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00:00During the Second World War, an entire generation recorded their personal experiences for posterity.
00:08Combat cameramen braved enemy fire to send home moving images, many of them in color.
00:15They captured history, and in the process they captured ordinary people caught up in extraordinary events,
00:22bearing witness to the color of war.
00:30World War II
00:51Following the unconditional surrender of Germany and Japan in 1945,
00:56the United States emerged from the Second World War as a global superpower and leader of the free world.
01:03After four years of relentless fighting,
01:06American G.I.s found themselves in a difficult and sometimes confusing situation.
01:12Having been encouraged and rewarded for killing Germans and Japanese,
01:17they now had to live among their former foes in harmony in what was once enemy territory.
01:25They also had to participate in the repair and reconstruction of their adversaries' devastated homelands.
01:32The aftermath of war demanded new and daunting responsibilities from American servicemen,
01:38bringing them face to face with an unexpected and perhaps even greater challenge than waging war,
01:45keeping the peace.
01:48During this period, the Allied powers charted a new direction for the defeated nations.
01:55This monumental undertaking was known simply as occupation.
02:08American soldiers assigned to occupation duty in both Germany and Japan did not relish their new job.
02:17Exhausted from the rigors of battle, all they wanted was a speedy return to civilian life.
02:27I don't sleep well at night and our meals are terrible.
02:31The report you read in the paper about the poor conditions of the troops is all too true.
02:36Morale is very low.
02:38I expected to be home in October and here it is November already with no sign of my leaving.
02:45You can't hide from yourself the ache and burning that's in your heart.
02:52Adding to the difficulty of their new assignment
02:55was the enormous physical devastation of their former enemies' homelands.
03:02In Germany, an estimated one-fourth of the nation's housing had been destroyed or left largely in ruins.
03:10In the majority of metropolitan areas, the toll was far greater, exceeding 50% or more.
03:18Allied authorities projected that it might take up to 15 years just to clear away the debris.
03:26The task was initially undertaken by legions of German women, who became known as rubble women.
03:34Survivors lived an almost Stone Age existence
03:37amid the tangled remains of what had been Europe's most advanced industrial state.
03:43For most of these people, daily existence was simple and harsh,
03:48a constant search for clothing, shelter and their next meal.
03:54Hope gave way to a new despair.
03:57People combed bombed-out buildings for kindling.
04:01Everything had to be rebuilt.
04:05U.S. military governor of the occupation, General Lucius Clay,
04:09wrote about his initial reactions to Germany's devastation.
04:15Wherever we looked, we saw desolation.
04:19The streets were piled high with debris,
04:22which left in many places only a narrow, one-way passage between high mounds of rubble,
04:27and frequent detours had to be made where bridges and viaducts had been destroyed.
04:32The Germans seemed weak, cowed and furtive,
04:37and not yet recovered from the shock of the battle in Berlin.
04:41It was like a city of the dead.
04:47Few Americans in the occupation force spoke German,
04:50and even fewer were prepared to embrace the German people.
04:55Dear Dad,
04:57It will be a long time before Germany will be in shape to fight another war.
05:01Food supply seems to be pretty low now.
05:05One thing I'm not in favor of is feeding the Germans.
05:08To hell with them. Let them starve.
05:11That's the way they treated the other countries they conquered.
05:16When we first came, the relations between us and the inhabitants were chilly,
05:21if not overtly hostile.
05:23We had no trouble remembering that we were in the homeland of our enemies,
05:26who had inflicted casualties on our platoon right up until the bitter end.
05:33The most immediate challenge for occupation forces
05:36was dealing with millions of displaced persons,
05:39many of them homeless Europeans.
05:42Peace in Europe brought on the largest migration in modern history.
05:47Of the 35 million displaced persons in Europe after the war,
05:5115 million found themselves in countries that were not their own.
05:56Occupation troops had to somehow cope with the flood of refugees,
06:00while at the same time supervising the return of thousands of German ex-prisoners of war
06:06who were coming back to their devastated land.
06:10Just months before, Allied soldiers had been trying to kill these men.
06:14Now the G.I.s had to put their bitterness behind them
06:18and aid their former enemies' reintegration into German society.
06:24American G.I.s were also responsible
06:26for the return of thousands of former Russian POWs to their country.
06:32They were shocked when they realized
06:34many of these displaced Russians didn't want to go home,
06:37fearing that Stalin's secret police would accuse them of cowardice
06:41and lack of political resolve for surrendering to the Nazis.
06:47These poor souls were being forcibly shipped back to Russia.
06:51I had orders to shoot to kill any person attempting to escape.
06:56They begged us not to send them back.
06:58They were certain they would be executed.
07:01I had no voice in the matter.
07:03The decision was that of the United States government.
07:07I decided that if anyone attempted to escape,
07:10I would fire my rifle in the air, but never at any escapee.
07:15Fortunately, I did not have to fire my rifle.
07:19I kept hoping they would all escape.
07:22This was the most distasteful duty I ever had during my entire Army career.
07:27Allied leaders had decided that part of Germany would be transferred to Poland,
07:32the rest divided into four zones of occupation
07:35under the auspices of France, Britain, the U.S. and the Soviet Union.
07:41In Berlin, the famous Brandenburg Gate separated the Western and Russian zones.
07:48The German state ceased to exist,
07:50and authority was shared by the victorious Allied powers.
07:56Fraternization between occupiers and occupied was forbidden.
08:01The country was to be disarmed, decentralized and de-Nazified.
08:06Those who had held membership in any of 33 specified Nazi organizations
08:11were to be denied employment except as common laborers.
08:16Although the Nazi party was outlawed,
08:18the Allies worried that Hitler's ideals were still alive and well.
08:23As each G.I. prepared for occupation duty,
08:26he was shown this Army training film.
08:32In battle you kept your wits about you.
08:34In battle you kept your wits about you.
08:37Don't relax that caution now.
08:41Somewhere in this Germany are stormtroopers by the thousands,
08:45out of sight, part of the mob,
08:48but still watching you and hating you.
08:52Somewhere in this Germany there are two million ex-Nazi officials,
08:57out of power, but still in there,
09:01and thinking, thinking about next time.
09:06The task of weeding out Nazi party members was almost overwhelming for the Allies.
09:12Identifying high-level Nazis like Hermann Goering was easy.
09:16Here he is seen chatting amiably with one of his American interrogators
09:20prior to the Nuremberg war crimes trials.
09:24But finding lower-level party members was far more difficult.
09:29Neighbors accused fellow neighbors of Nazi association to establish their own innocence.
09:36The entire process made the ultimate goal of self-government by Germans
09:40more difficult for the Allies
09:42because many ex-Nazis were trained administrators and technicians.
09:48Until occupation authorities could educate enough non-Nazis
09:52or re-educate low-level ex-Nazis,
09:55local governments were run by Allied military officers,
09:59many of whom were not prepared for the monumental problems they would encounter.
10:05Destroyed transportation systems could not distribute what food was grown,
10:10and the consequence was almost universal hunger.
10:14Washington sent provisions to Germany,
10:16but the added sustenance proved inadequate during the bitter winter of 1946
10:21as railroads and canals froze and bridges neared collapse.
10:26Food riots erupted throughout the country.
10:30In Berlin, people competed with the flies for edible garbage at GI dumps.
10:36By this time, even the most hard-hearted American soldiers
10:40began to feel compassion for their former enemies.
10:46When we finished our meals on the street by the company kitchen
10:50and saw the hungry-looking little children waiting by our garbage cans
10:54with their buckets in hopes of taking our scraps home to their families,
10:59we were soft-hearted enough to save them some items we might have eaten ourselves.
11:06While Germany was facing starvation,
11:09the Allied occupation forces in Japan confronted similar obstacles.
11:14But the complexity of their mission was aggravated by a unique barrier.
11:19The obscurities of an Eastern culture they had been encouraged to fear and despise.
11:28The Japanese were instructed to do many things,
11:31but everyone wondered whether or not they could be trusted with an unconditional surrender.
11:36One of the things they were told to do was to put a white flag on every gun three inches and over.
11:42When we pulled into Tokyo Bay, it seemed as if there were white flags every place we looked.
11:50The Japanese Empire
11:58After undergoing four grueling years of fighting in the Pacific,
12:03American G.I.s became the Japanese Empire's first conquerors in over a thousand years.
12:11Japan's proud people would be forced to put aside a long tradition of fierce nationalism
12:16and mistrust of foreigners.
12:19Beginning on August 28, 1945,
12:23some 400,000 American troops landed in Japan, expecting the worst.
12:31The biggest thrill came when we landed on the Tokyo airdrome.
12:35We were actually scared, for we didn't know what we were getting into.
12:39So we debarked from the planes with loaded rifles,
12:42to make sure we wouldn't have any trouble.
12:45But everything was well in hand.
12:50On shore there was no resistance,
12:53but we were wary of suicidal bands of fanatics who might do us great damage.
12:57None appeared and we were greatly relieved.
13:04American servicemen now found themselves, like their counterparts in Germany,
13:09in the homeland of a detested enemy.
13:12Private First Class Marvin Reichman wrote home about his lingering feelings of hatred.
13:19No, Mom, we don't have to carry any guns or grenades.
13:24The people are plenty scared as it is.
13:27I finally made up my mind about them,
13:29and I honestly wished that the Air Corps had dropped atomic bombs
13:32until every island in this group had been sunk.
13:35I'm sorry I made that statement,
13:38but I want you to know just how I feel.
13:41The Japanese population was in a state of shock as the occupation began.
13:46Initially, American military personnel found their behavior curious.
13:51They had killed a brother-in-law of mine,
13:54killed some of my people.
13:57We landed on Sasebo, in south of Kyushu,
14:01and people called, Ohio, Ohio.
14:04What the heck? Ohio?
14:07I'm not from Ohio.
14:09Well, that was, hello, hello.
14:11And here were these people. I hate it.
14:16The tense early hours of the occupation passed without incident.
14:20There were no casualties, no shots fired in anger.
14:24American soldiers were genuinely surprised
14:27to find the Japanese people cooperative, courteous, and respectful.
14:32At first, simple communication was a significant obstacle.
14:36Many Japanese spoke some English,
14:38but fewer than a thousand Americans knew enough Japanese to serve as translators.
14:43Despite the language barrier,
14:46many Americans marveled at what they saw as the mysteries of Japanese life.
14:52It's a funny thing, the way these Japs dress.
14:55The men all wear some sort of uniform, mostly.
14:59The women all dress the same, on the street.
15:02For shoes, they wear a wooden board
15:04with two cleats on the bottom
15:07and a string running between the toes to keep them on.
15:10They sound like a herd of ponies trotting around.
15:14Commanding the occupation forces was General Douglas MacArthur.
15:18He had a remarkably compassionate view of the Japanese people,
15:22genuinely respecting them and their traditions.
15:26He planned to win their support and cooperation
15:29by allowing their emperor to retain his position.
15:31But only as a figurehead.
15:34Then, he would impose a sweeping set of democratic reforms
15:38to replace the imperial traditions of the Japanese people.
15:43Unlike in Germany, the Japanese government was permitted to stay in existence
15:48to help maintain order and manage the country's essential services.
15:56The Japanese armed forces,
15:59the Japanese armed forces were demobilized
16:02and allowed to disarm themselves.
16:06Millions of Japanese troops abroad were repatriated
16:10as the empire was disbanded.
16:13Once Japan had established what MacArthur and the Allies considered
16:17to be a peacefully inclined and responsible government,
16:21the occupation troops would depart.
16:24To maintain order until then,
16:26MacArthur instituted strict regulations for occupation personnel.
16:31Many soldiers did not like them.
16:35We have to salute Jap officers.
16:38They can give me 20 years first.
16:41I don't know why they want to pussyfoot these damn people.
16:44After what they did to us, they want us to treat them like kings?
16:48They almost get better treatment than we do.
16:50MacArthur knew he had a tall order in rebuilding Japan
16:54and worked seven days a week overseeing all aspects of the undertaking.
17:00He drew hushed murmurs of complaint
17:03as he expected a similarly grueling schedule for those under his command.
17:08But there was ample reason for the long hours.
17:12Japan was in a shattered state.
17:15The war had claimed over 200,000 lives.
17:18The war had claimed over 2 million Japanese lives.
17:22Hundreds of thousands of others were maimed.
17:25The Japanese economy, which before the war had been Asia's most advanced,
17:30was completely destroyed.
17:33The few Japanese warships that weren't sunk in battle
17:37lay wallowing in the mud of Japanese harbors.
17:40The most pressing problem was hunger.
17:44A dire prediction was made by occupation economists.
17:48In a nation of 10 million, one in seven would die of starvation.
17:54Near the garbage barrel,
17:56little Japanese boys dressed in oversized breeches
18:00pushed and shoved, retrieving whatever food fell in.
18:04Most of the time, an older Japanese would overpower the kids
18:08and grab the leftovers.
18:13As the occupation troops settled in,
18:15they went about their duties and tried to put the nightmares of battle behind them.
18:20But vivid reminders of the ultimate horror of war surrounded them at every turn.
18:26Hiroshima and Nagasaki had both been almost entirely destroyed
18:31by the dropping of the atomic bombs.
18:35Their surviving citizens left in a near comatose daze.
18:40Lieutenant Dan McGovern, military photographer,
18:43witnessed and filmed this gut-wrenching devastation firsthand.
18:50Our first view of the city was an awesome sight.
18:54Like a lunar landscape.
18:56No color.
18:58All gray and rust.
19:01It was a horrible sight to see the ruins.
19:05The thing that bothered me most here was to see the children,
19:09the bones of young children.
19:11I saw this doctor walking up the hill which was overlooking the college.
19:16I thought it made a natural scene because there was nothing else around them
19:21but just complete devastation.
19:24I asked him his name and he says,
19:27it's Dr. Nagi.
19:29His wife and his family were killed in the devastation.
19:33He told me that he was standing by the window when the blast went off
19:38and the terrific flame and heat came.
19:42I asked him,
19:44would it be all right to take a picture of him and he said,
19:47fine.
19:49Two days later he was gone.
19:52He died from radiation sickness.
19:57The occupation soldiers tried to make the best of a difficult situation.
20:02Ultimately, they found interests they could share with their foreign hosts.
20:07One common addiction was baseball.
20:11We had a baseball game today with the Jap workers that stay here in the factory.
20:16We beat them 39 to 4 by the way.
20:19They weren't very good players.
20:22It wasn't very hard for us to beat them.
20:25In Japan as well as in Germany,
20:28the early days of occupation were filled with cautious moves
20:32by those on both sides to establish bridges of understanding between former enemies.
20:38But for the occupation to be a success,
20:41the occupied would have to not only coexist with the occupiers, but flourish.
20:47The methods used to achieve this goal in Germany and Japan
20:51would differ as greatly as the cultures and customs of these two defeated nations.
20:58Don't get chummy with Jerry.
21:01In heart, body and spirit, every German is Hitler.
21:04Don't make friends with Hitler.
21:07Don't fraternize.
21:09If in a German town you bow to a pretty girl or pet a blonde child,
21:14you bow to Hitler and his rain of blood.
21:24For US occupation troops in Germany,
21:27the grey, ruined towns of that country were depressing places to be stationed.
21:31Their sense of isolation was intensified by the strict regulations against fraternization.
21:38Having a date with a German girl was an offense punishable by a $65 fine,
21:44a month's pay for a private.
21:47Striking up a conversation with a fraulein became known as the $65 question.
21:53Even so, many soldiers simply ignored the rules.
21:56They had a non-fraternization policy as far as dating German gals was concerned.
22:01Darn few of the GIs that I knew lived up to that policy.
22:07By fraternization, the army really meant screwing.
22:13If we gave gum or candy to German children or stopped to talk to them,
22:18it was not considered fraternization.
22:20If we helped some elderly German person in some way,
22:24it was not considered fraternization.
22:27But there's something about the way the human endocrine system is wired
22:31that would make any restrictions futile.
22:34The rampant hunger and lack of male companionship
22:38also gave German women a strong incentive to fraternize.
22:43The plain-looking frauleins with the unattractive clothes,
22:46lack of makeup, and lack of access to hairstyling
22:50looked better and better to us.
22:53And, after a long period of abstinence from male companionship,
22:58we started to look good to them.
23:02It became a game to outwit the non-frat order.
23:05I was assigned to drive a photographer around
23:08and we carried written permission to fraternize.
23:11Whenever we saw a traveling photographer,
23:13we would stop to take a picture and fraternize officially.
23:17The camera was usually empty.
23:20The non-fraternization policy was flaunted so often
23:24that ultimately occupation commanders had no choice but to rescind the order.
23:32In Japan, fraternization between G.I.s and local women
23:36was also extremely common.
23:38What shocked me was little Japanese boys running up and wanting to know
23:42if you want to go with their sister or something like that,
23:45just for anything, a cigarette or...
23:48I couldn't believe what I was hearing.
23:50They pointed at their sister.
23:52Of course, I didn't understand Japanese,
23:54but I couldn't understand that way of living.
23:58The official policy on fraternization was that
24:01if a woman was allowed to go with a man,
24:03she was allowed to go with a man.
24:07The official policy on fraternization in Japan
24:10was in direct contrast to that of Germany.
24:13MacArthur allowed socializing between Americans and Japanese,
24:18believing that any orders to the contrary were virtually unenforceable.
24:23For their part, the Japanese frowned on American-style dating.
24:28Some refused to let their daughters have anything to do with American soldiers.
24:33With these restrictions,
24:35and frustrated by the language and customs barriers,
24:38some soldiers sought an easier way to find companionship.
24:44The biggest industry in Japan after the war was prostitution.
24:49All large cities had brothel areas,
24:52which were technically off-limits to military personnel,
24:55but the restrictions were generally ignored.
24:58One of Japan's better-known products is the geisha girl.
25:02We had heard all sorts of stories about these young women,
25:06that they were just nice girls who entertained tired Japanese businessmen
25:10in a ladylike way,
25:12playing the flute and serving tea in a ceremonial fashion.
25:16We soon discovered, however,
25:18that most of the geisha houses in 1945
25:21were actually houses of prostitution,
25:24and Tokyo was full of them.
25:25We were faced with the ever-present problem of VD.
25:29The problem soon became quite serious.
25:34Not all the relationships with local women were transitory.
25:38Ultimately, over 100,000 Japanese women married American soldiers.
25:46Overall, it was estimated that as many as one million women
25:50from occupied countries married Japanese women.
25:53All occupied countries married U.S. servicemen in the 1940s.
26:00The German wife of an American serving with the occupation forces
26:05gained status as a war bride,
26:07and, like any other alien wife,
26:09had the right to be transported at government expense to the United States.
26:13Whether or not the marriage was in contravention of military regulations,
26:18the German wife gained full rights to allotments
26:20from the soldiers' pay and public funds.
26:27Besides relations between the soldiers and local women,
26:31another important aspect of daily life in the occupied countries
26:35was the black market.
26:37Although an illegal activity,
26:39it evolved into a highly organized underground economy
26:43based on supply and demand.
26:46One of the most highly prized units of exchange was cigarettes.
26:53American cigarettes still had a lot of power with the Germans.
26:57I hadn't started to smoke, but still drew my free cigarette rations.
27:01For one pack, you could get a lot of clothes washed.
27:05German kids would come around and pick up our clothes,
27:08take them home, have them washed, and bring them back to us.
27:10The high demand for American goods made many G.I.s comparatively wealthy.
27:15During the first four months of the occupation,
27:18American military personnel in Japan and Europe
27:21sent home over $11 million more than they were paid,
27:25mainly by selling cigarettes and other items
27:29that were otherwise unavailable.
27:34I'm sure some messenger would like to know
27:38I'm sure some mess sergeants and rear area supply personnel
27:42cleaned up on this,
27:44but I only sold what I was rationed and received from home,
27:47and I made $1,700.
27:50Remember at that time, a private earned only $50 a month,
27:55and a tech sergeant around $155.
28:00While the critically damaged economies of Germany and Japan healed,
28:04the black market made an intolerable existence moderately tolerable.
28:09But it was far from a permanent solution.
28:13If the occupied nations were to become the bulwarks of democracy
28:17the Allies wished them to be,
28:19their economies would have to be completely rebuilt
28:23from the ground up.
28:30Dear Mom,
28:31I don't believe you could walk through any town here
28:34and find ten people who would still want to continue hostilities.
28:38So the only danger left is to be run over by an automobile.
28:42And there are no automobiles here, as everyone rides bicycles.
28:56The occupation of Germany began without a comprehensive plan
28:59for rebuilding the country.
29:02But the American leadership was determined
29:05not to make the same mistake that had been made at the end of World War I,
29:09when the harsh conditions imposed on Germany by the Treaty of Versailles
29:14ultimately paved the way for the rise of Adolf Hitler.
29:18U.S. leaders feared that widespread poverty,
29:21unemployment, dislocation and despair,
29:24not only here but in the rest of Europe,
29:26would reinforce the appeal of local communist parties.
29:31As a result, the United States government decided to make a bold move
29:36to ensure a firm foundation of democracy in Western Europe.
29:40The architect of this policy was George Marshall,
29:44who, as chief of staff of the U.S. Army during the war,
29:47had foreseen a need to rebuild Europe.
29:50On June 5, 1947,
29:52while Secretary of State in the Truman Administration,
29:55Marshall proclaimed a plan for a European recovery program,
29:59which included Germany.
30:02The Marshall Plan was unprecedented in history.
30:05Never before had a victor held out such a generous hand of reconciliation
30:10to the conquered.
30:13The United States should do whatever it is able to do
30:17to assist in the return of normal economic health in the world.
30:20Without which there can be no political stability and no assured peace.
30:27$1.3 billion in aid established the basis for West Germany's eventual recovery.
30:34The hungry, crushed and dejected citizenry were given sustenance.
30:39The ruins of German cities were replaced by new shops and houses.
30:44The country's broken-down industry received loans
30:47to ignite a new spark of life.
30:51The Soviet Union declined to participate in the Marshall Plan
30:55and prevented other Eastern Bloc countries under its control from taking part.
31:00Subsequent Soviet propaganda portrayed the plan
31:04as an American plot to subjugate Western Europe.
31:08Nevertheless, the Marshall Plan was extremely successful,
31:12contributing greatly to the rapid recovery of the Soviet Union.
31:15Contributing greatly to the rapid recovery of German industry
31:19and a rise in the standard of living for the civilian population
31:23in the Western zones of occupation.
31:26In Japan, American commanders also recognized
31:30that this former enemy needed to be rebuilt
31:34as a barrier against Soviet expansion.
31:38We had had some trouble with communists
31:41who tried to disrupt the form of government we were teaching.
31:44The communists continued to try to make inroads with the Japanese people,
31:48but those people had had all the violence they'd wanted over the past war years.
31:53They turned a deaf ear to commie propaganda
31:56and gave their attention to information on democracy,
31:59dispensed by our civilian specialists.
32:06To further reinforce Western ways,
32:09MacArthur utilized the expertise of a broad range of American
32:13civilians, such as managers, businessmen, and educators,
32:18to build a new Japanese government.
32:21We civilians were a notably diverse group,
32:24representing many of the skills sought by General MacArthur.
32:28The ex-commissioner of corrections would serve in Tokyo
32:32as an advisor on penal reform in Japan.
32:35The language anthropologist would concentrate and advise
32:39on the possible reform of the Japanese language.
32:42And the public school teachers would conduct educational courses
32:46under the aegis of the Army's information and education program.
32:52The reform of Japan's school system included courses in English
32:56for older students, who were also taught about America
32:59and the liberties it enjoyed.
33:02The westernization of Japan didn't end here.
33:06Guided by General MacArthur, the occupation authorities
33:08carried out a broad range of reforms.
33:13The most basic of these was a new constitution,
33:16which MacArthur's government wrote for the Japanese.
33:21Over time, Japanese leaders who were acceptable to occupation authorities
33:26gradually replaced imperial rule.
33:29Economic and social changes included the redistribution of farmland
33:34and the legalization of labor unions.
33:36New laws gave women and children greater rights.
33:40The seeds were sown for a new, democratic Japan,
33:44which included elections, in which women were allowed to vote for the first time.
33:50Industries that were once geared towards manufacturing weapons
33:54were converted into making consumer goods.
33:57The implements of war were dismantled and used as raw materials.
34:01New homes, such as these being built in Tokyo,
34:05rose from the rubble of Japan's devastated cities.
34:10MacArthur himself reported on the progress made by the Japanese
34:14in this radio address made to occupation troops under his command in 1945.
34:22In Japan, they have, for the first time,
34:25seen the free man's way of life in actual action.
34:28And it has stunned them into new thoughts and new ideas.
34:33The revolution, which will restore the dignity and freedom of the common man, has begun.
34:42As the evening of despair dissolved into the dawn of hope in Japan and Germany,
34:48at least one close observer was not happy about what he was witnessing.
34:53Joseph Stalin.
34:54It would not be long before the Soviets undertook a daring move
34:58aimed at nothing less than forestalling all progress made by the occupation.
35:06When the war in Europe ended, we had one very nice contact with the Russians.
35:11Ruskies are coming!
35:14They were so happy to see us, and we were so happy to see them.
35:19We drank a lot of wine.
35:21Everyone got drunk and sang crazy songs together,
35:25patted each other on the back, yelled, Comrade!
35:29And all that stuff.
35:36In early 1945, a lasting friendship between the US and USSR,
35:42based on their wartime cooperation, was on the horizon.
35:46Despite occasional friction, Americans and Russians were brothers in arms against the Germans.
35:55On one occasion, when cognac had been flowing freely,
35:59somehow our platoon sergeant and a Russian sergeant got into
36:03an incomprehensible but heated exchange of angry words.
36:07Well, the Russian drew his pistol from his holster,
36:09but he was wobbly from the alcohol, and before he could get his pistol aimed,
36:14he was disarmed by one of his comrades.
36:17Calm was restored, and before they parted,
36:20the two sergeants were again behaving as friendly allies should.
36:26Although the war had ended, a new kind of relationship between the great powers was emerging,
36:32an adversarial one.
36:34A new kind of relationship between the great powers was emerging,
36:38an adversarial one.
36:40It was beneath the surface of every encounter between Soviet and American troops.
36:45The focal point of this vague yet increasingly tense conflict was Germany.
36:52Concerning the Russians, every senior German officer who surrendered to us
36:57offered to turn around, join us, and fight the Russians.
37:01They would declare that we would be fighting them soon,
37:04and that we would be far better off to do so with Germany's help than to do it by ourselves.
37:12The Soviet Union believed the West wanted to encircle the USSR to overthrow communism.
37:19Each step the Soviets took to strengthen their position
37:23was viewed as an act of aggression by the United States.
37:27The Cold War had begun.
37:30When leaving Vienna, you were permitted to travel on one specific road.
37:35If you got lost, or if you left the road for any reason,
37:39the Russians would arrest you, and it would take several days before they would release you.
37:44The Russians considered every American as a spy.
37:50The position of Berlin in the developing superpower standoff was extremely precarious.
37:57Located in eastern Germany, deep within the Russian zone of occupation,
38:02the city was a constant source of confrontation in the immediate post-war era.
38:08The place to make a stand against Russia is right here in Berlin.
38:12This is not a Cold War. It's hot as hell.
38:16Their motives are just what the Soviets have said, to drive us out of Europe.
38:20In March 1948, the Allied powers decided to unite their occupation zones into a single unit, West Germany.
38:29In protest, the Soviet representative withdrew from the Allied Control Council.
38:35As a result of these problems, there was anxiety among occupation forces and civilian commentators
38:41regarding the Soviets' commitment to peace.
38:44Germany has become a social and political vacuum.
38:47Her people are helpless, hopeless, and half-starved.
38:50In that vacuum, Russian totalitarianism and Western democracy are now competing for recruits.
38:56If the Russians succeed in replacing Nazism with Communism,
39:00our efforts to democratize Germany would have failed.
39:03With German cooperation, Communism can take over most of Europe within a generation.
39:08If Germany goes democratic, she can help in the slope of the Cold War.
39:11If Germany goes democratic, she can help in the slow process of democratizing Western Europe, including Russia.
39:18The difficulties escalated when the Soviets tried to inspect U.S. freight trains en route to Berlin.
39:25Rather than submit, the U.S. simply stopped the trains.
39:29Then, in June 1948, the Soviets cut off all road, rail, and waterway access to West Berlin, citing technical difficulties.
39:39They had severed all of Berlin's lifelines, denying over two million residents all means of supply.
39:47The Soviets then announced that the four-power administration of Berlin had ceased,
39:53and that the Western Allies no longer had any rights within the city.
39:57The United States and Britain undertook a bold move to stand up to the Soviets.
40:03Air cargos of food and supplies were flown in.
40:07In skies where Allied planes once unleashed death and destruction, they now flew on wings of peace.
40:15This dramatic response was called the Berlin Airlift.
40:20One of the Air Force pilots who participated was Lieutenant Gail Halverson, who shot this extraordinary film of the effort.
40:31When the German government and the Berlin people refused to capitulate,
40:34it was natural that pressure should be directed against the Western powers to drive them from the city.
40:40It was recognized by all that if the Western powers were not in the city of Berlin,
40:45the Germans would have no choice except to bow to a one-party communist system and to Soviet economic exploitation.
40:52The airlift lasted 462 days and consisted of over 278,000 flights by American and British planes before the Soviets finally lifted the blockade.
41:04American policymakers risked open confrontation to maintain a symbolic beachhead in the communist bloc.
41:12The Soviet plan to evict the U.S. from the city backfired.
41:16The Soviet plan to evict the U.S. from the city backfired and instead sealed the American commitment to West Berlin.
41:26In the wake of the Berlin Airlift, West Germany's recovery from total economic and political chaos was so dramatic that it has become a modern legend.
41:38Japan's reconstruction was similarly stunning.
41:42In both countries, the occupation was a period of rapid social and institutional change.
41:50I found the Japanese anxious to please and cooperate.
41:55They tried to master the English language and cater to occupation personnel.
42:00One example occurred in the window of a small business firm.
42:04It read, today closed, tomorrow we give you the business.
42:08And they probably did.
42:12The occupation left equally deep marks on the military and civilian personnel who served in it.
42:20In the course of my two years of occupation, I learned that the Japanese were human beings.
42:26They had their good things and bad things.
42:30And in fact, they had more hardships in many respects than we had.
42:35The occupation of Germany and Japan was an unprecedented undertaking and an unqualified success.
42:43For Allied servicemen and women, it was the culmination of an experience that, for many, had deeply affected their lives.
42:53From the skies over Germany, to the jungles of the South Pacific,
42:58on the burning sands of North Africa, and the frigid waters of the North Atlantic,
43:05across the beaches of Normandy and the volcanic ash of Iwo Jima,
43:11these men and women had undergone a demanding test of their strength and endurance.
43:19Yet in the aftermath of the greatest conflict in history,
43:22they demonstrated the resolve to embark on a vital process of rebuilding and rebirth.
43:29Their fortitude helped lift two former enemies from the ashes of defeat
43:35and transform them into strong and stable Allies.
43:53In the wake of the war, the Allied forces were forced to retreat.
43:58The Allied forces were forced to retreat.
44:02The Allied forces were forced to retreat.
44:06The Allied forces were forced to retreat.
44:10The Allied forces were forced to retreat.
44:14The Allied forces were forced to retreat.
44:17The Allied forces were forced to retreat.
44:21The Allied forces were forced to retreat.
44:25The Allied forces were forced to retreat.
44:29The Allied forces were forced to retreat.
44:33The Allied forces were forced to retreat.
44:37The Allied forces were forced to retreat.
44:41The Allied forces were forced to retreat.
44:44The Allied forces were forced to retreat.