Transcripts For CSPAN3 American Artifacts WWII Museum Road To Tokyo Exhibit 20240712

Cspan is at the National World War Ii Museum that opened in 2000. Today, we will be visiting the road to tokyo exhibit that does the American Experience in the pacific theater. Lockout, everyone, to the National World War Ii Museum in downtown new orleans. We have several different permanent exhibits. We are at the road to tokyo exhibit that will take us through the war in the pacific and asia from 1941 to 1945. We designed this exhibit is every creation of the bridge of the uss enterprise, the world war ii Aircraft Carrier in the u. S. Navy. As you enter the exhibit, you enter the ship and get yourself oriented to the war in the pacific. We try to introduce our visitors to the players. You have here we go you have hirohito who started this. And we have the leader of the nationalist chinese. As we advance through the bridge of the uss enterprise, this is where the command elements will be. The will go to the next gallery and get a better look at what life was like for the crewmen aboard the ships. Heres what your quarters would be aboard a ship during world war ii. Nothing too luxurious. It was stripped to the bone. Creature comforts are far down the list. We spent a lot of time in the museum and a lot of effort to capture the personal story. We think that is what we make the National World war ii to experience such an affecting experience. When the japanese bombed pearl harbor, he grabbed hold of a machine gun and shot at japanese aircraft and brought a few of them down, so he is a hero. One of the most interesting aspects of the war the pacific is how quickly the turning point came in it. The bombing of pearl harbor was in 1941. Then the battle of midway was fought. U. S. Dive bombers destroyed four japanese Aircraft Carriers. That was a major portion of japans navel strength. Whatever chance japan had it when in the pacific war probably disappeared in june 1942. That early into the war, from the pain and humiliation of pearl harbor were to the battle of midway. That is a relatively brief time. So the war went on for three years beyond midway. I think most Japanese Naval officers in particular realized that the war was probably lost by midway, but they took a colossal gamble to launch a war against the United States. What were they to do this early in the war except for hanging tough and hope for a miracle. I think thats what japanese officers in particular were doing. It was often couched in words of loyalty to the emperor. But it was probably more of the Corporate Culture of the japanese officer corps. Maybe the americans would tire of the struggle. Maybe we, japanese, could take such a toll of u. S. Casualties that an american president would be forced to end the war on favorable terms for japan. But that would never be. So we have austin merrills flight jacket. Merrill was a pilot on the uss yorktown. I merely point out the flight jacket because i have a soft spot for them and so do many of our visitors. I see more people standing front of our Aviator Flight jackets, a beautiful example of craftsmanship. They hearken back to that bygone era. In 1940, flight was not that old. It played such a major role in every single one of these encounters. Perhaps particularly so in the war of the pacific because of the vast differences between ships and the vast differences between islands. I point to this flight jacket as one of mine favorites. They had to do something to keep up the pressure on the japanese empire and keep up the pressure on japanese defenses. What they chose was an assault on guadalcanal. As we come around into the next gallery, you see our guadalcanal exhibit three, which is when a the most beautiful single rooms in the museum. Did attempts to capture the ambience of a jungle island of world war ii. We have film exhibited on bedsheets essentially, kind of equipment the marines would do in guadalcanal was delighted to show a film. They would do it in a primitive way. We consider ourselves here at the museum to be experiential and interactive and an environmental and symmetry. Environmental exhibitry. People think of coming to a museum in looking at artifacts. We have a wide variety of weapons used in welcome fragment in guadalcanal. As we look here, the submachine gun with the magazine, the circular magazine, the famous tommy gun. We have a beautiful example. Guadalcanal is the first u. S. Counterattack of the pacific war. It was carried very quickly in response to the opportunity that happened after midway. As a result, it was not particularly well supported or supplied. It was painfully planned. They found themselves relying on captured Japanese Stores of rice and fish because their own supply lines had been disrupted and our own supplies were late in coming. We see a hasty counterattack in august of 1942 that turned into a long, protected battle. One of the finest hours in the history of the marine corps. The u. S. Record had its share fine hours, but this was a much tougher fight than anyone anticipated. Theres a lot of things happening. There is a forbidding environment. We have one of the most fascinating display cases of the entire museum. The artifacts near are worth it, were in possession of a japanese officer who raised his sword and whacked him on the helmet. It still has the crease in it from where it was struck, with the japanese officers sword. He passed out, but he shot the japanese officer. We like to choose artifacts of that tell a story. This is a classic example of museum storytelling. There were specific challenges to the pacific campaign. The obvious was the sheer size of the theater, the largest ocean on earth. Armies typically deploy a hundred miles away from each other then march to the battle. But i hear they are loading on a transport. Just to get to pearl harbor, they have already traveled 2400 miles. This is another 2400 miles. For japan to be fighting in the solomon islands, or had never before had thought at these did this and could not have been fought had it not been for the invention of the airplane. The way these navies this to get at one of the one another is never to become in line of sight. Its from hundreds of miles from each other. You might be hundreds of miles away. A battle fought in 1942 in the coral sea, a single moment, the first naval battle fought in which the two fleets never came within line of sight of each other. Basically scouted and tried to find each other at longrange. This is pretty early on in the going, may 1942. I cant say that our site was particularly good at it. Stumbling around as both tried to navigate this new kind of war. At midway, that is the big u. S. Victory, the sinking of the four japanese Aircraft Carriers that changes the tenor of the pacific war. Other aspects, the unforgiving environment, the humidity, the heat, the jungle, the insect life, especially that american personnel were not used to. So we have an entire display of medicine in the South Pacific. I see portable xray machine. We have also entered the modern world. We think of world war ii, history, 70 years ago, but we are already using things like xrays to give personal real good care in the field. My father was a medic on guadalcanal. He told stories of trying to Practice Medicine in the middle of the south as if a jungle. Without going into the gory details, it is not as easy as it sounds. New techniques and new medicines were making it possible. My father is responsible for handing out the antimalarial medication. Quinine was the principal one. The japanese occupied lands had most of it. So american scientists came up with a substitute, a synthetic. It made you feel horrible. It turned you yellow. My father tells me he more or less had to hold a gun on soldiers to get them to take it. At any given moment, more troops were sick thn were wounded in battle. The real problem was going to be disease. You needed clean water and you needed various medications. Malaria was the big problem in South Pacific fighting. For all of these problems, you have to say is worse for the japanese because they were always less well supplied. The japanese are no more used to the jungle environment than the americans were. Think of the number of japanese in tokyo who were drafted into the army. We did not understand the environment, but the japanese were more adept at it. But both sides fell by disease, many more evan than killed by battle. We are looking at the m2 flamethrower. You have two tanks on your back with a jelly substance. In vietnam, it was known as napalm. This was the most feared weapon from the perspective of the japanese. It is a weapon that u. S. Army and marines increasingly had recourse to while fighting in the pacific and that was to lay down the flamethrowers. The entrance to other to the mouth of a cave, someone would have to throw the flames in first. When you are carrying the flamethrower, you are attracting the fire of every single defending soldier within range because he knows the danger he is in. Theres danger on both sides. I wouldnt want to be on either side of the flamethrower. We are here in our Island Hopping gallery. Much of the war the pacific consisted of socalled Island Hopping campaigns. Search, using an island chain, invading the physical island in the chain, leaving Japanese Forces in place and then advancing to the next island chain and doing the same thing. In this way, you would choose your target. Vast numbers of them when i have to be fought at all. As we advance here, we have the application of a difficult fight in november 1943. This is not an island, but a piece of coral, a coral atoll. The japanese had dug into every inch of it and was very well fortified. U. S. Marines got caught on the coral reef. They had to get out of the boat and wade toward the shore in waist deep or even deeper water. What we have here is a map of the island in the chain. If you look very carefully, you see that this is stained with blood. He survived the battle. The unit he was in, 40 men killed, two wounded here or to wounded here or 200 there, too dead here or to get there. Its is something about the difficulty of the fighting. Visitors spend a lot of time in front of this map once they read the caption. Think it is a smudge or a bit of dirt. But it is the blood of a man who was carrying it. Im quite proud of this gallery. It is the cbi gallery, china, burma, india. A gigantic struggle was taking place in the asian mainland. Our own purpose and our british allies was to fly supplies over the homeland mountains from and get to china to keep forces in the field. We called this entire theater china burma india. What we have here is a nice relief map of what it was like to fly the hump. Taking off from somewhere in india or burma and then flying over the himalayas to get supplies and to china. Flying over the himalayas is not these his flight the world. It would be difficult for modern aircraft. It was really difficult for 1940s vintage aircraft. There is a big downdraft as you press the mountain. There was also a road. Keeping the road open was one of the principal points of the war in the theater. You see a bit of our photograph here. These are called switchbacks. It is such a tall gray, you cannot just drive up the mountain. You go back and forth and back and forth. One mile could be seven miles in driving, depending on how many times you had to turn. We have done a very good job at evoking it. What we have is the cbi escape map. A flyer would carry this. If he is downed in any of these areas, he confined himself on the map. It is attached as something of a blood chip. It is a ticket that the flyer would carry and hand it to the local villagers. I am an allied flyer. Chinese were our allies in world war ii. We have two when the subtly to young people, but to everyone. Our relations with china seems so tenuous today. They are fighting alongside american and British Forces against the japanese in world war ii. If you parachuted out into china, you are mostly amongst friendlys. But behind japanese lines, only the locals can really help you. That is where the bloodshed comes in. What we are looking at is a p 40 fighter aircraft. One of the most celebrated episodes is american flyers who flew on the side of the chinese against the japanese. Avg, american volunteer group, also known as the flying tigers. This is where we really feel we are doing a service. There are some aspects of world war ii that are well known. People know dday, omaha beach. What many no longer know is the war that was fought in china. In which tens of millions of chinese were killed and which americans fought on the side of chinese against the japanese aggression. So i love this flying tiger. A brings this entire gallery together we have a display case of the battleship nagato. Only a few battleships survived. It was captured by the americans and eventually used in one of the atomic contests. This would be the vice admirals flag. Standard Japanese Navy jumper the army hbt uniform. If you are interested in artifacts of the second world war, i know we have talked about the narrative, but in terms of artifacts, we have a choice selection of artifacts. As this war dragged on, it seemed to be getting worse, ever more violence. As you reach the japanese home islands, they faced stiffer japanese resistance than earlier, and that is saying something. So we have the battle of iwo jima. We have the invasion of okinawa. These are islands coming closer and closer to japan. The japanese were fighting tenaciously every step of the way. Again, it seemed as if the japanese had been beaten, yet their troops in the field were still carrying out extremely effective resistance. That is the conundrum. That is what the u. S. Political elite is thinking about in 1945. They won a war, but how do you bring it to an end . This is not going to be an easy process. We never try to forget the personal side of world war ii here at the museum. And of course, the price paid by those who fought it. We have the personal effects back. A small personal effects were sent home in these. There could be a pocket bible, a couple of photographs, a letter from home, whatever that soldier or sailor, airman i find this to be poignant. These are extremely young men fought world war ii. When i was a little boy and reading about it, they seemed like adults. But they were 18, 19, 20 years old. So that is the american side. On the japanese side, we have a thousandstich belt. This would be made by a soldiers wife or mother. She might have them add a stitch or two when she got to 1000. There was never a sense nobody thought it was a magic talisman, but a reminder of home and japanese cultural traditions. I have seen in my lifetime, a few of the stitched belts. We have been telling this narrative on the road to tokyo of a world that seemed not to have any ending, a war that might seem to go on forever. Clearly, the Japanese Military power was broken. But on individual islands, they could defend tenaciously. Studies were done, casualty estimates in the hundreds of thousands, unbeknownst to those who are adding these casualties. A topsecret military program had been going on for some time in the United States, a research and Development Program of a sort never seen before. It was the invention of atomic weaponry. The Manhattan Project had already produced a couple of workable bombs by august 1945. On august 6, an atomic bomb was detonated over hiroshima. Another over nagasaki. The japanese decided to accept american demands for unconditional surrender. We tried to tell the story with some sensitivity. After all, 80,000 lives were snuffed out in a millisecond. It is the only gallery in the museum that has a musical soundtrack. We want people to think about what happened in hiroshima and nagasaki and why. We have the flight record and the watch of the pilot of the enola gay that dropped the bomb on hiroshima. We have the logbook from enola gay. The primitive computer of the day, which was a way of computing an aircrafts true airspeed which is essential to flight and to bombing. We have examples of glass bottles taken from the wreckage of nagasaki, the intense heat, literally melting glass not so far from ground zero. Nagasaki was not the original target a bomb number two. Another city was chosen. But the cloud cover was too heavy. So the title was changed to nagasaki. The unluckiest city on earth, really by nothing more than an accident of whether an chance that nagasaki received the second bombing. So weve reached the end of our story of the war in the pacific. Here in the hiroshima gallery, you can sit and really think about what happened in the course of this war. The vast human cost paid by the war in the pacific. For every book written on the war of the pacific, there may be 10 or 15 written in the war in europe, the fight against hitler it is easy to forget about the pacific. Pacific issues will be with us for quite a long time. Im really glad we have the road to tokyo exhibit here in the National World War Ii Museum. The one nugget we want people to take away is not so much this battle or that battle or this battleship or that Aircraft Carrier, but the human cost paid when nations decide to go to war. Could the United States have avoided world war ii in the pacific . Its hard to see how that would have happened given that the japanese bombed pearl harbor. But once you decide to go to war, it is never easy to end it. And many people, military and civilians alike pay the price. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. We are joined next the by mary emigrant you hes Associated Press reporter in japan, calling us this morning from he russia whos reporting this morning on the 75th anniversary there here she ma mariam good she, good morning. I guess, not in japan but yes. Good morning what can you tell us about the ceremony that took place today in the peace park in here she ma