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Episode 536: The Manhattan Project Part IV - I Am Become Death

Last Podcast On The Left

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The Impossible Odds of General Coribayashi

General Coribayashi knew that while his men could hold Iwo Jima for a time at enormous cost to the Marines, defeat was inevitable. He emptied the island of civilians and brought in enslaved Korean laborers to turn most of the island itself into an elaborate death trap. The Japanese were able to utilize such terrifying tactics as the infamous spider traps. They also built caves, pillboxes, command posts, gun emplacements. And all of it was dug directly into the island's soft volcanic rock.

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