in his book "Spearhead". The two actually bonded heavily over talking to each other about their contrasting experiences, and both said that doing so was the best thing that helped them mitigate the trauma they both experienced.

My great grandma had seven sons who all went to fight in WWI. They all came home. Even survivors' guilt is a terrible thing. My granda tried to join up in WWII, even though he had been blinded in one eye, during WWI - shot under the chin, where the bullet had gone through the roof of his mouth, through his eye and out through the side of his head. It was 'only' his left eye. He reckoned he could still aim a rifle. My great grandma could never look other mothers in the eye - left or right. War is madness!

My father joined the United States Navy the day after Pearl Harbor. Most of his time was spent on supply runs, including the North Atlantic Convoy, but also in support of Anzio and then later in the Pacific on "milk runs" from San Francisco to Hawai'i. I asked him why *he* joined the way. Over time, he answered me three times. The first time he told me this was the stupidest question I could ask if I was of his generation ... but he said, "You're from the Vietnam generation and deserve another answer." The first answer: Patriotism, Pearl Harbor, Duty to the Nation. It was a direct, textbook answer, the Greatest Generation answering THE CALL. Years later he gave me the second answer: His father (a WWI vet) had a map of Europe on the wall of their house. He put in pins with flags to mark the movement of troops. When his father put the Nazi flag on Paris, his father cried. My father mentally then said, "I am going to get the b******s who made my father cry!" The third answer came a little bit before he died. "Oh god, it was such a relief! I wanted to get away so badly! I was so tired of being just Dad's son. And more, my mother's cooking was so awful! And her constant Bible reading! I just had to get out of that house!" All three of these answers were correct, but they were correct in very different ways.

My grandfather fought in the Pacific, surviving both Iwo Jima and Okinawa. He didn't talk about it much, but the stories he did tell were harrowing. Using the dead body of his friend in place of sand bags to take cover from enemy fire, that kind of thing. And yet, he held more of a grudge against the Germans. He bought himself and all his sons Kawasaki motorcycles at a time when very few Americans had ever heard the name. A lifelong GM loyalist who wouldn't consider a Ford, he bought my grandmother one of the first Honda Accords that ever rolled off the boat. When my dad bought a German Maico dirt bike and a VW Karmann Ghia, his old man went absolutely nuclear over it.

As someone who’s been in combat, it’s the hardest thing I have to deal with, I’m lucky I’m alive. I couldn’t comprehend what the 40s must’ve been like for those soldiers and the military it’s self. I take great pride in the US because my family immigrated here from Cuba and Mexico so we fight as if we are fighting for our own home and want to protect it. Even though the sacrifices are insanely great we still need these telling and stories to help better the future and give light to what was done and how we can be better

My great grandfather, who passed in December, was a SeaBee who worked on the targeting computers (for their gun turrets) on the B29s. He hopped along the islands right behind the landing forces to help establish the airfields etc. He finally ended up on Tinian and would often talk about how even after they took the island you'd suddenly hear gun fire within yards of you as Japanese hold outs would try and change the engineers to stop their work. What he never talked about often was his actual work and the bombings. (Tinian was where the Enola Gay launched from)

My own experiences in Vietnam allow me some insight into the Pacific War. As a Marine, I too witnessed a lot an 18/19 year old boy shouldn't. We were burdened with leaders in Washington who didn't have a clue as to the direction or the objectives needed to win. At least the guys in my Dad's war (Army ETO.) tried to understand. They did have an objective in their war.

I read Eugene Sledge's book "With The Old Breed" and after I finished it I couldn't imagine why anyone who has been in combat wouldn't have severe PTSD.

Thank you for creating this video. I'm 64 years old, and i have studied WWII throughout my entire life. At this point, I rarely hear any new facts I didn't already know, so instead, I appreciate hearing new interpretations and viewpoints on the impact of WWII. I welcome the way your video will help younger generations understand the experiences endured by the parents, teachers and neighbors of my generation.

I applaud you sir! I'm a WW2 history buff and there are not many angles of this conflict I haven't explored, however.. this video was informative and intriguing in a very new way. Great job sir!

My dad was a member of the 221 Airborne Medical Company of the 11th Airborne Division in the Pacific. Growing up he seldom talked about the war but made me become a Boy Scout, take Red Cross First Aid Classes, Red Cross Life Saving classes, Civil Defense classes, and help out at the local volunteer fire department. He said it was to train me if I ever needed it. I did. When I went to Vietnam he only gave me one bit of advice. "Don't get close to any of the people in your unit. It's real hard when they get killed."

Yeah being a soldier in both fronts was difficult in their own ways. The Pacific theatre in particular always sounds way more scary. You're on small islands in the sea where there's barely fresh water to drink, it's always hot af in the jungle, the enemy usually does not surrender, and the battles drag on far longer than they are expected to

My neighbor growing up (who I thought was my grandpa lol) was a bronze star recipient from ww2 . He was a fantastic man, I also had a great grandpa and great great uncle who fought. I don’t believe we’ll see another generation quite like them. I was fortunate in 2012 to take a trip to Pearl Harbor where I got to meet some survivors of the attack who were telling their stories❤

My great grandfather was in the Army during WW2, he fought in the Pacific. The only story I ever got out of him was when he had to run for his life and jump into the nearest ditch because the beach he was on was being bombed. He was a very quiet man and unfortunately drank himself to death but I know he finally found peace at the end. He was so happy at the end. My grandfather(his son) was a dog handler in the Air Force during Vietnam. He came back addicted to drugs and alcohol. He was a monster! He dropped death at 45. I wish things could have been different for him but I know what he saw and did in the jungle changed him forever. I saw 9/11 happen as a kid and joined the Navy at 18. I was so blessed to never be downrange. I lost so many friends from suicide who were. Talk to and thank your service men and women because you never know what they may be going through. I’ve seen survivor’s guilt take so many

I've read many many memoirs from the war, and I have to say 'If you survive' is one of the most depressing. A new individual is introduced on one page, and then 3 pages later they're dead. This happens, again and again and again and again. After a while - you become emotionally exhausted and after that, you just detach. You get a sense for the indifference soldiers had for one another, because nobody expected anybody else to make it to the end of the day alive.

My father is old enough to remember when WW2/Korea veterans were so dime a dozen that you'd casually run into them at bars and on the train or at your job. So I got very different stories when I was growing up than my friends did, who mostly went by what they saw on History Channel or in movies and Xbox games. The huge one is that I knew the Pacific campaign backwards and sideways while this is mostly ignored in America, even today.

Being Canadian, our country did not have many troops deployed in the Pacific theatre, but rather most were in Europe. I had a Great-Uncle who was an RCAF Navigator, shot down and became a POW of the Japanese. He never really talked about the war, but his tongue would loosen up a wee bit after a few beers. What he went through was beyond cruel, and was only 78 pounds when the war ended. He never returned to full health and died in 1974. All other relatives I had who fought were in Europe and lived full productive lives. I suppose they had their mental scars as well, but we never saw them. Although they all fought in the same war, it was my opinion as a young relative that the war my Great-Uncle fought was way worse.

This video was a respectful dichotomy on an intense subject. I appreciate the care you've put into this. o7 to all our heroes who lives and to those who didn't.

Like many, my grandmother's brother was a coal miner from the age of 14. He and his brothers were happy when the war started as it got them out of the mines. His boat was torpeedoed at Dunkirk. He survived as he could swim, having grown up by the sea. He then went to East Asia where he ended up in a camp in Burma. He survived the war and no one in the family knew about his experiences until in the 80s he assaulted his wife. It all came out in court.

My dad went to combat stress to deal with his PTSD a few years back, the guys from Iraq and Afghan couldnt relate to the trauma that those from Northern Ireland had because the difference in scenery triggered a lot of those from N. Ireland due to it looking like home, the roads and houses looked identical to where they was raised and where they currently live.

My Mom's Dad was in the Navy in the European Theater on a Destroyer. He saw combat. Told me some harrowing stories while I was growing up. Then my Dad's father and uncle fought in the Pacific theater as Infantrymen. They weren't together though, in different companies. I never met my great Uncle. But my grandpa told me some stories of some of the battles he was involved in, and it sounded like it was so chaotic and terrifying. I wish they were still with us, I wish I could talk to them more about their experiences as an adult.

In Afghanistan my unit was split up and scattered to different places with other units. Some had easy jobs, some were run into the ground. When we came back to our unit and reunited we all struggled to fit back together. It was also hard because you were completely removed from the ppl you experienced that with. Suicides happened, a lot of guys got in some trouble afterwards. Divorces happened.

There was a known controversy involving famous war correspondent Ernie Pyle when he transferred from covering the war in Europe to the Pacific in 1945. He arrived there already enjoying a celebrity status, and was treated as such by the brass. He embarked on an aircraft carrier instead of a tin can destroyer, was given an officer's state room instead of bunkering up with sailors below decks, which gave him the wrong impression that life on a Navy ship is easy compared to the ground troops. Pyle wrote unflattering portraits of the Navy, and a particular piece describing troops living in relative comfort in one of the many island outposts. He was met with angry letters from readers and fellow war correspondents who reminded him that those idyllic islands were captured and paid for by the blood of thousands of troops first. He had to apologize and conceded that his heart still remained with the grunts in Europe. Pyle was later killed in Okinawa, hit by a Japanese machine gun fire while covering the 77th Infantry Division. Journalists like Ernie Pyle and others may have witnessed the worst of the battles and could write about them, but as a non-combatant they are still a long distant away from the real experiences of men who had to do the actual fighting and killing and making life and death decisions.

Whoever wrote and edited this script did a very good job. Probably in the top 1-2% of videos I've seen. Very well done!

My father fought off the coast of North Africa, Normandy DDay, Cherboug, Southern France, Iwo Jima and Okinawa as a Marine Anti-Aircraft gunner on the battleship USS Arkansas. He didnt talk about his experiences much but his stories were fascinating when he did. A few years before he passed he wrote his WWII memoirs which we are so thankful to be able to pass down.

My uncle, George Willie Barton was in the Marines. He went into Guadalcanal on the 3rd wave ashore. Born in 1920 he died in 1972. 50 years is well below the average age of those born in the 1920s. Especially as a farmer with plenty of family always pitching in and being able to take time off when sick. My mother was making some navy beans and as they simmered on the stove the lid popped. Just that noise caused him to jump up and then get into a crawl. She heard the commotion and reassured him that it was just a pit on the stove. The nightmares his wife told my mother, that uncle Willie would have with sweats, talking and sometimes yelling in his sleep had to contribute to his early death. My dad and another of his brothers lived much longer. The PTSD had to contribute to his massive stroke that caused his death.

Let's not forget U.S. armed forces personnel in the Pacific fought in a vast array of areas beyond those mentioned in the intro: In the mid-1960s we patrolled the Marianas Islands, Bonin Islands, Caroline Islands as well as the Marshall and Gilbert Islands. My Dad's ship visited Fiji.

My great uncle was stationed in the Philippines in the army before the Japanese invaded. He missed the boat and was stuck on the islands after the Americans pulled out and lost the area. Somehow he was able to evade Japanese forces for 4 years and lived with the indigenous people. Some point during his life there he was wounded and lost his leg. The man literally lived behind enemy lines in the worse conditions. He was never awarded or given acknowledgment for his bravery.

As a Dutchman, the clothes worn at 6:48 were not the regular clothes worn at the time in The Netherlands it was a traditional dress that was very outdated in the Netherlands too. The Dutch (and Western countries like France, the UK, and Germany) were as advanced as the US was, with similar clothing and life standards. Of course, there was less mass production and society was slightly less motorized, but not the kind of differences that were implied here. The biggest differences would have been caused by 5 years of being cut off from the supplies from the rest of the world.

My dad was at Schofield barracks on Oahu on December 7th. He said Europe got about 70% of the war output while they got about 25% iin the Pacific. I once asked him how long it would have taken to defeat the Japanese if we just went all out against them and ignored Europe entirely. He said in his opinon as a combat infantryman, they'd be landing on the Japanese home Islands by 1944 at the latest.

I'm glad you brought up the Japanese philosophy toward the war. You have to understand that what they wanted and what they valued, affected how they acted. I get very annoyed with people who attack Douglas MacArthur for evacuating the Philippines and later returning. They always look at it from a Western POV. Look at it with Japanese philosophy, which the soldiers subscribed to. MacArthur was the ultimate prize, BUT they failed in capturing him. That was a blow to their confidence. Also, when he returned, to the place where they had originally lost him, that was another blow to the psyche of the Japanese soldier. Another thing that was, probably even more devastating than the bomb, was that MacArthur made it clear to the Emperor that the Emperor had to tell his people, that Japan LOST. Japan didn't "LET the USA win". The US soldier DEFEATED the Japanese soldier. If you study the war from the Asian POV, you'll understand the Pacific theater much better.

Excellent piece. I grew up with veterans of both theaters and wholly agree with your findings.

One of my grandfathers worked on his family farm during the war, while the other worked in a factory that produced aircraft parts. I have always felt proud of them for doing important work back home and the thought that they might have otherwise gone to the front and died terrifies me. If they were to die I wouldn't exist but it almost unnerves me to think that they could have and instead of having a family they would be a corpse in a photograph at which future generations could marvel.

My parents’ wedding pictures have a picture with both of my grandfathers. One was an MP in Europe who always had a good story about his time in the war. He seldom heard a shot fired in anger. The other was a combat veteran of Peleliu who was wounded in the pacific and dropped out of college to reenlist for Korea. He was almost killed in 1950 during the Chinese entry into the war. He never talked about anything, just about how hot the pacific was and how cold Korea was. The difference was stark. They even looked different ages.

My father never talked about the war. He told people if they asked that he was in the Army. Would not go to any veterans clubs. He would occasionally when I was growing up give me advice if I ever had to go to war. Then always told me that he hoped I never had to. He said it was just his duty. We did have to go to a veterans hospital because of malaria symptoms. Many people were trying to get a look at my father. I asked a guy and he said my father was the highest decorated soldier they ever had in the hospital. When I asked him about it he said it wasn’t a important part of his life. it was just duty. After his death I found out my father was a OSS scout for Merrill’s Marauders. He has a MOH and four silver stars as well as other medals. He was also just awarded the Congressional Gold medal. The one thing he did always say was that no one should of had do what he did and that the Japanese soldiers didn’t want to be there anymore then the American soldiers.

When I was a teenager back in the late 70s, I worked for a law firm as a messenger and one of the other messengers was a WW2 vet who had served in New Guinea where he got malaria. It still affected him all those years later where he would have recurrences of the disease and have to miss work. He was a meek and mild mannered little guy so it was always hard to imagine him as a soldier. The firm never hassled him about absences because all the big shots were veterans. The managing partner had been an officer in the war, in the OSS, and our direct boss of the messenger department was a retired career US Army sergeant and had served in combat in Korea & Viet Nam.

Two very very different wars. Both horrible in their own unique way. I'm grateful to the heroes who made it possible for us to be able to discuss it today.

I thought you might State one obvious difference. Units in Europe, once they arrived at the front, tended to stay in action continuously until the end of the war in Europe. Marine units would train, and train, for months in relatively peaceful environments, then be thrown into close combat, the most intense of all, for two or three weeks, until they had killed the island Garrison after vicious close fighting! Each type of Engagement very different, but both equally scarring to the individuals.

One WWII veteran, who served (and was wounded) in the ETO, but who had an appreciation for what the guys in the PTO went through (and in fact was instrumental in directing me to Sledge's and William Manchester's memoirs) was Paul Fussell, who wrote his own memoir of his time in the ETO, as well as Wartime, both highly recommended.

Thanks for the wide ranging commentary on these important historical issues @The Front. Just subscribed.

In and around 1975 and witnessed a conversation between my father and uncle talking about their experiences in the world II when my grandfather a WWI vet chimed in and told the they both had it easy compared to his wars experience. Since my sons and I all served in the same wars we pretty much have had similar experiences.

Great grandfather on my mom's side worked a lot with tanks during the Battle of the Bulge. He had the misfortune of having both of his hands crushed by the falling hatch of a Sherman, no doubt breaking several fingers. He was promptly reassigned to directing tank traffick, freezing his ass off, both hands bound together. Respect for a man who did his duty!

I've been honored to know and talk with many ww2 vets including one of my Grandfather's. Also many of our neighbors and guy's who volunteered at the local Recreation center as coaches. To this very day my friends and I still view these guy's as Heroes. They would all be rolling in their graves at the way this country has gone the last 10 years. We need to straighten out this mess in their honor and to All the Vets from Korea to Afghanistan and Iraq. Let's wake up and do it!

Thanks for creating/posting this. Very enlightening. I can't believe what my parents' generation lived through. I pray it was not for nothing.

Thank you very much for this documentary!

I grew up with parents & families who had been on the British & German sides of WW2. We grew up with my Dad's PTSD but we never knew what that was. Later in life, I got to know US WW2 veterans & I began to make more sense of it all. War also deeply affects the generations that follow 🕊

One thing I loved about recruit training were the history classes. My buddies would be nodding off after getting worn out all day but those lessons were my favorite part of the day. The DI's would start off by talking about the history, then go into the heroes of the battles, and the next thing you know they were teaching you practical applications from lessons learned. Not sure what the other branches do about teaching their history during their basic training but the Marines have it down.

Interesting video and I really like how you compare and contrasted the conditions of the western front in Europe to Pacific theater, but you also have to remember some American troops in the Pacific DID endure freezing hell-scape conditions too. The Aleutian Islands campaign in Alaska was also a frozen nightmare, against a fanatical and well dug-in Japanese enemy. And the Battle of Attu wasn't just some small footnote. Thousands of casualties on both sides, many as a result of the conditions. I feel like this aspect of the war isnt talked about enough

If you haven't, I recommend reading the novel Unbroken. It tells the story of Louis Zamperini, a WWII Vet, who was a POW of the Japanese during the war. It details what he went through when he was captured by the Japanese after his bomber was shot doing in the pacific.

This is a great video! I think this is perhaps one of my favorite videos of yours after following you for years. This is a very under appreciated and under studied subject of the second world war. Most people today are so disconnected from these events that the fact that these men and women were in fact real people that lived real lives and the psychology of these soldiers is just lost and forgotten about today. I'm glad to see a larger channel covering this subject and I think this will do great things. Keep up the great work!

My grandfather was with the New Zealand 3rd Division seeing action in Vella LaVella, Nissan Island, and Guadalcanal, aka the Islands. He was sent home sick, pretty much a broken man. As a machine gunner, he had lost much of his hearing, contracted malaria, was suffering nervous ehaustion (PTSD) and, as I only found out from my grandmother a few years before he died, he had received shrapnel wounds to his legs. Recently I stumbled across a photograph holding his son for the first time in '45, and his uniform just hung from him - realising that by that time he had spent many weeks being transported and rehabilitated (fattening up) before being allowed to return home. On demobing he returned to teaching but his old Colonel who also a senior teacher and on the Education Board, knew he needed time to mend and arranged he be sent on extended country service until he got better. It took many years, though, in truth, he never fully recovered. One upside was that many a child in the country districts he was posted learnt how to use a rifle properly and explosives (to clear tree stumps) safely. He rarely spoke of his time in the Islands but I recall the bitterness in his voice when he explained why he didn't attend the Returned Services Association was because the first time he went for a beer at his local RSA he was derided as a "brown bomber". Indeed, he was sensitive to way 3rd Div veterans were pretty much ignored by the RSA and official historians (there are very few publications) - I heard him muse, it was if they were an embarrassment because they hadn't seen "real" action (like 2nd Div). His view was, "People still died." He confided in me that he kept a short fused handgrenade on him to make sure he wasn't captured. This highlights the no quarter attitude in this theatre. I can only recall him going to a dawn sevice once, with my father (a serviceman, at the time) and myself as a wee boy; and this was the only time I ever saw him publicly wear his medals. What I realise is that his experiences on the Islands hung on him like a darkened thrall, which for the rest of his life, he did well enough to keep mostly at bay.

Dad fought in the Pacific, his brother was at the battle of the bulge. Neither talked about their experiences except for a coule isolated instances. Both theaters were absolute unbelievable horror beyond belief

I had genuinely never considered a trauma divide. Wow. Immensely grateful for the upload.

the Robert Leckie you're talking about is different to the Robert Leckie you're showing. the Person you're showing was a pilot in the RAF and RCAF, spending his time in WW2 as a teacher at the air training school in Canada, reaching the rank of Vice Air Marshall for his troubles.

Soldiers in Europe was hard but the soldiers in the Pacific went through hell in every way possible

Thank you for producing this excellent video essay.

Thank you, for this documentary. Despite a few historical photo’ switches. This is an honest and compare-research between the opposite sides of the Earth. I have visited battlefield’s and graves, in Europe, and the Pacific (Hawaii, Australia).

My dad was in the Pacific in an artillery unit. 40 years later he still couldn't talk about it. My uncle who went ashore on D-Day talked about his time in Europe rarely, but only where his unit had gone, never about what they did or saw. As bad as Korea and Vietnam were, my uncles who fought in those would talk about being there, especially the ones at home from Vietnam between tours.

As a child growing up among those involved in all theatres, I found them quite willing to share their experiences among each other. Less so among those who hadn't shared.

My late father was an NCO in the U.S. Army during the Second World War, seeing combat in a segregated unit from Normandy to V-E Day in Czechoslovakia as a part of Patton's Third Army . One of his brothers was an officer in Italy with the 92nd Infantry Division. Another of my Dad's brothers served in the Coast Guard. And my Dad's oldest brother (born in 1917) served in the Naval Reserve. Thankfully they all survived the War.

My father was in the RAF Regiment and fought from Normandy (D plus 11) thru to Holland, then transferred to India and Burma. Hated the Japanese ( no Datsun for us). Between 45 and 46, still in Burma, used to control crowds demanding independence. One or two Brit s backed up by Japanese prisoners with bamboo canes. Returned home with malaria!

The Robert Leckie pictured at 0:08 and later is not the former US marine who was the author of the war memoir, Helmet for My Pillow, which along with Eugene B. Sledge's book With the Old Breed, formed the basis for the HBO series The Pacific (2010). The photo is of Air Marshal Robert Leckie, an officer in the Royal Air Force and the Chief of the Air Staff of the Royal Canadian Air Force from 1944 to 1947.

i had a neighbor who was a 2-front veteran because he was a radio technician. he was shipped to europe and the pacific to lay down radio wire lines. he later became a firefighter and was the nicest man i'd ever met.

Both my grandfathers were in Europe, but their experiences were very different. One was a driver and wasn't really involved in combat, but he saw Dachau survivors and it shook him so deeply, he wouldn't really talk about it. When his family visited Europe I'm the 60s, he refused to visit any concentration camps because seeing what they had done had been so horrifying to him. My other grandfather was spying behind enemy lines, saw lots of combat, and was one of the few survivors in his unit. He didn't talk about it, I didn't know anything about his service until nearly 20 years after his death.

Why is it that when the Pacific is mentioned, the army is almost never spoken of? General Douglas MacArthur and his troops were highly effective, but it seems to be a popular thing to ignore him and his soldiers.

In the late 70s and into the 80s, I grew up in a neighborhood that was full of veterans from WW1, WW2, Korea and Vietnam -some Cold Warriors, too. They'd have get-togethers and cookouts and such and they'd talk, especially when the alcohol came out!. They seemed to relate to each other pretty welll even if they couldn't/wouldn't talk to their own families about what they'd experienced. My own family had vets who fought throughout the Med. Pacific and the Aleutians on my Dad's side. On my mom's side, two were POWS, Bataan Death March and the other was in the CBI theatre and was wounded. My dad was a Korean War vet. They all seemed to relate to eahother pretty well, too

It’s true, I worked at the VA hospice and the pacific veterans carried their hatred for anything Japanese till they died. The fighting was that brutal. They were brave men. 🙏🇺🇸

Some of the most traumatic experiences in both theaters of war was collecting and burying the dead into mass graves after a battle.

You unfortunately have used the wrong photographs of Robert Leckie. I think the Robert Leckie you have here was the Canadian Air Force officer.

My grandpa and grand uncle fought in ww2, grandpa in North Africa, and grand-uncle in Burma. Grandpa had a fairly glorious military career, a respect for his foe, and came out of the war wounded but experienced, perhaps overly aggressive but never said an ill word about the Germans(weird, I know North Africa was often considered rightly or not as a gentlemen’s war, but still, to have that much respect) The other? His entire unit was killed except for him and his batsman, who then managed to retreat unnoticed afterwards as the Japanese bayoneted the dying. He became a bitter, aggressive, womanizing drunkard and never made much better of his existence. The only thing that united them was dying early; as Anglo-Indians, now in Pakistan, their hard-smoking, hard drinking lifestyles didn’t have the medical care of the west to prop them up. I never met either, only hearing/reading their stories afterwards from my family and limited records remaining. My grandpa was vindicated by history, clearly, while my grand-uncle was vilified. But looking pack, I have more sympathy for my grand uncle then my family did. Burma was a horrific front. It’s telling that the only family member who respected him was a nurse who dealt with wounded coming from that front. North Africa is lionized, even I admit that I found my grandpa more “interesting” to study. Burma was so horrific, and the situation back home in India(in the midst of a famine my family was somewhat but not entirely shielded from…) that no one bothered to tell my about him until I insisted on digging. They couldn’t have been more apart, and I imagine the former Sergeant Major and disgraced Lieutenant would not have been friends. But I’ll raise a glass of scotch to them both, and both the 8th and 14th Armies. Both served, for King and Empire

A man scared by war never heals 100 percent. They have that scar forever. Even great men are afflicted by these wounds that aren’t seen by their peers.

Just wanted to note what a superb job in dealing with a topic that is not glamourized or ignored by major media. I remember Civil War General Sherman, when asked about the "glory of war", told the graduating class at West Point that it was all poppycock and that there was nothing glorious in battle. WWI and WWII brought that sentiment home to many, many American's in an all too brutal manner. However, not to belittle the horrible sacrifice and loss by the soldiers who fought in the battles, the horrific loss suffered by the civilian populations has never really been quantified. The fire-bombing of Dresden and the nuclear bomb attacks were mentioned and yes, they caused an ungodly number of civilian casualties from just single incidents. But imagine, if possible, what it must have been like to live in cities being bombed repeatedly, for no other reason than to demoralize the population and to reduce their support for war! I just finished binge watching Band of Brothers for the third time since it was originally released and nothing brought me to tears over the sheer inhumanity toward man than Episode 9 when the true nature of the "final solution" to the Jewish problem was portrayed in all its ugliness.

Two of my ancestors were at Normandy. One was a marine and the other a Naval engineer for the USS Cleveland. Man I can’t imagine what they thought and went through at France and the Pacific theater

When you wear the uniform of your country and serve in combat regardless of which conflict when I shipped out to Iraq my two grandfathers and my dad and 2 uncles saw me off and it was the first time in my life these men who were giants in my life had tears in there eyes knowing that my life would change forever they were proud to welcome me into the brotherhood but knew ptsd and maybe injury or death awaited me when I came home after my second tour after losing my leg and losing everyone in that humvee with me I got blown out turret my father held me every night for 8 months well I cried myself to sleep not because I lost my leg but because I hated the fact I survived and my fire team didn’t survivors guilt it horrible I miss my brothers and if it wasn’t for my dad and grandfathers during that time I would’ve taken my life to be reunited with them they made me realize it’s all chance and my brothers would want me to live life to the fullest in there honor .

In his autobiography, the author Tony Hillerman wrote of his experience in the European theatre and then coming home to civilian life in America. As a young small town newspaper reporter, he was called out to a grizzly car accident in which the driver had been torn into several pieces. He described how he found the state trooper vomiting at the side of the road. Hillerman matter-of-factly took some pictures and then walked back to his car. He wrote “It’s not so easy when they’re your friends.”

I've only heard anecdotes on this subject before. Good job!

Both of my great grandparents fought in world war 2 one in the pacific and the other in Europe under the British forces. Weird to think how different their experiences would have been from one great grandfather storming the beaches of Normandy to fighting outside German whereas the other fought from Guadall canal to Okinawa.

My Father and my Uncle had the disconnect, even though they were both WWII veterans. If the saying "those that were really in the sh*t don't talk about it" was accurate you would have thought my Dad was a special ops frogman and seasoned stacker and my Uncle sat behind a desk. The fact is my Dad entered several years after his older brother, my Uncle, and was lucky to get stationed stateside near the end of hostilities. My Uncle entered *before* he was 17 (he actually attempted to enlist twice before, but his age was revealed. My grandparents realized how bad he wanted to serve, and signed permission to the recruiters.) My Uncle, as an enlisted Marine rifleman, 1st Mar Div, served for 30 years and retired with campaign ribbons from Pacific Theater WWII (Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, Peleliu, Okinawa), Korean War (Chosin), Vietnam, and countless others. He spoke to me, when I was a young Marine rifleman, about many of his own experiences and others he witnessed. Some of those recollections caused me to blush, some shook me, and some sickened me. My Father, on the other hand, never spoke a word about his service. Even when his brother/my uncle openly complimented him on his service(Naval Intelligence?) and how the work he did probably saved dozens if not hundreds of lives. Again, my Father only recalled and spoke on his actual service right before his death, and it wasn't some high clearance intelligence work! Perhaps he felt some kind of shame for not serving in combat actions? Brothers, but vastly different personalities.

I only knew two of my Great Grandfathers who fought in the war (all 4 of them fought but two died before I was born), and they fought on each front separately. My Grandfathers, father was an educated man from the North and fought in the European theater. He was frankly scarred for life from what the family has told me (He unfortunately got dementia later in life.) but he refused to talk about the war much and my Great Grandmother told me after he died, he had regular night terrors for the rest of his life. He did talk about it before he died since he understood he was dying and attempted to get his legacy in order, but it was always hard on him. My Grandmothers, father was an uneducated man from the South and fought in the Pacific theater. He was proud of his service and always seemed to have more of a "we got em for what they did" attitude. He may have had issues when he was younger but both he and my Great Grandmother never gave any indication that he had been affected long term. Though he was apparently more racist towards Asians after the war. They were honestly similar outside of their education and location both being religious and patriotic but poor individuals. I think personally it was that the grandfather who fought in the Pacific only saw the horrors of combat and could justify it through a sense of justice and patriotism while the one who fought in Europe even helping in the liberation of Dachau saw the horrors of the Holocaust in full and never really recovered from it.

My grandfather fought in the Philippines and received a Bronze Star. Rarely if ever talked about the war. When he did, it was the same story about him and a buddy standing watch on a hillside hearing a noise and rolling a couple of grenades downhill. BOOM!!! no more noise. He would always say with a smile. It wasn't until many years after he died my mom gave me some copies of his service records, and I got a glimpse of what he went through. I know he was in Manilla and involved with that battle. One of the least talked about and bloodiest battles in the Pacific.

There's another HUGE difference between the European and Pacific Theaters. If you were fighting in Europe, when you were relieved, you'd get to go to London or Paris, with all the creature comforts and grateful local women and all that fun stuff. If you were fighting in the Pacific, and you weren't the First Marine Division after Guadalcanal (who got to go to Australia to be hailed as heroes and participate in what Bob Leckie called "The Great Debauch" - on a side note, the VERY Australian song Waltzing Matilda is still the official song of the 1st MarDiv), you'd get your R&R on Pavuvu, which was an uninhabited island until the US military went there, and generally hated by everyone.