Anyone watching The Pacific on HBO?

The last one (Okinawa) was pretty hard to watch.

Yes, my husband and I are.

And oh my god. That last one was horrifying in ways I would never have expected. The filth, the loss of esprit de corps, the maggots...

I even asked my husband how much time was left on the show; I wasn't sure I could finish watching it.

Luckily, we were more than halfway through the program.

Next week is the end.

Still, it's awfully good, don't you think?

:hi:

from reading about it but it's quite another to see it. Unlike Iwo Jima, Okinawa had a large civilian population. The figures are sobering.

April 1, 1945 – June 22, 1945

US & British Commonwealth
12,513 killed
38,916 wounded,
33,096 non-combat losses

Empire of Japan
110,000 killed
7,400–10,755 captured
Estimated 42,000–150,000 civilians killed

Mom was a nurse in Hawaii and treated many of the men who survived long enough to make it back there. She never talks much about her war years, but she gets really grim when the Pacific island invasions come up. I suspect she lost a lot of her patients even though they had made it so far on the way home.

Her reactions prejudiced me more against wars than any other source.

but necessary, showing the absolute insanity of war. the boys were cannon fodder, disposable. horrific. My dad and uncles fought that war but would never speak of it. now I understand so much more about what it must have been like for them. I have tears every episode.

My uncle, an army captain, was captured by the Japanese when they took Corregidor. During the bombardment, he was injured by enemy artillery when he ran out to pull one of his men to safety. His leg became gangrenous, and it was sawed off by an army surgeon in a cave on the island. He was a prisoner for several years, and no one at home knew about his injuries. I have some postcards that he was allowed to mail home as a POW -- they are heavily censored with black ink. I also have his diaries that he wrote prior to the invasion.

I never heard him speak of his experiences but I know that he went to Washington to testify about war crimes. He never bought anything made in Japan after coming home.

instead based on the true stores of three marines. We've seen five battles: Guadalcanal, Cape Gloucester, Peleliu, Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

Wonder if your uncle and mine were in the same unit?

He was wounded in March 1942 and received a silver star.

The NYDNews' Bill Gallo was a Marine in the Pacific. He's had a series of columns about the show:

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/2010/05/09/2010-05-09_hate_drives_the_story_on_hbos_the_pacific__and_thats_why_i_love_it.html

The Daily News' own award-winning cartoonist http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Gallo">Bill Gallo has been drafted to review every episode of the acclaimed HBO series, "The Pacific." Gallo isn't just any critic: he lived Iwo Jima first hand as member of the 4th Marine Division, taking his life in his hands on a daily basis to remove locating and deactivating mines and unexploded ordinance. Every Sunday, he analyzes the show and looks back on his own experiences.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/more_sports/2010/03/14/2010-03-14_yes_its_as_real_as_hell.html?print=1&page=all">Part 1, http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/more_sports/2010/03/21/2010-03-21_episode_2_of_hbos_the_pacific_will_take_wwii_vets__and_viewers__back_to_a_bloods.html?print=1&page=all">Part 2, http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/2010/03/28/2010-03-28_love_and_war_third_part_of_hbos_the_pacific_depicts_epic_romances_forged_in_fog_.html?print=1&page=all">Part 3, http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/more_sports/2010/04/04/2010-04-04_pacific_goes_to_hell__back.html?print=1&page=all">Part 4, http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/more_sports/2010/04/11/2010-04-11_spielberg_shows_the_good_the_bad_and_the_ugly_of_war_in_the_pacific.html?print=1&page=all">Part 5, http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/more_sports/2010/04/18/2010-04-18_surrounded_by_ocean_soldiers_cant_find_water_to_drink_on_the_pacific.html?print=1&page=all">Part 6, http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/2010/04/25/2010-04-25_courage_under_fire_on_display_in_episode_7_of_hbos_the_pacific.html?print=1&page=all">Part 7, http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/2010/05/02/2010-05-02_love_almost_as_dangerous_as_war_on_episode_8_of_hbos_the_pacific_.html?print=1&page=all">Part 8, http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/2010/05/09/2010-05-09_hate_drives_the_story_on_hbos_the_pacific__and_thats_why_i_love_it.html?print=1&page=all">Part 9

I don't have HBO, so that's the only way I can see it. I have a feeling I'll end up buying it without seeing it first, lol.

excellent but I'm just too sensitive.

want to at least FF through some of it.

He lied about his age and enlisted when he was 16. He was a kid, for crissakes and his descriptions of those times (he only talked about it when he was drunk) were amazingly close to The Pacific. I used to wonder, as a kid, why he'd sit in front of the TV on Memorial Day and cry....all day.

This show has really gotten to me. I wish my dad was alive so I could talk to him about it.

All I can say is that if I were in that position, I would have one major case of PTSD. War truly is hell on earth.

HBO Original Programming is incredible. (Well, most of it--Sex and the City--bleech.) Just one great series after another. Sunday evenings are must see TV for me.

As hard as it is to watch, I believe that we honor those who were haunted all the rest of their days by memories, when we feel just a small portion of the fear and horror.