What happens
The Pacific Story examines Japan's reliance on railroads on the Asian mainland in place of sea power. The program traces how Japan built a rail network from Manchuria through China and into French Indo-China, beginning with the lines taken after the Russo-Japanese War and extending through Japan's seizure of Chinese railways in the 1920s and 1930s. It describes Chinese efforts to move their railroads away from advancing Japanese forces, and the Japanese drive toward Guilin in 1944. Alongside this, the narrator notes American naval victories and heavy losses to Japanese shipping. The program is narrated by Gain Whitman and was broadcast by the National Broadcasting Company.
Japan, Manchuria, China and French Indo-China, from the early 1900s to 1944
Characters: Gain Whitman
Listen for: The narrator's account of Japan's railroad strategy on the Asian mainland, and the Chinese workers who moved rail lines and built fortifications at Guilin
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.