You can find some of the best war documentaries on television every Tuesday night on WLRN - TV, starting at 8:00 p.m.
Emperor Hirohito (8:00 pm)
From Manchuria to Pearl Harbor, the film explores the Emperor's influence over two decades of war fought in his name. From the landing of General MacArthur to the trial and execution of General Tojo, it outlines the amazing story of how American prosecutors and Japanese elite circles ensured the Emperor was not put on trial.
Powerful archive footage and dramatizations of key meetings and monologues from the Emperor accompany testimonies from witnesses – many of whom are speaking out for the first time on this controversial topic. They include senior Japanese academics, the family of former Cabinet ministers and former soldiers of the Emperor.
The War “When Things Get Tough (9:00 pm)
In the second episode of Ken Burn’s The War picks up on January 1943, Americans have been at war for more than a year. The Germans, with their vast war machine, still occupy most of Western Europe, and the Allies have not yet been able to agree on a plan or a timetable to dislodge them. For the time being, they will have to be content to nip at the edges of Hitler’s enormous domain. American troops, including Charles Mann of Luverne, are now ashore in North Africa, ready to test themselves for the first time against the German and Italian armies. At Kasserine Pass, Erwin Rommel’s seasoned veterans quickly overwhelm the poorly led and ill-equipped Americans, but in the following weeks, after George Patton assumes command, the Americans pull themselves together and begin to beat back the Germans. In the process, thousands of soldiers learn to disregard the belief that killing is a sin and come to adopt the more professional outlook that “killing is a craft,” as reporter Ernie Pyle explains to the readers back home.
