The Pacific

Has anyone seen any episodes of the HBO miniseries "The Pacific" yet? I don't have cable and can't watch it, but I was wondering what the thoughts were about the show. It's based around the lives and experiences of some of the Marines who fought against the Japanese during World War II. Two of the more prominent people they followed are Robert Leckie and John Basilone. I ordered some of the books that were used as references for the series, a couple of them were authored by Marines who were there (one of them was Leckie's "Helmet for My Pillow").

Gunnery Sergeant John Basilone was the first enlisted Marine to be awarded the Medal of Honor during WWII for his actions on Guadalcanal. After most of his unit was killed, he played a key role with two other Marines in defending their position against 3000 Japanese soldiers. Over the next 48 hours Basilone and his two squad members continued to fight. Basilone repaired a broken machine gun and set up another position where he held the position under reinforcements could arrive. After being awarded the Medal of Honor, he was placed on a tour to drum up support for the purchase of war bonds but didn't want the celebrity that came with it. After multiple requests to rejoin the fleet he was finally given permission. He was killed in action on the first day of the invasion of the island of Iwo Jima on February 19, 1945.

I haven't got to see it yet either, but I'd like to know what everyone thinks too. I loved Band of Brothers!

Band of Brothers better. BoB spent more time on character and less on action.

Originally Posted by Essayons89

Has anyone seen any episodes of the HBO miniseries "The Pacific" yet? I don't have cable and can't watch it, but I was wondering what the thoughts were about the show. It's based around the lives and experiences of some of the Marines who fought against the Japanese during World War II. Two of the more prominent people they followed are Robert Leckie and John Basilone. I ordered some of the books that were used as references for the series, a couple of them were authored by Marines who were there (one of them was Leckie's "Helmet for My Pillow").

Gunnery Sergeant John Basilone was the first enlisted Marine to be awarded the Medal of Honor during WWII for his actions on Guadalcanal. After most of his unit was killed, he played a key role with two other Marines in defending their position against 3000 Japanese soldiers. Over the next 48 hours Basilone and his two squad members continued to fight. Basilone repaired a broken machine gun and set up another position where he held the position under reinforcements could arrive. After being awarded the Medal of Honor, he was placed on a tour to drum up support for the purchase of war bonds but didn't want the celebrity that came with it. After multiple requests to rejoin the fleet he was finally given permission. He was killed in action on the first day of the invasion of the island of Iwo Jima on February 19, 1945.

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I work with a guy from Basilone's hometown. He was really excited to hear his name when he was watching! My son likes the show. He's joining the Marines within the year!

I haven't watched it, but someone in the house is since it's on our dvr. I have a Swedish friend who's downloads it via torrents.

There may be some options to stream it online. I know HBO has some things they stream.

Originally Posted by Dave_PH

Band of Brothers better. BoB spent more time on character and less on action.

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I've heard others say that, but I don't know it's really fair to compare the two. "Band of Brothers" dealt with an entire company of soldiers during the war, with many of them being together since the unit was formed. I think its a different dynamic. I really want to watch this.

The whole training and Curahee background then the time in England kept me watching. There's more shooting in this one. I have to turn down the sound so as not to waken or freighten the kitties.

It's not bad, I just liked BoB better

Ohhh Im sooooooooooooooooooooooooo into Band of Brother I LOVE that show. I have a collectors tin of the series and its autographed by 3 surviving members of Easy Company. I went to WWII days 3 yrs ago in Reading and took the tin with me to get signed...<3<3<3<3<3 that show I have a back up copy of the series for actual watching....

I havent seen The Pacific yet but BFs dad has HBO and they are supposed to make a DVD copy for me to have....I also want to see John Adams it was another series on HBO but got cancelled....rumor has it it might be making a comeback...

We're recording it on the DVR. The Pacific warfare is something you have to watch in the right frame of mind, and sometimes I'm just not there on Sunday nights. We haven't watch Episode 2 yet (last Sunday), when they went into Guadalcanal. We loved Band of Brothers as well, but being fairly well versed in history and Marine Corps history (my father is a Marine, and they always make a point to teach their history) we know that this series is not going to be like BoB.

Pacific warfare was brutal. Absolutely, mercilessly brutal. Japanese soldiers were unwavering, but then again, so are the Marines. There wasn't much by way of building friends, and it was highly unlikely that the same men would serve the whole way through together like in BoB. You have to watch it on its own merits, and remember that this is a war you probably weren't really taught about in school.

Most of us have no idea how much of a toll the Pacific theater took...

Being in Japan I haven't seen it. It's running on the military channel but the one I don't get being off-base and non-military. My father is a big WWII history nut so I am sure he will force me to watch some at some point. I thought band of brothers was good (again I haven't seen it all). I love that actor with the blond hair, Neal Mcdonough (wish he's done more stuff to watch!) and Damian Lewis was excellent too.

When Tom Hanks was pimping his new series on the daily talk show I did find one comment he made rather offensive with regard to my adopted home. He rattled off the names of 3 islands where major battles took place and including Okinawa and then described them as being "in the middle of nowhere important to no one". Maybe it was of minor importance to the Japanese and the Americans who took it in battle, but Okinawa was home to at that time 300,000 people. Approximately 1/3 died in the war, mostly civilians. Also 14,000 Okiawans died on other islands in the pacific after being encouraged to emigrate by the Japanese. We tend to see the war in terms of Us vs. the Japanese but nelgect to pay attention to the fact that many indigenous populations were impacted by the war in the pacific and that tiny island you can't find on a map is someone's home.

Imagine living through that and then finding out that 1 out of every 3 people you knew is dead. When the US took over the island it remained a US territory until 1972. It is still home to 50,000 US military dependants and other personnel housed on large chunks of the best land that was taken by force. There are currently plans to close some of the installations that have been swallowed by the city and relocate them. You would think they would cosnider moving them off island and spread the burden, but no... -they want to pave over a piece of relatively pristine shoreline to create a new airstrip up north.

And I knew next to nothing about this until I came here. We Americans need to educate ourselves that our goverment takes actions around the world that do not always have unilaterally positive impact.

RANT!.....sorry...RANT!...