Although the term “D-Day” has become synonymous with the storming of the beaches at Normandy, the term actually describes any planned operation whose date is not yet known; it continues to be used even if the date changes.

The Pacific Theater of World War II was the site of countless amphibious D-Day invasions that resulted in the deaths of 1.6 million Japanese and American soldiers. There the battlefield was 98 percent water, with nearly every land battle taking place on tiny islands that required perilous amphibious landings in which the first man ashore had virtually no chance of survival. By 1942, the Japanese had conquered an area that covered nearly a quarter of the globe, setting up shop on islands throughout the Pacific to form a seemingly impenetrable defensive moat. They had slaughtered the U.S. Navy at Pearl Harbor, Wake Island, and the Philippines to become the masters of sea, and it would take a charge by sea, air, and land of breathtaking proportions and fortitude by the U.S. military to shift the momentum and eventually end the war.

These were fights to the death in a total war not just between nations, but between cultures. Japanese defense was to the last man and American courage proved equal to the sacrifice needed to fight through to unconditional surrender at Tokyo bay. Amazing battlefield footage puts viewers in the middle of the action. The program includes insightful interviews with World War II veterans and noted historians and authors, including Donald L. Miller, author of the book D-Days in the Pacific. This special tells the story of the U.S. victory in the Pacific Theater with candor, depth, and heart.

D-DAYS IN THE PACIFIC is composed of three parts:

PART ONE: DEATH AT THE TIDELINE

• Military men describe the perils of amphibious invasion and the “Fight to the Death” spirit of the Japanese soldier. One veteran recalls his commanders informing them the night before an operation to expect 80-85 percent casualties on the beach.
• The first under-equipped Pacific D-Day at Guadalcanal, one of the first key victories for the United States, but also one with many hard lessons on the perils amphibious landings.
• The brutal siege at Betio, in which the invasion was tripped up on a coral reef around the island, exposing soldiers to attack and turning the harbor into a red sea of blood.
• Nimitz, Eisenhower, and MacArthur emerge as the central U.S. figures of the Pacific War.

PART TWO: CLOSING THE JAWS

• The effort to capture New Guinea, a daring, aggressive assault that, if successful, would trim months off the U.S. advance through the Pacific.
• The massive assault on the Marianas Islands just nine days after the Normandy invasion; a shocking assertion of the new scope of the U.S. military.
• The U.S. takes the key outposts of Saipan, Guam, and Tinian in under two months, prompting a member of the Japanese Royal Family to declare, “Hell is upon us.”

PART THREE: THE FINAL GRAVEYARD

• The heroic stand by under equipped Naval logistics ships at Leyte, sinking three looming Japanese cruisers to save more than 40,000 exposed U.S. soldiers on the beach head.
• The hellish battle at Iwo Jima, which one veteran called “the most godforsaken place I’d ever seen in my life.” A correspondent there said he had “never seen such mangled bodies.” Six thousand Americans died, double the number at Normandy.
• The emergence at Okinawa of the suicidal Kamikaze strategy by the Japanese, in which more than a thousand pilots flew their planes into U.S. targets in a last-ditch effort to save the mainland from U.S. invasion.
• The use of atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki alleviates the need for a planned D-Day invasion of Japan, which was to be six times the size of Normandy, saving countless lives and leading to the surrender at Tokyo Bay.

D-DAYS IN THE PACIFIC was produced by Lou Reda Productions for The History Channel.

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