| I know a lot of World War II buffs have been | | | | war of bitterness, hatred, racism and above all, |
| looking forward to the new miniseries The Pacific | | | | violence. The stakes were just as high in the |
| for a long time now. It seems like only yesterday | | | | Pacific as they were in Europe; to secure for all |
| when I saw Band of Brothers and had to pick my | | | | time the basic universal rights of all mankind, to |
| jaw up from the floor by the end of that epic | | | | liberate the oppressed from the brutality of the |
| series. I'm a long time World War II buff and | | | | Japanese, and to avenge the attack on Pearl |
| enthusiast and I've been fascinated by World War | | | | Harbor. However, as brutal as the Germans in |
| II for many years now. Older black and white | | | | Europe were, they often took POWs and believe |
| films from the John Wayne era were interesting | | | | it or not, often treated them in accordance with |
| and exciting but in recent times some of the | | | | Geneva conventions despite the occasional |
| luster of those old films has faded; they were | | | | massacre. The Japanese did not appreciate the |
| more valuable for the patriotism and celebration | | | | concept of POWs, they did not recognize the |
| of American heroism rather than as depictions of | | | | concept of surrender, either for their enemies or |
| history. | | | | themselves. |
| For some of the real soldiers who lived through | | | | The war in the Pacific, more than America's war |
| some of the most vicious battles that mankind | | | | in Europe, was a war of extreme violence and |
| has ever experienced, those old films seem | | | | brutality. The veterans who fought in that long |
| almost cartoonish. Real history is raw, and the | | | | unappreciated theater have not been given a |
| war that these men fought and lived through was | | | | chance to have their stories heard and |
| cold, unforgiving, and capable of taking the life of | | | | understood the way it is in this new miniseries |
| any man. In the real war there were certainly | | | | The Pacific. While many can't or won't find the |
| heroes but every man felt fear and every man | | | | time to read the autobiographies that the |
| knew that know matter how brave or cowardly | | | | miniseries is based on, they can at least watch |
| he was, no matter how skilled or unskilled, | | | | the experiences of these men unfold in this ten |
| whether lucky or unlucky, he might die at any | | | | part epic and witness what this war was really like |
| moment. | | | | from the points of view of the men who |
| This is the kind of war that's revealed to us in | | | | experienced it. |
| HBO's new miniseries The Pacific. A dirty, messy | | | | |