Cheap V for Victory: Iwo Jima, Okinawa (Video) (V for Victory) Price

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American valor at its' height
While the detonations of the two atomic weapons over Hiroshima and Nagasaki led to the Japanese capitulation, it was the American victories at Iwo Jima and Okinawa that sealed the fate of the Nipponese empire. A successful defense of these two islands, or one that was so costly in American lives, was the last hope that Japan had to end the war with anything short of unconditional surrender. Once they were in allied hands, bombers now had much better bases from which to attack the Japanese home islands and they both could serve as staging areas for the massing of invasion armies.
This tape is the story of those historic battles, what they cost the Americans and how valor, self-sacrifice and the overwhelming firepower of the United States led to victory. You also come away with some grudging respect for the tenacity of the Japanese soldiers. The incredible firepower that was unleashed on the Japanese positions on Iwo Jima before and during the battles was incredible. And yet, the Japanese stoically held out and were able to inflict tremendous losses on the attacking Marines. Very few of the defenders survived the battle.
The Japanese were just as aware of the importance of these islands, and in their desperation they began launching the kamikaze attacks. It is riveting to watch the combat footage of the planes coming in on their suicide missions. It must have been terrifying to have been a member of the crew of one of those ships.
Before world war II, the totalitarian nations all considered the Americans to be weak and poor soldiers. No one thought that after the war, in fact those that were left were saluting them. From these tapes, which involve combat footage, you will see some of how that transition took place.

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The last epic island battles of World War II in the Pacific
The ten-volume "V for Victory" series uses original newsreel stories to tell about the most momentous events and important personalities of World War II. Volume IX, "Iwo Jima, Okinawa and the Push on Japan" features two of the toughest island battles as the U.S. forces moved relentless towards the Japanese mainland. These newsreel stories, hosted by veteran journalists Eric Sevareid and Edwin Newman, are ideal for classroom use because you can pick and choose throughout the series specific stories to supplement textbook readings. Each volume runs 45-minutes and will show students what everyone on the home front was learning about the war while it was happening. I really think these newsreels would have much more of an impact on students than showing the same events covered in a more formal documentary on Iwo Jima and/or Okinawa.