What happens
Mr. Mason, an American, travels through Japan with Tikuchi, a Japanese man who has long spoken for democratic principles and fears the coming war. The two climb Fujiyama during the mountain opening season and discuss Japan's bases, its mountainous terrain, and its concentrated population on the Pacific side of Honshu. Mason then tours Nagoya, Kobe, Osaka and Yokohama, observing their industries, ports and canals. The broadcast presents these cities as important to Japan's war effort and as possible targets, and it reports on recent bombing raids and on statements by Japanese military leaders. This episode of The Pacific Story was first broadcast on June 24, 1945, on the NBC network.
Japan, including Mount Fuji, the Tokyo plain, Nagoya, Kobe, Osaka and Yokohama, during the Second World War
Characters: Mr. Mason, Tikuchi
Listen for: Tikuchi's warnings about Japan's ring of bases and the vulnerability of Honshu, and Mason's descriptions of the industrial cities as he tours them
Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.