World War II Experience
2 Seasons
This series tells the story of the World War II experience from the veteran point of view. Subjects include the European front, the shame of American internment camps amidst the heroics of the Nisei Soldiers, the experience of concentration camp liberator, and a daughter's memory of a Dad that, to her, embodied the Greatest Generation.
Season II continues the story of World War II experience from the veteran point of view. In this season, we focus on the Pacific Theatre. Stories include a Marine that stormed the beaches in the pacific, the Bataan Death March, one of the first woman marines, and the experience of a Gay Merchant Marine and the founding of the Alexander Hamilton brigade of the American Foreign Legion.
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11:43Episode 1Aldo Giannini: Pacific Theatre
Episode 1
Directed by John Giannini
Like many other young men of his generation, after Pearl Harbor was attacked, Aldo Giannini joined the Marines with little idea of what lay ahead. After training, he was quickly deployed overseas and fought in the bloody Battle of Tarawa, surviving with a shrapnel injur...
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14:37Episode 2Bataan Death March
Episode 2
Directed by Jesse Collier Sutterley
Within hours of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, bombs were raining down on U.S. and Filipino forces in the Philippines. With U.S. planes in the Philippines destroyed and the U.S. fleet significantly lost/damaged after Pearl Harbor; the necessary supplies ...
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08:39Episode 3Remembering Port Chicago
Episode 3
Directed by Alexander Zane Irwin
In California's Bay Area, a painful memory lingers of the Port Chicago disaster of WWII, when hundreds of the Navy's first Black Sailors perished, and the White officers in charge were protected by the chain of command.
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Merchant Marine Paul Goercke and the Alexander Hamilton Post
Episode 4
Directed by Alexander Zane Irwin
While Merchant Marine veteran Paul Goercke rests with his family in his plot at the Golden Gate National Cemetery, he is survived and remembered by his pioneering American Legion Post 448, the only predominantly LGBTQ post in the nation.
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07:29Episode 5Adele Shimanoff: U.S. Marine
Episode 5
Directed by Hannah Anderson
In 1945, Adele Shimanoff joins the U.S. Marine Corps amid a larger plan to bring women into the military in order to “free a marine to fight”. Adele moves away from the traditional Women’s Reserves and into active duty for a year, where she forms lifelong friendships ...
