SNAFU stopped Eugene from removing the dead man’s gold teeth because he didn’t want him to go down the same path he did. SNAFU has lost his humanity and has resigned himself to this reality, but he doesn’t want Sledge to become just as desensitized as he is. This all ties back to the first episode when Sledge’s father warned him that WW1 vets he treated all had their “souls torn out”.
It wasn’t really Snafu though. Snafu was a real person that Sledge mentions several times in his memoir. In this series though, Snafu represents several different marines that Sledge encountered during the war. In his memoir, Sledge says it was his squad’s medic that discouraged him from collecting gold teeth.
A couple of notes. The scene with the marine cutting the teeth out of the living Japanese soldier was toned down a bit, in Sledge’s book the marine had cut his mouth open to the corners while he was still alive to get better access. Sledge specifically chose not to name the marine in question. It was actually Doc Caswell who stopped Sledge from taking gold teeth, but that got rolled into SNAFU’s character for the sake of the show. Ack Ack was killed two days before they came off the line and left the island.
I believe in one of the books this is based on, the Marines compared Ack Ack’s death to learning your dad died. He was very respected and even loved by those he commanded.
I have always said Ack Ack's death was as demoralizing for those Marines as if Winters from the 101st, 506th PIR, Easy Company died, imagine how the men would have felt if Winters had died, shit.
The Pacific was different in that there was no joy to be found. Even the good things (occasional contact with a woman) resulted in little more than bitterness.
In "With the Old Breed," Sledge said that they saw an Okainawan woman nursing a baby while the older child nags her for attention, then she squirted some breast milk on the boy's face which startled him. Slege and the marines who saw this broke out a laughter, and the tension between them and the family was broken momentarily.
The reason why SNAFU is telling Eugene not to do it us because when you do do that it brings you to another level of savagery. SNAFU realizes that he himself has gone to that level and he's looking out for his friend!! He doesn't want Eugene to go to that low of a level.
While in BoB you see a more conventional war, between armies at least at the point of contact largely close in terms of supply, training and equipment, it is important to remember they were also close in terms of cultural outlook. For all the hideousness of the Nazi philosophy the German people were European stock, many parts of the US (as the shows 2nd episode demonstrated with the German soldier originally from the US) had German ethnicity, the Germans were largely Christian, and to put a more dark point to it they were white. Basically the German soldier looked, worshiped and generally behaved like the American, this in part is why the revelation of the Holocaust was such a shock to the men. In contrast the Pacific fighting was very different. The Japanese were not fighting to win in '43-'45 they were fighting to cause death and pain, to make winning for the Allies simply cost too much in blood and pain. The Japanese were of a different race, a different cultural and religious background, what few Japanese-Americans there were had (largely) been interned in camps and when they were not and allowed to fight strictly in the European theatre. These battles were, because of these cultural clashes, because of the propaganda on both sides which actively demonised the enemy (the Japanese were told the US forces were made up of convict gangsters who ate children), because of the nature of the fighting (desperate, basically suicidal sieges of small islands), the outcome was escalating atrocities and dehumanisation - first of the enemy to allow such savagery, then of the US Marines participating in such savage fighting. The Pacific displays this perfectly.
There were statements made by Japanese soldiers taken prisoner that made corroborating claims that the officers and more fanatical types executed and tortured allied pows and such to create a situation where the front line Japanese soldiers wouldnt have an opportunity to surrender. THAT is the sort of situation it was.
In one of the books I read a few years back a marine officer would boil japanese skulls in oil drums to remove the flesh and would make circles of skulls around his foxhole. Another had a huge bag of gold teeth.. truly brutal what was going on.
Enjoyed the reaction liv, the pacific was as brutal as it got and there was worse things then were shown in this series going on. I had uncle's and grandfather who fought with the Australian army against the Japanese. Especially in new Guinea there was no quater given by either side. Our Australian soldiers only took 1500 Japanese prisoners in the entire war from start to finish most wouldn't even waste a bullet preferably the bayonet was used. It was a horrible bloody war.
This battle for Peleliu was entirely unecessary. Gen MacArthur insisted it be taken and others like Admiral Halsey felt, correctly that it should be bypassed. At that time the US Navy and USAAF assets could have effectively cut off the Japanese garrison ed there and let them wither, starve... cutting them off from supply and move on. This battle wax horrific, the terrain was off world. And, the marines and sailors who died there were wasted.
Happy Flag Day. I hope you will take the time to watch the extras, which is interviews with the Marines who were still alive. They also interview the families of some of the Marines who were not still here when they made the series, including Eugene and Lucky's families.
This chapter and the next to come are the perfect examples of how the war in the Pacific had nothing to do with what all the adventure movies that Hollywood made in the late 40s, the 50s and 60s told us.
You asked if the Marines thought they would never get off this island. What you have to do in your mind is every time you step on a battlefield know that you are not coming back from that battlefield. Every fire fight is your last. It's easier after its over to look at those of us that survived and be amazed any of you made it then to dwell on those that didn't make it. Some you never get over but that is the mindset you have to have. Marine infantry is very bipolar. We all expect to die yet at the same time we all think we are the baddest jolly green giant walking the earth. You have to think you are bulletproof and dead at the same time. Yea though I walk through the valley of death I shall fear no evil cuz I'm the baddest motherf*cker in the valley. Prayer we said every night before bed. NEVER FORGOTTEN USMC
Flags Of Our Fathers ... .and Letters From Iwo Jima are good focusing on just one terrible island, from both sides. This series matches the combat of one particular group of men over the whole campaign. The "old man" is a WW I vet.
Great reaction, but I noticed the version you're watching has no historical introduction narrated by Tom Hanks, so I thought this video made by the channel Reel History would fill in the gap. ruclips.net/video/PzZnLNCCsXI/видео.html. It has all the historical intros for all 10 episodes of the Pacific. You don't need to react to it, just watch it off-screen. It'll give you the necessary details going into each episode of the Pacific. Ep 1 intro: 00:00 Ep 2 intro: 02:52 Ep 3 intro: 05:34 Ep 4 intro: 07:53 Ep 5 intro: 10:22 Ep 6 intro: 12:58 Ep 7 intro: 15:00 Ep 8 intro: 17:14 Ep 9 intro: 19:48 Ep 10 intro: 21:47
There is no stepping away from combat. Rest and relaxation doesn't occur just because you aren't under fire. Too much has happened to you to just walk away from it and leave it all behind. For many they never can!
Prepare your tissues for "Episode 9: Okinawa," dear. All these battles up to Episode 8 happened on uninhabited islands. The invasion of Okinawa got 120,000 civilians killed. It rips your heart out.
SNAFU stopped Eugene from removing the dead man’s gold teeth because he didn’t want him to go down the same path he did. SNAFU has lost his humanity and has resigned himself to this reality, but he doesn’t want Sledge to become just as desensitized as he is. This all ties back to the first episode when Sledge’s father warned him that WW1 vets he treated all had their “souls torn out”.
I was just about to comment that lol
It wasn’t really Snafu though. Snafu was a real person that Sledge mentions several times in his memoir. In this series though, Snafu represents several different marines that Sledge encountered during the war. In his memoir, Sledge says it was his squad’s medic that discouraged him from collecting gold teeth.
@@TopGunner1994 we’re talking about the series, not the memoir.
@@TopGunner1994 for sure but I guess they are talking for the show only
Ever felt so inhuman that you studied another human as a subject ??? I did
A couple of notes.
The scene with the marine cutting the teeth out of the living Japanese soldier was toned down a bit, in Sledge’s book the marine had cut his mouth open to the corners while he was still alive to get better access. Sledge specifically chose not to name the marine in question.
It was actually Doc Caswell who stopped Sledge from taking gold teeth, but that got rolled into SNAFU’s character for the sake of the show.
Ack Ack was killed two days before they came off the line and left the island.
They also toned down Ack Ack's death. In reality, half of his head was blown off.
6:47 there's no way to comprehend war for the 99.9% that have never experienced it.
I believe in one of the books this is based on, the Marines compared Ack Ack’s death to learning your dad died. He was very respected and even loved by those he commanded.
I have always said Ack Ack's death was as demoralizing for those Marines as if Winters from the 101st, 506th PIR, Easy Company died, imagine how the men would have felt if Winters had died, shit.
The Pacific was different in that there was no joy to be found. Even the good things (occasional contact with a woman) resulted in little more than bitterness.
I think that sentiment was summed up perfectly by the cabbie that dropped Leckie off at home.
@@gtaclevelandcity agreed
In "With the Old Breed," Sledge said that they saw an Okainawan woman nursing a baby while the older child nags her for attention, then she squirted some breast milk on the boy's face which startled him. Slege and the marines who saw this broke out a laughter, and the tension between them and the family was broken momentarily.
@@codyandrex152 there's a great deal of love that Marines have for the Okinawan people.
The scene with the Skipper and the blanket, gets me every time!
true that one and seeing haney breakdown amidst al the chaos really gets toi me aswell poor fellow
That scene with the flamethrower is the most powerfull off the whole series for me
The reason why SNAFU is telling Eugene not to do it us because when you do do that it brings you to another level of savagery. SNAFU realizes that he himself has gone to that level and he's looking out for his friend!! He doesn't want Eugene to go to that low of a level.
its insane how after all those men had the life snatched out of em that fucking island was never used for a strategic purpose.
Complete waste of life
Wait until those who survived return home. Their suffering didn't end on the battlefield.
@@212th Not entirely in the grand scheme, it was after all a completely justified war.
One of the books this series is based on was written by Eugene Sledge titled, "With the Old Breed". It is an outstanding read.
While in BoB you see a more conventional war, between armies at least at the point of contact largely close in terms of supply, training and equipment, it is important to remember they were also close in terms of cultural outlook. For all the hideousness of the Nazi philosophy the German people were European stock, many parts of the US (as the shows 2nd episode demonstrated with the German soldier originally from the US) had German ethnicity, the Germans were largely Christian, and to put a more dark point to it they were white. Basically the German soldier looked, worshiped and generally behaved like the American, this in part is why the revelation of the Holocaust was such a shock to the men.
In contrast the Pacific fighting was very different. The Japanese were not fighting to win in '43-'45 they were fighting to cause death and pain, to make winning for the Allies simply cost too much in blood and pain. The Japanese were of a different race, a different cultural and religious background, what few Japanese-Americans there were had (largely) been interned in camps and when they were not and allowed to fight strictly in the European theatre. These battles were, because of these cultural clashes, because of the propaganda on both sides which actively demonised the enemy (the Japanese were told the US forces were made up of convict gangsters who ate children), because of the nature of the fighting (desperate, basically suicidal sieges of small islands), the outcome was escalating atrocities and dehumanisation - first of the enemy to allow such savagery, then of the US Marines participating in such savage fighting. The Pacific displays this perfectly.
There were statements made by Japanese soldiers taken prisoner that made corroborating claims that the officers and more fanatical types executed and tortured allied pows and such to create a situation where the front line Japanese soldiers wouldnt have an opportunity to surrender. THAT is the sort of situation it was.
In one of the books I read a few years back a marine officer would boil japanese skulls in oil drums to remove the flesh and would make circles of skulls around his foxhole. Another had a huge bag of gold teeth.. truly brutal what was going on.
Enjoyed the reaction liv, the pacific was as brutal as it got and there was worse things then were shown in this series going on. I had uncle's and grandfather who fought with the Australian army against the Japanese. Especially in new Guinea there was no quater given by either side. Our Australian soldiers only took 1500 Japanese prisoners in the entire war from start to finish most wouldn't even waste a bullet preferably the bayonet was used. It was a horrible bloody war.
This battle for Peleliu was entirely unecessary. Gen MacArthur insisted it be taken and others like Admiral Halsey felt, correctly that it should be bypassed. At that time the US Navy and USAAF assets could have effectively cut off the Japanese garrison ed there and let them wither, starve... cutting them off from supply and move on. This battle wax horrific, the terrain was off world. And, the marines and sailors who died there were wasted.
Happy Flag Day. I hope you will take the time to watch the extras, which is interviews with the Marines who were still alive. They also interview the families of some of the Marines who were not still here when they made the series, including Eugene and Lucky's families.
The terrors of war. What an episode.
This chapter and the next to come are the perfect examples of how the war in the Pacific had nothing to do with what all the adventure movies that Hollywood made in the late 40s, the 50s and 60s told us.
It will get worse before it gets better. The fighting in the Pacific was just more brutal and unrelenting than anywhere else.
This episode 7! The Pacific!! Glad you’re still relatively intact as to the story and expectations!
You asked if the Marines thought they would never get off this island. What you have to do in your mind is every time you step on a battlefield know that you are not coming back from that battlefield. Every fire fight is your last. It's easier after its over to look at those of us that survived and be amazed any of you made it then to dwell on those that didn't make it. Some you never get over but that is the mindset you have to have. Marine infantry is very bipolar. We all expect to die yet at the same time we all think we are the baddest jolly green giant walking the earth. You have to think you are bulletproof and dead at the same time. Yea though I walk through the valley of death I shall fear no evil cuz I'm the baddest motherf*cker in the valley. Prayer we said every night before bed. NEVER FORGOTTEN USMC
The real Ack Ack's head wound was a lot worse than what was shown in the series. it was pretty gruesome.
FYI, Sledge dedicated his book “With The Old Breed” to Ack Ack. Haldane made a great impression.
No words Liv. Your work is absolutely amazing. APPROVED AND THUMBS UP by the mod
Glad to see you back liiv
Liv. what a great edit you have done. it feels like im watching the full episode with you. so well done with the video and keep up the good work
Flags Of Our Fathers ... .and Letters From Iwo Jima are good focusing on just one terrible island, from both sides. This series matches the combat of one particular group of men over the whole campaign. The "old man" is a WW I vet.
Great reaction, but I noticed the version you're watching has no historical introduction narrated by Tom Hanks, so I thought this video made by the channel Reel History would fill in the gap. ruclips.net/video/PzZnLNCCsXI/видео.html. It has all the historical intros for all 10 episodes of the Pacific. You don't need to react to it, just watch it off-screen. It'll give you the necessary details going into each episode of the Pacific.
Ep 1 intro: 00:00
Ep 2 intro: 02:52
Ep 3 intro: 05:34
Ep 4 intro: 07:53
Ep 5 intro: 10:22
Ep 6 intro: 12:58
Ep 7 intro: 15:00
Ep 8 intro: 17:14
Ep 9 intro: 19:48
Ep 10 intro: 21:47
Whenever they can can they would keep the skulls and have them boiled so I watched in one of Burgins and sledgehammers interviews
The lemonade scene 12:40 was so impactful to me
There is no stepping away from combat. Rest and relaxation doesn't occur just because you aren't under fire. Too much has happened to you to just walk away from it and leave it all behind. For many they never can!
Hope you caught some of the moments there. I’m sure some of the major questions are answered eventually.
Anyone want to tell our girl that it gets worse from here?
get the book strong men armed , about the marines in the pacific very good book!!!
Robert Leckie’s book!
Prepare your tissues for "Episode 9: Okinawa," dear. All these battles up to Episode 8 happened on uninhabited islands. The invasion of Okinawa got 120,000 civilians killed. It rips your heart out.
teeth must be harder to extract when the body is stiff I guess
As bad as the scenes are what went on was many times worse. You've been spared the worst of it by those who know you are too delicate to understand.
Probably more like this is about as safe as practical effects can get and the cost per episode was already practical heavy
@@shabut oh no. They can reproduce it. I could tell you about things from Iraq and Afghanistan that'd make you cry.
There isuch withheld from you.
These things are happening in Ukraine right now. Chechnyans are fun.
if you want something that really feels real, watch "nothing new on the western front" not this hollywoodylized pile of crap.