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It’s January 1944 and the tide of WWII has changed. Though it will be a long hard grind, victory is on the horizon. To “better inform the American public,” about the situation in the Pacific, NBC creates a series of radio documentary dramas in Hollywood, with expert writers and professional voice actors. Enjoy this 80-year-old gem that traces the island’s history from the Dutch to the “Chinese” on Japanese Formosa “yearning to rejoin the fatherland... China!” This old radio drama is a wonderful snapshot in time – 1944 – before the events of the following year (Hitler’s death, two atomic bombs dropped on Japan, the formal end of WWII, and Taiwan’s “return” to the Republic of China) shaped the world we live in today.
Original Link: PACIFIC STORY - Formosa Prize of the China Sea
THE PACIFIC STORY
The Pacific Story was broadcast on NBC at 11:30pm, with the first broadcast on July 11, 1943. The series lasted 184 weeks with two weeks pre-empted and ended on January 26, 1947. It was considered a documentary. The premise of the show was that with Europe in ruins, the Pacific might emerge as the center of political and social change in the world, and people should know something about it. The series touched on every nation around the Pacific rim and told of their importance in the years to come when the war ended. It was narrated by Gayne Williams and featured such authorities on Pacific affairs as Henry Luce and Pearl S. Buck. From the Old Time Radio Researcher's Group.
Below: What the political situation in Asia looked like in 1939, before the Allies began fighting Japan.
LINK: National World War II Museum.
WATCH: The Pacific War as it happened: Newsreels from 1944
List of some of the events in the first few months of 1944.
January 9, 1944 - British and Indian troops recapture Maungdaw in Burma.
January 31, 1944 - U.S. troops invade Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands.
February 1-7, 1944 - U.S. troops capture Kwajalein and Majura Atolls in the Marshall Islands.
February 17/18 - U.S. carrier-based planes destroy the Japanese naval base at Truk in the Caroline Islands.
February 20, 1944 - U.S. carrier-based and land-based planes destroy the Japanese base at Rabaul.
February 23, 1944 - U.S. carrier-based planes attack the Mariana Islands.
February 24, 1944 - Merrill's Marauders begin a ground campaign in northern Burma.
March 5, 1944 - Gen. Wingate's groups begin operations behind Japanese lines in Burma.
March 15, 1944 - Japanese begin offensive toward Imphal and Kohima.
April 17, 1944 - Japanese begin their last offensive in China, attacking U.S. air bases in eastern China.
Below: U.S. Army officers plant the American flag during the Battle of Guam (July - August, 1944) - taking back Guam marked the beginning of the end for Japan.
Via Wiki: The Battle of Guam (21 July–10 August 1944) was the American recapture of the Japanese-held island of Guam, a U.S. territory captured by the Japanese in the First Battle of Guam in 1941 during the Pacific campaign of World War II. The battle was a critical component of Operation Forager. The recapture of Guam and the broader Mariana and Palau Islands campaign resulted in the destruction of much of Japan's naval air power and allowed the United States to establish large airbases from which it could bomb the Japanese home islands with its new strategic bombers, the Boeing B-29 Superfortress.
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Check our very first episode, the story of a very white man who showed up in London in 1703... and claimed to be from Formosa. Or try a foodie episode from Season 3. Or, for those who want some harder-core history, hear the tale of the Lockheed U-2 pilot Wang Hsi-chueh 王錫爵, who became famous for defecting to the PRC by hijacking China Airlines Flight 334 on May 3, 1986.
