Sergeant John Basilone gives his men a reality check. From HBO's "The Pacific", episode 8 of 10. I claim nothing in this video. It's simply for entertainment purposes.
"The Japanese soldier doesn't care if he gets hurt or killed, as long as he kills you". John Basilone describing the horror of war to a bunch of kiddies who thought the warfare was a school playground.
That's why more than 6000 Marines got wiped out at Tarawa in just 70 hours and 1 aircraft carrier sunk (USS Liscome Bay), taking 644 men with her. Out of the 5000 IJA troops, only 16 soldiers and 1 officer surrendered. The IJA soldiers defending Tarawa were battle-hardened and veterans of the Southeast Asian campaign against the British and the Dutch while the Marines consists of mainly new recruits.
@@chrisj9700 Can't blame the Japanese. Even though they were our enemies. And regardless of what they did abroad. If you would just roll over and die letting the enemy attack your home where your women children and elderly live, you do not deserve to live yourself. So, of course, they would defend their home islands to the death.
@@chrisj9700 And yet your president refused to drop an A-bomb on Beijing when the PRC army helped North Korea during the Korean War. Not even when the commies invaded Seoul and killed every single western people including women and children. Not even when General Douglas MacArthur said the PRC army outnumbered the Allies 10 to 1.
Except we're a much different Japan today. I'd like to imagine we're a people more than remembering. Some of bv us still feel shame from this war. Being okinawan, i get it both ways. People either love us or hate us.
@@orneryokinawan4529 did you start it? did you even fight in it? were you even born yet? if you didnt answer yes to each of these questions feel no shame you are not responsible for the sins of your father same as i am not responsible for the sins of mine.
The Japanese Infantryman of WW2 were a well-disciplined force to be reckon with. A true fanatics of their modern terms of bushido of which they've devoted to. It is therefore that we can respect them as a worthy opponents in combat and as a warrior. From Guadacanal to Okinawa, their tenacity grows higher as fighting for one's homeland is a true factor of motivation. What is done is done, it has been well over 70 years now and we can only respect the man for fighting for their nations friends or foes
@@orneryokinawan4529 You don't have to answer for the actions of people that are long past now. Japan and the US are important, strategic allies now and that is all that should matter to anyone. Both countries had trials and tribulations that shook both countries to their core but as the years have passed both countries have learned from their pasts and are both better for it. I used to live in Tokyo for 5 years in Hiroo, Shibuya and I've been wanting to go back ever since my family moved back to the states. Incredible country and people.
And believe me it was an honor. The first country to defeat us in thousands of years. I can only respect that. I got to meet American WWII veterans. To live through what they did, and for how long they did. It's amazing.
This guy was pissed with his Marines because they thought Japanese soldiers were just cartoon idiots. He had been in the thick of it on Guadalcanal and he had personally seen the Hell and the tenacity of the Japanese soldier and how hard he can fight
@@scottgieben896 for the most part. The arisaka wasn't really updated except for the 7.7 caliber change which even then was supplemented with the 6.5 arisaka. Nambu stayed the same. The only thing might have changed was the machineguns
I argue against that Japan was one of the most modern nations in WWII, the problem is that their military doctrine was not prepared for Modern Warfare. For example, Japan did not believe in the concept of Combined Arms, they were the only major nation to do that. If you watch Letters of Iwo Jima, you see a little bit of this where the Japanese Navy refuses to take orders from their Army even though the Army officers outranked the naval ones. Plus also you have to remember the situation Japan was in. The Bulk of their military was raging a campaign in Asia mainland where their best equipment was being used. The Navy had nothing to do with this since Japan was the dominating naval power in the region. So when Japan began the war against the Allies, there focus was islands where you didn't need much firepower to secure these islands. So their garrison units lacked better equipment to defend these islands.
Jon Seda captured perfectly a good military NCO looking out for his men. I was in the military myself and I met my fair share of good NCOs and not-so-good ones.
@@Tipi83 I loved his work ever since he starred in Homicide: Life on the Street. He did a great job playing Selena's husband to now his role on Chicago PD. He's a very underrated actor.
Definitely pal. Goosbumbs every single time I watch this. I've never been in war and hope never be too but the script is just awesome and also that's the way how all people supposed to respect their enemy indipendently of what unit or nation's army are belongings. Always respect the enemy.
The Japanese soldier and marine was committed to victory and not committed to coming home with anything less. That’s why there were many holdouts that refused to surrender. Coming home in defeat was worse than death, while dying for the Emperor was the ultimate state of grace.
The typical Japanese soldier was every bit as tenacious as stated here by Basilone. The reports, the REAL reports, from the Pacific theatre are simply horrifying. Right or wrong, victor or loser, the Japanese soldier was a force to be reckoned with and should be respected.
A force to be reckoned with? Yes. Respect? An enemy that commits horrible war crimes that includes human live experiments, holding contests for killing civilians, and raping hundreds of thousands of women and bringing them into sexual slavery deserves no respect. Don't get me started on nanking. Hell, even the Nazis told them they were taking it too far.
@@theguy6082 What do you think US troops were doing in Germany and occupied Japanese territories? The victors write the history books. Last I checked, we were the only ones to drop not one but TWO atomic bombs on what were majority civilian populated cities. Don't be a fool.
@@codyking4848 I won't deny the fact that the US is definitely not sin free and that the usage of atomic bombs is an atrocity in itself. But let's put some things into perspective. The upper death estimates of Hiroshima+Nagasaki is around 200k. But a land invasion would be even worse. The Department of the Navy estimated that the Americans speculated to die were 800k and Japanese around the millions. The numbers of people who died in the atomic bombing in comparison are tame. The government sent leaflets telling the civilian population, the majority of whom enthusiastically supported the Imperial government, to evacuate not once, but twice. They had plenty of warning to leave the city. And some did, thankfully. I won't deny that the Allies weren't always clean either. All sides in war commit atrocities. However, the Allies weren't the one committing mass genocide on the entirety of southeast Asia and Korea in an attempt to wipe out entire cultures. You know, Nanking one of the worst massacres not just in WW2 but in all of human history where the IJA forced family civilian members to rape each other, mutilated, tortured and bayoneted babies for the fun of it? Around 350k. That was fifty percent, FIFTY percent of China's then capital. And that's just ONE event out of the 2-13 million deaths that would occur out of Imperial Japan's atrocities, how many times is that more than Nagasaki and Hiroshima? You do the math. You don't want to listen to the victors of the war like the US? Fine. You can ask the Koreans who were under Japanese colonial rule for 35 years and had 200k of its women forced into sexual slavery. You can read about WW2 from a Chinese textbook about the war atrocities committed in China that would make an Auschwitz guard vomit. Or a Filipino textbook about the Bataan death march. And Malaysia, Burma, Indonesia and many more of these nations who lost to Imperial Japan. I'm sure they'll tell you *wonderful* things about them. There is a reason why China and Korea still have animosity against Japan to this very day.
I served in the very same unit, with the very same rank and the very same billet as John Basilone.....it was the highlight of my military career. I am humbled....
The great thing also in this scene is the casting of the requites...boys had just lived through the depression, the majority of Americans were small and skinny by today's standards...there were no muscular kids then...most soldiers got healthier, ate better, gained weight and were fitter than at anytime in their short lives after joining the Corps...well researched...
In Raritan, NJ-the town where John Basilone grew up-there's an annual parade in commemoration of him and his actions in WWII. This is the same town where I grew up, so I got to march in the parade one year with the local scout troop, which was cool. They march down the main road, then end at the statue of him right outside town where everyone gives a thanks and cheers
One of the many Marine legends we heard stories about at Parris Island. "Manila" John Basilone, Dan Daly, Chesty Puller and the like. I had the honor to lead, as part of the color guard, a couple Basilone day parades in his hometown of Raritan, NJ in the mid '80s.
Japan is a nation which has spent almost the entire previous 2000 years practicing war in almost an art like precision. If it were not for the man power and industrial might of the USA, things could have gone very differently.
Kuaminifu Mwenzi Don't count on that. Americans at Guadalcanal were outnumbered in men and equipment both on land and at sea. Japanese had superior equipment and ships and especially aircraft. At the Battle of Midway it was even worse for the Americans than at Guadalcanal. Battle of Coral Sea, same.
Kuaminifu Mwenzi I'll assume you are just joking. Wars are won by winning individual battles. And except for the Phillipines, we were vastly outnumbered in every battle you just posted.
Rikki0 i think you're missing my point, yes battles win wars, but you have to look at why the battles were won or lost. History judges the pacific theatre very clearly. The Japanese made many large initial advances because they held the element of surprise and already had significant experience in warfare. This expansion eventually ground to a halt due to the length of supply lines. As the USA began to increase it's industrial might, more and more battles were won by the allies as they were better supplied and equipped as the war continued.
Kuaminifu Mwenzi We didn't win because of superior soldiers, superior manpower, superior industrial might, or superior technology... We won the war because the U.S. had the best Generals and Admirals of WWII (quite frankly the best since then too), and our leaders did NOT insist on actions (Hitler's 2-front war, Hirohito's attacking Pearl Harbor) that were suicidally stupid and that the officers themselves did not want to do.
I recall a quote from a former Japanese officer in the Pacific about the Marines I learned at Parris Island. Well, not **exactly,** but he said something to the effect that there was no dishonor in being defeated in battle by men who fought the way the Marines did. If you understand anything about the Code Bushido that guided the culture of the Japanese Imperial Army, you know how heavy that is. A similar speech to the one in this clip was made by a Soviet airborne instructor to a class of recruits training for duty in Afghanistan in "9th Company." True warriors may lose a war, but they can still win the respect of their foes; I think if they can do that, there is no true defeat.
Underestimate your enemy, and you underprepare for him. If your enemy is worthy only of your disrespect, any losses become embarrassments, and your victories are hollow.
Paw was a member of the Red Arrow Division, the guys who marched over the Owen Stanley Mountains. He spoke of the first time they saw Japanese on New Guinea. One of their guides (the Fuzzy Wuzzy angels) came running back to them, pointing up the trail shouting “Japan Man Japan Man.” They set up an ambush on the trail. He said they were amazed to see the Japanese soldiers. They had been told they were short little runts with buck teeth and thick glasses. They were 6 foot tall, strong powerful looking men who confidently marched. He never spoke of the ambush. He never spoke of combat. When he was finally relieved he weighed less than 100 lbs, feverish with malaria. He was given the option to go home in 1945 in Luzon when he had accumulated enough points. In his discharge picture his uniform coat sleeve has 5 bars signifying 2 1/2 years in front line positions. I have never met a combat vet who will speak of combat.
My great grandfather was in that same division. 120th Field Artillery. Never ever spoke of combat. My grandmother gave me a letter he wrote from the Philippines where he describes an incident in which one of the guys went out at night to take a dump and was accidentally gunned down by his own comrades. It's really screwed up.
@@IceCreamMeatballsThere's a scene in _The Pacific_ to that effect - Gunny Hainey is berating his men the next morning about how dangerous it is to leave your foxhole at night.
every person who enters the military should have to read Sun Tzu's art of war. “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”
They do in West Point, Annapolis, Colorado Springs, Sandhurst and most if not all of the other service academies throughout the world.....I'm sure that EVERY officer at least once has studied Sun Tzu and Von Clauswitz's Vom Krieg (on war). I'm looking at my copies in my bookcase as I write this....(took the Navy AVSEB, but the police department called first....STUPID decision; should have joined the Navy FIRST then joined the department). It would have helped me be a better police officer...
When your entire culture tells you that life is merely a temporary state before you reunite with your ancestors, and that the enemy will destroy your descendants still here, even after you're gone, then survival is becomes far less important than removing these demons from the same plane of existence as the people you love.
The IJA soldier was a barbaric war criminal that would rape underage girls and participate in contests for beheading civilians so no, they don't deserve respect even as a combatant.
Because he has been there and knows what its really like and is striking fear into them so that they take their training and what they are about to get into seriously. That's how the heck that works.
Wen u grow up in ur family house, and u think u are the lion? u are the best. u are the fastest u are the smartest, and also, u think ur enemy is nothing that's misjudged and it's the biggest mistake that man can do... never misjudged ur enemy
10 mile run in 2 minutes... I feel that. I served in Fallujah and training was brutal as hell. 10 mile runs in the morning followed by an entire day of weapons training
You might have read the book by Eugene Sledge but if not one of the things he credits with his survival was the fact that the drill instructors trained them endlessly but also with disruptive tactics like this - when he got out there and had to fight with no sleep and keep his senses sharp he wrote this training kept him alive.
John Basilone was cut from the cloth of gods own robes the fact this man could’ve stayed yet chose to lead and teach his marines and die on the black sands of Iwo Jima and the fact he did it like it was just another day in the office is something that legendary just doesn’t do enough justice to describe who this man was nor would he care. The pacific theater of war has always fascinated me and the fact that some of us as humans just have this type of character in us is insane to me.
Wow you need to brush up on your history kid. The Japanese weren't being fools. They were the fucking definition of putting your life on the line for your country. They knew what they were doing when they decided to use kamikazes or when the fought with no weapons but their bare fucking hands. They knew they were probably going to lose, but they were going to lose their life, before they lost their honor for their country men and their nation.
I don't know that figure, but at John Basilone's wedding in July 1944 the four sergeants of his company were groomsmen, one of them, one being his best man, another gave Lena Riggi away. Of these five sergeants, Basilone and two others were killed at Iwo Jima, while the other two sergeants were injured at Iwo Jima, one of them loosing an arm.
No fear of death is a curse. They charged into gun fire without any thought of their own lives. Which is why a few hundred Marines could easily kill a few thousand Japanese soldiers. Their will to survive is what got them through the war and their victory. After all, would you rather a few hundred men survive to fight another day, or a few thousand die and be of no use. Feeling and concurring fear is what makes a man truly strong. Having no fear is a full waiting to die.
This scean is so important from all the "Freedomboos" I've talked to that stated the war was always a firegon conclusion, and that the servicemen in the Pacific had it easy because they were fighting an inferior enemy compared to the Germans. It borders on racism, and sometimes goes there, when I hear, the Japanese could never beat a European army or an American force, not remembering the speed that the Japanese took over the Pacific with, or that they didn't have to march through Washington DC to win the War, just take Hawaii, and hold off the Allies long enough to agree to an armistice, allowing them control of the Pacific. I've never seen the Japanese respected like the Germans in that community. Sad.
There is no honor in making war. The honor is in bringing peace. If you seek honor in war, you will prolong the war to get more honor. Societies bent on making war for honor, become incompetent at actually accomplishing their missions, because when the war is over, there's no more "Honor" to get. So in victory they end their source of honor. The wise, seek honor in peace, by ending the war as quickly, victoriously, and decisively as possible. The real problem is that people these days see honor as a commodity to acquire. It's not, it's a behavior to emulate. One does not 'get' honor or 'earn' honor through deeds. One 'acts' with honor, one 'does' honor.
(continued) Recently, a growing concern is the moral state of our society. Every day in the news - fighting, shooting at each other at the slightest provocation, drunk and reckless drivers, etc. Over the past few years to live, then we are better, and that's kinder to each other did not. The reason? How to change the situation? It's always possible to declare an apolitical...
The young men back then did not have their heads down looking toward their laps and going bing, bing, bing, on some stupid electronic device while their friends were a few feet away.
Life is funny in a way because the fact that the Japanese was so willing to give his life for the cause there was no one left to to continue it. One of life’s paradoxes.
@USparatroopersurgeon no its not. When basilone first comes to the place he meets the two already marines who are private first classes which means they have graduated from bootcamp. Just because they are being yelled at that doesn't mean they are in bootcamp. AIT for infantry requires the Marines to react under pressure.
I don't really have a strong opinion on who was the strongest fighting force was, but the Russians really wouldn't be the ones to ask in this case because they never had to fight against the Americans in order to be able to compare them with the Germans.
I really don't want to start an argument, but 39410 is actually kind of right. Intercepted reports and radio chatter indicated the the NVA and VC actually expected the Tet Offensive to be a complete success, and when it wasn't they began to lose their morale. however because the Americans never saw it coming, the American population had no idea and began to lose morale themselves. I'm not saying the Vietnamese didn't put up a hell of a fight, cause they did, but historically speaking, yeah.
@ So first congrats for replying to a comment almost a decade old. So very useful. Second, thats what my comment was originally in reference to. Youd know that if you could see the original comment, but you cant, because IT IS ALMOST A DECADE OLD.
All of this is very true but the thing that really broke Germanies back was the involvement of the US and Canada. When Japan attacked the US made a deal with Hitler, to not go to war with Germany if he turned a blind eye to Japan (He refused) and so the US was in the war. Britain was on the defense on an un-invadable island. They had good defense but could not attack. Thanks to the added man power and the incredible industrial strength of the US and some of the best infantry weapons...Cont
what people miss about the japanese soldier, is that this was imperial japan, and the emperor was a religious leader and emperor, shintoism and all of the japanese culture elevate the emperor to god on earth status, so it was a holy war for them.
... The people of England regards itself as free; but it is grossly mistaken; it is free only during the election of members of parliament. As soon as they are elected, slavery overtakes it, and it is nothing. The use it makes of the short moments of liberty it enjoys shows indeed that it deserves to lose them."
ThePennyPincher there are still marines like gunny baselone,more than youd think.its just that the press is so busy showing murderers like army SSgt Robert bales or traitors like randall manning,that your baselones' in all the services never seem to get mentioned.
@Old man Goat I'm sure, my dad was in Nam and MoH could stay but I keep hearing about people who get it today will sometimes try to refuse it so they can stay.
Never underestimate your enemy? For sure. Respect? Normally I would agree, but the shit the IJA did made the Nazis look like fucking angels. An enemy that bayonets babies, kidnaps hundreds of women into sexual slavery and holds contests for civilian killing deserves absolutely no respect. There is no honour in that kind of thing whatsoever. Not that these American boys would care anyway since at the time, anyone who wasn't white was just another second class human being to them.
@@theguy6082 I think they are using word respect in a different context. It’s like what Gunny said: “never fail to respect their desire to put you and your buddies into an early grave.” Respect their fighting ability and tenacity in combat. Respect the fact that the enemy is a tough opponent that has no problem surrendering his life to make sure he takes your own.
This reminds me of a German WW2 novel by Remarque I read, where a Wehrmacht recruit uttered a simular remark about the Russians. And their instructor, Oberfeldwebel Klautke, gave the whole platoon a simular description of the avarage Red Army soldier; 'Iwan, as you call him, is not fighting for f&%ing Stalin, or the Communist Party. He fights for holy mother Russia. He fights for the bare survival of his entire nation. And because he knows SS Heini and uncle Adolf hate his guts, he hates us to! With a vigour you cannot even imagine. He can march 40 kilometers a day with a full load and a rifle on his back through the worst terrain. And even then is fully prepared to charge straight into our machine gun fire to stab a bayonet into your guts. He and his ancestors have been fighting Western invaders for centuries. And so far have never been defeated. You boys are up against a formidable enemy! Never forget that!' (Erich Maria Remarque; 'A time to live and a time to die.')
I love this. The Germans were educated people, they knew damn well how much history had said "DO NOT INVADE RUSSIA" by that point in time. But there they were, stuck in the middle of it. all they could do is prepare best they could and hope they could beat the odds.
The scene proved 2 points: 1. A Combat Veteran knows the truth of what you as a recruit is about face. Listen, learn or you will die. 2. A Marine Gunnery Sergeant knows all, hears all and sees all.
@@Venezolano410 I do not know what made you what you are, but let me be clear: I have a childhood friend whose name is on the Wall. Take your fake hippy crap( I lived in the late sixties and those people became yuppies and then became right wing conservatives) away with you.
@@Venezolano410 apparently you do not care about humanity in general. And my politics are left leaning but I respect My Country and those in it. I respect those men and women who defend it. I respect your right to disagree with me, as you should respect mine. That being said: go f yourself.
basilone wasnt sent back, he requested to go back because he saw so many young kids and he wanted to save as many lives as he could. i use to be part of the first marine division on camp pendleton ca, theres stories of him all over the place
Martin Corleone lol no, i was in first div too and i haven’t heard of his stories being mentioned there in the 4 years I was there aside from Basilone road
And left a wife and kid behind. He served his time with the Marines, he did his duty. His new duty was to be a father and a husband, but instead he went back only to get his guts shot out on a beach.
+Adam Gresham Respect their motive? That wasn't the point of his speech, you got it wrong. The message was "never underestimate your enemy". Stop trying to sound philosophical, it's annoying and pretentious. You aren't Eisenhower.
my bad......the second that you fail to respect the enemies motive to want to kill you and everyone else like you....I didnt think i would have to explain it to a Sarn't
I went to this park with my girlfriend in New Jersey. Turns out there was a John Basilone memorial at the end of the trail. I told my girl we’re running to the end, cuz I wanted to pay my respects.
I can't imagine what it was like for my female relatives at the time, to prepare to fight even with sticks with bayonets attached. If that isn't desperation I don't know what is! I'm glad it never came to that. I couldn't imagine stabbing someone's son, father, brother, cousin, etc.
Race hatred and racism were staples of the Great Pacific War, on both sides. Prior to the war, many Americans - including professional military men who ought to have known better - believed that the Japanese were a backward, weak people, militarily-inept and not able to compete with westerners in military affairs. The common image of the Japanese soldier was a weak, buck-toothed, nearsighted sad sack - not a warrior at all. Of course, the ABCD powers - America, Britain & the Commonwealths, and the Dutch - all learned the hard way that the Japanese were very formidable warriors indeed - throughout the course of the Pacific War. Gunnery Sergeant Basilone was doing the right thing by his men, teaching them that the Japanese were a formidable opponent, one worthy of respect even though our enemies at the time. His getting in their faces may seem harsh to modern sensibilities, but he's doing it to make them better Marines and to prepare them as best he could for the hell of combat. The hateful propaganda existed on their side as well. According to Japanese wartime propaganda, the Japanese people had been told - and believed - that when the victorious Americans and their allies occupied Japan, that they would be bayoneted, roasted over a fire and then eaten. Ordinary Japanese were therefore stunned when American GI's were friendly, had smiles on their faces - and wanted to give them chocolate bars and cigarettes.
@@orneryokinawan4529 if Hiroshima and nagasaki bombing didn't happen. These men would've experience an all out war against the Japanese people itself. Kids to old men and women all civilians no exceptions must fight to the death for their god emperor
@@GeorgiaBoy1961 The difference is that for the US, they were taught to mock their enemy and underestimate them, while for the Japanese they were taught to hate them to their core. So the Japanese were willing to fight even harder than before, even giving their lives for it.
@@GeorgiaBoy1961 Respect? The IJA committed some of the most horrid war crimes ever known to human existence that they make what the Nazis did look like kids play. I don't see anything respectable about that kind of enemy that bayonets babies, does live human experiments and uses hundreds of thousands of girls, a lot of whom were underage, as sexual slaves. Every IJA soldier that participated in those acts should've been lined up and shot.
@ Rob Walsh Re:"I would be terrified at the prospect of facing the IJA in combat." In the now-distant time before the Second World War, international travel and communications were nothing like they are today, and people and nations were much more-insular and isolated from one another than they are now, particularly ones so distant from one another as Japan and the U.S. It is simply a fact that both sides engaged in racial stereotyping about one another prior to and during the war. If you examine some of the propaganda posters and other material produced -by both sides - it is very extreme to modern sensibilities. In the Anglosphere - the U.S. and other English-speaking nations (Britain and the CW nations in particular) - the views of Japan before the war were dismissive, often, not allowing for the fact that the Japanese had, in a remarkably short amount of time, gone from being a neo-feudal society in the 1860s and 1870s to being a first-world power by the turn of the century, when Japan decisively beat Russia in the Russo-Japanese conflict. The very stereotypes mentioned, i.e., small, slight people with bad eyes and thick glasses, not the material of first-rate military men. These dismissive stereotypes, then, just added that much more to the shock felt by the Western nations in the greater Pacific, when Japan launched her attacks of December 6-7th 1941. It wasn't just that Pearl Harbor was hit, but that our great fortress in the Pacific at the Philippines was lost, as the British lost Singapore in one of the largest surrenders in her history, and the Dutch lost their possessions in the SW Pacific region. The British were so badly-surprised at Singapore that all of their artillery was pointed seaward, in the wrong direction to repel the Japanese attack, which came over-land down the Malay peninsula. The shock and awe continued when Japanese aircraft sunk the British battleship Prince of Wales and battle-cruiser Repulse - without any surface naval aid whatsoever. Thus arose a panic or near-panic over the newly-recognized Japanese military superiority. That first year of the war or so when all fell before her military might, gave Japan what some Japanese officers and men later called "victory disease," an over-confidence borne of her easy victories early on in the war. so that sword of overconfidence cut both ways.....
Then you can search up the war crimes that the IJA did during that time. I'm sure you would have no problem going to war with those folks considering the shit they did back then.
One of those speeches that feels stereotypical and overdone in every war movie...until you read the actual history and realize that everthing Sgt. Basilone says is historically accurate and true: many of the Japanese soldiers had been fighting since 1933, and some of their Sr Staff had fought the Russians in the 1900s or the Germans in WW1, so quite literally when these young Marines were in diapers. And it is well documented that Imperial Japanese soldiers literally ate maggoty rice and dirty-dysentary-causing water for weeks and still fought at levels most other armies could only dream of for their top units.
No different than the US military today, they are the most experienced fighting force on the face of the planet today, they have been in combat for nearly 20 years in some corner of the globe. Neither china nor russia have that kind of continuous experience under their belt
@@joshuagrover795 The actual percentage of troops in the US military and by extension NATO that have actual combat experience is a very small and rapidly shrinking percentage. 4 of the 5 US soldiers deployed to Iraq never left the safety of their bases. Even fewer got shot at. Fewer had the opportunity to return fire. Fewer returned fire. Iraq has been over since 2012. Afghanistan has been practically over since 2014. Initial contracts are 2 to 6 years. Retention rates for combat arms is low, the lowest of all the branches in the military. The winner of the next war will not live and die based off of "combat experience," but resources, technology and logistics, the same as any war.
"The Japanese soldier doesn't care if he gets hurt or killed, as long as he kills you". John Basilone describing the horror of war to a bunch of kiddies who thought the warfare was a school playground.
That's why more than 6000 Marines got wiped out at Tarawa in just 70 hours and 1 aircraft carrier sunk (USS Liscome Bay), taking 644 men with her. Out of the 5000 IJA troops, only 16 soldiers and 1 officer surrendered. The IJA soldiers defending Tarawa were battle-hardened and veterans of the Southeast Asian campaign against the British and the Dutch while the Marines consists of mainly new recruits.
@@chrisj9700 Horrible act but it was the best way to minimize the american casualties.
@@LS-oq3qh And Japanese casualties.
@@chrisj9700 Can't blame the Japanese. Even though they were our enemies. And regardless of what they did abroad. If you would just roll over and die letting the enemy attack your home where your women children and elderly live, you do not deserve to live yourself. So, of course, they would defend their home islands to the death.
@@chrisj9700 And yet your president refused to drop an A-bomb on Beijing when the PRC army helped North Korea during the Korean War. Not even when the commies invaded Seoul and killed every single western people including women and children. Not even when General Douglas MacArthur said the PRC army outnumbered the Allies 10 to 1.
"The Japanese Soldier, he has been at war since you were in fucking diapers" the way he delivers that line is my favorite moment in the entire series.
And that line hits more knowing it's true. The majority of the Japanese soldier has been fighting since 1933.
Yuh
@@sirkermitthefirstoffrogeth9622 actually the Japanese soldier already been fighting since The Russo-Japanese War till end of WW2...
An enemy worth fighting is an enemy worth remembering.
Except we're a much different Japan today. I'd like to imagine we're a people more than remembering. Some of bv us still feel shame from this war. Being okinawan, i get it both ways. People either love us or hate us.
@@orneryokinawan4529 did you start it? did you even fight in it? were you even born yet? if you didnt answer yes to each of these questions feel no shame you are not responsible for the sins of your father same as i am not responsible for the sins of mine.
The Japanese Infantryman of WW2 were a well-disciplined force to be reckon with. A true fanatics of their modern terms of bushido of which they've devoted to.
It is therefore that we can respect them as a worthy opponents in combat and as a warrior.
From Guadacanal to Okinawa, their tenacity grows higher as fighting for one's homeland is a true factor of motivation.
What is done is done, it has been well over 70 years now and we can only respect the man for fighting for their nations friends or foes
@@orneryokinawan4529 You don't have to answer for the actions of people that are long past now. Japan and the US are important, strategic allies now and that is all that should matter to anyone. Both countries had trials and tribulations that shook both countries to their core but as the years have passed both countries have learned from their pasts and are both better for it. I used to live in Tokyo for 5 years in Hiroo, Shibuya and I've been wanting to go back ever since my family moved back to the states. Incredible country and people.
And believe me it was an honor. The first country to defeat us in thousands of years. I can only respect that. I got to meet American WWII veterans. To live through what they did, and for how long they did. It's amazing.
This guy was pissed with his Marines because they thought Japanese soldiers were just cartoon idiots. He had been in the thick of it on Guadalcanal and he had personally seen the Hell and the tenacity of the Japanese soldier and how hard he can fight
@vzdorr b ww1 weapons?
@@scottgieben896 for the most part. The arisaka wasn't really updated except for the 7.7 caliber change which even then was supplemented with the 6.5 arisaka. Nambu stayed the same. The only thing might have changed was the machineguns
I argue against that Japan was one of the most modern nations in WWII, the problem is that their military doctrine was not prepared for Modern Warfare. For example, Japan did not believe in the concept of Combined Arms, they were the only major nation to do that. If you watch Letters of Iwo Jima, you see a little bit of this where the Japanese Navy refuses to take orders from their Army even though the Army officers outranked the naval ones. Plus also you have to remember the situation Japan was in. The Bulk of their military was raging a campaign in Asia mainland where their best equipment was being used. The Navy had nothing to do with this since Japan was the dominating naval power in the region. So when Japan began the war against the Allies, there focus was islands where you didn't need much firepower to secure these islands. So their garrison units lacked better equipment to defend these islands.
@vzdorr b They also did unspeakable things in Nanjing btw
@@scottgieben896 the Japanese primary infantry weapon was bolt action. M-1 Garand was semi-automatic. BIG difference.
The actor's performance as John Basilone is incredible. This is one of my favourite scenes from the series.
Jon Seda is great. Have you seen him with Woody Harrelson in Sunchaser (1996)..
This is the best scene of the series
Jon Seda captured perfectly a good military NCO looking out for his men. I was in the military myself and I met my fair share of good NCOs and not-so-good ones.
@@Tipi83 I loved his work ever since he starred in Homicide: Life on the Street. He did a great job playing Selena's husband to now his role on Chicago PD. He's a very underrated actor.
Definitely pal. Goosbumbs every single time I watch this. I've never been in war and hope never be too but the script is just awesome and also that's the way how all people supposed to respect their enemy indipendently of what unit or nation's army are belongings. Always respect the enemy.
That's a gunny doing his job.
The Japanese soldier and marine was committed to victory and not committed to coming home with anything less. That’s why there were many holdouts that refused to surrender. Coming home in defeat was worse than death, while dying for the Emperor was the ultimate state of grace.
Same thing as the Waffen SS
Never underestimate your enemy, that's a motto every marine, airman, soldier, and sailor should live by,
“SHOULD”
Or in general
Tell that to Sensei Kreese
Should have listened in Vietnam
The typical Japanese soldier was every bit as tenacious as stated here by Basilone. The reports, the REAL reports, from the Pacific theatre are simply horrifying. Right or wrong, victor or loser, the Japanese soldier was a force to be reckoned with and should be respected.
I've heard stories from Saipan about how starving Japanese troops with barely any ammunition or food would still put up an insane fight.
A force to be reckoned with? Yes. Respect? An enemy that commits horrible war crimes that includes human live experiments, holding contests for killing civilians, and raping hundreds of thousands of women and bringing them into sexual slavery deserves no respect. Don't get me started on nanking.
Hell, even the Nazis told them they were taking it too far.
@@theguy6082 What do you think US troops were doing in Germany and occupied Japanese territories? The victors write the history books. Last I checked, we were the only ones to drop not one but TWO atomic bombs on what were majority civilian populated cities. Don't be a fool.
@@codyking4848 I won't deny the fact that the US is definitely not sin free and that the usage of atomic bombs is an atrocity in itself.
But let's put some things into perspective.
The upper death estimates of Hiroshima+Nagasaki is around 200k. But a land invasion would be even worse. The Department of the Navy estimated that the Americans speculated to die were 800k and Japanese around the millions. The numbers of people who died in the atomic bombing in comparison are tame.
The government sent leaflets telling the civilian population, the majority of whom enthusiastically supported the Imperial government, to evacuate not once, but twice. They had plenty of warning to leave the city. And some did, thankfully.
I won't deny that the Allies weren't always clean either. All sides in war commit atrocities. However, the Allies weren't the one committing mass genocide on the entirety of southeast Asia and Korea in an attempt to wipe out entire cultures.
You know, Nanking one of the worst massacres not just in WW2 but in all of human history where the IJA forced family civilian members to rape each other, mutilated, tortured and bayoneted babies for the fun of it? Around 350k. That was fifty percent, FIFTY percent of China's then capital. And that's just ONE event out of the 2-13 million deaths that would occur out of Imperial Japan's atrocities, how many times is that more than Nagasaki and Hiroshima? You do the math.
You don't want to listen to the victors of the war like the US? Fine. You can ask the Koreans who were under Japanese colonial rule for 35 years and had 200k of its women forced into sexual slavery. You can read about WW2 from a Chinese textbook about the war atrocities committed in China that would make an Auschwitz guard vomit. Or a Filipino textbook about the Bataan death march. And Malaysia, Burma, Indonesia and many more of these nations who lost to Imperial Japan. I'm sure they'll tell you *wonderful* things about them.
There is a reason why China and Korea still have animosity against Japan to this very day.
@@theguy6082 look up the meaning of respect there, tough guy
"You can call him whatever you want. But never ever FAIL to respect their desire to put you and your buddies into an early grave ! "
ahhh I love ww2 video comment sections, where everybody is an asshole AND has a history degree
lol
And those who actually know history keep quiet.
+Chris D LOL, Amen to that!
+Gamerweazel 200% accurate
Are you doubting my 1000+ hours of expert knowledge from wikipedia reading up on The pacific instead of actual war documents and records/reports?
I served in the very same unit, with the very same rank and the very same billet as John Basilone.....it was the highlight of my military career. I am humbled....
Amazing! Respect to you, what an honor that must be.
Thank you, and everyone you served with, for your service and sacrifice.
Great acting. John Basilone just busted those new recruits' bubble. War is cruel and unforgiving.
John Basilone was a great warrior....
🇺🇸he was a bad ass gun machine.
That is an understatement if I every saw one! Even if you disregard his Medal of Honor, he was a great Leader of Men!
He was a Marine!
That's your drill sergeant, listen and he know the enemy in your combat.
That's no Drill Sergeant.
He's a Machine Gun Instructor.
The great thing also in this scene is the casting of the requites...boys had just lived through the depression, the majority of Americans were small and skinny by today's standards...there were no muscular kids then...most soldiers got healthier, ate better, gained weight and were fitter than at anytime in their short lives after joining the Corps...well researched...
In Raritan, NJ-the town where John Basilone grew up-there's an annual parade in commemoration of him and his actions in WWII. This is the same town where I grew up, so I got to march in the parade one year with the local scout troop, which was cool. They march down the main road, then end at the statue of him right outside town where everyone gives a thanks and cheers
One of the many Marine legends we heard stories about at Parris Island. "Manila" John Basilone, Dan Daly, Chesty Puller and the like. I had the honor to lead, as part of the color guard, a couple Basilone day parades in his hometown of Raritan, NJ in the mid '80s.
Absolutely love this part of The Pacific. Goosebumps every time I watch it.
"The most dangerous weapon in the world is a Marine and his rifle"
-General Pershing (United States Army)
Debatable
Bullshit just ignored IED ,spy and back stabbing Ah?
The Army praising the Marines, go figure lol
The best short speech on respect for your enemy I've ever heard. Great delivery by John Seda.
We "The Marine Corps" still have senior noncoms that do this! Of course there will never be another Gunnery Sgt like John Basilone! Semper Fi Gunny.
Oo Rah!
Easily the most powerful scene from this series, and that's saying something
“He can live off muddy water and maggoty rice for WEEKS and endure misery you couldn’t dream up in your worst NIGHTMARE!”
This bloke is a true hero. He could have stayed home trained others but decided to go with his men and died for it. True respect.
*"Never underestimate your enemy." -Sun Tzu*
You don't need Sun Tzu or Clausewitz for that simple conclusion. It just has to be told to eager recruits.
Slap a tab.
Lol
The actor who played Basilone did a fantastic job.
Japan is a nation which has spent almost the entire previous 2000 years practicing war in almost an art like precision. If it were not for the man power and industrial might of the USA, things could have gone very differently.
Kuaminifu Mwenzi Don't count on that. Americans at Guadalcanal were outnumbered in men and equipment both on land and at sea. Japanese had superior equipment and ships and especially aircraft. At the Battle of Midway it was even worse for the Americans than at Guadalcanal. Battle of Coral Sea, same.
Guam, Philippines, Wake Island, The defeat of ABDACOM, etc. Naming individual battles won and lost doesn't really make an argument.
Kuaminifu Mwenzi I'll assume you are just joking. Wars are won by winning individual battles. And except for the Phillipines, we were vastly outnumbered in every battle you just posted.
Rikki0 i think you're missing my point, yes battles win wars, but you have to look at why the battles were won or lost. History judges the pacific theatre very clearly. The Japanese made many large initial advances because they held the element of surprise and already had significant experience in warfare. This expansion eventually ground to a halt due to the length of supply lines. As the USA began to increase it's industrial might, more and more battles were won by the allies as they were better supplied and equipped as the war continued.
Kuaminifu Mwenzi We didn't win because of superior soldiers, superior manpower, superior industrial might, or superior technology...
We won the war because the U.S. had the best Generals and Admirals of WWII (quite frankly the best since then too), and our leaders did NOT insist on actions (Hitler's 2-front war, Hirohito's attacking Pearl Harbor) that were suicidally stupid and that the officers themselves did not want to do.
I recall a quote from a former Japanese officer in the Pacific about the Marines I learned at Parris Island. Well, not **exactly,** but he said something to the effect that there was no dishonor in being defeated in battle by men who fought the way the Marines did. If you understand anything about the Code Bushido that guided the culture of the Japanese Imperial Army, you know how heavy that is.
A similar speech to the one in this clip was made by a Soviet airborne instructor to a class of recruits training for duty in Afghanistan in "9th Company."
True warriors may lose a war, but they can still win the respect of their foes; I think if they can do that, there is no true defeat.
Underestimate your enemy, and you underprepare for him. If your enemy is worthy only of your disrespect, any losses become embarrassments, and your victories are hollow.
Paw was a member of the Red Arrow Division, the guys who marched over the Owen Stanley Mountains. He spoke of the first time they saw Japanese on New Guinea. One of their guides (the Fuzzy Wuzzy angels) came running back to them, pointing up the trail shouting “Japan Man Japan Man.” They set up an ambush on the trail. He said they were amazed to see the Japanese soldiers. They had been told they were short little runts with buck teeth and thick glasses. They were 6 foot tall, strong powerful looking men who confidently marched. He never spoke of the ambush. He never spoke of combat. When he was finally relieved he weighed less than 100 lbs, feverish with malaria. He was given the option to go home in 1945 in Luzon when he had accumulated enough points. In his discharge picture his uniform coat sleeve has 5 bars signifying 2 1/2 years in front line positions. I have never met a combat vet who will speak of combat.
My great grandfather was in that same division. 120th Field Artillery. Never ever spoke of combat. My grandmother gave me a letter he wrote from the Philippines where he describes an incident in which one of the guys went out at night to take a dump and was accidentally gunned down by his own comrades. It's really screwed up.
@@IceCreamMeatballsThere's a scene in _The Pacific_ to that effect - Gunny Hainey is berating his men the next morning about how dangerous it is to leave your foxhole at night.
every person who enters the military should have to read Sun Tzu's art of war.
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”
They do in West Point, Annapolis, Colorado Springs, Sandhurst and most if not all of the other service academies throughout the world.....I'm sure that EVERY officer at least once has studied Sun Tzu and Von Clauswitz's Vom Krieg (on war). I'm looking at my copies in my bookcase as I write this....(took the Navy AVSEB, but the police department called first....STUPID decision; should have joined the Navy FIRST then joined the department). It would have helped me be a better police officer...
When your entire culture tells you that life is merely a temporary state before you reunite with your ancestors, and that the enemy will destroy your descendants still here, even after you're gone, then survival is becomes far less important than removing these demons from the same plane of existence as the people you love.
criminally underrated series
Respect for everyone. Friend or foe.
The IJA soldier was a barbaric war criminal that would rape underage girls and participate in contests for beheading civilians so no, they don't deserve respect even as a combatant.
@@theguy6082 respect your enemy that they can kill you if you underestimate them. Respect that fact, not their actions
One of my favourite scenes from the series
Back when Americans were truly great. RIP Gunny, Semper FI.
Never underestimate your enemies.
I forget this actors name, but he really did a phenomenal job portraying Gunnery Sgt Basilone. Makes me feel like I knew him personally
John seda
John Seda was incredible in this role
Because he has been there and knows what its really like and is striking fear into them so that they take their training and what they are about to get into seriously. That's how the heck that works.
Wen u grow up in ur family house, and u think u are the lion? u are the best. u are the fastest u are the smartest, and also, u think ur enemy is nothing that's misjudged and it's the biggest mistake that man can do... never misjudged ur enemy
That usually gets knocked out of folks in boot camp
one of the best parts of the Pacific
10 mile run in 2 minutes... I feel that. I served in Fallujah and training was brutal as hell. 10 mile runs in the morning followed by an entire day of weapons training
Bro no one is running 10 miles in 2 minutes stfu
i like how it took him so long to think of that speech
he was an amazing teacher.
Amazing moment in a great series
Never fear your enemy...
But ALWAYS respect them
-Gysgt Basilone
You might have read the book by Eugene Sledge but if not one of the things he credits with his survival was the fact that the drill instructors trained them endlessly but also with disruptive tactics like this - when he got out there and had to fight with no sleep and keep his senses sharp he wrote this training kept him alive.
John Basilone was cut from the cloth of gods own robes the fact this man could’ve stayed yet chose to lead and teach his marines and die on the black sands of Iwo Jima and the fact he did it like it was just another day in the office is something that legendary just doesn’t do enough justice to describe who this man was nor would he care. The pacific theater of war has always fascinated me and the fact that some of us as humans just have this type of character in us is insane to me.
The sergeants description was very accurate.
Respecting your enemy includes being willing to tell him when he's being a damn fool. Unfortunately for the Japanese, that was all the time.
Wow you need to brush up on your history kid. The Japanese weren't being fools. They were the fucking definition of putting your life on the line for your country. They knew what they were doing when they decided to use kamikazes or when the fought with no weapons but their bare fucking hands. They knew they were probably going to lose, but they were going to lose their life, before they lost their honor for their country men and their nation.
Funny, but the Germans felt the same way about their fatherland, yet they didn't throw away their brains fighting for it.
sonrouge
Funny, but the Germans also told everyone they had help from aliens.
Okay baby? Though I've sealed 80% of my berries.
They shouldn’t have let him go back out. He was far more valuable as an instructor for the recruits.
RESPECT your enemy, do NOT under estimate them
Best scene in series. This motto does not only assemble to war, but to your general life problems as well.
Basilone was hard. Anyone knows how many men from the platoon he has trained survived the war?
I don't know that figure, but at John Basilone's wedding in July 1944 the four sergeants of his company were groomsmen, one of them, one being his best man, another gave Lena Riggi away. Of these five sergeants, Basilone and two others were killed at Iwo Jima, while the other two sergeants were injured at Iwo Jima, one of them loosing an arm.
John respected them because he'd fought them. The raw boots only knew what they'd seen in recruiting films.
No fear of death is a curse. They charged into gun fire without any thought of their own lives. Which is why a few hundred Marines could easily kill a few thousand Japanese soldiers. Their will to survive is what got them through the war and their victory. After all, would you rather a few hundred men survive to fight another day, or a few thousand die and be of no use. Feeling and concurring fear is what makes a man truly strong. Having no fear is a full waiting to die.
Holy shit. What a scene. What a performance
The best scene in the series imo
YES GUNNY!
@snakes3425 The problem with that rule is that no one knows that they are underestimating their enemy until it is too late.
A real man, an Italian-American :)
This scean is so important from all the "Freedomboos" I've talked to that stated the war was always a firegon conclusion, and that the servicemen in the Pacific had it easy because they were fighting an inferior enemy compared to the Germans. It borders on racism, and sometimes goes there, when I hear, the Japanese could never beat a European army or an American force, not remembering the speed that the Japanese took over the Pacific with, or that they didn't have to march through Washington DC to win the War, just take Hawaii, and hold off the Allies long enough to agree to an armistice, allowing them control of the Pacific.
I've never seen the Japanese respected like the Germans in that community. Sad.
There is no honor in making war. The honor is in bringing peace. If you seek honor in war, you will prolong the war to get more honor. Societies bent on making war for honor, become incompetent at actually accomplishing their missions, because when the war is over, there's no more "Honor" to get. So in victory they end their source of honor. The wise, seek honor in peace, by ending the war as quickly, victoriously, and decisively as possible. The real problem is that people these days see honor as a commodity to acquire. It's not, it's a behavior to emulate. One does not 'get' honor or 'earn' honor through deeds. One 'acts' with honor, one 'does' honor.
In times of piece never forget the possibility of war in times of war never forget the possibility of piece
(continued) Recently, a growing concern is the moral state of our society. Every day in the news - fighting, shooting at each other at the slightest provocation, drunk and reckless drivers, etc. Over the past few years to live, then we are better, and that's kinder to each other did not. The reason? How to change the situation? It's always possible to declare an apolitical...
The young men back then did not have their heads down looking toward their laps and going bing, bing, bing, on some stupid electronic device while their friends were a few feet away.
Even now you are not supplied electronic devices at boot camp.
Strong words coming from a man who killed a lot of them back in Guadalcanal...
It's Basilone's way of reality check to them...
Maybe it's not about that? It's not a game. This is a war.
his point was have respect for what they are capable of
Indeed. War is not a game. You don't have to be pacifist to respect an enemy's capabilities.
Even with all the well done action scenes I find this scene the best in the series.
3 Miles up, 3 Miles down
what episode is this? Thanks for the upload. I was looking all over for it...
Life is funny in a way because the fact that the Japanese was so willing to give his life for the cause there was no one left to to continue it. One of life’s paradoxes.
I hated when guys would be mad in these situations, like bro they’re already awaken shaven and changed you don’t think they’re tiered too?
In before salty instructor calls boots ungreatful
He's preping them for when they are deployed to a battle. What if there's a night attack when you are sleeping?
@USparatroopersurgeon no its not. When basilone first comes to the place he meets the two already marines who are private first classes which means they have graduated from bootcamp. Just because they are being yelled at that doesn't mean they are in bootcamp. AIT for infantry requires the Marines to react under pressure.
I don't really have a strong opinion on who was the strongest fighting force was, but the Russians really wouldn't be the ones to ask in this case because they never had to fight against the Americans in order to be able to compare them with the Germans.
I really don't want to start an argument, but 39410 is actually kind of right. Intercepted reports and radio chatter indicated the the NVA and VC actually expected the Tet Offensive to be a complete success, and when it wasn't they began to lose their morale. however because the Americans never saw it coming, the American population had no idea and began to lose morale themselves. I'm not saying the Vietnamese didn't put up a hell of a fight, cause they did, but historically speaking, yeah.
Great scene!
Love this scene. All true.
Best scene...
He was called "Blood and Guts" for a reason.
That was Patton.
@
So first congrats for replying to a comment almost a decade old. So very useful.
Second, thats what my comment was originally in reference to. Youd know that if you could see the original comment, but you cant, because IT IS ALMOST A DECADE OLD.
All of this is very true but the thing that really broke Germanies back was the involvement of the US and Canada. When Japan attacked the US made a deal with Hitler, to not go to war with Germany if he turned a blind eye to Japan (He refused) and so the US was in the war. Britain was on the defense on an un-invadable island. They had good defense but could not attack. Thanks to the added man power and the incredible industrial strength of the US and some of the best infantry weapons...Cont
what people miss about the japanese soldier, is that this was imperial japan, and the emperor was a religious leader and emperor, shintoism and all of the japanese culture elevate the emperor to god on earth status, so it was a holy war for them.
... The people of England regards itself as free; but it is grossly mistaken; it is free only during the election of members of parliament. As soon as they are elected, slavery overtakes it, and it is nothing. The use it makes of the short moments of liberty it enjoys shows indeed that it deserves to lose them."
It took two of the best/worth weapons ever created to make Japan give up...
Very strong scene, love it
A man who had the chance to go home and stay there, yet he chose to lead his marines and teach them. thats a great leader
And it is a testament to our times now, Sir, that there are so very few like him today. Ex Coelis
ThePennyPincher there are still marines like gunny baselone,more than youd think.its just that the press is so busy showing murderers like army SSgt Robert bales or traitors like randall manning,that your baselones' in all the services never seem to get mentioned.
semper fidelis
Plus I think because John died as a MoH. I think if you get it, the military forces you to retire.
@Old man Goat I'm sure, my dad was in Nam and MoH could stay but I keep hearing about people who get it today will sometimes try to refuse it so they can stay.
Absolutely love this part of The Pacific. Goosebumps every time I watch it.
He's right. One fo the first rules of combat: You should not like your enemy, but you better respect them.
Better than respect blow off their little shithead instead.
@@บุญธรรมทวีบุรุษ You should respect the fact that you'll probably get lit up before you even get the chance to.
And NEVER underestimate them or their inhumane resolve.
Never underestimate your enemy? For sure. Respect? Normally I would agree, but the shit the IJA did made the Nazis look like fucking angels.
An enemy that bayonets babies, kidnaps hundreds of women into sexual slavery and holds contests for civilian killing deserves absolutely no respect. There is no honour in that kind of thing whatsoever.
Not that these American boys would care anyway since at the time, anyone who wasn't white was just another second class human being to them.
@@theguy6082 I think they are using word respect in a different context. It’s like what Gunny said: “never fail to respect their desire to put you and your buddies into an early grave.” Respect their fighting ability and tenacity in combat. Respect the fact that the enemy is a tough opponent that has no problem surrendering his life to make sure he takes your own.
This reminds me of a German WW2 novel by Remarque I read, where a Wehrmacht recruit uttered a simular remark about the Russians.
And their instructor, Oberfeldwebel Klautke, gave the whole platoon a simular description of the avarage Red Army soldier;
'Iwan, as you call him, is not fighting for f&%ing Stalin, or the Communist Party. He fights for holy mother Russia. He fights for the bare survival of his entire nation. And because he knows SS Heini and uncle Adolf hate his guts, he hates us to! With a vigour you cannot even imagine. He can march 40 kilometers a day with a full load and a rifle on his back through the worst terrain. And even then is fully prepared to charge straight into our machine gun fire to stab a bayonet into your guts. He and his ancestors have been fighting Western invaders for centuries. And so far have never been defeated. You boys are up against a formidable enemy! Never forget that!' (Erich Maria Remarque; 'A time to live and a time to die.')
That is not surprising. The professionals that have fought the enemy know and understand what their enemy is.
Only idiots and armchair quarterbacks and people who have never ever seen it say oh it's so easy.
I love this. The Germans were educated people, they knew damn well how much history had said "DO NOT INVADE RUSSIA" by that point in time. But there they were, stuck in the middle of it. all they could do is prepare best they could and hope they could beat the odds.
Thanks for sharing the knowledge
"The Russians are not men, but some kind of cast-iron creatures; they never get tired and are not afraid of fire." (Wilhelm Hoffman's diary)
Best part of this speech is, he actually yelled it in real life
No fuckin way. That's fucking badass.
Well fuck i just came knowing that 😲
That’s crazy. I thought they had taken some creative liberties with this scene.
Awesome. Citation?
@@joshuastrobel6826 probably the book I myself still have to read. "With the old breed".But I dont know for sure
The scene proved 2 points:
1. A Combat Veteran knows the truth of what you as a recruit is about face. Listen, learn or you will die.
2. A Marine Gunnery Sergeant knows all, hears all and sees all.
When Gunny's back is turned, that is when he is looking at you the most.
Rule Number 1 of military service if an NCO is present don't speak, move or even breath if you can avoid it unless he tells you to.
@@Venezolano410 Dipshit comment of the year
@@Venezolano410 I do not know what made you what you are, but let me be clear: I have a childhood friend whose name is on the Wall. Take your fake hippy crap( I lived in the late sixties and those people became yuppies and then became right wing conservatives) away with you.
@@Venezolano410 apparently you do not care about humanity in general. And my politics are left leaning but I respect My Country and those in it. I respect those men and women who defend it. I respect your right to disagree with me, as you should respect mine.
That being said: go f yourself.
basilone wasnt sent back, he requested to go back because he saw so many young kids and he wanted to save as many lives as he could. i use to be part of the first marine division on camp pendleton ca, theres stories of him all over the place
They still have an annual parade in his honor in Raritan, NJ where he lived at one time.
I think now the DOD has a clause for MOH; go home, no questions asked.
@@MrAlumni72 I'm born in raised in jersey I'm in the south jersey, I'm gonna look up Raritan now!
Martin Corleone lol no, i was in first div too and i haven’t heard of his stories being mentioned there in the 4 years I was there aside from Basilone road
And left a wife and kid behind. He served his time with the Marines, he did his duty. His new duty was to be a father and a husband, but instead he went back only to get his guts shot out on a beach.
The second you fail to respect the enemies' motive is the second you already lost the battle/war.
+Adam Gresham Respect their motive? That wasn't the point of his speech, you got it wrong. The message was "never underestimate your enemy". Stop trying to sound philosophical, it's annoying and pretentious. You aren't Eisenhower.
my bad......the second that you fail to respect the enemies motive to want to kill you and everyone else like you....I didnt think i would have to explain it to a Sarn't
Adam Gresham
Got it, that makes more sense. Your comment was kind of vague and I thought you meant political motive.
German fail to respect the soviets .. the soviet destroy the 3 Reich in the end
@@xXSgtWolfXx who the fuck liked this dumbass comment?
"IS THAT CLEAR?!!!"
Respect the fucking enemy.
+J.A. Kempton isn't lowering the morale punishable??
so lying to your troops is preferable?
+J.A. Kempton not lying but telling to someone that you are nothing infront of an enemy isn't that defeatism?
+J.A. Kempton I heard nazis got shot for doing that if I am correct
for telling their troops the truth?
I went to this park with my girlfriend in New Jersey. Turns out there was a John Basilone memorial at the end of the trail. I told my girl we’re running to the end, cuz I wanted to pay my respects.
Raritan NJ, great statue and monument to a great American
Respect the kind of enemy especially the one's who are trained to kill. I believe that is what gunny Basilone is trying to tell his men.
I can't imagine what it was like for my female relatives at the time, to prepare to fight even with sticks with bayonets attached. If that isn't desperation I don't know what is! I'm glad it never came to that. I couldn't imagine stabbing someone's son, father, brother, cousin, etc.
Race hatred and racism were staples of the Great Pacific War, on both sides. Prior to the war, many Americans - including professional military men who ought to have known better - believed that the Japanese were a backward, weak people, militarily-inept and not able to compete with westerners in military affairs. The common image of the Japanese soldier was a weak, buck-toothed, nearsighted sad sack - not a warrior at all. Of course, the ABCD powers - America, Britain & the Commonwealths, and the Dutch - all learned the hard way that the Japanese were very formidable warriors indeed - throughout the course of the Pacific War. Gunnery Sergeant Basilone was doing the right thing by his men, teaching them that the Japanese were a formidable opponent, one worthy of respect even though our enemies at the time. His getting in their faces may seem harsh to modern sensibilities, but he's doing it to make them better Marines and to prepare them as best he could for the hell of combat. The hateful propaganda existed on their side as well. According to Japanese wartime propaganda, the Japanese people had been told - and believed - that when the victorious Americans and their allies occupied Japan, that they would be bayoneted, roasted over a fire and then eaten. Ordinary Japanese were therefore stunned when American GI's were friendly, had smiles on their faces - and wanted to give them chocolate bars and cigarettes.
@@orneryokinawan4529 if Hiroshima and nagasaki bombing didn't happen. These men would've experience an all out war against the Japanese people itself. Kids to old men and women all civilians no exceptions must fight to the death for their god emperor
@@GeorgiaBoy1961 The difference is that for the US, they were taught to mock their enemy and underestimate them, while for the Japanese they were taught to hate them to their core. So the Japanese were willing to fight even harder than before, even giving their lives for it.
@@GeorgiaBoy1961 Respect? The IJA committed some of the most horrid war crimes ever known to human existence that they make what the Nazis did look like kids play. I don't see anything respectable about that kind of enemy that bayonets babies, does live human experiments and uses hundreds of thousands of girls, a lot of whom were underage, as sexual slaves. Every IJA soldier that participated in those acts should've been lined up and shot.
I would be terrified at the prospect of facing the IJA in combat.
A truly ruthless enemy
Constant BANZAI screaming
@ Rob Walsh Re:"I would be terrified at the prospect of facing the IJA in combat."
In the now-distant time before the Second World War, international travel and communications were nothing like they are today, and people and nations were much more-insular and isolated from one another than they are now, particularly ones so distant from one another as Japan and the U.S. It is simply a fact that both sides engaged in racial stereotyping about one another prior to and during the war. If you examine some of the propaganda posters and other material produced -by both sides - it is very extreme to modern sensibilities. In the Anglosphere - the U.S. and other English-speaking nations (Britain and the CW nations in particular) - the views of Japan before the war were dismissive, often, not allowing for the fact that the Japanese had, in a remarkably short amount of time, gone from being a neo-feudal society in the 1860s and 1870s to being a first-world power by the turn of the century, when Japan decisively beat Russia in the Russo-Japanese conflict. The very stereotypes mentioned, i.e., small, slight people with bad eyes and thick glasses, not the material of first-rate military men.
These dismissive stereotypes, then, just added that much more to the shock felt by the Western nations in the greater Pacific, when Japan launched her attacks of December 6-7th 1941. It wasn't just that Pearl Harbor was hit, but that our great fortress in the Pacific at the Philippines was lost, as the British lost Singapore in one of the largest surrenders in her history, and the Dutch lost their possessions in the SW Pacific region. The British were so badly-surprised at Singapore that all of their artillery was pointed seaward, in the wrong direction to repel the Japanese attack, which came over-land down the Malay peninsula. The shock and awe continued when Japanese aircraft sunk the British battleship Prince of Wales and battle-cruiser Repulse - without any surface naval aid whatsoever.
Thus arose a panic or near-panic over the newly-recognized Japanese military superiority. That first year of the war or so when all fell before her military might, gave Japan what some Japanese officers and men later called "victory disease," an over-confidence borne of her easy victories early on in the war. so that sword of overconfidence cut both ways.....
Then you can search up the war crimes that the IJA did during that time. I'm sure you would have no problem going to war with those folks considering the shit they did back then.
@@theguy6082 that’s why I’m scared.
One of those speeches that feels stereotypical and overdone in every war movie...until you read the actual history and realize that everthing Sgt. Basilone says is historically accurate and true: many of the Japanese soldiers had been fighting since 1933, and some of their Sr Staff had fought the Russians in the 1900s or the Germans in WW1, so quite literally when these young Marines were in diapers. And it is well documented that Imperial Japanese soldiers literally ate maggoty rice and dirty-dysentary-causing water for weeks and still fought at levels most other armies could only dream of for their top units.
No different than the US military today, they are the most experienced fighting force on the face of the planet today, they have been in combat for nearly 20 years in some corner of the globe. Neither china nor russia have that kind of continuous experience under their belt
@@jordanhicks5131 you could say the Nato alliance overall has the most combat experience over 20 years of continuous war.
@@joshuagrover795 The actual percentage of troops in the US military and by extension NATO that have actual combat experience is a very small and rapidly shrinking percentage. 4 of the 5 US soldiers deployed to Iraq never left the safety of their bases. Even fewer got shot at. Fewer had the opportunity to return fire. Fewer returned fire. Iraq has been over since 2012. Afghanistan has been practically over since 2014. Initial contracts are 2 to 6 years. Retention rates for combat arms is low, the lowest of all the branches in the military. The winner of the next war will not live and die based off of "combat experience," but resources, technology and logistics, the same as any war.
@@NoQuestions4sked history is full of examples saying otherwise.
@@yianni911 Lol. You're confused bud