Long Road to Tokyo

Summary

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Podcast Summary: "World War II with Tom Hanks"

Episode 14: Long Road to Tokyo
Release Date: July 7, 2026
Host & Narrator: Tom Hanks
Produced by: The HISTORY Channel | Back Pocket Studios | Audacy

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Overview

This episode, "Long Road to Tokyo", explores the monumental logistical, political, and military challenges the Allies—particularly the United States—faced in attempting to bring the war directly to the Japanese homeland. It traces the development and deployment of the revolutionary B29 Superfortress bomber, the struggle to supply and operate from bases in China and India, the desperate battles in Burma and India, and the grueling campaign to seize the Marianas Islands, culminating in the US attaining bases from which it could finally strike Japan effectively.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The B29 Superfortress: Technology and Strategy

• Development and Importance

  • The B29 represented a quantum leap in bomber technology: pressurized cabins, airborne radar, remote-controlled turrets, and immense range.
  • “The B29 Superfortress is the most expensive program in World War II. $3 billion to go ahead and build an aircraft.” (Narrator, 01:35)
  • “It could carry bombs farther, higher, faster than anything else that had… ever been imagined.” (Tom Hanks, 02:03)

• Initial Deployment Challenges

  • Complex design led to frequent technical issues and production delays.
  • The key obstacle: finding airfields within striking distance of Japan.

2. The Strategic Quandary: Where to Base the Bombers?

• The Need for Airfields

  • “Where are your airfields going to be? They have to be within range of the Japanese home islands.” (History Channel Announcer, 02:22)
  • With no suitable islands close enough, the US looked to China—making alliances and logistical support to Chiang Kai Shek’s government crucial.

• The Chinese Civil War and Japanese Occupation

  • China, under Chiang Kai Shek, faced internal Communist insurgency and massive Japanese occupation.
  • “The Japanese control 95% of China's industry, 90% of China's railways, half of China's population.” (Historian/Expert, 04:43)

3. Supply Lines and the “Hump”

• The Burma Road and Logistics Nightmare

  • Japan’s conquest of Burma cut off the main Allied supply route to China.
  • Supplies had to be flown over the Himalayas—the infamous “Hump”—from India to China under extremely hazardous conditions.
  • “Flying the India China Ferry over the highest mountain range in the world is extremely hazardous. The men ordered to do it call it the Hump.” (Narrator/Storyteller, 08:24)

• Sheer Scale and Risk

  • “594 aircraft are lost and 1,500 air crew.” (Narrator, 09:44)
  • For every ton delivered, 18 tons of fuel and supplies had to be flown in. It was a logistical trickle, not a flood.

4. Allies and Complications: The Chiang Kai Shek Dilemma

• Political Stakes

  • FDR feared Chiang could make a separate peace with Japan if not well supported.
  • “[FDR] didn’t examine too closely the morals of those who shared his interests. That wasn’t how you could fight a global war.” (Narrator, 07:27)

• Runways Built by Hand

  • Literally hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians built airstrips for the B29s by hand.
  • “It looks like ancient history. Men, women, children pulling the rollers, working side by side, their country in jeopardy.” (Military Expert/Analyst, 11:29)

5. The Burma Theatre and Turning the Tide in India

• Reopening the Burma Road

  • General Joseph Stilwell (“Vinegar Joe”), a Mandarin-speaking China expert, led efforts with Chinese troops and “Merrill’s Marauders” across hostile jungle to reestablish land supply lines.
  • “[Stilwell] has trained thousands of soldiers in his long career.” (Narrator/Storyteller, 13:08)

• Japanese Offensive: Operation U-Go

  • Japan hoped to inspire an Indian revolt and break Allied supply lines by invading India.
  • “Mutaguchi thinks… he could strike a blow that could save the war for Japan.” (Military Strategist, 18:06)
  • The Japanese attack culminated in the brutal Battle of Imphal—Allied forces under General Slim were besieged but resupplied by massive US-British airlifts.

• Battle of Imphal: Harrowing Realities

  • “The fighting is incredibly close quarter and it is absolutely touch and go.” (Logistics Expert, 20:48)
  • Japanese troops suffered horrific casualties, starvation, and mass suicides during their retreat.
  • “The road of bones... stories are of Japanese buddies getting together and detonating a grenade between the two of them.” (Military Historian, 24:29)

6. Operation Ichigo: Shattering the Chinese Nationalists

• The Largest Japanese Land Attack of the War

  • Operation Ichigo struck deep into China, seizing US airbases and exposing the weakness of Chiang’s forces.
  • “For the Americans, looking at the wreckage of the aftermath of Ichigo, they recognized that the Chinese can't defend American bases no matter where they are.” (Carvana Advertiser, 32:50)

• Logistics Collapse

  • Maintaining B29 operations in China became untenable; more efficient bases were needed.

7. The Marianas: Securing a Launchpad to Japan

• Seizing Saipan, Tinian, and Guam

  • Hard-fought battles to capture these islands were pivotal; the campaign was far bloodier than expected.
  • “The expectation is that this is going to take three days... but the Japanese had fortified it and built D day style fortifications.” (Historian/Expert, 35:19)
  • Saipan’s capture placed Tokyo within B29 range.

• Human Cost and Tragedy

  • The episode covers civilian casualties in Saipan, including mass suicides encouraged by Japanese propaganda.
  • “The Japanese propaganda that's been fed to these people tells them that the Americans are going to kill all the men, rape all the women... they don't surrender.” (Carvana Advertiser, 37:15)
  • “Some of them leap to their deaths, some of them clutching their children.” (Historian/Expert, 37:30)

8. Transformation of the Air War

• From China’s Handbuilt Runways to Seabees’ Massive Airfields
  • “Now in the Marianas Islands, you have huge runways built by the cities Seabees using brilliant white coral.” (Military Expert/Analyst, 38:10)
  • Five major airfield complexes could each support 180 B29s.
  • November 1944 saw the first sustained B29 raids on the Japanese home islands.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On American Motivation for Bombing Japan:
  “If you'd have done a public opinion survey of Americans, there was a palpable sense of wanting to get these people back for Pearl harbor by 1943. It's payback time.”
  – Military Historian, 03:00

• On the “Hump” Airlift:
  “You've got this hot, moist air bubbling out of the Indian Ocean, meeting with this Siberian air blowing down from Tibet, causing some of the most difficult weather conditions on the planet… pilots say the plane would lurch like 100ft in the air and then drop 200ft and lurch back up 100ft.”
  – Historian/Expert, 09:17

• On Chinese Hand-Built Airfields:
  “Hundreds of thousands of people grinding out a runway by hand.”
  – Narrator, 11:19

• On the Defeat at Imphal:
  “Up to this point in the war, this is the largest defeat the Japanese army has ever suffered on the ground, around 60,000 casualties.”
  – Carvana Advertiser, 24:52

• On the Collapse of Chiang’s Forces:
  “The big surprise of this campaign is how poor Chiang Kai Shek's forces are at this point. Some of them are starving… some of these forces, under Japanese pressure, simply melt away.”
  – War Analyst, 31:57

• On Saipan’s Civilian Tragedy:
  “Some of them leap to their deaths, some of them clutching their children.”
  – Historian/Expert, 37:30

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Chronological Timestamps for Major Segments

• [00:36–03:12]: Introduction to Pacific strategy and the B29 Superfortress
• [04:06–06:08]: Chiang Kai Shek’s China: civil war, Japanese occupation, and the Burma Road
• [08:24–10:00]: The "Hump" airlift and its perils
• [10:45–13:08]: Chinese labor, airfields, and the strategic defense of China
• [14:02–14:47]: General Slim and retraining British-Indian forces
• [15:19–16:09]: Tojo’s plans, Operation U-Go, and Japanese threat to Allied supply lines
• [18:06–21:30]: Japanese invasion of India, Battle of Imphal, Allied defense
• [24:29–25:02]: The horrors of the Japanese defeat and retreat
• [26:11–27:52]: Stilwell, Merrill’s Marauders, and the Myitkina offensive
• [29:40–30:53]: B29s finally operate from China; supply problems cripple their impact
• [31:12–32:34]: Operation Ichigo: Japanese land offensive in China, collapse of Nationalist defense
• [33:33–36:01]: Invasion of the Marianas: Saipan, Tinian, Guam
• [37:05–38:10]: The Saipan climax and its tragic human toll
• [39:06–39:49]: The sustained bomber campaign from the Marianas begins

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Conclusion & Takeaway

"Long Road to Tokyo" underscores the immense, often tragic complexity of the Pacific Theater. The episode vividly illustrates:

• The interplay of technology (B29s), geography (Himalayas, jungles, island chains), and human drama (Chinese civilians, embattled Allied soldiers, and Japanese tragedies).
• How logistics and politics dictated strategy as much as weapons did.
• That the path to direct attacks on Japan was paved with costly setbacks, cooperation and betrayal, and immense sacrifice by people at every level.

The fight for viable bases—from hand-built runways in stricken China to the blood-soaked capture of the Marianas—finally gave the US the logistical means to strike the Japanese homeland, setting the stage for the war’s climactic final phase.

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Transcript

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[History Channel Announcer]

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[History Channel Announcer]

The History Channel Original Podcast

[Narrator/Storyteller]

as in the struggle against Nazi Germany, American strategy in the war against Japan includes launching mass bombing attacks against factories, military installations and cities. But the map of the Asian Pacific War covers enormous distances. A new, more powerful bomber is needed. The B29 Superfortress. Securing air bases for these superforts becomes a primary objective for President Roosevelt and American military leaders.

[Tom Hanks]

This is World War II with Tom Hanks. Episode 14, Long Road to Tokyo.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

For over two years, the United States has been building the B29 bomber, the Superfortress. When it's ready to roll off the assembly line, the B29 will be one of the most potent weapons in the American arsenal.

[Narrator]

The B29 Superfortress is the most expensive program in World War II. $3 billion to go ahead and build an aircraft.

[Military Expert/Analyst]

The B29 is a stunning leap in aircraft technology. The B29 will incorporate a pressurized cabin, airborne radar. It has 10 miles of wiring.

[Narrator]

It had remote controlled turrets. It had the most powerful engines in

[Tom Hanks]

the history of the world.

[Narrator]

But the critical thing about the B29 was range. It could carry bombs farther, higher, faster than anything else that had not just been built, but ever imagined.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

The complexity of its design, however, delays its manufacturer.

[Military Expert/Analyst]

It's been riddled with problems. It ends up behind schedule.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

Bombing the Japanese home islands is a crucial part of the American strategy in the Asian Pacific War.

[History Channel Announcer]

Allied air commanders want to launch the same kind of air offensive against Japan that they've been carrying out against Germany. They want to destroy factories, shipyards, infrastructure, bring the Japanese war economy to its knees.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

In addition to strategic considerations, President Roosevelt understands that the American people expect retribution against the Japanese.

[Military Historian]

If you'd have done a public opinion survey of Americans, there was a palpable sense of wanting to get these people back for Pearl harbor by 1943. It's payback time.

[Military Expert/Analyst]

And so the B29 is going to become the first weapon system that can really attack the Japanese homeland and military targets.

[History Channel Announcer]

The problem is, where are Your airfields going to be? They have to be within range of the Japanese home islands.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

U.S. marines have been fighting their way across the Pacific, but it will take months before they can secure an area suitable for launching B29s.

[Historian/Expert]

The B29 has got a 1,600 mile combat range. So Roosevelt's looking at several options as to where to base these things.

[History Channel Announcer]

They don't have an island close enough, but they do have an ally within range of the Japanese home islands, and that ally is Chiang Kai Shek and China.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

Chiang Kai Shek emerged as the leader of the Chinese Nationalist Party in 1928. He's ruled China ever since.

[Logistics Expert]

He is the Generalissimo of China. He's a general, but he's also a dictator. The problem he's got is since the early 1930s, there is rising communism under Mao Zedong. He's effectively got a civil war.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

In addition to internal conflict, China faces an external threat. Japan invaded China in 1937 and seized Chiang's capital, Nanking, as well as all major Chinese coastal cities.

[Historian/Expert]

The Japanese control 95% of China's industry, 90% of China's railways, half of China's population. They control a quarter to a third of China's land mass. And they closed off all the Chinese

[Narrator/Storyteller]

ports severed from Chinese port cities. Chiang established a new capital, Chongqing, and constructed a route that connected China to the port of Rangoon in the British colony of Burma. Cut through more than 700 miles of mountainous jungle terrain, the Burma Road was China's main route for receiving supplies, primarily from the United States, until Japan seized Burma, too.

[History Channel Announcer]

The final piece of this Japanese imperial puzzle was the conquest of Burma in 1942. The Japanese seize the Burma Road and make it impossible for the Allies to supply China's armies.

[Military Strategist]

The Chinese have lost their umbilical, they've lost their artery, all their supplies flowing in.

[Historian/Expert]

Chiang Kai shek has maybe 4 million men available for military service, but only a million rifles. So he's desperate for Western materiel to flesh out his army and pose some kind of serious obstacle to the Japanese.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

In November of 1943, President Roosevelt confers with Chiang and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in Cairo. At the top of the agenda, how to keep the Chinese in the fight.

[Narrator]

Franklin Roosevelt is worried that if China is without resources, Chiang Kai Shek could make a separate peace with Japan, which would be hugely problematic for the Americans.

[History Channel Announcer]

China is where the vast majority of the Japanese army is currently being tied up. And let's not forget that Roosevelt has this big new weapon, the B29s. He wants to base them in southern China. So keeping China in the war is absolutely essential to fdr.

[Military Strategist]

Chang goes to Cairo with a big shopping list. He needs aircraft fuel, shells, guns. He'll take anything that the Allies will give him. He's pretty desperate. Winston Churchill. This is all a bit alarming to him. He just doesn't trust Chiang Kai Shek and his bones.

[Narrator]

Chiang Kai Shek has a reputation for being corrupt, not particularly reliable. There are valid concerns that instead of using the supplies that FDR is promising Chiang Kai Shek for the purposes of fighting Japan, he might instead hoard those supplies and then use them to fight the Communists.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

FDR knew he wasn't running a Boy

[Narrator]

Scout troop, so he didn't examine too

[Carvana Advertiser]

closely the morals of those who shared his interests. That wasn't how you could fight a global war.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

At Cairo, FDR and Chiang agree that the Chinese will build runways for the B29s and that the US will send even more supplies to China.

[Logistics Expert]

That requires mind boggling scales of logistics. For a single bullet to get to a single Chinese rifle, it's got to come from a factory, let's say in the Midwest. So you send it all the way across the Pacific. The British still hold India, so it would then get into Calcutta, then be put onto a train, then sent up to northeast India and then fly them over the Himalayas to the Nationalists in China.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

Flying the India China Ferry over the highest mountain range in the world is extremely hazardous. The men ordered to do it call it the Hump.

[Military Expert/Analyst]

Flying supplies into China is something that's never been attempted on this scale.

[Historian/Expert]

These were just transport aircraft, but the missions were as challenging as bomber raids over Germany.

[Narrator]

These aircraft are taking off with incredibly high weights because we are trying to get as many supplies in as we can.

[Military Expert/Analyst]

The route is only about 500 miles, but the difficulty is the altitude. These pilots are flying in unpressurized aircraft over peaks that are 16,000ft high and then back down again to their Chinese bases.

[Historian/Expert]

You've got this hot, moist air bubbling out of the Indian Ocean, meeting with this Siberian air blowing down from Tibet, causing some of the most difficult weather conditions on the planet. You get these incredible changes in air pressure. And pilots who flew the hump say the plane would lurch like 100ft in the air and then drop 200ft and lurch back up 100ft.

[Narrator]

It's hard to imagine for the pilots who do it, the aircraft is proven, but not in these conditions. So every time they go up they're learning. But there's a cost to learning this real time. 594 aircraft are lost and 1,500 air crew.

[Historian/Expert]

The problem is you have to deliver 18 tons of fuel and other supplies to get one ton of stuff to the Chinese army. It was a trickle of what was needed.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

But China remains a priority. For President Roosevelt, there is another option.

[Military Strategist]

The Allies need to reopen the Burma road

[Narrator/Storyteller]

by late 1943. China has been at war with Japan for six years, engaging the majority of the Japanese army. President Roosevelt and his military leaders are determined to defend China, including using B29s to strike the Japanese home islands. The US plans to build four air bases around Chengdu that will accommodate the B29.

[Military Expert/Analyst]

The B29 Superfortress is a heavy bomber and that means it needs a Runway that's strong enough to land on. But the problem is there's no way to bring in a bulldozer or a truck or heavy equipment into China. They simply won't fit in the aircraft that are flying over the hump.

[Carvana Advertiser]

But the upside for running a bomber campaign out of China is that the Americans know that they will have access to all the Chinese labor they could ask for.

[Narrator]

Hundreds of thousands of people grinding out a Runway by hand.

[Logistics Expert]

No bulldozers or complicated machinery available, only manpower and hard work.

[Military Expert/Analyst]

Just the sheer scale of human labor. It looks like ancient history. Men, women, children pulling the rollers, working side by side, their country in jeopardy.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

Chinese civilians defend against the Japanese any way they can. Building roads, constructing airfields, loading supplies.

[Military Historian]

China is an agrarian economy in a time period where industrial warfare has taken over. So how did they produce all these weapons that you need? For example, how do you produce tanks? So part of the problem here for Chiang is that he needs everything.

[History Channel Announcer]

The only way to bring the tanks and the artillery that Zhang needs into China is to reopen the Burma Road.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

The Allies have more than a quarter of a million troops based in eastern India. From Calcutta to Lido in Assam. They planned a two pronged defensive. The British 14th army will push into central Burma to expel the Japanese. An American led force will cross into northern Burma and fight their way through to reestablish the Burma Road. General Joseph Stilwell commands the American forces. His personal and professional connection to China spans three decades.

[History Channel Announcer]

Joseph Stilwell, well known as Vinegar Joe. He's cranky and acerbic and sarcastic.

[Historian/Expert]

But Stilwell speaks and reads Mandarin. He's a great lover of China, and he has nothing but good things to say about the Chinese.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

A respected commander, Stilwell has trained thousands of soldiers in his Long career.

[History Channel Announcer]

Stilwa's task is to take a handful of Chinese divisions, 30,000 of Chiang Kai Shek's troops, and train them up to Western standards. He takes over an old British POW camp in India, and he's able to give them the training, the weaponry,

[Logistics Expert]

so

[History Channel Announcer]

that they turn themselves into relatively solid units.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

General William Slim, Uncle Bill to his troops, leads the British 14th Army, a multinational force comprised of units from Britain, India and Africa. Many have been battling the Japanese since the invasion of Burma.

[Military Strategist]

Slim says, look, we got beaten in Burma because we couldn't fight in the jungle like the Japanese can. They're not superhumans. We just have to learn how to do it.

[Military Historian]

The Japanese were considered to be these amazing jungle fighters, but we should remember Japan's not a jungle country. They're not great jungle fighters because they grew up in it. This is about training.

[Logistics Expert]

A complete rethink is needed. Slim starts training everybody. It's not just frontline infantrymen. Everyone needs to be able to handle themselves with their weapons, the bottle washers and the cooks and the truck drivers. And everyone needs to know that the Japanese are not these supermen. They're not bogey men. Actually, they are completely defeatable.

[War Analyst]

So I think by this point, the war's going very badly for Japan. You've had the Battle of Midway in 1942, which Japan lost. Now, as a result, Japanese shipping is struggling to get through. So you've got rationing tightening in Japan, and then back in Europe, you've had the German loss at Stalingrad, you've had the toppling of Mussolini. So I think at this point, Japan doesn't expect it's going to get any help, really, from the Axis powers.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

Hideki Tojo, who has been prime minister since 1941, is the dominant force in the Japanese government and military by early

[War Analyst]

1944, there's a feeling for Tojo and for others at the high command that something can be done elsewhere in the war to try and offer Japan a little bit of progress and some kind of dramatic success for the Japanese might force the Americans to come to the negotiating table. One idea is to put some pressure on the Allies in northeast India and on Chiang Kai Shek in China.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

Prime Minister Tojo approves Operation Yugo, an invasion into India. His generals prepare to attack the British bases of the 14th army and to capture the American Hump airfields.

[Carvana Advertiser]

Tojo understands that at this point, these flights across the Hump are the last remaining connection point with the west that the Chinese National Guard government has. And if you can cut those air bases off. That will then be the straw that breaks the nationalist back. For the Allies, this is rife with portents of disaster.

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[Narrator]

sometimes historic events suck, but it Shouldn't Suck is learning about history. I do that through storytelling. History that Doesn't Suck is a chart topping history telling podcast chronicling the epic story of America decade by decade, from the 18th century to the 20th. Original music and immersive sound design accompany us on our storytelling journey. Listen to and follow History that Doesn't Suck An Odyssey podcast available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcast.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

March 1944 Operation Yugo begins. Japanese troops move across the Burmese jungle into India toward British bases and the American airfields. The Japanese commander is General Renya Mutaguchi.

[Military Strategist]

Mutaguchi thinks he is a creature of destiny and he's got a plan. He believes that right there on the very, very western frontier of the Japanese Empire, he could strike a blow that could save the war for Japan.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

Mutaguchi hopes his invasion will inspire the Indians to overthrow the British and join Japan in the war.

[Carvana Advertiser]

The Japanese are banking on speed and surprise that they're going to move three divisions across these 8,000 foot high mountains in in the space of just a few days. As such, he cuts the rations for all of his attack soldiers to just 20 days worth of food.

[Military Expert/Analyst]

The Japanese soldiers carry very small amount of food supply, like dried rice, and they do not carry many heavy weapons.

[Military Strategist]

So the Japanese cannot get locked into an attritional battle because they're traveling light. They're going to have to rely on capturing British supply dumps as they go along. It's a gamble

[Narrator/Storyteller]

to get to the air bases in India. Mutaguchi will need to cross the Imphal Plain, site of a large British forward base.

[Military Strategist]

The Imphal Plain. It's kind of like a big river valley surrounded by mountainous, jungly terrain. The Brits have used this kind of bread basket. They've got airfields there, they've got Supply dumps, food, everything the Japanese need.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

Based in Imphal are three British Indian divisions from General Slim's 14th Army. They're about to push into enemy territory when they receive reports that Mutaguchi's Japanese troops are moving towards them.

[Military Strategist]

Bill Slim's new plan is to withdraw slightly, create a killing zone, let the Japanese attack through this difficult terrain and pound them with artillery and aircraft.

[Logistics Expert]

He's going to relinquish ground, but all the time he's going to attrit grind down the Japanese. This is a high risk strategy and you can only do that if you're extremely confident that your men are sufficiently trained.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

But Mutaguchi's force arrives quickly and is far larger than Slim was expecting.

[Carvana Advertiser]

So when these Japanese divisions start sort of materializing out of the jungle, it's a real pucker moment for the British.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

The Japanese encircle Imphal and cut off its supply roads.

[Logistics Expert]

There is this just brutal battle. The fighting is incredibly close quarter and it is absolutely touch and go.

[Carvana Advertiser]

But Mutaguchi is mired in mental models that were applicable in 1942 and are no longer applicable in 44. Back then, if you hit an Indian division in the face with a frontal attack, a lot of the time it fell apart. But Slim's army is better trained, it is more resilient, and from a morale standpoint, they believe in themselves. They think that they can fight the Japanese toe to toe.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

Fighting is relentless around Imphal, but General Slim has a plan to bring in reinforcements and supplies.

[Logistics Expert]

All this time, Imphal itself is completely cut off. And if you're going to make a stand, you're going to need supplies. What Slim recognizes with his American colleagues is that air power is key to the whole thing.

[Military Expert/Analyst]

There's only one way to supply this allied pocket, and that is by air.

[Carvana Advertiser]

The Americans have already got a very efficient, well trained transport air force in the north of India, the Humphreys. And they turn that airlift 90 degrees aside and aim it towards Imphal and the British troops there.

[Military Expert/Analyst]

When you're flying low and slow, you are one big fat target. These cargo planes have no defensive armament. They don't have any guns. And if you push the cargo out four seconds late, it's going to end up in the Japanese hands. But astonishingly, it works.

[Carvana Advertiser]

These transports airdrop and land about 14 million pounds of food, ammunition, heavy equipment and thousands of fresh troops. And that means that Slim can keep his forces fighting. Mutaguchi had hoped to take Imphal within days, right off the march. Instead, what he gets is a meat grinder.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

For weeks, divisions of General Slim's 14th army have been receiving supplies by air. They're the front line resisting Japan's invasion of India. But Mutaguchi's men are running out of time.

[Narrator]

The Japanese have gone into the offensive without much equipment. They don't have an established supply line. So every day that they don't achieve success, it becomes more and more desperate.

[War Analyst]

Of course, the big problem they face is rations bee start to run out. Hunger starts to become a big issue. They're picking up snakes. They're trying to eat monkeys. They are literally starving.

[Military Expert/Analyst]

General Tojo famously issued instructions for the soldiers in the battlefield that to be taken by enemy as a prisoner of war is unacceptable. Facing defeat, they should make a final suicidal charge and die or commit suicide.

[History Channel Announcer]

The survivors are forced to retreat. Japanese soldiers are dropping dead along the route.

[Military Historian]

The retreat becomes hellish. The Japanese words were translated as the road bones. The survivors accounts are of mass suicides all along the way. Their stories are of Japanese buddies getting together and hugging each other and then detonating a grenade between the two of them.

[Carvana Advertiser]

Up to this point in the war, this is the largest defeat the Japanese army has ever suffered on the ground, around 60,000 casualties.

[Narrator]

Mutaguchi had a vision of this operation to destroy the Allied efforts in northeastern India and foment an insurrection. All of those dreams are sure shattered at the end of this.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

In the spring of 1944, President Roosevelt is focused on Operation Overlord, the upcoming invasion of Normandy. But he's frustrated by the delays in East Asia and the fact that the B29s are still not in action.

[History Channel Announcer]

America is in Burma and in this theater to supply China with weapons and, and to supply their B29 bases in Southern China. Roosevelt has been told time and again by his military men that they're devoting precious resources on an effort that looks increasingly futile. And yet Roosevelt simply doesn't see another horse to. Back in May of 1944, there is no alternate place from which B29 bombers can operate.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

In northern Burma, General Vinegar Joe Stilwell is preparing troops to push to the Burma road.

[Carvana Advertiser]

If the Americans can reopen that road, it's going to completely transform not only the ground campaign in China for Shang, but also the aerial campaign for the American B29s that are going to be based in China because they will be able to drive over the heavy equipment that they can't fly across the hump like steam shovels and steamrollers. And so it transformed these bases into the sort of bases that Americans like to Build big, sprawling and full of warehouses.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

Stilwell's plan is to move across northern Burma, attack the Japanese military base at Myitina, then push forward to create a new route to the Burma road. He sent 7,000 men, including Chinese troops and a veteran American deep penetration force nicknamed Merrill's Marauders, on a three week march through the jungle towards Michina.

[Military Historian]

Certain fighting environments kill you all by themselves. You don't need bullets, you don't need shells. The jungle kills you. It destroys armies. Dangerous.

[Historian/Expert]

Day by day, the American and Chinese troops that are inserted there, they're just absolutely devastated by illness. They've all got amoebic dysentery, severe diarrhea. They've all got dengue and other tropical fevers. There was nowhere to rest, there was nowhere to recuperate and nowhere to get the resources for war.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

On May 17, Stilwell's troops launched the attack on Myitina.

[Historian/Expert]

It's a really hard fought battle. There's more Japanese there than they expected and the Japanese fight doggedly for it.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

The Americans call in air support from their bases in India and take my airfield. US gliders land, bringing reinforcements and General Stilwell.

[Carvana Advertiser]

So with the fall of Michennem, that now enables the Americans to play their strong suit, which is construction.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

Army engineers and local laborers start to build a new route from India to the Burma road.

[Narrator]

It's hundreds of miles long, scraped out of the jungle and it's a major construction program. It's going to take months.

[Carvana Advertiser]

From the British and American standpoint, it's all looking good. It's going to take a while to rebuild that road, but we can rebuild it now. And it seems that the tea leaves are now propitious for a B29 offensive out of China. The problem is that the Allies don't know that the Japanese have an even bigger land off operation up their sleeve.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

General Stilwell's victory at Michena will enable the Americans to reconnect to the Burma road. But it's a slow and arduous process and the road won't be operational for months. In June 1944, B29s begin to arrive at the airfields in China.

[Military Expert/Analyst]

The army air forces have been waiting for the B29 for years. Finally, here they are, ready to fly their first missions out of China. The idea is to put up a sustained bombing campaign over Japan. The key is being able to fly missions over and over and over again.

[Carvana Advertiser]

The problem is Logistics. The B29 is an enormous fuel hog. It runs on about 9,000 gallons of gasoline per Sortie.

[Narrator]

They also need a lot of bombs. And the only way you're going to get bombs and fuel to those airfields is they got to fly over the hump until they open up a new Burma road.

[Military Expert/Analyst]

It takes eight airlift missions flying over the hump for every B29 combat mission, just to bring in the bombs and the fuel.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

In mid June, the first B29 combat mission to Japan sets off from Chengdu. 68 Superfortresses attack the Imperial Iron and Steel Works at Yawata in southern Japan.

[Military Expert/Analyst]

But because they don't have enough supplies coming into China, they're only flying, flying a few missions at a time. It's just not going to add up to the sustained pounding campaign that Roosevelt wants.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Tojo has launched an offensive in China.

[War Analyst]

It's called Operation Ichigo, which means Operation Number One. And this is the largest operation that the Japanese undertake during the war.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

The offensive has two goals. Secure land access to Japan's occupied possessions in Southeast Asia and capture US Air bases in China.

[Carvana Advertiser]

The Japanese attack with about a half a million troops, several thousand artillery pieces, hundreds of tanks, a lot of aircraft as well.

[War Analyst]

But the big surprise of this campaign is how poor Chiang Kai Shek's forces are at this point. Some of them are starving. There have been lots of deserters from that army. And with that level of morale, some of these forces, under Japanese pressure, simply melt away.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

The Japanese push south, overpowering Chinese forces. Millions of Chinese attempt to flee. Caught between a foreign invader and their own corrupt leaders, the US Is forced to abandon bases and airfields.

[War Analyst]

It's a huge embarrassment for Chiang Kai Shek, particularly in the face of his allies. All this time, he's been trying to talk up what he's capable of if only the Americans give him what he needs. And yet, in the face of Operation Ichigo, his forces just seemed to crumble.

[Carvana Advertiser]

For the Americans, looking at the wreckage of the aftermath of Ichigo, they recognized that the Chinese can't defend American bases no matter where they are. On top of that, the increasing logistical headaches of trying to get supplies over the hump means that they decide to just cut their losses and they pack up those B29s.

[Military Expert/Analyst]

The Army Air Forces have put everything into making these Chinese bases work. But they're done with China.

[Carvana Advertiser]

And the Americans may now have a new option for basing B29s, which is a better option.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

Since 1943, American forces have been fighting their way across the Central Pacific. Now a combined Marine and Army force is on the verge of invading the Mariana Islands Tinian, Guam and Saipan, only 1600 miles from Japan.

[Carvana Advertiser]

So if the Americans can capture the Marianas, the B29 bomber will now be within range of almost all of Japan. The expectation for the Americans is that this should be a relatively easy operation, but the reality is going to be utterly different.

[Roe Co Advertiser]

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[Narrator/Storyteller]

Just after D Day, the Allied invasion of Europe, American forces attack Saipan in the middle of the Pacific.

[Carvana Advertiser]

This is really an unprecedented display of American power projection that the Americans are able to launch these two massive operations. Overlord first in Europe and then Saipan. They're separated by half a planet. They're thousands of miles apart.

[Narrator]

The expectation is that this is going to take three days for two Marine divisions and an army division to be able to conquer Saipan.

[Historian/Expert]

But the Japanese had fortified it and built D day style fortifications. Not only bunkers and pillboxes, but they had dummy bunkers and pillboxes so that they could waste some of the naval bombardment on fake targets.

[Narrator]

In fact, there's actually 32,000 Japanese there. Saipan is the part of the Japanese defenses that they would consider to be the inner ring that must be defended, that they will sacrifice the most for, because if they lose Taipan, then Tokyo is in danger, and that's where the Emperor is. The resistance is ferocious.

[Carvana Advertiser]

The Americans successfully get a full division's worth of troops on there within the space of just a few hours.

[Narrator]

In the initial assault, 8,000 marines land. Over 2,000 of them become casualties. This is a bloodletting beyond what anybody had expected.

[Carvana Advertiser]

Anytime a Japanese formation attempts to put in a counterattack, they are immediately met with inordinate amounts of naval gunfire that just crush them.

[Historian/Expert]

The Japanese retreat into the hills in the interior, along with several thousand Japanese settlers living in Saipan. And they forced the Marines and the army troops to root them out of caves in these hills.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

The battle for Saipan lasts almost a month. Thousands of civilians die, caught in the crossfire.

[Carvana Advertiser]

The final climax of this battle happens at a set of cliffs on the northern part of the island.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

At Marpi Point, advancing US Troops trap civilians and Japanese soldiers between the front line and the sea.

[Carvana Advertiser]

The Japanese propaganda that's been fed to these people tells them that the Americans are going to kill all the men, rape all the women, and it's effective. They don't surrender.

[Historian/Expert]

And then as the Marines close in, some of them leap to Their deaths, some of them clutching their children.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

Marines and soldiers confront the inconceivable. For Japan, the loss of Saipan is a disaster.

[Carvana Advertiser]

They've now had the heart ripped out of their defensive line. And they know that the Americans now are going to have perfect operating conditions to launch this bomber offensive against Japan itself.

[Narrator]

The casualties are high for both sides,

[Military Expert/Analyst]

but the terrible loss of life finally gives the B29s the air bases they need to bomb. Japan instead of having hand built runways in China that require airlift just to bring in the gas. Now in the Marianas Islands, you have huge runways built by the cities Seabees using brilliant white coral, as hard and durable as you can want.

[Narrator]

On these three islands, Saipan, Tinian and Guam, the Americans build five long Runway complexes, each to be supported by a bomber group of 180B29s.

[Military Expert/Analyst]

And suddenly the Marianas are the world's biggest air.

[Narrator]

Basically, FDR's objective. The B29 finally gets its optimum opportunity to achieve the mission for which it was developed in the first place.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

November 1944. B29 Superfortresses take off for the first of many missions to bomb the home islands of Japan. With the capture of the Mariana island chain, the United States is capable of regularly striking Japan, just as it's been able to hit Germany for the past two years. As the tide turns for these Axis partners, each country tightens its grip on its people.

[Tom Hanks]

World War II with Tom Hanks is produced by A and E Factu Studios, Newtopia Ltd. Playtone Productions and Back Pocket Studios in association with Motion Entertainment for the History Channel. This episode was narrated by Tom Hanks and mixed by John Lloyd. Additional voicing provided by me, Jeremy Reagan from the History Channel. Our executive producers are Eli Lehrer and Liv Fiddler for Playtone. Executive producers are Tom Hanks and Gary Getzman for Back Pocket Studios. Our executive producer is Ben Dickstein.