Back to WW II in "The Pacific" on HBO Tonight

Prepare to be shocked and awed. HBO follows up their acclaimed 2001 miniseries Band of Brothers with The Pacific, the new production from the company headed up by big-names Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg. This time they're doing for the Pacific theater of war what they did for the battlefields of Europe last time out. The ten-part miniseries unfolds beginning tonight at 9pm, and it's clearly a do-not-miss event.

The Pacific follows four Marines through their time in the field, and the characters are based closely on real Marines: Leckie (played by the intense James Badge Dale), Basilone (played by the interesting Jon Ceda), Sledge (played by Joe Mazzello, who was the little boy in Jurassic Park!), and Phillips (played by Ashton Holmes). Their lives and missions bring them together in historic wartime locales that most of us know only about from history books -- Guadalcanal, Peleliu, Iwo Jima and Okinawa -- and neither they -- nor we the viewers -- will ever be quite the same again.

From the looks of the comments on the HBO Message Boards for the program, many Americans feel it's high time this important part of WW II history, and the men and women who endured it, were honored with this miniseries. I'm certain many of us will wish our fathers were still alive to see this amazing story that they lived through brought to life like this. I know I do.

In many ways this part of the War has always seemed more real to me, perhaps because my dad Harry (that handsome swabby to the left) was in the Navy on the West Coast in Long Beach, CA, during the war, and also because I've always loved the movies about the Pacific theater. (So Proudly We Hail, anyone? Or Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison? Or even South Pacific...)

We're going to post a selection of trailers for The Pacific here so you can get a good overview of what's in store for you. They are terrific, and will surely get you securely settled in front of your TV come 9pm for tonight's premiere. We also highly recommend that you check out HBO's website for The Pacific, as well as join their Facebook fan page, if that's your thing. You also might like to visit Marines of the Pacific's website, where you can find more info on the real men behind the miniseries.

The Pacific will undoubtedly be the most powerful programs on TV this season, and you've just got to watch it. It's the history of your country and the men who defended it, and we owe it to them to watch. Thanks, Hanks, Spielberg, et al...

White Light, Black Rain...In Response with the Next Generation

I was moved to watch White Light, Black Rain on HBO after reading Lisa's excellent review. I watched that special with mixed feelings. My Dad was a WWII veteran, and he was being sent off into the Pacific theater right before the bomb was dropped. The bomb ended the war, so instead of going off to fight in Japan, my Dad was part of the recovery crew that landed in Nagasaki, 6 months after the bomb. The pictures that I am showing here, are ones that he took after he landed.

This posting has little to do with television, and a lot to do with hope...that after such suffering (the victims of the bombing at Nagasaki/Hiroshima) there could be anything...even 60 years later...to say that would be positive on their behalf.

But here it is. Last December, my son Tommy's high school band hosted 1o0 students from another school band from Japan. Many of the band parents in Torrance California volunteered to have Japanese students stay at their homes for a couple of days, during this exchange student event. We ended up having Aya and Yuka stay with us. Between the two of them, they spoke maybe 8 words of English, and most of those words had to do with Disneyland. Tommy rallied his high school musician friends, one of whom was Japanese American and fluent in both languages. He came to our house to translate, and they all had a spontaneous band jam in my living room that first night...(trumpets, trombones, guitars...my neighbors must have hated me!) Somehow, between Tommy's fledgling Japanese, our translater friend, sign language and lots of flipping through our 800 cable channels (we actually found a Japanese language news channel for them on Time Warner cable) we were able to communicate through a 2 day visit. To be honest, it was food, and not television, that formed the most delightful bonds with our guests. It wasn't always clear what they like to watch on TV, but it was instantly clear that they loved the pizza, or fruit tree, or (biggest hit of all) Denny's cheese omelet and hash browns take out.

Aya and Yuka had an excellent visit, played wonderfully at a local concert hall and were treated like royalty by my son Tommy and his friends. Everyone exchanged email addresses, and they still keep in touch. Throughout the visit, I could not help but think...60 years ago, Tommy's grandparents, and Yuka and Aya's grandparents...were trying to destroy each other.
But you would never know it from their encounter, here in Torrance, California, just a few months ago.

White Light, Black Rain was a heart rending documentary. The world's only survivors of nuclear weapons, serve as living examples for why the world must never again come to that brink of horrific destruction. I think that kids like Tommy and Aya and Yuka...will make sure of it.