(airplane sounds)
♪ (haunting music) ♪
(engine humming)
♪ (haunting music) ♪
♪ (music crescendos, stops) ♪
(man) When Pearl Harbor got attacked, we got attacked.
(planes roaring, fire blazing)
All I could hear was gunfire.
The kids came back, and they were being shot down by Zeros
just as quickly as you could pick them out
and we had these binoculars; you could see them.
And I watched one young man bail out of a plane.
(plane roaring, gunfire)
The Zeros took care of him while he was hanging from his parachute,
and machine-gunned him 'til he was dead.
Been seven years since I've been back there.
My trip back to Midway
was the most delightful thing I've ever done in my life.
Really it's because I'm remembering these kids, they gave their lives to us.
And they gave me a whole life. Gave me 95 years.
If they hadn't done that,
I wouldn't have got to have a beautiful wife for 70 years,
wouldn't have had children and things.
I think it has to be retained in some manner.
♪ (gentle music) ♪
♪ (dramatic music) ♪
(narrator) Isolated at the far western end
of the Hawaiian archipelago
lies the pale ribbon of sand,
fringed by an ancient coral reef.
♪ (dramatic music) ♪
It is a sanctuary, hidden over the horizon.
From Hawaii, looking west,
it sits in the last of the sun, at the edge of night.
♪ (dramatic music) ♪
where, according to Hawaiian legend,
souls are born,
and upon death, return.
Human history
and natural history
live here, side by side.
Once the site of a great World War II naval battle,
today a bird's-eye view reveals abandoned runways
that are now home to the latest generation of fliers.
Over blue lagoons, vibrant corals,
and hundreds of resident dolphins.
♪ (dramatic music) ♪
This is a story of change,
and restoration,
a portrait of an island's past,
and future,
and a journey to understand the importance of a lost atoll
in the middle of the Pacific.
♪ (dramatic music) ♪
Midway Atoll was the site of two attacks during World War II.
The first strike came at the same time as Pearl Harbor.
(radio announcer) On December 7th, 1941,
Japan, like its infamous axis partners,
struck first, and declared war afterwards.
(narrator) Similarly, Midway was relatively unprepared,
though it remained in America's control.
President Roosevelt addressed Congress
the day after the Pearl Harbor attack,
and asked for a declaration of war against the Empire of Japan.
(radio address by Roosevelt) Yesterday, December 7th, 1941,
a date which will live in infamy.
Last night the Japanese attacked Wake Island,
and this morning, the Japanese attacked Midway Island.
Midway, because of its communications,
and it's this forward outpost of the Hawaiian Islands,
it's absolutely vital to American security.
(narrator) The war was now global,
and the fate of democracy hung in the balance.
Six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor,
Japan once again had the strategically positioned Midway
in its sights.
However, this time, it was different.
American intelligence broke their secret code,
and set the perfect trap.
♪ (percussive music) ♪
(man) Up until the Battle of Midway,
Japan had been continuously advancing.
They had never been stopped.
After the Battle of Midway, they continuously were falling back.
Midway is that point where everything changes.
(narrator) On June 4th, the Battle of Midway began,
and by June 7th,
American forces had dealt the most stunning and decisive blow
in the history of naval warfare,
and the turning point of the war.
(radio announcer) The Battle of Midway is over.
Our front yard is safe.
But a big job is still to be done.
Day after day, our patrol planes search for survivors--
every tiny coral reef, every distant mile of sea,
searched for men who fought to the last round of ammunition,
and flew to the last drop of gas, and then crashed into the sea.
(air-raid siren)
(man) Air-raid sirens sounded,
notifying us that the Japanese were en route.
The Japanese would probably try to take the island,
and we trained for that. We were ready.
We had an attitude we could meet any adversary.
The old tradition of being a good marine,
why, that was prominent in our everyday thoughts.
The enemy's going to die, not us.
I don't think I really thought how important it was going to be.
What you're concentrated on at that period of time
is where you live, and who you live with, and what your job is.
(man) We didn't know the details. We didn't know what we were going to do.
We knew there were going to be problems,
but all you're doing out there is circling.
Well, the only feeling I can remember of the actual attack
was the vibrations from the bombs falling,
the sounds of the planes diving,
and machine-gun fire.
(gun fire)
At four o'clock, the torpedo bombers came in,
♪ (ominous music) ♪
and I heard the lookout say, "There's wakes on the starboard side,"
meaning that he had spotted the torpedoes in the water,
and the Hammond sank in about four minutes.
Around five, we saw these splashes in the water,
and we thought it was material falling off the flight deck,
because the ship was listing.
And the sailor was firing this 20-mm. gun at the ship
to get attention.
And all he had on was a life jacket.
He was holding his guts in his left hand,
and pulling the trigger with his right hand.
And that I'll never forget, because--
Well, he came aboard, and that was on the 4th of June,
and he died on the 7th of June.
And that was when the battle actually ended,
and when we left to come back to Hawaii.
♪ (soft music) ♪
(Sgt. Fox) During my visit in 2012,
one of the items that stood out, prominent, to me,
was the memorials that had been erected
to the men that did not return from the Battle of Midway.
I never could go back to Eastern Island, because none...
(emotional pause, voice cracking)
none of my friends returned that day.
♪ "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" ♪
(metal creaking, clanging)
(narrator) Today, you can still feel the ghosts
of the Battle of Midway among the ruins,
♪ (gentle music) ♪
In the buildings, which are being reclaimed
by the salty sea air and the passage of time,
we can still hear the echos of our history.
♪ (soft music) ♪
(echoing voices, footsteps, phones ringing)
♪ (soft music) ♪
On the beaches sit relics of a dramatic past.
The story of Midway is the story of sacrifice and commitment.
(Matt Brown) Midway goes beyond just saving Hawaii,
goes beyond the valor of those men.
They saved the idea of democracy.
And today, both the sacrifices and the conservation story today,
can inspire the world.