The Pacific

Two years ago, I finally got around to watching Band of Brothers, an HBO miniseries from 2001 that focused on the heroic accomplishments and grueling trials of Easy Company in the European theater of World War II. I loved it. The miniseries was able to convey so many facets of war, from the terrifying ordeals of personal loss and ultimate sacrifice to the unique camaraderie and permanent bond forged by the men in their foxholes and on the front lines. As horrific and terrible as World War II was - genocide, atomic weapons, rampant POW abuse - it maintains this mystique of romanticism about it. We've dubbed the men who fought in the war "the greatest generation" and although more recent wars like those in Iraq, Vietnam, and Korea have been met with public disapproval, there's really no one who seems to believe we want to war in the 1940s for unjust or amoral reasons. The European campaign, especially, is a legendary saga that (from the eyes of Americans) starts with Britain's tenacious refusal to cave to German bombardments, peaks with the D-Day landings, sees the heroes sweep across France and Belgium liberating towns and villages all along the way and being revered by every grateful civilian they encounter, and ends with the unconditional surrender of the Germans. In Band of Brothers, there's a key episode (the ninth of ten) that shows several of the men struggling to keep their morale up, wondering why they're even still fighting when it's clear the Allies are going to win the war. The men then stumble upon an abandoned concentration camp, and learn for the very first time the true horrors of the Holocaust. It's a chilling and haunting scene that will never leave me, and it serves to punctuate the entire series with a big, bold, simple statement of, "Yeah, this war was worth fighting." It's hard to say the same thing about the Pacific War. Yes, Japan had attacked Pearl harbor, and so the cause for war was just. And, yes, by defeating Japanese forces on various islands, the Allies made Eastern Asia a safer place for the many people living there. But the war crimes of the Japanese just don't hit us as hard as the Holocaust does, nor do tiny and insignificant islands across the Pacific feel to be worthy trophies of battle the way the cities of Paris and Berlin do. There were no thankful women throwing themselves at U.S. forces in the Pacific after every victory, because almost every battle was fought on an island whose purpose was strictly military in nature. Dying at war sucks, but it must have felt much more noble to risk one's life while liberating Western Europe than it did, say, to take back one desolate rock in the middle of an ocean. And while the Nazis were ruthless an well-trained enemies - it's war, after all - the Japanese fought with a bravery (or foolhardiness) alien to the West, refusing to surrender and taking no prisoners. Without trying to discredit the triumphs and sacrifices of the men fighting in Europe, I think it's fair to say that the men fighting in the Pacific had a much shittier time overall. And that's more or less the theme of The Pacific, a 2010 follow-up companion series of sorts to Band of Brothers. "War is hell" is a bit of a cliche and an understood truth, but this miniseries really went above and beyond anything I'd ever seen (including the famous D-Day scene in Saving Private Ryan) to hammer that point home. The special effects and large budget allowed every battle to have such a hellish and chaotic look. The miniseries spans across ten hour-long parts, and I can honestly say that Episodes 4 through 9 are each more harrowing and hellacious than the last. Even when limbs aren't flying and blood isn't being coughed up by some poor wounded bastard, the emotional wear and tear is felt. The final episode gives us a glimpse at life after the war for several of the soldiers whose stories we've been following, and it's clear that none will ever come to forget what he's seen or done in battle. At the end of the day, I still prefer Band of Brothers to The Pacific. I knew I would; as I mentioned earlier, the romanticism of the European War and the camaraderie of Easy Company make it virtually impossible for me not to love and fully appreciate that miniseries. Still, The Pacific was pretty damn impressive and jarring in its own right. Both, of course, come highly recommended by me.