S1·E18 – June 17-June 23: Victory on Okinawa

In the Philippines, Appari, the last port held by the Japanese, falls to U.S. forces, who now make contact with Filipino guerrillas. After three months of some of the most bitter fighting of the entire war, the Japanese finally cease trying to defend Okinawa against U.S. forces. At dawn the Japanese commander, Lt. General Mitsuru Ushijima emerges from his bunker in a cave and commits ritual suicide in front of his shocked and demoralized staff officers. Victory at Okinawa places U.S. forces just 400 miles from mainland Japan. Lt. General Simon B. Buckner, commander-in-chief of the U.S. 10th Army, is killed by shrapnel as he visits front line troops.

Cast

Greg Stebner

Narrator

Max Hastings

Self - Author, 'Armageddon'

Kerry Smith

Self - Professor, Brown University

Gregory J.W. Urwin

SelfSelf - Professor, Temple University

William Atwater

Self - Curator, US Army Ordnance Museum

Alan Brinkley

Self - Professor, Columbia University

Omer Bartov

Self - Professor, Brown University

Donald Dencker

Self - WWII Veteran, Pacific

Richard Rhodes

Self - Author, 'The Making of the Atomic Bomb'

James Sheehan

Self - Professor, Stanford University