Endgame
Jul 28, 2026 · 37 min · 21 segments
The U.S. determines by early 1945 that Japan will never surrender and will need to be subdued by force. Newly sworn-in President Truman must authorize an invasion of the Japanese home islands at a…
Jul 28, 2026 · 37 min · 21 segments
The U.S. determines by early 1945 that Japan will never surrender and will need to be subdued by force. Newly sworn-in President Truman must authorize an invasion of the Japanese home islands at a…
In America in the spring of 1945, there is hope that the war in Europe is nearing its end.
Husbands and fathers, boyfriends and brothers might finally be coming home.
It is front and center on the American mind.
How quickly can we get to Berlin and get the soldiers home?
The public get this sort of an attitude that, you know, "Hey, the war's almost over.
They'll be coming home." But it's almost like a marathon, and you see the finish line in the distance, and so you know you can give one last kick.
And then somebody says, "Actually, there's another three miles to go."
Victory in Europe seems within reach.
Victory over Tokyo remains on the far horizon.
For months, hundreds of B-29s have been striking Japanese cities to marginal effect.
The Army Air Forces believed that a sufficient amount of pinpoint bombing from high altitude would take out Japanese industry and make it impossible for them to continue the war.
It didn't work.
Bombing from 30,000 feet, the winds were too strong, blew the bombs all over the place.
Under the command of General Curtis LeMay, the Air Force alters its tactics.
[aircraft engine roaring] On March 9th, 1945, LeMay's B-29s will attack Tokyo from only 5,000 feet using a new weapon, bombs filled with napalm.
Napalm is this gel combined with gasoline that will stick to things, and then it catches fire, and it makes it very, very hard to put out.
It's for starting fires that are designed to just go out of control.
And the reason it's gonna be so destructive is that Tokyo is mostly made of wood and paper, and this is just going to explode.
It'll be incredibly inflammable.
The argument was that if you destroy the housing units of the Japanese workers, they wouldn't be able to go to work and build the planes and the tanks they needed to continue the conflict, but the outcome was absolutely horrific.
It's just complete devastation in Tokyo.
100,000 people were killed.
We think of, uh, Dresden as being the worst single moment in the European theater of operations, the firestorm at Dresden.
25,000 were lost there.
In America in the spring of 1945, there is hope that the war in Europe is nearing its end.
Husbands and fathers, boyfriends and brothers might finally be coming home.
It is front and center on the American mind.
How quickly can we get to Berlin and get the soldiers home?
The public get this sort of an attitude that, you know, "Hey, the war's almost over.
They'll be coming home." But it's almost like a marathon, and you see the finish line in the distance, and so you know you can give one last kick.
And then somebody says, "Actually, there's another three miles to go."
Victory in Europe seems within reach.
Victory over Tokyo remains on the far horizon.
For months, hundreds of B-29s have been striking Japanese cities to marginal effect.
The Army Air Forces believed that a sufficient amount of pinpoint bombing from high altitude would take out Japanese industry and make it impossible for them to continue the war.
It didn't work.
Bombing from 30,000 feet, the winds were too strong, blew the bombs all over the place.
Under the command of General Curtis LeMay, the Air Force alters its tactics.
[aircraft engine roaring] On March 9th, 1945, LeMay's B-29s will attack Tokyo from only 5,000 feet using a new weapon, bombs filled with napalm.
Napalm is this gel combined with gasoline that will stick to things, and then it catches fire, and it makes it very, very hard to put out.
It's for starting fires that are designed to just go out of control.
And the reason it's gonna be so destructive is that Tokyo is mostly made of wood and paper, and this is just going to explode.
It'll be incredibly inflammable.
The argument was that if you destroy the housing units of the Japanese workers, they wouldn't be able to go to work and build the planes and the tanks they needed to continue the conflict, but the outcome was absolutely horrific.
It's just complete devastation in Tokyo.
100,000 people were killed.
We think of, uh, Dresden as being the worst single moment in the European theater of operations, the firestorm at Dresden.
25,000 were lost there.
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