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How Banzai Charges Terrified U.S. Marines | Unbelievable true stories | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: How Banzai Charges Terrified U.S. Marines
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The Pacific theater of World War II was exceptionally brutal, characterized by unique and horrific tactics like the "Banzai charge," a desperate, suicidal assault rooted in Japanese military doctrine and cultural honor codes.
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While the European battles between the
Allies and Germans followed some
semblance of rules, the Pacific theater
is so overlooked and underappreciated
for how horrific it was on so many
levels. From the horrors of the
SinoJapanese War, use of chemical and
biological weapons, human experiment
facilities, treatment of Allied
prisoners of war all the way to the
actual tactics and the way battles were
fought. Besides a couple of publicized
major battles like Eoima, there isn't
much attention on this bizarre section
of the Second World War. For some
reason, its infamous reputation was
mainly created by the Japanese Imperial
Army. Besides, you know, two atomic
bombs and the firebombing of cities full
of people and things like that. But
today, we'll cover one unique tactic
rarely seen in combat, except on this
front, it was almost a common
occurrence. The so-called Banzai charge.
Let's set the stage. By late 1942, the
tide of the war in the Pacific was
shifting. After the surprise attack on
Pearl Harbor, Japan had rapidly expanded
across the Pacific, taking over a vast
stretch of territory and crucial island
chains in a strategy to create a massive
defensive perimeter to stop the
inevitable Allied ground invasion. The
Allies, on the other hand, had the
island hopping idea to leaprog over the
heavily fortified islands and seize the
most strategically important ones, then
use them as air bases for the next
assaults and bombing campaigns. The goal
was to cut off and isolate major
Japanese garrisons while pushing ever
closer to the Japanese mainland. This
would, at least in theory, reduce
casualties and allow faster advance. The
Japanese were at first trying to stop
the enemy at the water's edge. They
prepared island defenses to hit landing
craft and soldiers the moment they hit
the beach, like the Germans did when the
Normandy invasion happened. This did
cause horrific casualties for the
invading force. But once they got
through that with the support of heavy
naval artillery, the resistance was left
with few options. The Japanese then
realized that a much better strategy was
to actually let the enemy land while
they waited in cover from bombing and
artillery preparations in systems of
shelters. Then after the dust settled,
creatively turn every inch of ground
into a death trap and terrorize them
with surprise night raids,
counterattacks, and of course, banzai
charges. The first full-scale clash
between US Marines and Japanese ground
forces was about to shatter their
expectations and introduce them to a way
of close and personal combat none of
them had seen before. The Japanese were
building an airfield that could threaten
Allied shipping lanes. And they couldn't
let that happen. So on August 7th, 1942,
US Marines landed on Guadal Canal. At
first, encountering surprisingly little
resistance. They captured the nearly
finished airfield quickly, but something
was off. After some oddly quiet time,
Japanese forces began launching
nighttime raids and counterattacks,
culminating in full-on charges that the
Marines weren't prepared for. Besides
now fighting the terrain, jungle, heat,
tropical diseases, insects, snakes, and
everything else that made their time
there everything but comfortable, they
had an enemy that operated on a
completely different state of mind. A
couple of the first Bzai charges caught
the Marines off guard, breaching
perimeter lines in some cases. But they
learned fast and units began building
better defensive perimeters specifically
to counter charges. Interlocking fields
of fire with machine guns and mortars
positioned to cover and protect each
other, always ready to unleash as much
firepower as possible. Barbed wire
became a must-have to slow them down and
channel enemy infantry into kill zones.
Flamethrowers, shotguns, and 37 mm
anti-tank guns with canister rounds
proved quite effective, making the
impact of banzai charges mostly
psychological. Guadal Canal turned into
a six-month slugfest with brutal land,
naval, and air battles and set the level
of expectations for what would happen on
the next islands Marines would set their
boots on. Each one progressively worse
than the previous. Guadal Canal was just
the introduction, and the largest Banzai
charge the Allies would ever face was
still ahead, waiting to happen in the
Battle of Saipan. But why was the Banzai
charge actually used in combat? The
tactic didn't start in the Pacific
against the Marines, but actually during
the Japanese invasion of China in the
1930s, where it wasn't a desperate
attack, ending in every single one
dying. Back then, it was quite an
effective tactic the Japanese used to
overcome their numerically superior
Chinese enemy using pure aggression,
speed, and surprise in mass infantry
charges. Chinese forces, although
greater in number, were poorly trained,
armed mostly with bolt-action rifles,
rarely had machine guns, and struggled
with ammunition shortages. This was
quite the opposite of what the Japanese
soldiers would soon face against the US
Marines. Chinese forces simply couldn't
put out enough firepower to stop a wave
of screaming Japanese troops armed with
grenades, katanas, and bayonets. While
the psychological aspect was another
thing that added to its effectiveness,
they would start with bugle calls and
screaming followed by an all-out charge,
which is not something you'd be
indifferent to when it's coming your
way. These assaults weren't formally
called banzai charges, but the name came
from their shouting while going into an
attack of the phrase tenno banzai,
meaning long live the emperor. The
allies picked up on that and later
called them banzai charges. When Japan
began facing organized US Marines with
automatic weapons, artillery, air
support, and more than enough ammo,
those same tactics turned almost
completely pointless. They weren't
gaining anything except the honor of
dying in combat. However, not before
causing horrific casualties in a couple
of instances. Now, you may wonder, why
did they do it anyway? The Japanese
began resorting to banzai charges as a
final act of desperation. Japanese
Imperial soldiers were heavily
indoctrinated by the Bushido Code of
Honor. It was better to die honorably
and surrender was out of the question.
They were ordered to hold ground to the
death and were only allowed to die once
they had taken out at least three enemy
soldiers, completely brainwashed by
their leaders. And when cornered,
realizing the battle was lost,
commanders would usually order the final
charge, resulting in everyone's death.
Now, the largest banzai charge of the
entire conflict, which produced some of
the most heroic stories of the Pacific
campaign. By July 1944, the Battle of
Saipan had already turned into one of
the most savage fights in the Pacific.
The island was considered of immense
importance by both sides. For the US,
taking Saipan meant they would be within
bomber range of the Japanese mainland,
and the Japanese were well aware of
that. The Americans had landed on June
15th and fought their way inland for
three grueling weeks. The terrain and
well-conceeded Japanese defensive
positions made every advance costly, but
they were pushing the Japanese slowly
but surely. The Japanese troops under
the command of General Saiito had dug in
hard and were supported by a number of
civilians. You know, by their free will.
One by one, the Japanese defenses
collapsed into a small pocket in the
northern part of the island with their
backs against the sea. There was no
evacuation intended, no resupply, and no
way to push the allies off the island.
General Sat knew it was over. It was the
night of July 6th when he gave his final
orders. His speech to the remaining
troops was clear. There would be no more
retreat, no surrender, and the death was
now their duty. Soldiers were told to
kill at least one American before they
died. But if possible, each man should
aim to take out three. Around 4,000
people, officers, soldiers, civilians,
and walking wounded were gathered and
prepared for the final attack. Some were
unarmed or armed with bamboo spears, and
even some wounded were carried by their
comrades so they could die in battle. On
the other side were the first and second
battalions of the 105th Infantry
Regiment. Between them was a gap in the
line, which due to lack of
reinforcements was covered only with
anti-tank guns. 50 yards behind the
front line was an aid station. After
dark, Japanese troops were assembling
and drinking their last supply of beer
and sake. Through the night, they were
probing the American front line, trying
to find the weakest spot. General
Seaitto would commit ritual suicide in
his command post while around 200
officers now stood in the front ranks
leading the way with swords. In the
pre-dawn hours of July 7th, the charge
began. Japanese soldiers were shouting
at the top of their lungs and charging
straight into the American line, exactly
at the weakest spot, coming right
through the gap between the two
battalions. The American line was
shattered into small pockets of
resistance, fighting hand-to- hand in
complete chaos. Lieutenant Colonel
O'Brien was fighting with two pistols in
his hands, commanding his men. After
firing all his ammunition and being
wounded in the shoulder, he ordered his
men to pull back and regroup while he
covered their retreat with a 50 caliber
machine gun mounted on a jeep until he
was swarmed by Japanese soldiers. He
killed at least 30 of them in his last
stand. Soldiers were using their rifles
as clubs after exhausting all their
ammunition, trying to regroup and find
some way to organize a defense in all
this carnage. Private Tom Baker was
wounded and requested to be left behind
by his comrades so they could escape.
They propped him up against a tree and
gave him a pistol with eight rounds.
After the battle, he was found dead with
eight dead Japanese soldiers around him.
Captain Salomon was treating casualties
in his aid station when a Japanese
soldier crawled inside the tent. Salomon
shot him and tackled another one while a
wounded marine shot him. He ordered all
the wounded to try to save themselves
and ran out of the tent. Outside, he
found the crew of a machine gun dead.
Salomon manned the machine gun, covering
the retreat of the wounded. He was also
found dead later with 98 Japanese bodies
in front of his machine gun. The battle
went on for 15 hours with Japanese
forces advancing 1,000 yd deep into
American lines. They even came upon an
artillery battery and artillerymen had
to fire their howitzers at point blank
range before destroying them and
retreating as the waves just kept
coming. Some Marines were cut off and
had to swim out to US destroyers to save
themselves. By 6:00 p.m., the Americans
managed to stop the attack and regain
the lost ground. The site was outright
horrifying. All of the approximately
4,000 Japanese were dead, while the
Americans suffered around 400 killed and
500 wounded. But still, it wasn't the
end. After the attack, 47 Japanese
survivors retreated and organized a
resistance. They continued to conduct
raids on Saipan for the next 16 months
until the last survivors finally
surrendered on December 1st, 1945,
ending the carnage this small island had seen.
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