WWII E161 - The Final Weeks on Okinawa: From Shuri to the Sea
Release Date: 10/20/2025
Chapter 10: From Tokyo Bay to the 38th Parallel
History of the Marine Corps
From the streets of London to the beaches of North Africa, Marines carried their purpose into every corner of a world at war. They trained with the Royal Marines, guarded embassies under fire, planned Allied landings, and fought in places where no division would ever march. When Japan fell, they raised the flag over Yokosuka and Nagasaki, guarded surrendered fleets, and kept order through the uneasy calm that followed. Peace offered no rest. The Corps faced demobilization, doubt, and then a new kind of war in Korea’s frozen mountains. At Pusan, Inchon, and Chosin, they proved the spirit of...
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Chapter 9: The Last Steps to Japan
History of the Marine Corps
From the reefs of Tarawa to the cliffs of Okinawa, this chapter follows the Marines through the final and fiercest battles of the Pacific. It opens with the blood-soaked sands of Tarawa and the shattered airfields of Kwajalein, where new tactics and firepower reshaped amphibious war. Each island demanded more than the last, testing courage, endurance, and faith itself. By Okinawa, the Marines had mastered their craft but seen its cost beyond measure. Support the Series Listen ad-free and a week early on historyofthemarinecorps.supercast.com Donate directly...
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Chapter 8: The War That Awoke the Sea
History of the Marine Corps
From the calm of a Sunday morning in Hawaii to the sands of the South Pacific, this chapter marks the turning of the tide. It begins with the shock of Pearl Harbor and the desperate stands at Wake, Guam, and Corregidor, small garrisons that fought to the last shot. It follows the first lonely outpost in Iceland, where Marines waited through wind and ice while the world slipped into war, then turns to the islands of the Solomons, where the Corps learned to fight, bleed, and win in the jungles of the Pacific. Out of fire, hunger, and mud, a new kind of Marine emerged: amphibious, relentless, and...
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Chapter 7: Building the Force That Would Win the Pacific
History of the Marine Corps
From the ridges of Blanc Mont to the jungles of China, this chapter follows the Marines as they emerge from the Great War hardened and transformed. It opens on the blood-soaked hills of France, where the Corps shattered German lines at Blanc Mont and the Meuse, then traces their return to a nation eager for peace but uncertain of their purpose. In the decades between wars, the Marines rebuilt themselves on football fields, in classrooms, and on ponies at Peking. They forged doctrine, studied war, and turned lessons from Haiti and France into the blueprint for amphibious victory. By the...
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Chapter 6: From Small Wars to the Great War
History of the Marine Corps
From the jungles of the Caribbean to the wheatfields of France, this chapter traces the Marines’ transformation from a small expeditionary force into a modern fighting corps. In the Dominican Republic and Haiti, they battled rebellion and unrest, forging legends in men like Smedley Butler, Dan Daly, and Herman Hanneken. Their story carries on through the siege and smoke of the Boxer Rebellion and into the trenches of the Great War, where the Marines proved their worth and defined what it means to wear the eagle, globe, and anchor. Support the Series Listen ad-free and a week...
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Chapter 5: Steam, Steel, and the Birth of the Modern Marine
History of the Marine Corps
This episode traces the Marine Corps’ transformation from the late 1800s into the modern force recognized today. It begins with the creation of Parris Island and the evolution of Marine training, from tents and marshland to a world-class recruit depot tested by war, tragedy, and reform. The story moves through Panama, where Marines became America’s instrument of order, and into the age of steel ships and global ambition. It follows their battles in Cuba, the Philippines, and across Central America during the Banana Wars, where the Corps learned the lessons of small wars, air-ground...
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Chapter 4: The Road from Mexico to Manassas
History of the Marine Corps
This episode follows the Marines from secret missions in Mexico to Civil War battlefields. We begin with Lieutenant Archibald Gillespie’s covert journey that helped ignite the conquest of California and trace how that campaign laid the foundation for the Corps’ presence on the Pacific coast and the birth of Camp Pendleton. From there, we turn inward as the nation collapses into civil war. The Marine Corps splits in two, with brother facing brother at sea and on land, from Bull Run to Charleston Harbor, from the ironclads at Hampton Roads to the final assault at Fort Fisher. Both the Union...
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Chapter 3: Ashes in the Capital, Blood on the Castle Slopes
History of the Marine Corps
From the burning of Washington to the storming of Chapultepec, this episode follows the Marines through a generation of transformation and war. It opens with the War of 1812’s final acts. From there, we moves through the Second Barbary War and Archibald Henderson’s rise as the “Grand Old Man,” who reshaped the Corps into a disciplined, permanent force. His Marines fought across swamps and frontiers in the Seminole campaigns before marching ashore in Mexico. The story ends at Veracruz and Chapultepec, where Marines scaled the fortress walls, earning the words forever carried in song....
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Chapter 2: The New Bloodline
History of the Marine Corps
After the Revolution left America without a Navy or Marine Corps, global tensions forced the young republic to rebuild its strength at sea. This episode follows the Corps’ revival in 1798 and its first tests in battle, from the Quasi-War with France to the campaign against the Barbary pirates and the daring raid to burn the captured frigate Philadelphia. It explores how Commandant William Ward Burrows shaped the Corps’ discipline and structure, how the Marine Band became “The President’s Own,” and how Lieutenant Presley O’Bannon led the first Marines across the desert to Derne. We...
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Chapter 1: The Birth of a Corps
History of the Marine Corps
Born in a Philadelphia tavern at the height of the Revolution, the Marine Corps began as America’s first seaborne fighting force. This episode traces that origin. Out of the smoke and uncertainty of rebellion, Samuel Nicholas gathered the first Marines from the city’s streets. They were craftsmen, sailors, and laborers who became the sharp edge of a new nation. They launched their first assault in the Bahamas, fought beside Washington on the Delaware, and held fast through both triumph and disaster. From frozen rivers at Trenton to burning ships at Penobscot, Chapter 1 follows the...
info_outlineIn the spring of 1945, the Battle of Okinawa became the bloodiest fight of the Pacific War. What was meant to be the final step toward Japan turned into a storm of mud, coral, and fire that tested every limit of courage and endurance.
This episode follows the Marines through the final weeks of the campaign. It is a story of bravery and exhaustion, of shattered armies and civilians trapped between them, of generals who chose death over surrender, and of the staggering cost of victory.
When the guns finally fell silent, more than two hundred thousand people were dead. The island lay in ruins, but amid that devastation came moments of humanity.
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