Dramatized scenes, but was assembled primarily from aerial and combat footage by filmmaker and navy ensign budd boetticher, who directed many navy westerns. Well, now we know where we are going. If you get that about those snakes. I dont mind japs, but snakes. How did the skipper say it . Okie, okie, okie. I heard him. He said okinawa. You know, they say this place looks like the country around frisco. Yeah, but the people look like japs. Frisco. Dont like what is happening. They call it frisco. That my having one o spent my honeymoon up there. Drove up from l. A. Made it in eight hours. 400 miles. Eight hours. What was holding you back . I used to make it to buffalo in new york in six flat. That is 370 miles. With hills. 370 miles. Why, right here we are closer to japan than that. We are just 325 miles from their home office. 325 miles . You heard him. Thats what the old man said. 325 miles. It is closer to work i always felt pretty safe. It is awfully close. Mighty close. Yes, mighty close, especially for a modern bomber with a job to do. About an hours run from any number of jap airfields. But here we were, closer than any fleet in history to a major landbased airpower. At midway, the coral sea, the mariana, distance had been against the japanese air force, but now against the inner islands, the range was easy for any jap plane that could fly. There were those who said no fleet could risk it, but the stakes were high. With okinawa in our hands, we could control the china coast, send swarms of planes to smother japan. [airplanes roaring] we were reaching for the throat of an empire. The risk must be taken. On the island of okinawa, 5000 miles from san francisco, the earth shook from a fearful pounding by our ships and planes. [explosion] [explosions] roaring] [explosions] to the south, our british allies were hurling their naval might. Breaking the island with shell and bombs. Englands greatest battleships and newest carriers were there, screening us on the south, paying off with pleasure an old debt to an empire. [explosions] on the northern flank, the admirals tireless task force 58 stepped up its two week old aerial assault on kyushu and the enemy home islands. [airplanes roaring] it was the fourth of july in reverse, on japanese shipping, harbors, airfields, factories. [airplanes roaring] [explosions] there is a jap carrier in trouble. [explosions] [airplanes roaring] men of the navy, 400,000 men. Called it monday. Elsewhere in the world it was easter sunday, 1945. At 8 30 that morning, the marines and the army went in. [explosion] 100,000 yanks were rattling the lock on japans front door. They were plowing sacred soil with american boots, tractors, tanks. The first seven days were baffling, mysteriously quiet as pushedrmy and marines steadily forward, looking for an enemy which had vanished. On the 1400 ships supporting the invasion, men waited at their battle stations, and waited. We knew the blow would come, but how and when . Then it struck. [explosions] they call it kamikaze, meaning the divine tempest. We call them suicide planes, manned by pilots wearing the ceremonial red sash of the kamikaze corps. They specialize in oneway trips. Their destination, the deck or hull of any american ship. [explosions] japans secret weapon was no secret to our gunners or our flyers, who, for months, had been the far pacific with those same red sashes. But to now to meet our latest challenge, every plane that could fly, new or old, from the very heart of japan itself. 16yearolds still in aviation schools were given their wings, a sash, and a mission. It was a maniacal allout effort to smash our sea power and isolate our troops on okinawa. It was desperation. It was suicide. But it would be the pattern from now on to the very finish, a struggle between men who want to die and men who fight to live. [explosions] [gunfire] [explosions] [airplanes roaring] [gunfire] by night it went on, hundreds of landbased planes streaked low over the sea. [airplanes roaring] [explosion] they dove out of the dawn. [airplanes roaring] [explosion] [gunfire] again the old battleships were there, and new ships of the line. Again the old battleships were there, and new ships of the line. And a rugged little man named ernie pyle. There was no retreat. This was the fleet that came to stay, that had to stay. Had to stay because the men the navy landed needed tons of steel from navy guns. Even as we beat off fresh waves of jap planes overhead, the big guns of the fleet smashed enemy strongholds miles away. [explosions] had to stay, because our men advancing through the rice , paddies and over the steep ridges had to have Close Air Support from the flat tops. In the air control room aboard the command ships, strike upon strike was ordered. Then the navy and marine flyers lay down precise, deadly rocket fire to help make the next 50 yards of advance less costly. This was the fleet that had to stay because always the stream of supplies to those troops must be steady and huge. A bridge of ships was brought across the pacific to bring our men more food, more medicine, more ammunition. And waiting at the end of the longest supply route in any war , or the kamikazes. [explosions] this was a fleet fighting like infantry, punching away at the enemy, only there are no foxholes in the ocean. [explosions] [gunfire] [explosions] [airplanes roaring] march 18 to the 21st, 556 japanese planes destroyed. [gunfire] [explosion] men fought without sleep. Some fought with guns. , torches, some with fire smothering foam. [airplanes roaring] [explosion] it was thick. Many fell at their battle stations. And some were buried. [gunfire] [explosion] dont give up the ship became more than a schoolbook legend. It became a fact of life. April 13 brought more planes, and shocking news. Between attacks, weary men , afloat and ashore paid honor , to the beloved figure in the blue navy cloak. Said farewell to the father of the modern american navy. [somber music] then they turned and met the next assault. During three fabulous months, thousands of aircraft were hurled against our ships. But only 10 ever slipped through our air patrol. Yet the siege by air went on. [explosions] april 6, 277 enemy planes. April 12, 100 planes. May 3, 97. [airplanes roaring] [explosions] in the early gray hours of the morning watch on may 9, great news came. Ve day in europe. It came to the lookouts, the men who stand guard what others sleep. Men were glad and grateful. Home seemed a little nearer. But for now, ve day was simply the 1247th day of our pacific war. From the rolling decks of our carriers, the fighters rose once again to meet the enemy. [planes roaring overhead] on the cruisers, and destroyers, and battleships, our heavy batteries once more leveled japstudded hills of okinawa. The 20s, 40s sent streams of fiery lead into the worlds last alien sky. [gunfire] may 12, 164 jap aircraft down. June 3, june 8, 30. 25. For week after vicious week, the most devastating Airsea Battle on. Ll time wore the japanese paid with their air force. With their newest ships. 4232 planes. The fleet that came to stay paid a price too. But our men, our ships, our planes took everything the land could throw at the sea and handed it back double. The question, could a fleet stand up against the massed fury of landbased planes got an emphatic answer from the men who fleeto live, from the that came to stay. 9, fromsaturday, may 8 00 to 9 00 a. M. Eastern, we host a live study session from the advanced placement u. S. History exam. Coauthors of fabric of a nation, a brief history with skills and sources for the ap course, will explain how this years exam is structured differently, provide strategies for response answers, and show look at historical documents. They will also answer phone calls. Journal, washington and American History tv on cspan3. Sunday, live at 9 00 a. M. Eastern, American History tv looks back 50 years at the Kent State University shooting. Shots, cant 67 state and the end of american innocence, joins us to talk that day andnt of take your calls. Then at 10 00 a. M. On reel america, three films on the vietnam war. President dixons announcement on attacks in kendall bcumbria, president nixons announcement on attacks in cambodia which led to the kent state student demonstrations. On American History tv on cspan3. 75 years ago on april 1 in 1945, the u. S. Launched an invasion of okinawa, a 60milelong japanese island stronghold, less than 400 miles from the mainland. Doing this 82 daylong savage battle, about 90,000 of the 100,000 japanese troops were killed or committed suicide and as many as 150,000 civilians may have died. About 12,000 americans were killed. America, bulletin on the okinawa operation, famed by u. S. Marine combat photographers. This report covers the first 50 days of the invasion. A second bulletin covers the final stages of the battle