Seriously, that's always been one of my favorite little key moments of the battle, I get why they couldn't show it..but it's so badass! Repairing it so fast like goddamn cyborgs like that and taking a second hit for the fleet haha It's like that, plus Rocheforts codebreaking, plus McClusky deciding to keep searching and happening upon the undefended fleet, best being a total boss, so many factors turned it around The navy did war games a lot post war recreating the midway scenario and every time the US lost Just shows how you can't account for everything, a blend of skill, luck, and the bravery of those first 4-5 waves of planes that got completely annihilated but bought time & caused all the chaos with the kido butais rearming and not being able to take in the cap
Also, really loved that scene at 3:05 where they hear where the fleet is coming from hahaha..Nagumos arrogant ass is so taken aback, and that Jr officer he yelled at for doing exactly that in the war game is standing there like fuuuuckk as he gives him that little glance.. hahahah
Also what's kind of hilarious is before Midway, Tojo was so cocky from the victories he'd written up demands for the apparent obvious eminent American surrender haha.. Where he'd demand India, Washington state, Alaska, Hawaii, and like most of south america hahahaha Like..sure buddy.
One thing to note about the Yorktown is that the ship was attacked by two separate air attacks... but survived both times. It wasn't a few days later that the American found the ship and try to tow it back to Hawaii for repairs... thinking it was savable and it was. It was until a Japanese submarine found them towing it back to Hawaii and finally sank it along with the USS Hammann.
The author of "The Rape of Nanking" committed suicide several years after the book was published. During the book's research, she was traumatized by the pictures and horror of Japanese war crimes. Then, she frequently had nightmares. She told her family that never waking up was the only way to eliminate the fear and pain.
Iris Chang's work did a lot to help bring acknowledgment of the abuses committed by the Japanese military in China worldwide. There's a statue dedicated to her in the Nanjing Massacre museum. If you ever visit Nanjing (which is an amazing city) I'd recommend going to the museum. It's really well crafted and has some of the best English language support for a museum I've been to in China. However, it can be difficult to experience due to the horrific nature of the topic.
@@ethanwhitehead2085 On the other hand, the Japanese saved a whole lot of Jews by inviting them to Shanghai. For some reason it also seems they supported the Polish government-in-exile.
Not only that, it's only recently that Japanese curriculum is lessening the censorship and whitewashing of what they've taught about their own conduct in WW2. Because of it's shameful nature, there's still resistance.
@Raymond Tremblay Phillippines, actually And yes, I just did a quick google research and lo and behold Looks like the IJN is just as rotten as the IJA, I'm really trying to look for ways they aren't inhuman scum but damn, it's hard
As much as I love Japanese culture, I appreciate you calling out the part about the Imperial Japanese being givin the same honors as the American servicemen. I've never understood why Imperial Japan was given such leeway after the war compared to the Nazi's of Germany.
@@Starwarroir yeah Stalin got away with it lightly as well, due to fighting the Nazis. I think the whole world felt it was tired of war at the time and just wanted and end to it. Although that feeling didn't last long Also the Japanese pretty much said without keeping the emperor they wouldn't surrender, and no one wanted an invasion of Japan the allied death toll alone was estimated to be over a million men.
@@slyaspie4934 yes they were preparing to train teenager to go into gorilla warfare mode. Attacking with sharpen bamboo. Basically almost no surrender it’s crazy
@@Starwarroir yeah there's a quote from a marine that first landed on the Japanese beach after the surrender (I think it was Tokyo) but he literally describes how everywhere was gun emplacements, pill boxes, bunkers and trenches all with overlapping arch of fire, it would've been absolutely hell on earth had the invasion gone through, although to be fair the whole Pacific theatre was hell in paradise
The big thing I can't get over, and the reason I have yet to even see the film, was the totally inaccurate way the aircraft were flown. Dive bombers pull out at 1500 ft- most daring might go to 1000 ft. Certainly not low enough to scrape the ocean with a wing. Nor would they dive in such numbers. That's a good way to get caught in the shrapnel of your buddies bomb. And don't get me started on the Dauntless doing a hammerhead stall!
@@donwillman4587 forgive me if I’m wrong I know some of it would have been played out for dramatic effect in the film however wouldn’t the inexperience of the pilots be a factor to an incorrect dive? As mentioned in the clip
@@nadolfc8008 No, because they know that the bombs fragments and explosive force will get you if you if you are to low. Frag pattern from a 1,500 lbs would be about 200-300 metres so about 600-930 feet, horizontally and about 200m/600 feet vertically. Nevermind that one asinine scene, where the pilot drops the bomb from basically horizontal attitude, if it doesn't go off it would more likely skip off the deck than penetrate as shown in the movie. As low as the pullout was in the movie his own bomb would've killed him.
Thank you for pointing out how savage and brutal the Japanese were in WWII and how it’s gotten completely washed away in many people’s minds. It’s insane. In some ways, the Japanese were more sadistic than the Germans and most people have no idea.
@@lilmoeszyslak4810 As a moral case study, Unit 731 has always fascinated me. In a similar manner to research performed at concentration camps, data gathered at 731 facilities was (and arguably still is) crucial in the development of the medical field.
Too much CGI, bad acting, overbearing music, quite ridiculous setpieces... Just compare the scene of the attack on Midway atoll with the original John Ford movies, it's night and day.
Side note to @History Buffs: the wargame scene is actually close to accurate. The account comes from the memoirs of Admiral Ugaki, who was the moderator of the war game. The movie transcribes it more or less from Ugaki’s account. The actual war game is condensed for the movie, and Yamamoto wasn’t involved. But the basis of the scene is historical fact.
By your name, Sir, I'm presuming you to be Vietnamese. As a Malaysian, I'd just like to tell you that we too, remember what the Japanese had done to Malaya during that time. I fully agree that the war crimes must be highlighted and remembered for all time. Edit: And yes, you're right about the war game as well. I also know about that war game and had wanted to comment about it, but you beat me to it. :)
There's two other possibilities though - one is that the "American" admiral in the games had engaged in what today we would consider metagaming, a failure to separate player knowledge from character knowledge. The other is that it was silly to end the test with the latter half of the battle unfought, so they added a carrier back to that to make it a reasonable situation to game out.
@Jens Nobel Well put. I know of course that they didn't *exactly* predict their downfall. But my comment was more in a joking manner (while containing the kernel of truth) and you can't exactly write a joke in you extend it with a detailed explanation.
So i served in US Navy as a Aviation Machinist Mate and that story about AMM3 Bruno Gaido, i was completely surprised that they actually put that in the film... The Navy vet in me got so emotional because he is a hero in our community of Aviation Machinist mates
Yikes, my grandpa was a navy machinist aboard the Princeton (the CV-37, not the one that sank at Leyte Gulf). I don't know if he worked on planes or in the engine room but considering he worked in the pit crew of a drag race I think he may have worked on planes.
Gaido's bravery and shipboard promotion from Halsey occurred in February -- not at Midway, FYI. In fact, Halsey was not even at Midway. History Buffs does not mention this; don't know if the movie does.
My grandmother kept telling the story of the Japanese invasion in the Philippines whilst carrying my two uncles who were still babies at the time. They had to cover their faces with charcoal residue and cover their breasts the best they can to avoid being raped and killed while traveling province to province undetected in the forests. Meanwhile, my grandfather was back in Bataan fighting and defending the island, unknowing if he was alive or dead, he survived the war btw. God, I could only imagine how horrifying it was at the time for our grandparents.
My good friend of mine is Filipino her grandpa was a Filipino resistance fighter during WWII and showed us pictures of Japanese troops catching babies on their bayonets for fun. Crazy how my great grandpa fought the Japanese now my cousin and I both have a Japanese wife and family it's like the Japanese people back then were aliens compared to how they are today.
@@rc59191 The common people of Japan are so peace-loving because they don't want to see Japan return to that sort of madness again. That's why there's protests whenever Japan starts doing stuff that seems imperialistic and warmongering, such as force build ups. But that doesn't mean every Japanese thinks that way, and many don't know the full scope of the war crimes committed.
@@johnsouto5221 I'd say rather than several major mistakes, he made a few small choices in order to facilitate the story. Craig Symonds pointed some of these out on the 'Based on a True Story' podcast. According to him, if Emmerich told everything EXACTLY the way it was, a 100% accurate movie of Midway would be "a fifty hour movie", and that wouldn't be a commercially viable product. In Symonds' opinion, he thought Emmerich did a very good and pretty accurate job. If it's good enough for him, it's good enough for me.
“People in western countries are naive to what the Japanese did” except the Anzacs, the Australians and New Zealanders very much remember the atrocities, growing up my grandparents still spoke about what happened to their parents, uncles and aunties, their friends parents etc.
Australian here; I'd say it's still pretty right. Back in my public schooling, I took history whenever I had the chance. Even when we were focusing on WW2, the only Japanese atrocity I was able to name was Nanking. Our curriculum barely had any focus on the pacific theatre. Most of what I know about Japanese atrocities today has been from my own research. I really wish it was taught a lot more in public schooling.
@@abloodraven3856 And if memory serves me correctly, didn't they allow Japanese lessons in schools to stop any sort of animosity? I'm from public too, and I remember in Mordern History, we went over how much Hitler was a cunt and all that jazz. But no mention of Stalin, Mao, Mussolini (Lol what else to say), and next to fuck all about Japanese, apart from Kokoda, bombing of Darwin and a ships last stand. And that only lasted until the school changed it from Modern History to Law... None of my classmates were happy with it. Fuck public schools.
I am not totally disagreeing with your comment, however, our family lost a great uncle who was in the coastal artillery, trapped in the Philippines in 1941. So, just saying it was not only the Anzac who suffered, but the Americans and the Dutch as well.
I love how the ship Yorktown is such an amazing character all on her own gets nearly sunk, her crew amazingly saves her, rebuilt in beyond record time for the decisive battle, nearly gets sunk again during said battle but is miraculously saved yet again, to the point where when she gets hit for the third and final time the Japanese don't even realize it was the same carrier they thought had already been sunk. Then if that wasn't enough even the surviving pilots kept flying from other ships. One of my favorite stories from the Pacific war, her crew were mad-lads of the highest caliber
Throwing this in but in the game Azur Lane a naval WW2 game with cute animated girls as the realistic ships here is Yorktown's first skill called Vengeance Upon taking damage: launches a SBD Dauntless squadron (damage is based on skill level); has a cooldown of 20 seconds. Once per battle, when Health falls below 20%: recovers 15% (25%) of max Health. Thought you might appreciate that because Yorktown was the ship and crew that never quit.Like you said the ship went down but the surviving pilots kept flying sorties.Also RIP to the destroyer Hammann that had no chance hooked to the side of the Yorktown for repairs when taking one of the 4 torpedo fired at Yorktown. 80 of Hammann's crew died the ship was split in half like a log.
It's deeply appropriate that such a stalwart ship is named after the decisive battle of the American Revolution, where the British Surrender legitimized America's independence from England!
9:05 I think it’s worth mentioning that the bombing groups from Enterprise and Yorktown struck the Japanese together by pure chance, having no communications with each other, having been launched at different times, and having taken vastly different paths
There was luck, but frankly the Americans threw the dice so many times that eventually they were bound to get lucky. They put themselves in the position to do so. The Japanese, on the other hand, had ignored the adage that "the enemy rarely goes along with your plans." The best rundown of the Battle of Midway I've seen is here on RUclips. Look up "The Battle of Midway 1942: Told from the Japanese Perspective" by Montemayor. He lays out the timeline step by step of how the battle progressed along with photographic evidence to back up the illustrations. Two points: the flak they show in the movie Midway here is a bit too thick. The Japanese navy had two flaws that had significance in the battle. One was that their anti-aircraft fire was quite weak compared to US ships, so they relied a lot more on CAP cover, meaning the carriers really had to be their own defense. Second, and really significant for this and other battles is the US Navy was far better at damage control, which is why the Yorktown was so stubbornly hard to kill, even drawing off an entire enemy torpedo bomber attack because they saw a carrier that wasn't on fire and was making good headway and assumed it must be the Hornet or Enterprise. The major issue is the Kido Butai, for all it's strength, was not up to the huge task it had to undertake. It was asked to both keep pounding Midway and engage American carriers as they would supposedly be rushing into the area, and it was simply too much to ask, especially since they were running far ahead of Yamamoto's surface fleet and the landing ships and the American carriers were already in the area. The feint to the Aleutians was essentially a waste. They were establishing a worthless beachhead for a base of no operational use, taking away two escort carriers that could have reinforced the Midway operation and allowed the fleet carriers more time to ready the offensive strikes instead of servicing the CAP. Imagine the dilemma for the Americans if the surface fleet had been with the carriers and steamed on to pound Midway around noon using the Yamato's 18 inch guns, leaving the carriers to fly CAP and keep the strike planes ready for the American carriers. Frankly, the Japanese plan was tactically bad, the naval equivalent of putting the artillery out in front of the tank corps.
I am a Filipino. Our country got it really bad, with many of our losses in the war thanks to torture, starvation and the rape of our homeland. It's great to see people call out the evils of Imperial Japan. I have no hate for the modern Japanese people. I hate their government for denying that these things happened.
My friends grandpa was a Filipino resistance fighter during the occupation. I saw the pictures of Japanese Soldiers murdering babies with their bayonets like it was a game. I'll never understand how people could do that to a baby they deserved a third nuke just for that.
It isn't that historically accurate. Yeah, the main parts are right, but for example the performance of the Dauntless is overrated and many action-scenes are just silly.
Yeah It's very obvious it is, its possible that it really was a B-17 but they didn't have the CGI for any but I think people just call any American bomber B-17
@@commandervex1626 The B-17s bombed high. Four B-26s did torp runs. Two survived. One of the two shot down tried to ram a carrier. Dude is elderly and can misremember shit
My grandfather served in the Pacific, and two other wars, but he died with hatred in his heart towards the Japanese. I always wondered how a man could have so much hate, but the more I learn, the more I understand.
We did a lot of nasty things in our history, but Imperial Japan was far, far worse. I've been called a "Western chauvinist" for having nothing but contempt and scorn for those who commit the war crimes Imperial Japan did. To which I answer "GODDAMN RIGHT!" Yes, I think I'm better than anyone who massacres civilians for fun.
Once, I followed a friend of mine to visit her great-grandfather in a nursing home, who fought in the Pacific during WWII. Before we left, he told her that he never wanted a Japanese at his funeral.
My grandpa was a Colonel flying B17's in the Pacific, exactly the same here. He was a gentleman, but it clearly pained him to hold his tongue if the nation/culture of Japan came up in conversation.
@@logie3020 its so much worse then shown in this video. the japanese killed over 20 million chinese, most civilian. Chinese cities had just as many deaths as entire countries and empires around the world. let that sink in.
I did not need convincing but i googled it anyway. Holy shit.... its horrific and appalling what the imperial Japanese empire did to POWs and civilians.
The movie was great. I’ve glad he made this video. After watching the movie 4 times I went down the RUclips rabbit hole about midway. So glad this finally showed up!
Exactly my thoughts. An hour of history then a few moments to say how accurate the film is. That's all I wanted to know! Should have been said upfront not make a documentary about the Pacific conflict and war crimes. LoL
as a malaysian, i'm really greatfull for the mention of japanese warcrime in south east asia at the end. I hold no grudge against modern day japan, but it's a history which long ignore in western perspective because of the cold war after ww2 . I would like to say thanks again， for the hard work and empathy put in to the video, and sorry for my poor english .
I don't hold a grudge against modern Germany for the atrocities the Nazis committed either. But yes, what Imperial Japan did should be just as well known as what the Nazis did.
It was not ignored in the west. My dad was one of millions of westerners that despised the Japanese for the atrocities they committed to his dying day. There were also many movies and TV shows that let people know of Japanese cruelty, depravity and barbarism. But these days, you just to let it go. Forgive and forget. Modern Japan is not the same as the Japan of the WWII era.
They also had bad tactics. Brave men can make bad planes work if they have good tactics. The converse is also true, brave men in good planes will struggle if their tactics are bad. The survivors learned and learned quickly. Upgrading to Avengers from Devastators also helped.
It wasn't just the planes - it was even more so the torpedos and not just because they often were duds. The Mark XIII torpedo had a maximum speed of only 33 knots. The newer japanese carriers (Hiryu, Soryu and the Shokakus) could make 34 knots and simply outrun it. And even against the slowest carrier (Kaga with 28 knots) a hit was practically impossible if you were attacking from the rear. And of course any japanese carrier under attack by torpedo-bombers turned away from the attacking planes. For comparison: the japanese type 91 torpedo had a speed of 42 knots, the british Mark XII 40 knots .
I'm surprised that you didn't point out the fact that the movie acknowledged John Ford's presence at the battle and his insistence for his crew to keep filming.
"Brave men. We are fortunate they have such bad planes." Nice to see that man respecting his opponent and that if their aircraft were of similar ability, he would be in a much worse position.
Now, the whole world knows. Back then, we were cutting our teeth as a nation.. ive seen a lot of heroes out there, in my time. Respect to those who fought superior armies, yet won.. To those before us, to those amongst us and those yet to come. Cheers, boys! 🇺🇲
Your ending about Japanese brutality are right on. The late PM of Singapore Lee Kuan yew witnessed all these brutality , same as my grandparents did in Singapore and Malaya
I lost count how many times I've seen Midway. And planning to see it tomorrow again. The historical, military, and even plain human interaction is what makes this a gem just awesome and a future fans-phenomena! (
@@rekt_xington9027 Maybe not. Like Stalingrad, Manila saw brutal street fighting. Shanghai (and of course Nanjing) were more like unfenced Auschwitz. Little resistance and lots of slaughter by the invader.
@@adampilot8275 No, Shanghai was Asian Stalingrad. The fighting lasted for 3 months and involved most of the ROC's elite german-trained and equipped troops. It was a meat grinder that resulted in around 50-90k Japanese dead and around 187k Chinese dead. But for Americans, the war started with Pearl Harbor, so this battle doesn't count. Neither did the Battle of Wuhan, which saw around 30k-200k Japanese dead and 254k Chinese dead and lasted for 4 months. The reason why Manila (1 month for 17k dead in total, not counting civilians) is bandied around as the bloodiest urban fighting in WW2 is because it suited MacArthur's propaganda team and made Stilwell look good in the face of an "incompetent" ROC. This is the problem with American propaganda... China constantly gets downplayed and ignored.
@@ruedelta Agreed. That is why I called Shanghai an Auschwitz without fencing and gates. The slaughter in China was truly off scale and many see the start of the Pacific War as Pearl Harbour without taking the invasion of China into account. I never realized Wuhan was so costly though. Thanks for the input.
@@ruedelta no offense, but China only survived the Japanese onslaught was because of their immense geographic size and population. The Chinese front was the second deadliest front of WWII, but unlike the Eastern Front (which saw similar casualties numbers for both sides) the Chinese front was quite one sided in terms of casualties with China having way higher casualties than Japan (10 million for China vs. 3 million for Japan). Did the Chinese score some military victories, most definitely, but China could not have defeated Japan on its own.
That doesn't mean that their sailors shouldn't have this film partially dedicated to them. Both sides showcased extreme levels of bravery that you or I will never match. Honor the dead, regardless of the context. Recognizing valor isn't apologism.
Several of my family members in the Philippines were murdered by the Japanese during world war 2, including my uncle who was only 13 years old, my grandmother’s sister who was in her 20’s, and my great grandmother.
As my father-in-law was on the USS Oklahoma on Dec 7th and my father was in the ETO from Normandy to the Bulge, your comments at the end of the video couldn't be more TRUE, as bad as the Nazis were, the Japanese atrocities are at least as horrific, if not more so. THANK YOU for shedding some light on what has been largely ignored by the historical media in the 80 years since. You are 1000% correct in your reporting!
Its undeniable that the Axis Powers commited more war-crimes, but we cannot dismiss those commited by the Allies, especially at the Sicily Invasion and the cominterns treatment of POWs.
@@hp7233 Comparing Axis war crimes to Allied war crimes is like comparing someone getting their arm chopped off by the Mexican Cartel to a person getting stung by a wasp
Nazi Germany executed 6 million Jews. The Japanese executed 250,000 Chinesein ONE incident and 100,000 Phillipinos in one incident. I challengeyou to find a single incident where US forces killed 10,000 or 1000 innocents for simple retaliation or wanton slaughter. You may find stories of isolated cases where a dozen or a few hundred may have been killed, but to say US war crimes were just as bad as Axis or Russian war crimes is foolish and just plain wrong.
The thing with Doolittle saying they’re the first enemy to hit the home islands likely falls under the common man test. Would the common man of that era have known about the mongol invasions?
I agree, although Doolittle (a Lieutenant Colonel with a Doctorate from the MIT) hardly counts as common man. Still plausible that he wasn't that educated in Asian history though, who knows
@@PBL-50 well a lot of history taught in America is just western civilization. You get some of Chinese history in early world history, but much of Asian history was and still is not common teaching in American schools.
@@PBL-50 Yeah, but his education at both Berkeley and MIT was in Aeronautics and Engineering, not likely a big focus on the humanities. Maybe if he had gone to the Point he would have had a bit more military history.
Even if he knew it was BS, it was still encouraging to hear. Thats what he was going for. I figured the common man(the men he was talking to) more than likely wouldn't know that, or probably wouldn't even cared. You see, alot of those guys came out the great depression. So a accurate education on world history would probably be at a bare minimum if any at all. That generations value system is not at all like it is today. So really the only way to know something like that was if that person actively pursued it on their own. I suspect they were very few and very far in between. That went for most countries in that time period.
About this strikingly accurate prediction of the battle during the japanese war games - another such a thing had happened in France before the war. General Pretelat was visiting the border in the Ardennes sector and he saw how weakly it was defended. He predicted that IT would take Germans 60 hours to reach the Sedan. Turned out, he was off only by 3 hours when IT really happened.
The most strikingly accurate prediction happened in 1919, when French Marshal Ferdinand Foch commented on the Peace Treaty of Versailles: “This is not a peace. It is an armistice for 20 years.“ As this is a quote taken from the memoirs of French Prime Minister Paul Reynaud, we only know that Foch said this shortly after the signing of the treaty. Thus Foch was off probably only by a month or two.
@@christophneuschaeffer7489 Interesting, though I doubt anyone during the signing of treaty of Versailles saw it as a peace treaty, rather merely halting the revenge of the Germans
@@christophneuschaeffer7489 Bismarck has been attributed to saying some damned thing in the balkans would start a great war, but I couldn't find whether that was around 1878 or 1888 or the maybe more famous '20 years after my death'.
@Max Power Nah, you get it wrong - Maginot Line served its purpose, it's everything else that had failed. The main purpose of the Maginot Line was to divert the main enemy thrust away from the fortifications of the Maginot Line. It succeeded. Germans had attacked north of the Maginot Line, something French had excepted, but failed to take advantage of. Read about Dyle-Breda Plan.
the fact that last segment was even said is terrific. I'm so glad this video wasn't shot down and people are still able to see beautiful video once again you've knocked it out of the park.
26:27 Thank you very much for pointing that out, I live in the Philippines and the scars of the Japanese invasion are still somewhat seen and it was offensive for me as one of my great grandfathers died fighting the Japanese near Manila with the Americans. Such dark times
Thank you for your comment. My Filipina wife and I visited the military cemetery in Makati where thousands of Americans are buried -- the largest overseas American military cemetery, by the way. There are also hundreds of Filipino fighters buried there, too. Greetings from Oregon, USA, from a retired U.S. Navy chief petty officer. Best wishes to you and everyone in the Philippines.
@@SomethingoldenYT yeah but it’s kinda innacurate in a couple of big aspects. They left various lemans races where the gt40s were a faliure out of the movie to fit it into a reasonable amount of time for a movie
Reading the negative reviews of this movie is a pretty hilarious experience. Especially when so many say things along the lines of 'everyone knows this story' when I have met very few people who actually know what happened at midway. As a former sailor I was very impressed with how accurate they did everything and how tight they kept to the historic timeline on that day. For any interested in a warroom look at this I can't recommend youtube's Montemayor's review of this battle and the precursor battles.
Can’t take film critics serious at all they don’t anything they just like using big words and when it comes to history they are very clueless and ignorant
I feel that way about every documentary on Guadalcanal being about the ground invasion when the vicious month long naval battle is so much more interesting.
@@m0redreadspeaking of Guadalcanal, am I the only one wishing there was a miniseries covering the story of the entire campaign? I mean they fought for 6 months and the campaign was one of the major turning points in the pacific theatre
This version of Midway ,despite it's theatrical license ,was about the MOST ACCURATE to date that I have seen,. I particularly like the part where they showed how the Nautilus "INADVERTENTLY" played such an important roll. Reassuring the pilots as to the possible location of the Japanese Fleet, due to the Japanese destroyer racing back to rejoin the fleet.. Also of great importance was the fact that although the Torpedo Bombers failed to score any real damage ,they brought the fighter cover down ,allowing the Dive Bombers a CLEAR FIELD OF OPERATION.
@Edwin Arnold I watched it, Excellent film. Both in my opinion were excellent pictures, but this one I believe was a little more explanatory than the 70's one.
@Edwin Arnold I wasn't actually commenting on the entire content of the movie. I realize the FILM INDUSTRY dramatizes much of what they produce. The Only part I particularly liked was the POINT they made of the Nautilus's part in the movie. I felt they stuck pretty much to what we know about the battle. Even to the part where the TWO airmen picked up by the Japanese were THROWN OVERBOARD, with weights tied to them. These events as far as we know, REALLY DID HAPPEN.
@Edwin Arnold I've watched the 70's film many times and have always enjoyed it. However, they did feel the need to add a fictional subplot with Charlton Heston's character. It also used a lot of recycled footage from Tora! Tora! Tora! While I've never seen it confirmed, I've read that John Wayne was originally supposed to play Halsey, not Robert Mitchum. I tend to believe it, because Halsey has a line of dialog to Nimitz that is very reminiscent of a line Fonda's character said to Wayne in Fort Apache. Fort Apache: Lt. Col. Thursday: When you command this regiment; and you probably will, command it! Midway (1976) Vice Adm. William F. 'Bull' Halsey Jr. : You told me once, Chet. When you're in command, command.
Why did they paint that there, like it’s so stupid. Like why not reinforce that area of the ship that way if a dive bomber hits it they be like oh no, anyway
@@shrek4316 Issue is that, A. they paint that there so the Japanese could identify themselves via the Big Red Dot, the rising sun, and it was reinforced, and B. The Japanese wanted their carriers to be fast and maneuverable, which is why the majority of their carriers were lightly armored, so they could have speed more then protection.
I think another reason Emmerich went the extra mile, is because of his fondness for aircraft and flight. Go back and look at his filmography, and a majority of them have pilots somewhere in the cast and at least one memorable scene/sequence in the movie that has some sort of aircraft.
Now that you mention it, there is flying in probably all of his movies (aside obviously those before the invention of aircraft). Although a lot of pilots also die in his movies, so if it weren't for Independence Day and Midway portraying pilots as cool heroes, one could also see that as fear of flying xD
Emmerich ruined the entire B-26 attack on Kido Butai and absolutely ruined the opportunity to correctly portray an insane attack made by those handfull of US Army Air Forces B-26 crews utilizing an untested torpedo system designed specifically for the B-26 Marauder.....
The "B17" that tries to crash into the carrier seems to be missing a few engines and has its wings in the wrong position (mounted above the fuselage rather than amid). Seems more like a B26.
Was on my way to make that very comment. I kept hearing "B17" but what I was seeing was making my head puff up like an overfilled balloon 🎈 and was about to pop.
It was a B-26 and there were only 4 of them. IIRC 3 were shot down and only 1 returned to Midway, badly shot up. The B26's made torpedo attacks - which they had never trained for or attempted before - and none struck.
well, he're's an inaccuracy, if minor: those planes you're showing when you talk about the B-17's are NOT B-17s. B-17s have four engines. Those appear to b-20 Havocs. or b-26 marauders. Historically, B-17s did attack during midway, but the planes shown are incorrect.
On Midway, by 4 June the U.S. Navy had stationed four squadrons of PBYs-31 aircraft in total-for long-range reconnaissance duties, and six brand-new Grumman TBF Avengers from Hornet's VT-8.[36] The Marine Corps stationed 19 Douglas SBD Dauntless, seven F4F-3 Wildcats, 17 Vought SB2U Vindicators, and 21 Brewster F2A Buffalos. The USAAF contributed a squadron of 17 B-17 Flying Fortresses and four Martin B-26 Marauders equipped with torpedoes: in total 126 aircraft. -Wikipedia
Thank you for this. My son is one of Dick Best’s great grandchildren. I am grateful to learn of Best’s heroic actions this way, since he had passed away before I met my son’s father.
My Grandma survived the Japanese during ww2, and yes we are Filiponos.I even remember from one of her stories, that the Japanese thought that tobaccos were cabbage so they eat them but they taste horrible LOL, sadly she passed away last October 2021. All of her stories will be remembered.
Old people here used to say that when the Allied soldiers arrived in the Mediterranean, someone tried to eat a Cactus's fruit, without removing the thorns 😂 ouch.
And its really hilarious that Japan went on and used propaganda slogans like "Asia for Asians" and then became even more horrible than the Imperial Colonists in the West to the point they would rather work with their Western Imperial Overlords lol
I’m VERY glad that you made a point to criticize the “moral equivalency” between America and Japan. There was no moral equivalency. You can absolutely criticize the United States for a lot of things. You cannot make an argument of moral equivalency in this scenario.
I don't think they meant it as a moral equivalency. I understand why it would make people u comfortable, but I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing to recognize the loss of life on both sides. You could argue that it is what makes us different from the Imperial Japanese.
I grew up in the 70’s watching black and white war movies on Friday nights and can vouch that hatred for Japan was still alive and well. Although I appreciate and agree with Nick’s sentiment, I think the producers were trying not to reignite hatred from history, which I can get behind. Standing on the deck of the USS Missouri, I heard the story of a Kamikaze pilot who was unsuccessful in trying to damage the ship but who’s body lay on the deck. Her Captain gave him a military funeral to show that we have humanity. I think humanity is why that dedication was worded the way it was.
@@DonnyStanley The dedication at the end is a symptom of American fears of being seen as jingoistic or engaging in exceptionalism. The trouble is that this sometimes slams headlong into the reality that, at certain moments in history, those young soldiers, airmen, sailors, and marines were unambiguously the good guys. Making moral equivalency arguments, essentially, revisionist history that gets picked up by the sort of people who really are trying to erase the history of war crimes. Without the context of the war crimes, these individuals have an easier time drawing impressionable young people in with the spectacle of fascism, and getting them invested to the extent that they will then go on to defend the indefensible because they like the sharp uniforms, the sleek airplanes, the intimidating battle standards and insignia. Or for that matter, the ceremonial edged weapons, be they daggers with foul inscriptions or ancestral swords pressed into service as instruments of torture.
Initially when I heard he was Nimitz I scoffed but thinking of his blue eyes and had a moment of pause. Eckhard,Quaid and Harrelson all did well looking and acting as their historical counterparts.
Thank you for including the bit at the end. As a history lover and a Korean American, I never learned about the atrocities in Asia during WW2 until my 20s (mostly right after the turn of this century). I didn’t understood the grumbles of my parents (born years after that war) and (especially) my grandparents until I visited a museum in S Korea dedicated to what happened during ww2. Unfortunately, American history gloss over those atrocities and seem to present more of the ones that happened in Europe (which are just as gruesome and justified in keeping those memories alive as well). Just wish more people knew about what happened in Asia as they do in Europe during that time. Sorry for rambling. Thanks for your videos; love movies and love history. Watching these videos do give me some happiness.
If they're still around, talk to your grandparents if they're willing to recount their experience. I learned my grandfather (a doctor) was ordered to treat a Japanese commander for some injury. When he refused, to coerce him they raped his wife's sister and niece in front of him, then killed them. The people who committed that atrocity are long dead, so I don't hold it against modern Japanese. But like the Holocaust, it needs to be remembered.
@@solandri69 hey, yeah, I wish I could. They all died when I was fairly young (and/or stupid) and before I started liking history. Thank you for sharing. That is a crazy story. My parents (maybe learned from older generations) had a bit of a grudge, at least for the government, but I don’t think they still do. I remember asking why and they did explain the history in a way that a young me could understand. When they were done, I could see it in their eyes that they were wondering why they made it personal. It didn’t help that I told them that there were Japanese kids in my class and they seemed cool. I agree; that side of the war doesn’t seem to be touched on as much as the European front.
So great you brought up this regarding war crimes. My ex-wife is Chinese and this lives in Chinese conscience even today. The atrocities were truly awful and it's important that this is emphasized.
My fiancé is from the Philippines. Her grandparents were small children and they would flee into the forest to escape from the Japanese who tried to impale them on bayonets
The Navy really did not want to give Emmerich any help until he said, "I want to tell the story of Dick Best." After that point, he had all the help he wanted.
I expected another "Pearl Harbor" from the trailers. Or at least a heavily embellished series of set pieces that would boil down to "Micheal Bay does WWII" but y'all got me interested in actually seeing it.
Its honestly a great movie. Very well paced and doesn't feel as long as it really is. And is a perfect precursor to the Pacific mini series that events start just a month after this movie ends
It's kind of wild to me how most people know nothing of the Japanese war crimes. This video definitely should be shown in history classes everywhere! Could you do Darkest Hour please! I liked the movie but some movies I liked in the past were "ruined" by your videos lol. Historical accuracy is key fellow History Buffs!
I knew the Japanese had been brutal during the war. Read about some of it in history books on the subject of WWII. The Bataan Death March is well known.
It's due to the American Government assisting in covering up most of the war crimes in order to promote Japan as an ally against communism during the Cold War. I don't know the extent of such, but I imagine it was quite far reaching.
the allied forces werent much better, a british destroyer killing a surrendering sub crew. americans soldieres killing surrendered german soldieres. impresenment of japaness-amaricans and not to mention 2 fucking nukes
I feel like Germany gets by far the most attention when it comes to atrocities committed even though Japan and the Soviets equally committed horrendous crimes.
amen with this its no wonder there is consipiracy theories about hollywoods intentions too (tho i think most are without a doubt false its just something to think about)
The soviets did not outclass the Nazi Germans in war crimes, its just audacious that they an allied force and only there to expand their absolute control and committing war crimes in such excesses as reprisals, but no, it was not worse, its just that they did it yet are supposed to be on team "good guys" yet only end up the lesser of two evils
The wargame thing really really did happen. A junior officer acting as the US carrier commander placed his ships roughly where they really would be and caught the Japanese carriers by surprise. It also highlighted the big flaws with the search plan the Japanese had that really did affect them in the battle. But because the Japanese had spent years practicing battles in wargames where their fleets were always handled expertly and the Americans always came in like cows waiting to be slaughtered, the move was declared 'impossible' and the damage to two carriers discounted and then scalred back so all three sunk ships survived.
After reading serveral books supposedly based on actual Japanese meeting transcriptions, they'd often "re-do" war game scenarios until they came out they way they wanted. No devil's advocates were allowed and any roll of the dice that produced an unwanted result was thrown out as a fluke. As a result, Japanese battle plans heavily depended on things going exactly as planned - when it didn't, they would bungle trying to wing it, freeze or just push on as planned.
Volume VI, Breaking the Bismarcks Barrier by Morrison, p.21, does detail Japanese wargaming that actually occurred. Adm Yokoyama, Naval Attache Washington, after being repatriated in August 1942 acted out the part of the Americans in wargames and retook the Philippines in Oct 1944. A pretty accurate game!. Yokoyama was one of 3 Navy representatives at the surrender (Volume XIV Victory in the Pacific, p. 363, footnote #30). Their play and viewpoints were dismissed by the Japanese Naval General Staff.
Their battle plans were also needlessly over-complicated. The Midway operation is a classic example: the Kido Butai attacking Midway, a large force of battleships and a light carrier attacking the Aleutians as a "diversion"... The Aleutians were so far away from Midway that it might as well have been two separate operations against which the US could devote two separate forces. The plan was nuts.
@@elennapointer701 Newer research argues that the Aleutian operation is not a diversion, but rather a horse trade with the Japanese Army to get their support on the Midway operation.
The story/legend of the rigged wargame where the IJN predicted the result of Midway but dismissed it as impossible came from Masatake Okumiya and Mitsuo Fuchida's 1955 book on the battle of Midway. Fuchida lead the first wave of the air attack on Pearl Harbor, and was present at Midway on board the CV Akagi. Both Fuchida and Okumiya were staff officers present at the wargames during the planning of the Midway operation so this was supposedly first-hand account of what happened. Some later historians argued that Fuchida and Okumiya presented the facts of the wargame but gave it a different interpretation, to made it look like the Fleet HQ were arrogant and ignored warnings, in order to shift blame of the Midway disaster from Yamamoto and themselves.
My guess for the reason he added the Japanese sailors was perhaps the requirement by the Japanese in order to use the Japanese actors for this. The Japanese do honor all their war dead which is why Yasukuni shrine is controversial.
I don't know if you guys got a different credits but here in the Philippines the end credits were, "This movie ie dedicated to the defenders of Bataan. The battle of Bataan stalled the Japanese for 2 months giving the Americans vital time to prepare for Midway." Thoose were the end credits for us, maybe because during the showing of this film was the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Bataan. To add to Nick's missed innacuracy, during the attack on Pearl, the torpedoes were comming from the bow, which is innacurate since the torpedo bombers were comming from the sides.
@@zazo100 I’ll bet they didn’t say the movie was dedicated to Japanese servicemen in those countries because, while operating in those countries, the Imperial Japanese Army made Hitler’s Waffen-SS look like a bunch of schoolboys.
They wanted to tell a story good for even a clueless audience in less than 3 hours. It would have been confusing if they depicted the flight operations of all the carriers. It might have been perhaps possible, but only just if the entire film depicted only the events from the first sighting of the Japanese fleet, until the I-168 torpedoed the Yorktown. The movie was mostly about the Enterprise bomber crews' contribution to sinking the 4 carriers with selected background.
I loved it too, have you seen the 1976 Midway? I have both Midway movies on DVD and they contain a few historic information about the real battle in 1942.
@@StephenLuke Really looking forward to Masters of the Air. Tom Hanks and Spielberg nailed Band of Brothers, so I hope they do the story of USAAF 100th Bombardment Group justice as they did for Easy Comp. In BoB.
Thank you very much for both videos, but especially for this last part about the war crimes. War movies should not only about tactics, strategy and sometimes valiant deeds, but also blunt murder and crime.
@@felicitations3529 Try watching Fly Boys. Every German Pilot had a Red Triplane just like the Red Baron. Didn't the Red Baron get that name because of his red Triplane?
Red Tails was pure Hollywood BS. On D-day, June 4th, 194, there was no Luftwaffe above the beaches, it had been decimated. The Red Tails did not arrive on the European front until late August/early September, 1944. Where did the Luftwaffe planes in the movie come from? Hollywood... no where else. LOL!
When hearing the segment of Japanese Army and Navy war crimes, I can’t help but wonder how Asian nations that endured Japanese Imperial cruelty reacted to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This issue gets very little attention here in the United States
I think overall Asian Nations celebrate the fact that Japan received such a devastating punishment for its long years of atrocities. However, we must also note that the majority of deaths were civilians and the bomb indiscriminately killed civilian targets so whether it is a war crime or not, that is usually decided by the victorious nations. I think Chinese have mixed feelings as seen in their recent media and history textbooks, they like to say they played a major part in wearing down the IJA and the Communists helped to defeat the Japanese(when in fact all major battles except 1 was fought by the Nationalists). So the Americans were in fact, allied to the Nationalists so the CCP doesn't really like giving credit to the Americans and they still celebrate the holiday "War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression" on Sept 3rd. Americans like to paint the perspective that they 'ended' the war on their own based on the atomic bombings, however, the internal discussion in Japan shows that the Soviet advance into Manchuria and Korea were just as much of a threat, if not more so, than the Americans. It came down to should we surrender to the Americans or the Soviets situation for many of the military elite. In Japan, people generally have moved beyond the responsibilities of WW2 and are more focused on modern-day problems. Article 9 of the Constitution also reduces most public support for the military and government overreach into world affairs when it comes to conflicts. Many Asian nations feel they haven't been punished enough, while as the old school Japanese politicians feel they have already paid enough reparations in terms of monetary assistance, development, infrastructure and loans to formerly occupied countries.
@SCATXXIV Yeah that still makes you a bad person. Killing civilians who have committed no crime just because they MIGHT be related to people that hurt you is insanity. So if you were to hit someone with a car, that persons family is then allowed to wipe your family off the map? Sounds like people need to understand that the punishment and responsibilities for those crimes should fall on the person committing them not everyone who look slike them. I mean thats literally the racism issue in america. Conservative Whites treat every black person killed as a gang banger because some black person committed a crime. Is that right?
I really do appreciate your dedication to accurately informing about Japanese imperialism. The horrors of the Japanese Empire is an evil that many have forgotten and your effort to shine a light on it is admirable. As a Korean-American, I was never given an extensive education on the subject, only on the war crimes committed by the Nazis. Only recently have I started to learn what Japanese imperialism has done to my people. Thank you for raising awareness of this often ignored aspect of history.
I agree. I rarely ever hear of the extreme monstrous acts committed by the Japanese; they seemed edited when compared to actual historic documentaries. Once you've seen the films and photos from "The Nanjing Massacre" along with other atrocities; you will not be able to forget.
There are reasons why the older generations of Korean, Chinese, Philipinos, and others resented the Japanese until they died of old age. My father was forced to speak Japanese when he was young during the occupation in Korea. I love the modern Japanese people & culture, but I am glad the US dropped the bombs to end the war.
Postwar Japan has done a hell of a lot to gloss over the Empire of Japan's war crimes. There's a lot of whataboutism, revisionism, minimalization and straight-up lying designed to instill in the next generation of Japanese children a sense of victimhood. Some of it pervades to this day, a sense that white imperialist gaijin stole a fairly-won empire from noble Japanese patriots. The war crimes are completely ignored in some cases, or explained away as "unfortunate events", as if the Rape of Nanking was just a small blemish on an otherwise honorable campaign.
I find it funny this is said when its constantly brought up when we have statues to Lenin in places like Portland. Victors write the history, what's hard to believe is how naïve people are about that fact.
Today Japan is one of my favorite countries. I actually lived there for a large chunk of my childhood, about an hour from Hiroshima. I loved almost every aspect of the Japanese culture and people, but one thing was sad to see. They do not really ever talk about what their country did during world war 2. In fact, most of them are quite ignorant of what happened. The one thing they do know a lot about however, was the atomic bombs. We went to the museum in Hiroshima, and there was no mention of the war in the pacific, the murder of thousands of people throughout Asia, and war crimes, the only thing mentioned was the brutal Americas dropping bombs on them. Do I think the atomic bombs weren't that bad? No, it was brutal. I saw the pictures of the destruction and the only building that survived (oddly enough, the one the bomb fell on). But ignoring history is also disturbing. We even had a few elderly Japanese people flip us off because we were American. That was only a few though, most of the Japanese of all ages love Americans. In my opinion, it's not ok to not talk about the history of your country, the good and the bad. As an American, I still learned about slavery.
Completely right however a small note that they(Japanese) didn't kill "thousands" across Asia. They as documented had killed millions, China alone has an estimated 20million deaths during the 2nd Sino war. roughly 14m alone were civilians!!! This is excluding all the over nations and islands under Japan's occupation. To put that number into perspective London has just under a population of 9m people, so Japan killed every single person in London twice and that is just China alone there are claims that the number is closer to 50m as a total in China but that could be exagerrated.
"They do not really ever talk about what their country did during world war 2." Why would they? so they would become like white countries feverishly bashing themselves for past wrong, sacrificing their future in the process? No thank you.
@@selmevias1383 My friend, there is a difference between ignoring, not teaching, and becoming ignorant about your countries past, and hating and beating on your country. I too disagree with the woke anti-white anti-America agenda. It is important for the US to teach about slavery... and how it ended and is no longer a US issue. Not ignore it, not overblow it.
When you talkd about how the experienced and trained men of the Japanese navy were lost there was no replacing them. This was certainly true. But what you didn't mention was America's counter to the loss of experienced men. Alone among all combatants during WWII America harvested air crews that had flown a preset number of missions and brought them home. All other countries put their troops on the front and left them there until their were killed or grievously wounded. But America didn't bring those men back just to send them home, they were re-assigned to training to train the next crop of pilots or whatever. Those new men had the benefit of having been trained by men who had been there, done that, and knew how to win. The quality of new pilots declined as the war went on for everyone but America. Our pilots got better and better. An added bonus was that we were not suffering from fuel shortages that hampered training. We had lots of gas, planes, pilots, and time. As the war went on not only did the pilots get better, the planes did too. Late arrivals in the "wonderful" range were the P51 Mustang and the F4U Corsair. It was really most unfair to our enemies, but, then again, who wants to play fair in war?
You could argue that britains pilots were also getting better and better as if you were shot down but bailed out during the battle of britain you were given a new plane and sent back up because you were over friendly territory and I will always say america's best aircraft was the sbd-dauntless as unlike the Avengers they didn't get faulty weapons and they caused more casulties than any fighter my aircraft damaged 197 ships sank 77 and in the end my guns and planes shot down 912 planes
The flight to nowhere is based on early morning report (sighting)and the believe the Japanese fleet had 2 carrier groups of 2 aircraft carriers each. What helped the US navy the most in this battle was the use of 2 carrier groups, this lead to a lot of confusion on the Japanese side. The Japanese did in fact want to run 2 carriers per group, but had a vast shortage of war ships, due to offensive objections in the Pacific. The Japan due to war aims, had a huge shortage in support and support ship and in fact knew it had to win a 6 month war or lose. Japan could not support it's needs or aims in the Pacific.
That caption for Lee Kuan Yew. "Student, Singapore." It's funny how these documentaries just have some random people but this one got their 30 year prime minister.
Fun fact: in his memoirs he said one day he was randomly asked to get on a truck even though he wasn’t screened. He knew he was going to be executed but told the Japanese soldier that he wanted to go home to grab some extra clothes. He then hid for 3 days, went for a screening and got cleared as not an enemy.
For some reason, US veterans made uncharacteristic peace with Japanese their counterparts. For example, Pearl Harbour veterans from both sides have gathered at the base for commemorations.
My favorite story is Nobuo Fujita. Look him up, one of the only people to bomb the contiguous United States from a submarine floatplane carrier, survived the war, and was invited by the people of a town in Oregon close to where he bombed. He brought his families 400 year old katana to present to the town as gift, as he was ashamed of his service to the IJN, and if the people of the town were to be hostile, his plan was to commit seppuku with the sword instead, however they treated him well and with compassion, which built this crazy relationship including him getting a letter of thanks from ronald regan. crazy life.
@@Commanderstevo I think his attempt to mend relationships by acknowledging his wrong-doing and apologizing is worth celebrating. Many in Japan still deny their war crimes and that the atomic attack was justified. Japan in the 30s and 40s was an extremist nation, there was little chance of escaping service in civil or military service and Fujita, whether he believed at that time in the war or not, was always going to end up being involved somehow.
I think a lot of US veterans (rightfully) view the average Japanese soldier or sailor as also being a victim of the Imperial Japanese government. There are similar stories with Allied and German veterans becoming good friends. And during WWI there was that impromptu Christmas celebration between German and Allied troops. With a few exceptions, wars are fought between governments. And the average soldier had no choice but to participate on the side of whatever country they happen to live in. So once they're freed of the government telling them to fight, they tend not to take it personally. It's different for victims of atrocities - there's no way for them not to take it personally.
Just wanted to point out, that the plane that almost dived into the Akagi's bridge was a B-26 Marauder, which some have claimed made Nagumo send the reserve planes.
Also, there were only 4 B-26s at Midway converted to carry torpedoes. If memory serves me correctly, 2 of them were shot down and the other 2 survived but were so badly damaged that they never flew again. Also, there were 6 TBF Avengers at Midway and they fared similar fates.
9:00 Actually that's a myth and embellishment started by the Japanese, in Shattered Sword, an account of Midway from the Japanese perspective, they were about an hour way from actually launching. The myth was started by Nagumo and his staff to soften the blow of defeat by saying "We almost won, but we were hit right as we were launching." This myth was then continued in the anglo sphere by hilariously enough, failure to talk with Japanese historians, who dismissed this inaccuracy decades ago and were even like, "You got that from the Fuchida didn't you?" Indeed Fuchida's accounts proved to be, self serving or blame shifting. I'd recommend Shattered Sword, its a good read.
Is that actually true? I had always heard that the main reason all the Japanese carriers burnt up even though many were only hit once or twice was because of all the ordinance that had been left around the hangars? Though it would make sense for it to also be true that the ships just sank due to poor damage control, the Japanese never had the damage control the US Had. With the strict command structure meaning if you were a gunner and you saw a fire, you kept shooting and assumed the control parties were alive to deal with it. Where as the more lax US, if you were a gunner and saw a fire, you stopped shooting and put the fire out first.
@@solusanimefan The difference between the flight deck and hangar is the hangar is typically under the flight deck and impossible to see from the outside of Japanese ships. (I remember an anecdote from Shattered Sword that a Japanese officer said that one of the carriers looked like a Daikon raddish, the entire stop of the ship ceased to exist the explosion was so bad) The flight deck is where you launch the fighters and that was what was said by Nagumo and others, they were literally about to launch. In realty they were still rearming to launch a coordinated simultaneous strike. In actuality the most that would be on the flight deck would be cap fighters being rearmed.
@@solusanimefan They had at best the CAP on deck. Because of switch and switch again and the time it took to take back the Midway attack group they had to be still in the hangar for at least another half an hour. If Japanese doctrine would have been just a bit more flexible (as well as Nagumo), they would have been able to get half their planes en route to the US carrier group. While it would not have changed the final outcome of the war, as the USA were outproducing Japan basically by mid 1942, the timeframe would have changed a lot.
@@timedraven117 part of the issue with the Fuchida account is that the timing of the CAP recovery and the strike launch don't line up. The carriers couldn't do both at the same time. The logs for one of the carriers was found in an archive a few years ago and showed the deck to be empty except for some CAP still landing. The hangar was packed, but there was no strike force on deck ready to launch.
While both B-17s and B-26s were at Midway, they were used very differently. The B-17s were four engine heavies that dropped from altitude and missed, the B-26s were two engine medium bombers that attacked with torpedoes. As depicted in the movie, it was a B-26 that being seriously damaged by anti-aircraft fire, seemed to attempt to crash into Akagi's bridge and missed.
I was wondering about that. B17 didn’t sink anything during ww2 but they also couldn’t be hit. And they’re were considering naval and land bombs bombers at the time but in actual practice it was quickly discovered they were useless at hitting anything at sea. However all the bombing attacks had the desired effect, it prevented the Japanese from launching their own strike. There’s very little doubt if the they’d gotten a full strike off that the result would have been the destruction of the American carriers.
As someone who is ethnically Chinese & hearing stories from my older generation who actually suffered IJA war crimes as children, I thank you for the last 1/4 of the clip in bringing forward this issue. Nazi Germany is largely unquestioned today as being unquestionably evil, Imperial Japan has largely been romanticized, at least in Western society. Only in Asia where the scars of Imperial Japan still remains (e.g. China, Hong Kong, Philippines, Korea etc.) still seem to remember.
I think Western Societies romanticized the IJA because of both guilt for the treatment of Japanese people living in Allied nations (especially in the US) and because Japan became an ally during the Cold War. I don't want to downplay or excuse what happened to those that suffered. I just wanted to give clarification.
I don't think we romanticise them at all. We do for their older (samurai) history, even though mass beheadings etc. were common back then too. I think we still condemn the WW2 era Japanese military, but maybe feel sorry for and forgive the civilian population. The cold war required quick rebuilding of enemies into allies, and Japan was especially obedient once defeated, and enthusiastically picked up a new, very different culture. It also almost entirely did away with its military and the culture attached to it. Also, the fact that so many of the victims of firebombing and nukes were children makes it hard to feel good about that. I do also think we kind of forget about Japan in Europe because Germany was so much more immediate and the scars of that war are everywhere: you can still see shrapnel holes in the lion statues on the embankment in London. Japan's the other side of the world, and the people they killed didn't look like us. People are usually shocked to hear just how evil their actions were though. I know I hadn't realised the scale of it until I listened to Dan Carlin's 10-hour+ podcast on the topic. Same's true for the Eastern Front. We (UK and US) kind of feel like we won the war, when the majority of the suffering and death was actually the Soviets. The numbers in the Sino-Japanese war are unbelievably large too, like the Yellow River Dam break that killed 1/2 million people minimum, Nanjing 300,000 etc. etc. .... it's just beyond an imaginable scale.
Imperial Japan has not been romanticized in the west... Romanticizing the Sengoku and Edo periods of Japan is entirely different than romanticizing the imperial era.
Too right .... and these little bastards and their whole nation have never really admitted their brutality .... with the exception of a few individuals like those at the end of this video
Their government and education system whitewashed the first half of the 20th century. Watch videos asking random modern Japanese what happened in ww2. They don't say it's all America's fault, but they don't know the details of why and how.
He complained about soldiers being acknowledged for their bravery because their government was evil. That's like hating that a movie about the Vietnam war honors both sides. Stop thinking about groups, think about the individual people.
@@lucastark1784 "groups" consist of "individuals" who usually decide to join said group ... most Japanese were happy to support their brutal genocidal regime .. and nowadays their sadism of the 30s and 40s is swept under the carpet by them
As a Chinese I can only say I simply love the final part of your video, I’ve been to the memorial of the victims of the nanking massacre, it was outrageous for such atrocities to be committed by the facist invaders back then. That memory still resonates in Chinese people’s hearts today. I also admire your attitude towards history, history accuracy is not to be sacrificed for the sake of “artistic expression” or “Hollywood style impacts”, the artwork’s value lies to a great extent in its respect for historical facts. And I think your video greatly reminds people about this Love your works, carry on in the future!!👍👍👍
All countries in Asia know the truth of Japanese brutality and depravity in WW2. My grandfather told me many stories of the atrocities committed against Indian soldiers fighting under the British in their Asian colonies. The rest of the world may not know as well, but all of Asia still remembers the atrocities committed by them.
I worked at the national security agency history department in the 90s and met some of the people who worked magic on Pearl Harbor. I had tears in my eyes as I watched this movie depict the difference that those people made. Great review. They nailed the sigint side
The biggest flaw in this movie is they completely left out Frank Jack Fletcher who was in overall tactical command of the combined task forces. He ceded command to Spruance on the evening of the 4th after all 4 Japanese carriers were flaming wrecks and he was forced to abandon ship from Yorktown and transfer his flag to a cruiser. Spruance deserves credit for what happened from the night of the 4th through the end of the battle on the 6th.
Thank you very much for bringing attention to the atrocities of the Imperial Japanese military during World War II. It's something that has been overlooked for far too long.
Actually there was Japanese Manga and Anime talk about this, it titled *Zipang* , about Japanese modern self defense Navy battleship travel back to time when world world 2 Pacific theatre, they unavoided event that eventually changed history of Pacific theatre and east Asian countries in that time
If you read the histories around world war 2 the junior naval staff often managed to do things like this. They war gamed the grand plan that was meant to be attriting the American naval force over the Pacific via a series of quick sharp battles where the Japanese fleet elements would engage, destroy a few ships and then disengage. The theory being the better quality of materiel used would allow the IJN to control the place and tempo of battle. The junior naval staff hit on the actual strategy the American's used which was to jump past the defensive strong points as much as possible to then isolate them and render them useless without wasting energy destroying them. The junior staff often won the war games and proceeded to be told off for not fighting how the enemy actually would. "Kaigun: Strategy, Tactics, and Technology in the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1887-1941" goes into quite a bit of detail as to how into their own bubble of thinking the IJN was.
Those wargaming sessions were trying out various scenarios and Japanese did not realize how badly their communications had been compromised. They thought the USN would have no idea they were.
@@mjbull5156 Yup, past infrastructure, people often forget how much this decided the war. In war over spaces this large with no ability to mass control the spave, if one side knows the others movements while the other one is blind, then the wars next to done. The only reason the US suffered any defeats or notable losses post gaining access over their transmissions was because the US navy was impressively incompetant. The movies scene was absurd. If an assumed competant navy had pulled the plan in a war game, the entire Japanese navy would of been wiped one sidedly, not just 3 carriers and no smaller ships. The results the US got were a complete embaressment for what realistically should of been a complete wipe.
“War is young men dying and old men talking.” This quote came to mind when that tribute came up on screen. While I can’t be sure it’s what Roland meant, I read it as a tribute to the young men under order to fight for a war started by their governments. I didn’t see it as a glorification of imperial Japanese but the young men who died fighting for what they were convinced was right, and ordered to do. Just my best guess
Yeah. I don’t think it was meant to be offensive. I think it’s just a weird pairing to show that and then go “oh and the Japanese also murdered thousands of civilians before this battle”
“War is young men dying and old men talking.” -- Yet another Facebook meme quote that causes millions to revel in the newly found wisdom, but of course it make no f# sense whatsoever other than stating the obvious that experience and leadership is earned with age, but if you put it that way, it wouldn't be catchy.
Nope. Remember the Japanese soldiers were not ordered to act like this most of the time, they just did it for fun. The old were evil, but the young in this case were monsters.
@@ZAK31591 remember that they were raised with imperial propaganda and almost no contact with the outside world, that explains a lot about how they behaved in this war
Sure, the dedication could be attributed to political correctness, but I choose to view it as an attempt to remind the audience that Japan is no longer our enemy, as a poorly implemented attempt to curb the expansion of hatred. I figured it was more a tribute to their bravery than any moral judgement. You can be a total peice of shit but still be admirably brave. That said, I was definitely a bit uncomfortable seeing it there. Still not sure how I feel about it - but I don't have any personal connection to that part of history.
@@Shadlezz well that’s what he was at the time. Though I did think it was pretty funny that he was a “student” as if he was a student in the modern era.
You won me over instantly by pointing out how horrendous the Japanese were during WW2. Their atrocities caused my grandpa to hate them to the day he died. They were awful people
I highly recommend to anyone who is interested in the Battle of Midway to watch Montemeyor's documentaries on the subject on RUclips, some of the most well-produced documentaries of all time.
those documentarys were the only reason I watched midway because I thought they would be Hollywood crap but decided to watch them anyway, also the planes imo were moving to fast
The 1976 Movie "Midway" covers things from the Yorktown and Admiral Frank Fletcher's Perspective, if Roland Emmerich did his homework, he probably decided to make this movie from Spruance and the Enterprises point of view.
I gotta say this review is not just freaking AMAZING! but seeing how far you've gotten in editing and story telling is just such a joy! keep up this AMAZING work that even proffesional tv strugles to keep up with!
Actually, Waldren's VT8 disobeyed orders and headed off on its own. Look up "the flight to nowhere" during the Battle of Midway. Hornet's air group was misdirected and flew off into empty ocean. They ended up contributing nothing to the battle.
It makes the real Battle of Midway even more amazing when one realises that, thanks to the 'flight to nowhere', it was actually two US carriers vs four Japanese, rather than 3 v 4...
@@jamesmcinerney2882 But they also had Midway itsself as an unsinkable airfield. The US outnumbered the Japanese in the number of planes available in this battle
@@7thdivision, certainly very true. However, the Midway-based aircraft didn't make much of a direct contribution to sinking anything, though their presence certainly did help prevent the Kidō Butai launching an earlier strike at the US carriers and helped wear down the Japanese CAP.
This is got to be one of the most underrated war movies of all time. Caught me by surprise and appreciate it even more knowing how historically accurate it is. Bravo!
I appreciated it too. I'm glad that it did better than people expected at the box office as well. The critics hated it, predictably. But it was a pleasant surprise for me. I wanted a bit more, but I was satisfied. People hate on it for stupid reasons. Like he says in the video, its hammy style is very reminiscent of war movies from the 50s and 60s. So I didn't mind that.
The "B-17s" at 35:20 are B-26s. The movie has it right; B-26s did attack as shown. It's Nick's narration that is in error. P.S. On further reflection, the B-26s attacked at low level to drop torpedoes. So perhaps those B-26s flying at--what? 2,000 feet or so?--are supposed to be representing what the B-17s did at high altitude.
The B-26s were actually equipped for torpedo runs, not bombing runs. The B-17s arrived over an hour later but still participated in the assault on the carriers with the effect described in the video.
Thank you especially for the last part. I am all about peace and making peace with our former enemies. But peace cannot be built by forgetting or distorting history. Cruelty and war crimes must be remembered both to honor the memory of victims and to maintain the truth about events. If we keep forgetting these than one day it will be resurfaced in the worst moment of animosity. To learn from history we need to be able to swallow it whole - especially in the peace time when nations and countries have the capacity to deal with it and work it through. I've been observing a tendency in the internet at least for people, at least from the Anglo-American circle to tend to comment WW2 events in the spirit of "war is hell" and "all have suffered equally". While individual combat experiences of soldiers on various fronts are very similar or in the essence the same, what some of these soldiers did to civilians or POW's and what their governments stood for was entirely different. And we owe it to ourselves to keep these differences in mind because these are the differences for which our grandfathers fought for, that's what made their war more meaningful and just. Lets not forget it of fear that the other side will feel hurt: it's not our fault that their great grandfathers took this or other way or did this or that and it's a burden they left for their grandchildren to accept and live with and deal with. While we make friends with our former enemies, lets keep making friends but remember history as it was. We owe it to the victims and we owe it to the good, healthy relations between nations of today because only relations built on truth - that good, positive and that bitter and painful and for one side also shameful can lead to the healthy relationship. I don't mean reminding Japanese or Germans on every occasion about the wrongdoings of their great grandfathers in history or to lecture them with every chance. Only just keeping it within proportion when the history for some reason - like a movie is being discussed and simply to stick to the truth as it was. And avoid such things as morally equaling both sides for the sake of today's relations. Mature, long standing relations can handle the bitter truth and move on.
The Yorktown's fire crews deserve two medals of honor all around for saving the Pacific war effort twice in the same year.
Twice in the same day.
Seriously, that's always been one of my favorite little key moments of the battle, I get why they couldn't show it..but it's so badass!
Repairing it so fast like goddamn cyborgs like that and taking a second hit for the fleet haha
It's like that, plus Rocheforts codebreaking, plus McClusky deciding to keep searching and happening upon the undefended fleet, best being a total boss, so many factors turned it around
The navy did war games a lot post war recreating the midway scenario and every time the US lost
Just shows how you can't account for everything, a blend of skill, luck, and the bravery of those first 4-5 waves of planes that got completely annihilated but bought time & caused all the chaos with the kido butais rearming and not being able to take in the cap
Also, really loved that scene at 3:05 where they hear where the fleet is coming from hahaha..Nagumos arrogant ass is so taken aback, and that Jr officer he yelled at for doing exactly that in the war game is standing there like fuuuuckk as he gives him that little glance.. hahahah
Also what's kind of hilarious is before Midway, Tojo was so cocky from the victories he'd written up demands for the apparent obvious eminent American surrender haha..
Where he'd demand India, Washington state, Alaska, Hawaii, and like most of south america hahahaha
Like..sure buddy.
One thing to note about the Yorktown is that the ship was attacked by two separate air attacks... but survived both times. It wasn't a few days later that the American found the ship and try to tow it back to Hawaii for repairs... thinking it was savable and it was. It was until a Japanese submarine found them towing it back to Hawaii and finally sank it along with the USS Hammann.
The author of "The Rape of Nanking" committed suicide several years after the book was published. During the book's research, she was traumatized by the pictures and horror of Japanese war crimes. Then, she frequently had nightmares. She told her family that never waking up was the only way to eliminate the fear and pain.
Jesus Christ, that poor woman.
Iris Chang's work did a lot to help bring acknowledgment of the abuses committed by the Japanese military in China worldwide. There's a statue dedicated to her in the Nanjing Massacre museum. If you ever visit Nanjing (which is an amazing city) I'd recommend going to the museum. It's really well crafted and has some of the best English language support for a museum I've been to in China. However, it can be difficult to experience due to the horrific nature of the topic.
I’ve heard this story I can’t remember that poor woman’s name.
I read just a little of that book and put it down. It’s definitely not something you can forget
....& if that was bad, read about the doings of Unit 731...Nanking was uncontrolled savagery, 731's was controlled, laboratory savagery....😢
I would love to see you reviewing “Downfall“ with Bruno Gans as Adolf Hitler
I second this!
I don't know why, but I read it as Bruno mars.
Yes. It would be awesome to see another non Language accurate movie. I think the last one he did was Apocolypto.
fegelein would fuck it up somehow
🙌
The last segment can't be any more true.
You know you're bad when even the Germans think you should take a chill pill.
People keep bringing up the Germans thought even the Japanese were crazy but when did that actually happen?
@@senseishu937 The German embassy wasn't too happy about Nanking, but I think most of this sentiment came from John Rabe.
The last part ruined the video showing his bias towards WW2, typical ignorant american, he's clearly not an historian.
@@ethanwhitehead2085 true, and that is one off the rare instance that a swastika is used for good...and saved lives.
@@ethanwhitehead2085 On the other hand, the Japanese saved a whole lot of Jews by inviting them to Shanghai. For some reason it also seems they supported the Polish government-in-exile.
The last segment is very important. It is frustrating to see that most people are unaware of what horrors the IJN and IJA actually committed.
Not only that, it's only recently that Japanese curriculum is lessening the censorship and whitewashing of what they've taught about their own conduct in WW2.
Because of it's shameful nature, there's still resistance.
its something theyve never apologized for either. Shameful
@Raymond Tremblay Phillippines, actually
And yes, I just did a quick google research and lo and behold
Looks like the IJN is just as rotten as the IJA, I'm really trying to look for ways they aren't inhuman scum but damn, it's hard
@@JimBrodie That's something I have to give credit to modern Germany for, they don't deny their past history or try to cover it up.
@@thedamntrain3467 both did warcrimes, but one did it with unholy passion
As much as I love Japanese culture, I appreciate you calling out the part about the Imperial Japanese being givin the same honors as the American servicemen. I've never understood why Imperial Japan was given such leeway after the war compared to the Nazi's of Germany.
Because we nuked them. That gives them two passes: 1) keep your emperor, 2) rebuild your navy so long as we stay friends.
@@Tom-bm2kt also the Soviet Union was nearby and Japan wasn’t exactly on good terms with them so the enemy of my enemy is my friend
@@Starwarroir yeah Stalin got away with it lightly as well, due to fighting the Nazis. I think the whole world felt it was tired of war at the time and just wanted and end to it.
Although that feeling didn't last long
Also the Japanese pretty much said without keeping the emperor they wouldn't surrender, and no one wanted an invasion of Japan the allied death toll alone was estimated to be over a million men.
@@slyaspie4934 yes they were preparing to train teenager to go into gorilla warfare mode. Attacking with sharpen bamboo. Basically almost no surrender it’s crazy
@@Starwarroir yeah there's a quote from a marine that first landed on the Japanese beach after the surrender (I think it was Tokyo) but he literally describes how everywhere was gun emplacements, pill boxes, bunkers and trenches all with overlapping arch of fire, it would've been absolutely hell on earth had the invasion gone through, although to be fair the whole Pacific theatre was hell in paradise
One big historical inaccuracy of the film is that the characters should have been chain-smoking in every scene.
The big thing I can't get over, and the reason I have yet to even see the film, was the totally inaccurate way the aircraft were flown. Dive bombers pull out at 1500 ft- most daring might go to 1000 ft. Certainly not low enough to scrape the ocean with a wing. Nor would they dive in such numbers. That's a good way to get caught in the shrapnel of your buddies bomb. And don't get me started on the Dauntless doing a hammerhead stall!
Lol the anti smoker company you can thank for that
Not really,i mean maybe in some scenes but definitely not the pilot’s as smoking affects the body at altitudes causing stuff like hypoxia
@@donwillman4587 forgive me if I’m wrong I know some of it would have been played out for dramatic effect in the film however wouldn’t the inexperience of the pilots be a factor to an incorrect dive? As mentioned in the clip
@@nadolfc8008 No, because they know that the bombs fragments and explosive force will get you if you if you are to low. Frag pattern from a 1,500 lbs would be about 200-300 metres so about 600-930 feet, horizontally and about 200m/600 feet vertically.
Nevermind that one asinine scene, where the pilot drops the bomb from basically horizontal attitude, if it doesn't go off it would more likely skip off the deck than penetrate as shown in the movie.
As low as the pullout was in the movie his own bomb would've killed him.
Thank you for pointing out how savage and brutal the Japanese were in WWII and how it’s gotten completely washed away in many people’s minds. It’s insane. In some ways, the Japanese were more sadistic than the Germans and most people have no idea.
The scarey part is bushido was pretty much at the core of
military training, to a man.
Unit 731 tells you everything you need to know about the mentality they had
@@lilmoeszyslak4810 bingo. Unit 731. Pure evil.
@@lilmoeszyslak4810 As a moral case study, Unit 731 has always fascinated me. In a similar manner to research performed at concentration camps, data gathered at 731 facilities was (and arguably still is) crucial in the development of the medical field.
Emmet Till.
I don't know why this film got so much hate from reviewers at the time.
It's pretty good, a little bit embellishing but still pretty good :)
It is relatively "accurate" for a movie but the acting was unbelievably corny.
I loved this movie for it's historical accuracy
@@cattledog901 It’s a historically accurate movie(no need for the quotations) and it had great battle scenes. That’s all that matters to me honestly.
Too much CGI, bad acting, overbearing music, quite ridiculous setpieces... Just compare the scene of the attack on Midway atoll with the original John Ford movies, it's night and day.
@@cattledog901 Also poor CGI. Pearl Harbor sets the standard very high for a 20 year old movie.
Side note to @History Buffs: the wargame scene is actually close to accurate. The account comes from the memoirs of Admiral Ugaki, who was the moderator of the war game. The movie transcribes it more or less from Ugaki’s account. The actual war game is condensed for the movie, and Yamamoto wasn’t involved. But the basis of the scene is historical fact.
And thank you for pointing out the Japanese war crimes.
By your name, Sir, I'm presuming you to be Vietnamese. As a Malaysian, I'd just like to tell you that we too, remember what the Japanese had done to Malaya during that time. I fully agree that the war crimes must be highlighted and remembered for all time.
Edit: And yes, you're right about the war game as well. I also know about that war game and had wanted to comment about it, but you beat me to it. :)
So both Japan and Germany accurately predicted their downfall with wargaming but proceeded to go ahead anyway? Interesting.
There's two other possibilities though - one is that the "American" admiral in the games had engaged in what today we would consider metagaming, a failure to separate player knowledge from character knowledge.
The other is that it was silly to end the test with the latter half of the battle unfought, so they added a carrier back to that to make it a reasonable situation to game out.
@Jens Nobel Well put. I know of course that they didn't *exactly* predict their downfall. But my comment was more in a joking manner (while containing the kernel of truth) and you can't exactly write a joke in you extend it with a detailed explanation.
So i served in US Navy as a Aviation Machinist Mate and that story about AMM3 Bruno Gaido, i was completely surprised that they actually put that in the film... The Navy vet in me got so emotional because he is a hero in our community of Aviation Machinist mates
Thank you for your service!
Incredible
Yikes, my grandpa was a navy machinist aboard the Princeton (the CV-37, not the one that sank at Leyte Gulf). I don't know if he worked on planes or in the engine room but considering he worked in the pit crew of a drag race I think he may have worked on planes.
Gaido's bravery and shipboard promotion from Halsey occurred in February -- not at Midway, FYI. In fact, Halsey was not even at Midway. History Buffs does not mention this; don't know if the movie does.
@@jeffreyjohnson3320 The movie made it clear that Halsey was in the hospital due to shingles during Midway.
My grandmother kept telling the story of the Japanese invasion in the Philippines whilst carrying my two uncles who were still babies at the time. They had to cover their faces with charcoal residue and cover their breasts the best they can to avoid being raped and killed while traveling province to province undetected in the forests. Meanwhile, my grandfather was back in Bataan fighting and defending the island, unknowing if he was alive or dead, he survived the war btw. God, I could only imagine how horrifying it was at the time for our grandparents.
My good friend of mine is Filipino her grandpa was a Filipino resistance fighter during WWII and showed us pictures of Japanese troops catching babies on their bayonets for fun. Crazy how my great grandpa fought the Japanese now my cousin and I both have a Japanese wife and family it's like the Japanese people back then were aliens compared to how they are today.
@rc59191 Yeah, the imperial japanese are nothing compared to how modern japanese are.
Filthy actions!!
@@rc59191 The common people of Japan are so peace-loving because they don't want to see Japan return to that sort of madness again. That's why there's protests whenever Japan starts doing stuff that seems imperialistic and warmongering, such as force build ups. But that doesn't mean every Japanese thinks that way, and many don't know the full scope of the war crimes committed.
Our great grandfather's were getting after it with machetes and 45. Auto pistols in the middle of the night.
Roland Emmerich after watching History Buffs' previous videos: "I'll show him!" *shakes fist*
As a godzilla fan and a history buff
I am double amazed by how much he improved that it hurts that i wanna watch this
@@johnsouto5221, such as?
@@ELCADAROSA 10000 BC
@@johnsouto5221 I'd say rather than several major mistakes, he made a few small choices in order to facilitate the story. Craig Symonds pointed some of these out on the 'Based on a True Story' podcast. According to him, if Emmerich told everything EXACTLY the way it was, a 100% accurate movie of Midway would be "a fifty hour movie", and that wouldn't be a commercially viable product. In Symonds' opinion, he thought Emmerich did a very good and pretty accurate job. If it's good enough for him, it's good enough for me.
Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?
“People in western countries are naive to what the Japanese did” except the Anzacs, the Australians and New Zealanders very much remember the atrocities, growing up my grandparents still spoke about what happened to their parents, uncles and aunties, their friends parents etc.
in the uk my great uncle wouldn't have a Japanese car but my parents generation don't seem as agreeved
Australian here; I'd say it's still pretty right.
Back in my public schooling, I took history whenever I had the chance. Even when we were focusing on WW2, the only Japanese atrocity I was able to name was Nanking. Our curriculum barely had any focus on the pacific theatre.
Most of what I know about Japanese atrocities today has been from my own research. I really wish it was taught a lot more in public schooling.
@@abloodraven3856 And if memory serves me correctly, didn't they allow Japanese lessons in schools to stop any sort of animosity? I'm from public too, and I remember in Mordern History, we went over how much Hitler was a cunt and all that jazz. But no mention of Stalin, Mao, Mussolini (Lol what else to say), and next to fuck all about Japanese, apart from Kokoda, bombing of Darwin and a ships last stand. And that only lasted until the school changed it from Modern History to Law... None of my classmates were happy with it. Fuck public schools.
I am not totally disagreeing with your comment, however, our family lost a great uncle who was in the coastal artillery, trapped in the Philippines in 1941. So, just saying it was not only the Anzac who suffered, but the Americans and the Dutch as well.
Unit 731 will make you sick with how terrible it was. The Japanese were arguably worse than the Nazis by a wide margin.
I love how the ship Yorktown is such an amazing character all on her own
gets nearly sunk, her crew amazingly saves her, rebuilt in beyond record time for the decisive battle, nearly gets sunk again during said battle but is miraculously saved yet again, to the point where when she gets hit for the third and final time the Japanese don't even realize it was the same carrier they thought had already been sunk. Then if that wasn't enough even the surviving pilots kept flying from other ships.
One of my favorite stories from the Pacific war, her crew were mad-lads of the highest caliber
Throwing this in but in the game Azur Lane a naval WW2 game with cute animated girls as the realistic ships here is Yorktown's first skill called Vengeance
Upon taking damage: launches a SBD Dauntless squadron (damage is based on skill level); has a cooldown of 20 seconds. Once per battle, when Health falls below 20%: recovers 15% (25%) of max Health.
Thought you might appreciate that because Yorktown was the ship and crew that never quit.Like you said the ship went down but the surviving pilots kept flying sorties.Also RIP to the destroyer Hammann that had no chance hooked to the side of the Yorktown for repairs when taking one of the 4 torpedo fired at Yorktown.
80 of Hammann's crew died the ship was split in half like a log.
It's deeply appropriate that such a stalwart ship is named after the decisive battle of the American Revolution, where the British Surrender legitimized America's independence from England!
And as a further point, Yorktown didn't even get sunk by the bombers and torpedoes. She was sunk the following morning by a submarine.
My great Grandpa was On the USS Yorktown
Which was why Gene Roddenberry originally wanted to name the starship in "Star Trek" after the Yorktown.
9:05 I think it’s worth mentioning that the bombing groups from Enterprise and Yorktown struck the Japanese together by pure chance, having no communications with each other, having been launched at different times, and having taken vastly different paths
American chaos ruled the day. Sheer dumb luck combined with pure bravery.
There was luck, but frankly the Americans threw the dice so many times that eventually they were bound to get lucky. They put themselves in the position to do so. The Japanese, on the other hand, had ignored the adage that "the enemy rarely goes along with your plans."
The best rundown of the Battle of Midway I've seen is here on RUclips. Look up "The Battle of Midway 1942: Told from the Japanese Perspective" by Montemayor. He lays out the timeline step by step of how the battle progressed along with photographic evidence to back up the illustrations. Two points: the flak they show in the movie Midway here is a bit too thick. The Japanese navy had two flaws that had significance in the battle. One was that their anti-aircraft fire was quite weak compared to US ships, so they relied a lot more on CAP cover, meaning the carriers really had to be their own defense. Second, and really significant for this and other battles is the US Navy was far better at damage control, which is why the Yorktown was so stubbornly hard to kill, even drawing off an entire enemy torpedo bomber attack because they saw a carrier that wasn't on fire and was making good headway and assumed it must be the Hornet or Enterprise.
The major issue is the Kido Butai, for all it's strength, was not up to the huge task it had to undertake. It was asked to both keep pounding Midway and engage American carriers as they would supposedly be rushing into the area, and it was simply too much to ask, especially since they were running far ahead of Yamamoto's surface fleet and the landing ships and the American carriers were already in the area. The feint to the Aleutians was essentially a waste. They were establishing a worthless beachhead for a base of no operational use, taking away two escort carriers that could have reinforced the Midway operation and allowed the fleet carriers more time to ready the offensive strikes instead of servicing the CAP. Imagine the dilemma for the Americans if the surface fleet had been with the carriers and steamed on to pound Midway around noon using the Yamato's 18 inch guns, leaving the carriers to fly CAP and keep the strike planes ready for the American carriers. Frankly, the Japanese plan was tactically bad, the naval equivalent of putting the artillery out in front of the tank corps.
And the Hornet's dive bombers didn't even find the target fleet. Went off out into empty space.
@@PxThucydides ....the "flight to nowhere"....
I am a Filipino. Our country got it really bad, with many of our losses in the war thanks to torture, starvation and the rape of our homeland. It's great to see people call out the evils of Imperial Japan.
I have no hate for the modern Japanese people. I hate their government for denying that these things happened.
As a chinese guy, who loves Japanese culture, I get it.
Good to see a fellow Filipino history buff. Lets fill the gap on our history with the history of our neighbors.
I dont think they deny it.... they just refuse to talk about it. Just as bad I suppose.
My friends grandpa was a Filipino resistance fighter during the occupation. I saw the pictures of Japanese Soldiers murdering babies with their bayonets like it was a game. I'll never understand how people could do that to a baby they deserved a third nuke just for that.
@@fahs The problem is that they seem to depict the Japanese as the victim, not just refuse to talk about it.
Nick: "Thanks for your patience."
Everyone: "Thanks for making the waits worth it."
Same with Oversimplified
what about the first midway and the enterprise was not that close to pearl during the attack
"B17 gets hit"
*Is clearly a B 26 in the movie, which is historically accurate*
Um...
It isn't that historically accurate. Yeah, the main parts are right, but for example the performance of the Dauntless is overrated and many action-scenes are just silly.
Yeah It's very obvious it is, its possible that it really was a B-17 but they didn't have the CGI for any but I think people just call any American bomber B-17
@@commandervex1626 The B-17s bombed high. Four B-26s did torp runs. Two survived. One of the two shot down tried to ram a carrier.
Dude is elderly and can misremember shit
Yeah that bugged the hell out of me through this whole video.
@@MaxwellAerialPhotography That he got two numbers mixed up in his script once?
I mean sure it's wrong but it's clearly just human error.
My grandfather served in the Pacific, and two other wars, but he died with hatred in his heart towards the Japanese. I always wondered how a man could have so much hate, but the more I learn, the more I understand.
We did a lot of nasty things in our history, but Imperial Japan was far, far worse. I've been called a "Western chauvinist" for having nothing but contempt and scorn for those who commit the war crimes Imperial Japan did. To which I answer "GODDAMN RIGHT!" Yes, I think I'm better than anyone who massacres civilians for fun.
Dad was in the philippines in 45 and at Manilla, he hated the Japanese till the day he died.
Once, I followed a friend of mine to visit her great-grandfather in a nursing home, who fought in the Pacific during WWII. Before we left, he told her that he never wanted a Japanese at his funeral.
Until you know entirely what a person has gone through, you can never know the reasons for the hate they hold...
My grandpa was a Colonel flying B17's in the Pacific, exactly the same here. He was a gentleman, but it clearly pained him to hold his tongue if the nation/culture of Japan came up in conversation.
"If you still need convincing you can Google them yourself." Yeah I will spare my stomach thank you very much.
Very dark hearing about this I had no clue they imperial army was this insane. so far as to treat your own like dirt so they fight like dogs
@@logie3020 yes a homie who thinks like me
@@logie3020 its so much worse then shown in this video. the japanese killed over 20 million chinese, most civilian. Chinese cities had just as many deaths as entire countries and empires around the world. let that sink in.
I did not need convincing but i googled it anyway. Holy shit.... its horrific and appalling what the imperial Japanese empire did to POWs and civilians.
Don't do that man, i do it when i was 16, was scarred, and hated every imperial japanese that fought in WW2.
This is like a riveting audio book with high quality visual references. After seeing this I can't imagine how the movie will hold up after I buy it.
I did Nott expect to see you here
The movie was great. I’ve glad he made this video. After watching the movie 4 times I went down the RUclips rabbit hole about midway. So glad this finally showed up!
You have some great content, too.
It’s great still
Exactly my thoughts. An hour of history then a few moments to say how accurate the film is. That's all I wanted to know! Should have been said upfront not make a documentary about the Pacific conflict and war crimes. LoL
as a malaysian, i'm really greatfull for the mention of japanese warcrime in south east asia at the end. I hold no grudge against modern day japan, but it's a history which long ignore in western perspective because of the cold war after ww2 .
I would like to say thanks again， for the hard work and empathy put in to the video, and sorry for my poor english .
I don't hold a grudge against modern Germany for the atrocities the Nazis committed either. But yes, what Imperial Japan did should be just as well known as what the Nazis did.
9000 weh
Your English is fine...much better than my Malay :)
It was not ignored in the west. My dad was one of millions of westerners that despised the Japanese for the atrocities they committed to his dying day. There were also many movies and TV shows that let people know of Japanese cruelty, depravity and barbarism. But these days, you just to let it go. Forgive and forget. Modern Japan is not the same as the Japan of the WWII era.
The same with the philippines
It is difficult to overstate how incredibly well done this- and your other pieces- are.
"Brave men, We are fortunate they have such bad planes" A wise observation by the Admiral.
They also had bad tactics. Brave men can make bad planes work if they have good tactics. The converse is also true, brave men in good planes will struggle if their tactics are bad. The survivors learned and learned quickly. Upgrading to Avengers from Devastators also helped.
TBD DEVASTATORS were America's answer to England's Fairy Swordfish.
It wasn't just the planes - it was even more so the torpedos and not just because they often were duds. The Mark XIII torpedo had a maximum speed of only 33 knots. The newer japanese carriers (Hiryu, Soryu and the Shokakus) could make 34 knots and simply outrun it. And even against the slowest carrier (Kaga with 28 knots) a hit was practically impossible if you were attacking from the rear. And of course any japanese carrier under attack by torpedo-bombers turned away from the attacking planes. For comparison: the japanese type 91 torpedo had a speed of 42 knots, the british Mark XII 40 knots .
@@katey1dog How dare you demean the Swordfish in such a way
@@KarbonKopy I will say the Devastator flew 100 mph faster than the Swordfish. Don't know if that makes a difference.
I'm surprised that you didn't point out the fact that the movie acknowledged John Ford's presence at the battle and his insistence for his crew to keep filming.
That's a neat detail but the movie didn't properly acknowledge a bunch of important things.
@@jimig.688 it has enough in it already, the rest is what history enthusiasts pick up on.
@@PhsykoOmen You're right actually but at least the flight to nowhere would've been worth a scene.
So that’s accurate? He was there filming?
@@anthtan Yes!!
"Brave men. We are fortunate they have such bad planes."
Nice to see that man respecting his opponent and that if their aircraft were of similar ability, he would be in a much worse position.
I believe the actual quote was made by Japanese Admiral Chuinchi Nagumo who stated “They sacrifice themselves like Samurai, theses Americans”
@@jafr99999 Not sure if this was actually said by Admiral Nagumo, but it's a great line from the 1976 Midway film.
of course no american pilot going down would aim for a ship....
Now, the whole world knows. Back then, we were cutting our teeth as a nation.. ive seen a lot of heroes out there, in my time. Respect to those who fought superior armies, yet won..
To those before us, to those amongst us and those yet to come. Cheers, boys! 🇺🇲
Those better planes came out in droves, with well trained pilots and he got his worse position.
Your ending about Japanese brutality are right on. The late PM of Singapore Lee Kuan yew witnessed all these brutality , same as my grandparents did in Singapore and Malaya
Glad he’s covering this. I thought the movie was surprisingly well done. Shout out to Cynical Historian for also covering this!
A hell of lot better then Pearl Harbor
@@dagreatcow not the Doolittle Raid?
Seriously there are times Nick (History Buffs) and Cypher (the Cynical Historian) should really do a collaboration together on a historical movie.
Idk, the actual script and movie is pretty shit, and unless ur a history buff of a child it leaves the viewer confused and bored
I lost count how many times I've seen Midway.
And planning to see it tomorrow again.
The historical, military, and even plain human interaction is what makes this a gem just awesome and a future fans-phenomena! (
The level of ferocity and destruction during the battle of Manila was so intense that it was oftentimes coined as the "Asian Stalingrad".
Wasn't it Asian Warsaw
Asian Stalingrad being the Battle of Shanghai
@@rekt_xington9027 Maybe not. Like Stalingrad, Manila saw brutal street fighting. Shanghai (and of course Nanjing) were more like unfenced Auschwitz. Little resistance and lots of slaughter by the invader.
@@adampilot8275 No, Shanghai was Asian Stalingrad. The fighting lasted for 3 months and involved most of the ROC's elite german-trained and equipped troops. It was a meat grinder that resulted in around 50-90k Japanese dead and around 187k Chinese dead. But for Americans, the war started with Pearl Harbor, so this battle doesn't count. Neither did the Battle of Wuhan, which saw around 30k-200k Japanese dead and 254k Chinese dead and lasted for 4 months.
The reason why Manila (1 month for 17k dead in total, not counting civilians) is bandied around as the bloodiest urban fighting in WW2 is because it suited MacArthur's propaganda team and made Stilwell look good in the face of an "incompetent" ROC. This is the problem with American propaganda... China constantly gets downplayed and ignored.
@@ruedelta Agreed. That is why I called Shanghai an Auschwitz without fencing and gates. The slaughter in China was truly off scale and many see the start of the Pacific War as Pearl Harbour without taking the invasion of China into account. I never realized Wuhan was so costly though. Thanks for the input.
@@ruedelta no offense, but China only survived the Japanese onslaught was because of their immense geographic size and population.
The Chinese front was the second deadliest front of WWII, but unlike the Eastern Front (which saw similar casualties numbers for both sides) the Chinese front was quite one sided in terms of casualties with China having way higher casualties than Japan (10 million for China vs. 3 million for Japan). Did the Chinese score some military victories, most definitely, but China could not have defeated Japan on its own.
Love the ending commentary - IJN and IJA committed many atrocities Asian people still remember to this date.
Very true. It is a shame that the Japanese government still doesn’t fully acknowledge the atrocities their military committed during the war.
That doesn't mean that their sailors shouldn't have this film partially dedicated to them. Both sides showcased extreme levels of bravery that you or I will never match. Honor the dead, regardless of the context. Recognizing valor isn't apologism.
@@TMAC53 I mean neither the USA but we ain't gonna talk about that
@@seankaneshiro2032 I mean... U Right
Several of my family members in the Philippines were murdered by the Japanese during world war 2, including my uncle who was only 13 years old, my grandmother’s sister who was in her 20’s, and my great grandmother.
As my father-in-law was on the USS Oklahoma on Dec 7th and my father was in the ETO from Normandy to the Bulge, your comments at the end of the video couldn't be more TRUE, as bad as the Nazis were, the Japanese atrocities are at least as horrific, if not more so. THANK YOU for shedding some light on what has been largely ignored by the historical media in the 80 years since. You are 1000% correct in your reporting!
The Axis in WW2 doing so many War Crimes that it's impossible to even remember all of them
Its undeniable that the Axis Powers commited more war-crimes, but we cannot dismiss those commited by the Allies, especially at the Sicily Invasion and the cominterns treatment of POWs.
@@hp7233 True No one should be excused for their warcrimes
@@hp7233 And don't forget that Soviets were also technically allied and commited many war crimes, especially in Poland
@@hp7233 Comparing Axis war crimes to Allied war crimes is like comparing someone getting their arm chopped off by the Mexican Cartel to a person getting stung by a wasp
Nazi Germany executed 6 million Jews. The Japanese executed 250,000 Chinesein ONE incident and 100,000 Phillipinos in one incident. I challengeyou to find a single incident where US forces killed 10,000 or 1000 innocents for simple retaliation or wanton slaughter. You may find stories of isolated cases where a dozen or a few hundred may have been killed, but to say US war crimes were just as bad as Axis or Russian war crimes is foolish and just plain wrong.
The thing with Doolittle saying they’re the first enemy to hit the home islands likely falls under the common man test. Would the common man of that era have known about the mongol invasions?
I agree, although Doolittle (a Lieutenant Colonel with a Doctorate from the MIT) hardly counts as common man. Still plausible that he wasn't that educated in Asian history though, who knows
@@PBL-50 well common as a representative of his demographic
@@PBL-50 well a lot of history taught in America is just western civilization. You get some of Chinese history in early world history, but much of Asian history was and still is not common teaching in American schools.
@@PBL-50 Yeah, but his education at both Berkeley and MIT was in Aeronautics and Engineering, not likely a big focus on the humanities. Maybe if he had gone to the Point he would have had a bit more military history.
Even if he knew it was BS, it was still encouraging to hear. Thats what he was going for.
I figured the common man(the men he was talking to) more than likely wouldn't know that, or probably wouldn't even cared.
You see, alot of those guys came out the great depression. So a accurate education on world history would probably be at a bare minimum if any at all.
That generations value system is not at all like it is today. So really the only way to know something like that was if that person actively pursued it on their own. I suspect they were very few and very far in between. That went for most countries in that time period.
About this strikingly accurate prediction of the battle during the japanese war games - another such a thing had happened in France before the war. General Pretelat was visiting the border in the Ardennes sector and he saw how weakly it was defended. He predicted that IT would take Germans 60 hours to reach the Sedan. Turned out, he was off only by 3 hours when IT really happened.
Terror man...🏋️😅hahaha🙄
The most strikingly accurate prediction happened in 1919, when French Marshal Ferdinand Foch commented on the Peace Treaty of Versailles: “This is not a peace. It is an armistice for 20 years.“ As this is a quote taken from the memoirs of French Prime Minister Paul Reynaud, we only know that Foch said this shortly after the signing of the treaty. Thus Foch was off probably only by a month or two.
@@christophneuschaeffer7489 Interesting, though I doubt anyone during the signing of treaty of Versailles saw it as a peace treaty, rather merely halting the revenge of the Germans
@@christophneuschaeffer7489 Bismarck has been attributed to saying some damned thing in the balkans would start a great war, but I couldn't find whether that was around 1878 or 1888 or the maybe more famous '20 years after my death'.
@Max Power Nah, you get it wrong - Maginot Line served its purpose, it's everything else that had failed. The main purpose of the Maginot Line was to divert the main enemy thrust away from the fortifications of the Maginot Line. It succeeded. Germans had attacked north of the Maginot Line, something French had excepted, but failed to take advantage of. Read about Dyle-Breda Plan.
the fact that last segment was even said is terrific. I'm so glad this video wasn't shot down and people are still able to see beautiful video once again you've knocked it out of the park.
I just finished HBO's "The Pacific". Holy hell was it intense and moving. It'd be amazing if History Buffs did this series.
Have you watched Band of Brothers?
@@M.R.BrickFilms personally, i think the pacific is better
So I should watch "Pacific?"
Both are well done and keep to the truth. Enjoyed both
@@ALL_that_ENDS whenever you have the time, yes. It shows just how harrowing the fighting in the Pacific is could get
26:27 Thank you very much for pointing that out, I live in the Philippines and the scars of the Japanese invasion are still somewhat seen and it was offensive for me as one of my great grandfathers died fighting the Japanese near Manila with the Americans. Such dark times
May he Rest In Peace. I have family members that dies in the Armenian genocide and I feel your loss.🙏
Thank you for your comment. My Filipina wife and I visited the military cemetery in Makati where thousands of Americans are buried -- the largest overseas American military cemetery, by the way. There are also hundreds of Filipino fighters buried there, too. Greetings from Oregon, USA, from a retired U.S. Navy chief petty officer. Best wishes to you and everyone in the Philippines.
I thank you for you grandfather, My great uncle helped liberate camp Cabanatuan and saw first hand the horror of the Japanese.
@@Gitaxianjack may it never come a day that we have to do what they have done. Lest we forget.
I would love to see you breakdown "Ford vs Ferrari". The movie is great and It's pretty much every car guys favorite story.
And then a Toyota Hilux roller in, all guns firing, absolutely demolishing the Fords and Ferrari’s
This!!!
@@danielnormandeau2673 How is it not a historical movie? It's based on one of the most legendary showdowns in automotive history.
@@SomethingoldenYT yeah but it’s kinda innacurate in a couple of big aspects. They left various lemans races where the gt40s were a faliure out of the movie to fit it into a reasonable amount of time for a movie
@@danielnormandeau2673 it is, though.
Reading the negative reviews of this movie is a pretty hilarious experience. Especially when so many say things along the lines of 'everyone knows this story' when I have met very few people who actually know what happened at midway. As a former sailor I was very impressed with how accurate they did everything and how tight they kept to the historic timeline on that day.
For any interested in a warroom look at this I can't recommend youtube's Montemayor's review of this battle and the precursor battles.
Can’t take film critics serious at all they don’t anything they just like using big words and when it comes to history they are very clueless and ignorant
I feel that way about every documentary on Guadalcanal being about the ground invasion when the vicious month long naval battle is so much more interesting.
@@m0redreadspeaking of Guadalcanal, am I the only one wishing there was a miniseries covering the story of the entire campaign? I mean they fought for 6 months and the campaign was one of the major turning points in the pacific theatre
This version of Midway ,despite it's theatrical license ,was about the MOST ACCURATE to date that I have seen,. I particularly like the part where they showed how the Nautilus "INADVERTENTLY" played such an important roll. Reassuring the pilots as to the possible location of the Japanese Fleet, due to the Japanese destroyer racing back to rejoin the fleet.. Also of great importance was the fact that although the Torpedo Bombers failed to score any real damage ,they brought the fighter cover down ,allowing the Dive Bombers a CLEAR FIELD OF OPERATION.
I recall a older one. From the 70's I think. Been a while since I seen it. But I recall it being rather decent in accuracy.
@Edwin Arnold I watched it, Excellent film. Both in my opinion were excellent pictures, but this one I believe was a little more explanatory than the 70's one.
@Edwin Arnold I wasn't actually commenting on the entire content of the movie. I realize the FILM INDUSTRY dramatizes much of what they produce. The Only part I particularly liked was the POINT they made of the Nautilus's part in the movie. I felt they stuck pretty much to what we know about the battle. Even to the part where the TWO airmen picked up by the Japanese were THROWN OVERBOARD, with weights tied to them. These events as far as we know, REALLY DID HAPPEN.
@Edwin Arnold I've watched the 70's film many times and have always enjoyed it. However, they did feel the need to add a fictional subplot with Charlton Heston's character. It also used a lot of recycled footage from Tora! Tora! Tora!
While I've never seen it confirmed, I've read that John Wayne was originally supposed to play Halsey, not Robert Mitchum. I tend to believe it, because Halsey has a line of dialog to Nimitz that is very reminiscent of a line Fonda's character said to Wayne in Fort Apache.
Fort Apache:
Lt. Col. Thursday: When you command this regiment; and you probably will, command it!
Midway (1976)
Vice Adm. William F. 'Bull' Halsey Jr. : You told me once, Chet. When you're in command, command.
I love how the Yorktown's fire crews changed Japanese strategy on two separate occasions. That's just cool, what heroes.
True, they were not called The Greatest Generation for nothing.
@@garrettsweeney3945 Sad that the latest generations can easily be called the worst generation.
The Japanese flag painted on the deck was actually freshly painted. Ended up being a bright bullseye.
Why did they paint that there, like it’s so stupid. Like why not reinforce that area of the ship that way if a dive bomber hits it they be like oh no, anyway
@@shrek4316 ...
@@shrek4316 Issue is that, A. they paint that there so the Japanese could identify themselves via the Big Red Dot, the rising sun, and it was reinforced, and B. The Japanese wanted their carriers to be fast and maneuverable, which is why the majority of their carriers were lightly armored, so they could have speed more then protection.
I loved the new Midway. I liked the old movie Midway, but it was not as historically accurate. If you haven't yet, do the old Midway.
I always liked Charlton Heston and Henry Fonda movies.
@@GunnyO326 Do you like movies with gladiators?
@@PaladinDusty Yes! And I was in the USAF, so I have seen Grown Men Naked!
I like how historical Midway movie is so unbelievable, a fairly accurate movie is considered too Hollywood
I think another reason Emmerich went the extra mile, is because of his fondness for aircraft and flight.
Go back and look at his filmography, and a majority of them have pilots somewhere in the cast and at least one memorable scene/sequence in the movie that has some sort of aircraft.
Now that you mention it, there is flying in probably all of his movies (aside obviously those before the invention of aircraft).
Although a lot of pilots also die in his movies, so if it weren't for Independence Day and Midway portraying pilots as cool heroes, one could also see that as fear of flying xD
i also think its because he knew if he didn't get this movie right his career would be done for
Emmerich ruined the entire B-26 attack on Kido Butai and absolutely ruined the opportunity to correctly portray an insane attack made by those handfull of US Army Air Forces B-26 crews utilizing an untested torpedo system designed specifically for the B-26 Marauder.....
@@exilestudios9546 he didn't get the movie right on a crap ton of levels.
The "B17" that tries to crash into the carrier seems to be missing a few engines and has its wings in the wrong position (mounted above the fuselage rather than amid). Seems more like a B26.
Yes, it was a b-26 in the movie and in real life. In the real life version of events, the b-26 bombers were actually conducting a torpedo strike.
Exactlly
Was on my way to make that very comment. I kept hearing "B17" but what I was seeing was making my head puff up like an overfilled balloon 🎈 and was about to pop.
@@micahqgecko my observation as well. But even in the commentary by some vets (?) were saying B17 so I was very confused.
It was a B-26 and there were only 4 of them. IIRC 3 were shot down and only 1 returned to Midway, badly shot up. The B26's made torpedo attacks - which they had never trained for or attempted before - and none struck.
well, he're's an inaccuracy, if minor: those planes you're showing when you talk about the B-17's are NOT B-17s. B-17s have four engines. Those appear to b-20 Havocs. or b-26 marauders. Historically, B-17s did attack during midway, but the planes shown are incorrect.
They're B-26 bombers.
The Havoc was the A-20
yeah they are b-26 marauders
On Midway, by 4 June the U.S. Navy had stationed four squadrons of PBYs-31 aircraft in total-for long-range reconnaissance duties, and six brand-new Grumman TBF Avengers from Hornet's VT-8.[36] The Marine Corps stationed 19 Douglas SBD Dauntless, seven F4F-3 Wildcats, 17 Vought SB2U Vindicators, and 21 Brewster F2A Buffalos. The USAAF contributed a squadron of 17 B-17 Flying Fortresses and four Martin B-26 Marauders equipped with torpedoes: in total 126 aircraft. -Wikipedia
This channel has not ever been particularily concerned with the equipment depicted, the focus is more on the events and persons these movies cover.
Thank you for this.
My son is one of Dick Best’s great grandchildren.
I am grateful to learn of Best’s heroic actions this way, since he had passed away before I met my son’s father.
My Grandma survived the Japanese during ww2, and yes we are Filiponos.I even remember from one of her stories, that the Japanese thought that tobaccos were cabbage so they eat them but they taste horrible LOL, sadly she passed away last October 2021. All of her stories will be remembered.
Old people here used to say that when the Allied soldiers arrived in the Mediterranean, someone tried to eat a Cactus's fruit, without removing the thorns 😂 ouch.
And its really hilarious that Japan went on and used propaganda slogans like "Asia for Asians" and then became even more horrible than the Imperial Colonists in the West to the point they would rather work with their Western Imperial Overlords lol
I’m VERY glad that you made a point to criticize the “moral equivalency” between America and Japan. There was no moral equivalency. You can absolutely criticize the United States for a lot of things. You cannot make an argument of moral equivalency in this scenario.
I don't think they meant it as a moral equivalency. I understand why it would make people u comfortable, but I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing to recognize the loss of life on both sides. You could argue that it is what makes us different from the Imperial Japanese.
@LibtardsStillCant SilenceMe10 Perfectly said
I grew up in the 70’s watching black and white war movies on Friday nights and can vouch that hatred for Japan was still alive and well. Although I appreciate and agree with Nick’s sentiment, I think the producers were trying not to reignite hatred from history, which I can get behind. Standing on the deck of the USS Missouri, I heard the story of a Kamikaze pilot who was unsuccessful in trying to damage the ship but who’s body lay on the deck. Her Captain gave him a military funeral to show that we have humanity. I think humanity is why that dedication was worded the way it was.
@LibtardsStillCant SilenceMe10 This was beautifully said and the most profound comment I've read on this.
@@DonnyStanley The dedication at the end is a symptom of American fears of being seen as jingoistic or engaging in exceptionalism. The trouble is that this sometimes slams headlong into the reality that, at certain moments in history, those young soldiers, airmen, sailors, and marines were unambiguously the good guys. Making moral equivalency arguments, essentially, revisionist history that gets picked up by the sort of people who really are trying to erase the history of war crimes.
Without the context of the war crimes, these individuals have an easier time drawing impressionable young people in with the spectacle of fascism, and getting them invested to the extent that they will then go on to defend the indefensible because they like the sharp uniforms, the sleek airplanes, the intimidating battle standards and insignia. Or for that matter, the ceremonial edged weapons, be they daggers with foul inscriptions or ancestral swords pressed into service as instruments of torture.
I love it that woody Harrelson really looked like Nimitz.
I just kept thinking he looked so much like Spencer Tracy.
Initially when I heard he was Nimitz I scoffed but thinking of his blue eyes and had a moment of pause. Eckhard,Quaid and Harrelson all did well looking and acting as their historical counterparts.
@@Geronimo_Jehoshaphat Oh my god I didn't think of that, but he sure does.
@@Geronimo_Jehoshaphat yeah cant unsee.
@@00calvinlee00 Quaid looks nothing like Bull Halsey
Thank you for including the bit at the end. As a history lover and a Korean American, I never learned about the atrocities in Asia during WW2 until my 20s (mostly right after the turn of this century). I didn’t understood the grumbles of my parents (born years after that war) and (especially) my grandparents until I visited a museum in S Korea dedicated to what happened during ww2. Unfortunately, American history gloss over those atrocities and seem to present more of the ones that happened in Europe (which are just as gruesome and justified in keeping those memories alive as well). Just wish more people knew about what happened in Asia as they do in Europe during that time. Sorry for rambling. Thanks for your videos; love movies and love history. Watching these videos do give me some happiness.
If they're still around, talk to your grandparents if they're willing to recount their experience. I learned my grandfather (a doctor) was ordered to treat a Japanese commander for some injury. When he refused, to coerce him they raped his wife's sister and niece in front of him, then killed them. The people who committed that atrocity are long dead, so I don't hold it against modern Japanese. But like the Holocaust, it needs to be remembered.
@@solandri69 hey, yeah, I wish I could. They all died when I was fairly young (and/or stupid) and before I started liking history. Thank you for sharing. That is a crazy story. My parents (maybe learned from older generations) had a bit of a grudge, at least for the government, but I don’t think they still do. I remember asking why and they did explain the history in a way that a young me could understand. When they were done, I could see it in their eyes that they were wondering why they made it personal. It didn’t help that I told them that there were Japanese kids in my class and they seemed cool. I agree; that side of the war doesn’t seem to be touched on as much as the European front.
For a country obsessed with honor, they became the most dishonorable.
Well said.
"Even in defeat my nephew is more honorable then you"
What is even honor? When your in war, and in war men committed unspeakable atrocities
@@Brandonhayhew yeah, but the Japanese Emperial Army praised horrific warcrimes
As Klingons would say, "There is nothing more honorable than victory!"
So great you brought up this regarding war crimes. My ex-wife is Chinese and this lives in Chinese conscience even today. The atrocities were truly awful and it's important that this is emphasized.
My fiancé is from the Philippines. Her grandparents were small children and they would flee into the forest to escape from the Japanese who tried to impale them on bayonets
My grandpa did that as well, after the dutch east indies was taken over, he moved to the city of Soerabaja to escape the japaneese.
@A R Have some respect.
That last segment is spot on. Think of where the world would be if things didn’t go as they did. 👍👍
The Navy really did not want to give Emmerich any help until he said, "I want to tell the story of Dick Best."
After that point, he had all the help he wanted.
is this real?
I expected another "Pearl Harbor" from the trailers. Or at least a heavily embellished series of set pieces that would boil down to "Micheal Bay does WWII" but y'all got me interested in actually seeing it.
The acting is incredibly cheesy in parts but this movie took me by surprise with it's accuracy and ridiculous action scenes.
Its honestly a great movie. Very well paced and doesn't feel as long as it really is. And is a perfect precursor to the Pacific mini series that events start just a month after this movie ends
Well I loathed "Pearl Harbour" with deep and abiding loathing, and I can assure you "Midway" is brilliant
It's a Marvel version of WW2. It's a great looking movie but that's about it's only saving grace. Not as bad as Pearl Harbor but close.
Actually after watching it again it is fairly true to the events. Just don't believe that torpedo bombers could out run 2 zeroes. LOL
It's kind of wild to me how most people know nothing of the Japanese war crimes. This video definitely should be shown in history classes everywhere! Could you do Darkest Hour please! I liked the movie but some movies I liked in the past were "ruined" by your videos lol. Historical accuracy is key fellow History Buffs!
I knew the Japanese had been brutal during the war. Read about some of it in history books on the subject of WWII. The Bataan Death March is well known.
if you have time to check other comment sections, you will be surprised to see some japanese revisionists that made their own history.
It's due to the American Government assisting in covering up most of the war crimes in order to promote Japan as an ally against communism during the Cold War.
I don't know the extent of such, but I imagine it was quite far reaching.
They have replaced history classes with indoctrination. Our youth, with few exceptions are ruined.
the allied forces werent much better, a british destroyer killing a surrendering sub crew.
americans soldieres killing surrendered german soldieres.
impresenment of japaness-amaricans
and not to mention 2 fucking nukes
It’s funny that Roland Emmerich made this great and accurate film, then followed it up with Moonfall
Hey Ben Affleck has his ARGO. Sometimes it just comes together.
@ryankral3175 What bad films has Affleck directed?
@@PatrickOMulliganARGO
I feel like Germany gets by far the most attention when it comes to atrocities committed even though Japan and the Soviets equally committed horrendous crimes.
amen
with this its no wonder there is consipiracy theories about hollywoods intentions too (tho i think most are without a doubt false its just something to think about)
The soviets did not outclass the Nazi Germans in war crimes, its just audacious that they an allied force and only there to expand their absolute control and committing war crimes in such excesses as reprisals, but no, it was not worse, its just that they did it yet are supposed to be on team "good guys" yet only end up the lesser of two evils
@@jessicamason2526 based lol
As did the Americans to be fair, and the Brits lol
@@BennyHarveyBigMan “Equally”. Look it up.
The wargame thing really really did happen. A junior officer acting as the US carrier commander placed his ships roughly where they really would be and caught the Japanese carriers by surprise. It also highlighted the big flaws with the search plan the Japanese had that really did affect them in the battle. But because the Japanese had spent years practicing battles in wargames where their fleets were always handled expertly and the Americans always came in like cows waiting to be slaughtered, the move was declared 'impossible' and the damage to two carriers discounted and then scalred back so all three sunk ships survived.
a failure of imagination. and arrogance. two things that have cursed certain military leaders since the dawn of time.
Oh we all LOVE playing games with those kinds of assholes
If memoir serves me right during the war game there was also a b 17 scored a hit on a Japanese carrier and the umpire ruled it could not happen.
@@noralockley8816 Yep! The Umpire was Yamamoto's chief of staff, Admiral Ukagi and if Ukagi did it, then the order came from Yamamoto.
@@noralockley8816 at the IJN schoolhouse it was common to resurrect ships mid-battle if the loss crippled the battle plan.
After reading serveral books supposedly based on actual Japanese meeting transcriptions, they'd often "re-do" war game scenarios until they came out they way they wanted. No devil's advocates were allowed and any roll of the dice that produced an unwanted result was thrown out as a fluke. As a result, Japanese battle plans heavily depended on things going exactly as planned - when it didn't, they would bungle trying to wing it, freeze or just push on as planned.
Volume VI, Breaking the Bismarcks Barrier by Morrison, p.21, does detail Japanese wargaming that actually occurred. Adm Yokoyama, Naval Attache Washington, after being repatriated in August 1942 acted out the part of the Americans in wargames and retook the Philippines in Oct 1944. A pretty accurate game!. Yokoyama was one of 3 Navy representatives at the surrender (Volume XIV Victory in the Pacific, p. 363, footnote #30). Their play and viewpoints were dismissed by the Japanese Naval General Staff.
Typically Japanese.
And they still do that now.
Their battle plans were also needlessly over-complicated. The Midway operation is a classic example: the Kido Butai attacking Midway, a large force of battleships and a light carrier attacking the Aleutians as a "diversion"... The Aleutians were so far away from Midway that it might as well have been two separate operations against which the US could devote two separate forces. The plan was nuts.
@@elennapointer701 Newer research argues that the Aleutian operation is not a diversion, but rather a horse trade with the Japanese Army to get their support on the Midway operation.
The story/legend of the rigged wargame where the IJN predicted the result of Midway but dismissed it as impossible came from Masatake Okumiya and Mitsuo Fuchida's 1955 book on the battle of Midway. Fuchida lead the first wave of the air attack on Pearl Harbor, and was present at Midway on board the CV Akagi. Both Fuchida and Okumiya were staff officers present at the wargames during the planning of the Midway operation so this was supposedly first-hand account of what happened.
Some later historians argued that Fuchida and Okumiya presented the facts of the wargame but gave it a different interpretation, to made it look like the Fleet HQ were arrogant and ignored warnings, in order to shift blame of the Midway disaster from Yamamoto and themselves.
My guess for the reason he added the Japanese sailors was perhaps the requirement by the Japanese in order to use the Japanese actors for this. The Japanese do honor all their war dead which is why Yasukuni shrine is controversial.
The “They look tasty” part from the Japanese army vet disturbed me....they really were as bad if not worse than the Nazi in the European theater.
Definitely worse than the Wehrmacht
Yeah honestly the fact that he admit's this and his skull wasn't fucking bashed in is infuriating.
Just casually interviewing a horrific war criminal
@@ericgu9036 IDK man, the atrocities committed by the Wehrmacht in Warsaw, Stalingrad, Leningrad and Minsk are pretty bone chilling imo
@@someguy6651 yes, but the Wehrmacht never even was close to the number of civilians and destruction caused by the Japanese.
I don't know if you guys got a different credits but here in the Philippines the end credits were,
"This movie ie dedicated to the defenders of Bataan.
The battle of Bataan stalled the Japanese for 2 months giving the Americans vital time to prepare for Midway."
Thoose were the end credits for us, maybe because during the showing of this film was the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Bataan.
To add to Nick's missed innacuracy, during the attack on Pearl, the torpedoes were comming from the bow, which is innacurate since the torpedo bombers were comming from the sides.
Interesting, I wonder if they did this for more countries (China/Korea/Indonesia/etc)
@@zazo100 I’ll bet they didn’t say the movie was dedicated to Japanese servicemen in those countries because, while operating in those countries, the Imperial Japanese Army made Hitler’s Waffen-SS look like a bunch of schoolboys.
The Chinese release made mention of the brave Chinese guerrillas that hid Doolittle’s men at the cost of 250,000 lives.
If only I knew it, I would hvae watched it in the cinemas. But I missed it somehow.
@@mrthompson3848 It did unfortunately. I watched it in Malaysia.
I really liked Midway movie but they should of given the Yorktown more Recognition.
*Have not *of. Should HAVE.
They wanted to tell a story good for even a clueless audience in less than 3 hours. It would have been confusing if they depicted the flight operations of all the carriers. It might have been perhaps possible, but only just if the entire film depicted only the events from the first sighting of the Japanese fleet, until the I-168 torpedoed the Yorktown. The movie was mostly about the Enterprise bomber crews' contribution to sinking the 4 carriers with selected background.
I loved it too, have you seen the 1976 Midway? I have both Midway movies on DVD and they contain a few historic information about the real battle in 1942.
@@StephenLuke
Really looking forward to Masters of the Air. Tom Hanks and Spielberg nailed Band of Brothers, so I hope they do the story of USAAF 100th Bombardment Group justice as they did for Easy Comp. In BoB.
should have
Thank you very much for both videos, but especially for this last part about the war crimes. War movies should not only about tactics, strategy and sometimes valiant deeds, but also blunt murder and crime.
Even with the inaccuracies this movie was significantly more accurate than Pearl Harbor and Red Tails
I mean one was literally taking history as only background and focused more on romance so that's that
Red tails is an absolute joke as a historical movie
But damn are its action sequences so outlandish you just sit there going “god damn”
@@felicitations3529 Try watching Fly Boys. Every German Pilot had a Red Triplane
just like the Red Baron. Didn't the Red Baron get that name because of his red Triplane?
Red Tails was trash. Watch the original movie instead. The Tuskegee Airmen.
Red Tails was pure Hollywood BS. On D-day, June 4th, 194, there was no Luftwaffe above the beaches, it had been decimated. The Red Tails did not arrive on the European front until late August/early September, 1944. Where did the Luftwaffe planes in the movie come from? Hollywood... no where else. LOL!
When hearing the segment of Japanese Army and Navy war crimes, I can’t help but wonder how Asian nations that endured Japanese Imperial cruelty reacted to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This issue gets very little attention here in the United States
I think overall Asian Nations celebrate the fact that Japan received such a devastating punishment for its long years of atrocities. However, we must also note that the majority of deaths were civilians and the bomb indiscriminately killed civilian targets so whether it is a war crime or not, that is usually decided by the victorious nations.
I think Chinese have mixed feelings as seen in their recent media and history textbooks, they like to say they played a major part in wearing down the IJA and the Communists helped to defeat the Japanese(when in fact all major battles except 1 was fought by the Nationalists). So the Americans were in fact, allied to the Nationalists so the CCP doesn't really like giving credit to the Americans and they still celebrate the holiday "War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression" on Sept 3rd.
Americans like to paint the perspective that they 'ended' the war on their own based on the atomic bombings, however, the internal discussion in Japan shows that the Soviet advance into Manchuria and Korea were just as much of a threat, if not more so, than the Americans. It came down to should we surrender to the Americans or the Soviets situation for many of the military elite.
In Japan, people generally have moved beyond the responsibilities of WW2 and are more focused on modern-day problems. Article 9 of the Constitution also reduces most public support for the military and government overreach into world affairs when it comes to conflicts. Many Asian nations feel they haven't been punished enough, while as the old school Japanese politicians feel they have already paid enough reparations in terms of monetary assistance, development, infrastructure and loans to formerly occupied countries.
@@nanjarou103 yeah China still hates Japan
I’d like to think they all have a little tiny framed picture of the mushroom cloud
@SCATXXIV Yeah that still makes you a bad person. Killing civilians who have committed no crime just because they MIGHT be related to people that hurt you is insanity. So if you were to hit someone with a car, that persons family is then allowed to wipe your family off the map? Sounds like people need to understand that the punishment and responsibilities for those crimes should fall on the person committing them not everyone who look slike them.
I mean thats literally the racism issue in america. Conservative Whites treat every black person killed as a gang banger because some black person committed a crime. Is that right?
Very true. Look up the Siege of Manila for a particularly gruesome example.
I really do appreciate your dedication to accurately informing about Japanese imperialism. The horrors of the Japanese Empire is an evil that many have forgotten and your effort to shine a light on it is admirable.
As a Korean-American, I was never given an extensive education on the subject, only on the war crimes committed by the Nazis. Only recently have I started to learn what Japanese imperialism has done to my people. Thank you for raising awareness of this often ignored aspect of history.
I agree. I rarely ever hear of the extreme monstrous acts committed by the Japanese; they seemed edited when compared to actual historic documentaries. Once you've seen the films and photos from "The Nanjing Massacre" along with other atrocities; you will not be able to forget.
There are reasons why the older generations of Korean, Chinese, Philipinos, and others resented the Japanese until they died of old age. My father was forced to speak Japanese when he was young during the occupation in Korea. I love the modern Japanese people & culture, but I am glad the US dropped the bombs to end the war.
Hearing about the comfort women was appalling.
Postwar Japan has done a hell of a lot to gloss over the Empire of Japan's war crimes. There's a lot of whataboutism, revisionism, minimalization and straight-up lying designed to instill in the next generation of Japanese children a sense of victimhood. Some of it pervades to this day, a sense that white imperialist gaijin stole a fairly-won empire from noble Japanese patriots. The war crimes are completely ignored in some cases, or explained away as "unfortunate events", as if the Rape of Nanking was just a small blemish on an otherwise honorable campaign.
I find it funny this is said when its constantly brought up when we have statues to Lenin in places like Portland. Victors write the history, what's hard to believe is how naïve people are about that fact.
Today Japan is one of my favorite countries. I actually lived there for a large chunk of my childhood, about an hour from Hiroshima. I loved almost every aspect of the Japanese culture and people, but one thing was sad to see. They do not really ever talk about what their country did during world war 2. In fact, most of them are quite ignorant of what happened. The one thing they do know a lot about however, was the atomic bombs. We went to the museum in Hiroshima, and there was no mention of the war in the pacific, the murder of thousands of people throughout Asia, and war crimes, the only thing mentioned was the brutal Americas dropping bombs on them. Do I think the atomic bombs weren't that bad? No, it was brutal. I saw the pictures of the destruction and the only building that survived (oddly enough, the one the bomb fell on). But ignoring history is also disturbing. We even had a few elderly Japanese people flip us off because we were American. That was only a few though, most of the Japanese of all ages love Americans.
In my opinion, it's not ok to not talk about the history of your country, the good and the bad. As an American, I still learned about slavery.
Completely right however a small note that they(Japanese) didn't kill "thousands" across Asia. They as documented had killed millions, China alone has an estimated 20million deaths during the 2nd Sino war. roughly 14m alone were civilians!!! This is excluding all the over nations and islands under Japan's occupation. To put that number into perspective London has just under a population of 9m people, so Japan killed every single person in London twice and that is just China alone there are claims that the number is closer to 50m as a total in China but that could be exagerrated.
@@AndyTaken Yes, I am aware of the numbers. I have studied them a bit more since I wrote this comment. Thanks though, its very interesting and sad.
@@braedynhoward3644 fair enough, just wanted to ensure we don't down play the seriousness of it.
"They do not really ever talk about what their country did during world war 2."
Why would they? so they would become like white countries feverishly bashing themselves for past wrong, sacrificing their future in the process? No thank you.
@@selmevias1383 My friend, there is a difference between ignoring, not teaching, and becoming ignorant about your countries past, and hating and beating on your country. I too disagree with the woke anti-white anti-America agenda. It is important for the US to teach about slavery... and how it ended and is no longer a US issue. Not ignore it, not overblow it.
When you talkd about how the experienced and trained men of the Japanese navy were lost there was no replacing them. This was certainly true. But what you didn't mention was America's counter to the loss of experienced men. Alone among all combatants during WWII America harvested air crews that had flown a preset number of missions and brought them home. All other countries put their troops on the front and left them there until their were killed or grievously wounded. But America didn't bring those men back just to send them home, they were re-assigned to training to train the next crop of pilots or whatever. Those new men had the benefit of having been trained by men who had been there, done that, and knew how to win. The quality of new pilots declined as the war went on for everyone but America. Our pilots got better and better. An added bonus was that we were not suffering from fuel shortages that hampered training. We had lots of gas, planes, pilots, and time. As the war went on not only did the pilots get better, the planes did too. Late arrivals in the "wonderful" range were the P51 Mustang and the F4U Corsair. It was really most unfair to our enemies, but, then again, who wants to play fair in war?
The geographical advantage of having continental US and Canada as training grounds, far from the fighting, helped as well.
Soviet pilots were far better. It became clear in Korean War.
I would add the F6F Hellcat and the TFB Avenger to the list of wonderful additions to the USN arsenal
You could argue that britains pilots were also getting better and better as if you were shot down but bailed out during the battle of britain you were given a new plane and sent back up because you were over friendly territory and I will always say america's best aircraft was the sbd-dauntless as unlike the Avengers they didn't get faulty weapons and they caused more casulties than any fighter my aircraft damaged 197 ships sank 77 and in the end my guns and planes shot down 912 planes
Don't forget to mention the Thunderbolt, Hellcat and Lightening. All of which were insanely good mid-late war planes.
I’m surprised the movie never mentioned Hornets “flight to nowhere”
I wonder why lol
Military Aviation History did a really great video on that. Check there if you're curious.
The flight to nowhere is based on early morning report (sighting)and the believe the Japanese fleet had 2 carrier groups of 2 aircraft carriers each. What helped the US navy the most in this battle was the use of 2 carrier groups, this lead to a lot of confusion on the Japanese side. The Japanese did in fact want to run 2 carriers per group, but had a vast shortage of war ships, due to offensive objections in the Pacific. The Japan due to war aims, had a huge shortage in support and support ship and in fact knew it had to win a 6 month war or lose. Japan could not support it's needs or aims in the Pacific.
@@phoenixinvictus9880 yes they covered that episode of mutiny well.
Yeah Nick also didnt cover it well either
That caption for Lee Kuan Yew. "Student, Singapore." It's funny how these documentaries just have some random people but this one got their 30 year prime minister.
Fun fact: in his memoirs he said one day he was randomly asked to get on a truck even though he wasn’t screened. He knew he was going to be executed but told the Japanese soldier that he wanted to go home to grab some extra clothes. He then hid for 3 days, went for a screening and got cleared as not an enemy.
For some reason, US veterans made uncharacteristic peace with Japanese their counterparts. For example, Pearl Harbour veterans from both sides have gathered at the base for commemorations.
My favorite story is Nobuo Fujita. Look him up, one of the only people to bomb the contiguous United States from a submarine floatplane carrier, survived the war, and was invited by the people of a town in Oregon close to where he bombed. He brought his families 400 year old katana to present to the town as gift, as he was ashamed of his service to the IJN, and if the people of the town were to be hostile, his plan was to commit seppuku with the sword instead, however they treated him well and with compassion, which built this crazy relationship including him getting a letter of thanks from ronald regan. crazy life.
@@Commanderstevo I think his attempt to mend relationships by acknowledging his wrong-doing and apologizing is worth celebrating. Many in Japan still deny their war crimes and that the atomic attack was justified. Japan in the 30s and 40s was an extremist nation, there was little chance of escaping service in civil or military service and Fujita, whether he believed at that time in the war or not, was always going to end up being involved somehow.
I think a lot of US veterans (rightfully) view the average Japanese soldier or sailor as also being a victim of the Imperial Japanese government. There are similar stories with Allied and German veterans becoming good friends. And during WWI there was that impromptu Christmas celebration between German and Allied troops. With a few exceptions, wars are fought between governments. And the average soldier had no choice but to participate on the side of whatever country they happen to live in. So once they're freed of the government telling them to fight, they tend not to take it personally. It's different for victims of atrocities - there's no way for them not to take it personally.
Just wanted to point out, that the plane that almost dived into the Akagi's bridge was a B-26 Marauder, which some have claimed made Nagumo send the reserve planes.
Also, there were only 4 B-26s at Midway converted to carry torpedoes. If memory serves me correctly, 2 of them were shot down and the other 2 survived but were so badly damaged that they never flew again. Also, there were 6 TBF Avengers at Midway and they fared similar fates.
9:00 Actually that's a myth and embellishment started by the Japanese, in Shattered Sword, an account of Midway from the Japanese perspective, they were about an hour way from actually launching. The myth was started by Nagumo and his staff to soften the blow of defeat by saying "We almost won, but we were hit right as we were launching." This myth was then continued in the anglo sphere by hilariously enough, failure to talk with Japanese historians, who dismissed this inaccuracy decades ago and were even like, "You got that from the Fuchida didn't you?" Indeed Fuchida's accounts proved to be, self serving or blame shifting.
I'd recommend Shattered Sword, its a good read.
Is that actually true? I had always heard that the main reason all the Japanese carriers burnt up even though many were only hit once or twice was because of all the ordinance that had been left around the hangars?
Though it would make sense for it to also be true that the ships just sank due to poor damage control, the Japanese never had the damage control the US Had. With the strict command structure meaning if you were a gunner and you saw a fire, you kept shooting and assumed the control parties were alive to deal with it.
Where as the more lax US, if you were a gunner and saw a fire, you stopped shooting and put the fire out first.
@@solusanimefan The difference between the flight deck and hangar is the hangar is typically under the flight deck and impossible to see from the outside of Japanese ships. (I remember an anecdote from Shattered Sword that a Japanese officer said that one of the carriers looked like a Daikon raddish, the entire stop of the ship ceased to exist the explosion was so bad)
The flight deck is where you launch the fighters and that was what was said by Nagumo and others, they were literally about to launch. In realty they were still rearming to launch a coordinated simultaneous strike. In actuality the most that would be on the flight deck would be cap fighters being rearmed.
@@solusanimefan They had at best the CAP on deck. Because of switch and switch again and the time it took to take back the Midway attack group they had to be still in the hangar for at least another half an hour. If Japanese doctrine would have been just a bit more flexible (as well as Nagumo), they would have been able to get half their planes en route to the US carrier group.
While it would not have changed the final outcome of the war, as the USA were outproducing Japan basically by mid 1942, the timeframe would have changed a lot.
@@timedraven117 part of the issue with the Fuchida account is that the timing of the CAP recovery and the strike launch don't line up. The carriers couldn't do both at the same time. The logs for one of the carriers was found in an archive a few years ago and showed the deck to be empty except for some CAP still landing. The hangar was packed, but there was no strike force on deck ready to launch.
@@tbeller80 For further reference, check out a recent video on RUclips by the channel Drachinifel, who had a Q&A with Parshalls
The glorious moment when history buffs uploads..
Yes
Heart skipped a beat when I saw the notification.
Your comments regarding the atrocities committed by the Empire got me pushing the “subscribe” button. Thanks.
Imperial Japan was even worse than the Nazis, in that Nazis considered genocide a chore, while the Imperial Japanese considered it R & R.
While both B-17s and B-26s were at Midway, they were used very differently. The B-17s were four engine heavies that dropped from altitude and missed, the B-26s were two engine medium bombers that attacked with torpedoes. As depicted in the movie, it was a B-26 that being seriously damaged by anti-aircraft fire, seemed to attempt to crash into Akagi's bridge and missed.
I was wondering about that. B17 didn’t sink anything during ww2 but they also couldn’t be hit. And they’re were considering naval and land bombs bombers at the time but in actual practice it was quickly discovered they were useless at hitting anything at sea.
However all the bombing attacks had the desired effect, it prevented the Japanese from launching their own strike. There’s very little doubt if the they’d gotten a full strike off that the result would have been the destruction of the American carriers.
Yeah I noticed that too. Whenever Nick was talking about B-17s the clips were showing twin engine bombers.
Planes on the film were B26's .... Nick was going with the narrative rather than what was shown in the movie.
As someone who is ethnically Chinese & hearing stories from my older generation who actually suffered IJA war crimes as children, I thank you for the last 1/4 of the clip in bringing forward this issue. Nazi Germany is largely unquestioned today as being unquestionably evil, Imperial Japan has largely been romanticized, at least in Western society. Only in Asia where the scars of Imperial Japan still remains (e.g. China, Hong Kong, Philippines, Korea etc.) still seem to remember.
It was so bad that even the Nazi diplomats were appalled and trying to save civilians from the Japanese.
I think Western Societies romanticized the IJA because of both guilt for the treatment of Japanese people living in Allied nations (especially in the US) and because Japan became an ally during the Cold War. I don't want to downplay or excuse what happened to those that suffered. I just wanted to give clarification.
I don't think we romanticise them at all. We do for their older (samurai) history, even though mass beheadings etc. were common back then too. I think we still condemn the WW2 era Japanese military, but maybe feel sorry for and forgive the civilian population. The cold war required quick rebuilding of enemies into allies, and Japan was especially obedient once defeated, and enthusiastically picked up a new, very different culture. It also almost entirely did away with its military and the culture attached to it. Also, the fact that so many of the victims of firebombing and nukes were children makes it hard to feel good about that.
I do also think we kind of forget about Japan in Europe because Germany was so much more immediate and the scars of that war are everywhere: you can still see shrapnel holes in the lion statues on the embankment in London. Japan's the other side of the world, and the people they killed didn't look like us. People are usually shocked to hear just how evil their actions were though. I know I hadn't realised the scale of it until I listened to Dan Carlin's 10-hour+ podcast on the topic. Same's true for the Eastern Front. We (UK and US) kind of feel like we won the war, when the majority of the suffering and death was actually the Soviets. The numbers in the Sino-Japanese war are unbelievably large too, like the Yellow River Dam break that killed 1/2 million people minimum, Nanjing 300,000 etc. etc. .... it's just beyond an imaginable scale.
It also doesn't help that Japan refuses to even acknowledge said war crimes occurred.
Imperial Japan has not been romanticized in the west...
Romanticizing the Sengoku and Edo periods of Japan is entirely different than romanticizing the imperial era.
Hit it right out of the park as usual. And an excellent point to be made for the last quarter of the video as well.
Too right .... and these little bastards and their whole nation have never really admitted their brutality .... with the exception of a few individuals like those at the end of this video
@@philipfreyaborn8288 who cares
Their government and education system whitewashed the first half of the 20th century. Watch videos asking random modern Japanese what happened in ww2. They don't say it's all America's fault, but they don't know the details of why and how.
He complained about soldiers being acknowledged for their bravery because their government was evil. That's like hating that a movie about the Vietnam war honors both sides. Stop thinking about groups, think about the individual people.
@@lucastark1784 "groups" consist of "individuals" who usually decide to join said group ... most Japanese were happy to support their brutal genocidal regime ..
and nowadays their sadism of the 30s and 40s is swept under the carpet by them
It has always amazed me that the Battle of Midway was only 6 months after after the attack on Pearl Harbor. We came back pretty quickly.
As a Chinese I can only say I simply love the final part of your video, I’ve been to the memorial of the victims of the nanking massacre, it was outrageous for such atrocities to be committed by the facist invaders back then. That memory still resonates in Chinese people’s hearts today. I also admire your attitude towards history, history accuracy is not to be sacrificed for the sake of “artistic expression” or “Hollywood style impacts”, the artwork’s value lies to a great extent in its respect for historical facts. And I think your video greatly reminds people about this
Love your works, carry on in the future!!👍👍👍
@LibtardsStillCant SilenceMe16 The oppressed have become the oppressors.
@@JohnDoe-qz5pj israel and pakistan.
As a Filipino, I was also touched by the final part. The Japanese war crimes in our countries should never be forgotten.
All countries in Asia know the truth of Japanese brutality and depravity in WW2. My grandfather told me many stories of the atrocities committed against Indian soldiers fighting under the British in their Asian colonies. The rest of the world may not know as well, but all of Asia still remembers the atrocities committed by them.
@@amistrophy how is Israel and Pakistan related?
I worked at the national security agency history department in the 90s and met some of the people who worked magic on Pearl Harbor. I had tears in my eyes as I watched this movie depict the difference that those people made. Great review. They nailed the sigint side
The biggest flaw in this movie is they completely left out Frank Jack Fletcher who was in overall tactical command of the combined task forces. He ceded command to Spruance on the evening of the 4th after all 4 Japanese carriers were flaming wrecks and he was forced to abandon ship from Yorktown and transfer his flag to a cruiser. Spruance deserves credit for what happened from the night of the 4th through the end of the battle on the 6th.
Thank you very much for bringing attention to the atrocities of the Imperial Japanese military during World War II. It's something that has been overlooked for far too long.
That one Japanese dude who predicted the Americans' positions must have been a time traveler trying to change the historical timeline.
Actually there was Japanese Manga and Anime talk about this, it titled *Zipang* , about Japanese modern self defense Navy battleship travel back to time when world world 2 Pacific theatre, they unavoided event that eventually changed history of Pacific theatre and east Asian countries in that time
@@joerig96 that seems like if a story came out about a german battleship went bsck to help the nazis win ww2 lmaooo
If you read the histories around world war 2 the junior naval staff often managed to do things like this. They war gamed the grand plan that was meant to be attriting the American naval force over the Pacific via a series of quick sharp battles where the Japanese fleet elements would engage, destroy a few ships and then disengage. The theory being the better quality of materiel used would allow the IJN to control the place and tempo of battle. The junior naval staff hit on the actual strategy the American's used which was to jump past the defensive strong points as much as possible to then isolate them and render them useless without wasting energy destroying them.
The junior staff often won the war games and proceeded to be told off for not fighting how the enemy actually would. "Kaigun: Strategy, Tactics, and Technology in the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1887-1941" goes into quite a bit of detail as to how into their own bubble of thinking the IJN was.
Those wargaming sessions were trying out various scenarios and Japanese did not realize how badly their communications had been compromised. They thought the USN would have no idea they were.
@@mjbull5156 Yup, past infrastructure, people often forget how much this decided the war. In war over spaces this large with no ability to mass control the spave, if one side knows the others movements while the other one is blind, then the wars next to done.
The only reason the US suffered any defeats or notable losses post gaining access over their transmissions was because the US navy was impressively incompetant.
The movies scene was absurd. If an assumed competant navy had pulled the plan in a war game, the entire Japanese navy would of been wiped one sidedly, not just 3 carriers and no smaller ships. The results the US got were a complete embaressment for what realistically should of been a complete wipe.
“War is young men dying and old men talking.” This quote came to mind when that tribute came up on screen. While I can’t be sure it’s what Roland meant, I read it as a tribute to the young men under order to fight for a war started by their governments. I didn’t see it as a glorification of imperial Japanese but the young men who died fighting for what they were convinced was right, and ordered to do. Just my best guess
Yeah. I don’t think it was meant to be offensive. I think it’s just a weird pairing to show that and then go “oh and the Japanese also murdered thousands of civilians before this battle”
“War is young men dying and old men talking.” -- Yet another Facebook meme quote that causes millions to revel in the newly found wisdom, but of course it make no f# sense whatsoever other than stating the obvious that experience and leadership is earned with age, but if you put it that way, it wouldn't be catchy.
Nope. Remember the Japanese soldiers were not ordered to act like this most of the time, they just did it for fun. The old were evil, but the young in this case were monsters.
@@ZAK31591 remember that they were raised with imperial propaganda and almost no contact with the outside world, that explains a lot about how they behaved in this war
Sure, the dedication could be attributed to political correctness, but I choose to view it as an attempt to remind the audience that Japan is no longer our enemy, as a poorly implemented attempt to curb the expansion of hatred.
I figured it was more a tribute to their bravery than any moral judgement. You can be a total peice of shit but still be admirably brave.
That said, I was definitely a bit uncomfortable seeing it there. Still not sure how I feel about it - but I don't have any personal connection to that part of history.
The old man at the end was the first prime Minister of Singapore... Without him our country would be very different..
Yeah kinda weird to just say "oh some student from Singapore" like WHAT
@@Shadlezz well that’s what he was at the time. Though I did think it was pretty funny that he was a “student” as if he was a student in the modern era.
Kuro Usagi yeah the phrasing is a bit odd, that's all lol
Still his important role is at least recognized in this sense
@@Shadlezz yeap..I saw "student" and was like HUH??.. then I remember ohhhhh during that time he still studying and he had much more hair LOL..
You won me over instantly by pointing out how horrendous the Japanese were during WW2. Their atrocities caused my grandpa to hate them to the day he died. They were awful people
Oh, I just saw "Roland Emmerich" and a "historical based movie" together and I initially skipped this in theaters... Kinda regret it now.
A movie can be entertaining even if it's not historically accurate. I love The Patriot.
Don't.
I still think it's ass.
Cringey especially.
@@beny874 No one asked you.
@@sorenpx tbh even tho I know how historically inaccurate it is, it’s still my favorite war movie
@@EbolaWagon It's well-made, the cast is excellent, and it's overall just a hell of a lot of fun!
I highly recommend to anyone who is interested in the Battle of Midway to watch Montemeyor's documentaries on the subject on RUclips, some of the most well-produced documentaries of all time.
I saw those videos and loved them too.
those documentarys were the only reason I watched midway because I thought they would be Hollywood crap but decided to watch them anyway, also the planes imo were moving to fast
The 1976 Movie "Midway" covers things from the Yorktown and Admiral Frank Fletcher's Perspective, if Roland Emmerich did his homework, he probably decided to make this movie from Spruance and the Enterprises point of view.
great recommendation! just watched all three parts.
@@everydaylifez good job catching it after, the two year wait was quite worth it
I gotta say this review is not just freaking AMAZING! but seeing how far you've gotten in editing and story telling is just such a joy! keep up this AMAZING work that even proffesional tv strugles to keep up with!
I believe that Emerich is also a history buff and this movie was something of a passion project for him .
It was. Too bad it didn't make any money. Then he gave us Moonfall....
Actually, Waldren's VT8 disobeyed orders and headed off on its own. Look up "the flight to nowhere" during the Battle of Midway. Hornet's air group was misdirected and flew off into empty ocean. They ended up contributing nothing to the battle.
They even didn't drop even a single bomb let alone locate the location of the Japanese fleet
It makes the real Battle of Midway even more amazing when one realises that, thanks to the 'flight to nowhere', it was actually two US carriers vs four Japanese, rather than 3 v 4...
@@jamesmcinerney2882 But they also had Midway itsself as an unsinkable airfield. The US outnumbered the Japanese in the number of planes available in this battle
@@7thdivision, certainly very true. However, the Midway-based aircraft didn't make much of a direct contribution to sinking anything, though their presence certainly did help prevent the Kidō Butai launching an earlier strike at the US carriers and helped wear down the Japanese CAP.
This is got to be one of the most underrated war movies of all time. Caught me by surprise and appreciate it even more knowing how historically accurate it is. Bravo!
I appreciated it too. I'm glad that it did better than people expected at the box office as well. The critics hated it, predictably. But it was a pleasant surprise for me. I wanted a bit more, but I was satisfied. People hate on it for stupid reasons. Like he says in the video, its hammy style is very reminiscent of war movies from the 50s and 60s. So I didn't mind that.
The "B-17s" at 35:20 are B-26s. The movie has it right; B-26s did attack as shown. It's Nick's narration that is in error.
P.S. On further reflection, the B-26s attacked at low level to drop torpedoes. So perhaps those B-26s flying at--what? 2,000 feet or so?--are supposed to be representing what the B-17s did at high altitude.
This drove me crazy every time it was mentioned. Glad I wasn't the only one LOL
The B-26s were actually equipped for torpedo runs, not bombing runs. The B-17s arrived over an hour later but still participated in the assault on the carriers with the effect described in the video.
B17 were at the battle. I dont know all of the units. But some were from the 26 Bomb squadron.
The B-26s we're armed with Torpedoes, B-17s also participated, and actually level bombed.
I was gonna say, the B-17 was actually designed for naval warfare...
Thank you especially for the last part. I am all about peace and making peace with our former enemies. But peace cannot be built by forgetting or distorting history. Cruelty and war crimes must be remembered both to honor the memory of victims and to maintain the truth about events. If we keep forgetting these than one day it will be resurfaced in the worst moment of animosity. To learn from history we need to be able to swallow it whole - especially in the peace time when nations and countries have the capacity to deal with it and work it through. I've been observing a tendency in the internet at least for people, at least from the Anglo-American circle to tend to comment WW2 events in the spirit of "war is hell" and "all have suffered equally". While individual combat experiences of soldiers on various fronts are very similar or in the essence the same, what some of these soldiers did to civilians or POW's and what their governments stood for was entirely different. And we owe it to ourselves to keep these differences in mind because these are the differences for which our grandfathers fought for, that's what made their war more meaningful and just. Lets not forget it of fear that the other side will feel hurt: it's not our fault that their great grandfathers took this or other way or did this or that and it's a burden they left for their grandchildren to accept and live with and deal with. While we make friends with our former enemies, lets keep making friends but remember history as it was. We owe it to the victims and we owe it to the good, healthy relations between nations of today because only relations built on truth - that good, positive and that bitter and painful and for one side also shameful can lead to the healthy relationship. I don't mean reminding Japanese or Germans on every occasion about the wrongdoings of their great grandfathers in history or to lecture them with every chance. Only just keeping it within proportion when the history for some reason - like a movie is being discussed and simply to stick to the truth as it was. And avoid such things as morally equaling both sides for the sake of today's relations. Mature, long standing relations can handle the bitter truth and move on.