Excellent series of true stories. An even better, imho, later series by Hanks... The Pacific- is deep down into the horror of war, the emotional tearing apart of Patriots. Includes the heart rending story of the Buy Bond Iwo Jima flag raisers,and how they ended up. And nothing... nothing can surpass the wonderful, and terrible story of John Basilone, USMC Medal of Honor. Semper Fidelis, John and all of the unbelievably brave Marines (yes and soldiers) who fought inch by inch in deep jungle against a fanatic suicidal enemy.
The European Theater is easily related to- because the fight was against reasonably similar US vs. European “cultural” and country backgrounds (many of US soldiers descending more recently from European countries immigrated/naturalized into US citizens). The Pacific was a massive area of theater of war many times that of Europ-and General Douglas MacArthur the CINCPAC- a genius, along with ADMs Nimitz, Spruance, King, Halsey and Wainwright, Ed King, and the finest of the USMC (Good Night Chesty, whereever you are!).
The entire array of leadership- bravery, guts, risktaking and sacrifice (many dying on the bridge or in the front lines).
“The Pacific” should have been longer justified by the huge area that had to be retaken— and much longer than the Brothers in Arms (interpose a map of Europe with the US- to see the much smaller distances). It could have picked up in the middle with those who came from Victory in Europe to planning the invasion of Japan- and who were spared by the Atomic bombs.
When one considers that the Sino-Japanese war had been going on for 4 years before Pearl Harbor attack brought US in— a very long war, with unique horrors. God Bless the Memory of all the Veterans of the Pacific and Europe.
Japs even fought the Soviets in 1939, against some general named "Zhukov".