HBO's The Pacific March 14th 2010
 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e99B80crU3E

Is anyone planning on watching this? I don't have cable so I'll miss it, but I'm going to download it from iTunes. I loved Band of Brothers and this one was directed by the same directors.

Oh, and which part of WWII do you have the most interest in? The war in Europe or Japan? I have a lot of interest in both. However, I do have slightly a little more interest in the war in Europe and that's because of my background.

It looks really interesting. It was only a matter of time though, since the War in the Pacific has been really popular recently. I'm curious if they will do the flag raising.

ETA: do you know any sources they might be using for this? Band of Brothers was a combination of Ambrose's book and interviews with the surviving members of Easy Company of the 506th PIR.

Yeah, I've noticed that too. I'm not sure why, not that there shouldn't be, but I have noticed the push towards the War in the Pacific.

That's a good question. I'm not really sure where they're getting their recources from.

Since I've been living in the East for the past 5 years, it's interesting to see a different perspective of the Pacific War Front. For one thing, especially here in Indonesia, they saw the Allied as a force that was hell bent on reclaiming it's colonial history. Doesn't help that after the war, when Indonesia claimed its independence, the Dutch tried to reclaim its colonies with the British helping.

Many nations did not see World War II as the fight against the Axis. It was the fight against its colonial masters for her independence. In many cases, its former colonial master were the Allies.

Since my dad served in the Pacific Theater during WWII, I'd love to see this but unfortunately we don't get HBO. Guess I'll have to wait until it's out on DVD.

Just to amplify this, the British Admiral Lord Mountbatten, who was the Allied commander of the China Burma India Theater, actually re-armed captured Japanese soldiers to fight the local nationalists in the Dutch colonies which later became Indonesia.

And the French, after five years of their own occupation by the Germans, sent their troops to re-occupy Indo-China, which included Viet Nam.

I'm planning on watching this. We owe a lot to WWII vets.

I will definitely be DVRing this mini-series. HBO did a great job with the John Adams miniseries. I hope they do as good a job with this one. I have a great Uncle who was on the Enola Gay. I wonder if they will have any focus on that part.

One of the three Marines who the series will feature is Gunnery Sergeant John Basilone of Raritan NJ, the only enlisted Marine in World War II to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor, the Navy Cross and the Purple Heart. He won the Medal of Honor for heroism on Guadalcanal in 1942 and the Navy Cross on Iwo Jima in 1945, where he was killed.

His family lived on the same street as my cousins in Raritan, so I met them many years ago when the memory of John was still fresh in their minds.

Basilone is an unusual name, so I Googled it to see if there were any Greek connections among his family now. I found one woman who is attending Rider University in New Jersey. Rider is about 20 down Rt 206 from Raritan and she is a member of Alpha Xi Delta.

There was no mention of any relationship to the Marine, but I wonder?

I plan on watching it. My dad just "reactivated" HBO for me so I could watch the mini-series, but I'm sure he'll watch it too as his father was a WW2 vet.

starts tonight at 8pm EST

What did everyone think of the 1st part of the 10 part mini-series?

I actually really enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to the next installment. I'm guessing that it only airs on Sunday's for the next 10 weeks.

DH and I watch this every week. Really liking it so far. I like how they are really getting into the psychological stuff the marines that served there went through. They never really went there with Band of Brothers. It resonates with me moreso than DH. My family during the WWII era was a Navy/Marines family. My grandfather was in the Navy and served in the European Theatre and 2 great uncles that served in the Pacific. One was in the Marines and served at Iwo Jima and Okinawa and another served in the Navy on the USS Blessman that got blown out of the water by a Japanese bomber. DH was more into Band of Brothers. His grandfather was in the 101st.

I really enjoy this miniseries, I watch it every week.