DBWI: More Empathize of the American Media on the European Theater instead of the Pacific.

Anyone here heard of the Manhattan Project? It was a secret WWII American project to build a nuclear weapon, mostly intended to counter Nazi Germany. When the Reich fell, the project was cancelled, but the decision to cancel it was a close one, with a serious contingent arguing for continuing the project for use against Imperial Japan. If the project had been carried to fruition (it was technologically feasible, barely), it could have led to a much more violent, but shorter, end to the Pacific Theater. Nuke a few Japanese cities to force a surrender, type of thing. You still run into the problem of Nazi Germany's collapse cutting the European Theater short, but at least you make the Pacific Theater a bit less of an obvious target. Nuking your enemy into surrender is not exactly war film material.

Of course, deploying nuclear weapons in war is a pretty crappy way of getting anything done. But it's an interesting thought nonetheless.
If I remember Oppenheimer (who was one of the chief members of the Manhattan Project during the war, even though we became an avowed pacifist later leaving Teller to lead the way to its actual development in '48) said that if they had been just 6 months farther along after German capitulation he thinks the project may have continued. What a scary prospect that is. You have to wonder in the US had completed the development and used the weapon during the war would the Soviet program likewise been on an accelerated timetable after the war? What would the implications be of both having nukes before the end of the decade and nukes having already been used in war? Would it be a Pandora's Box? Or would the use of the weapon actual discourage further deployment?

As far as what this would have done in American cinema, I'd have to say I don't see it making the European Theater any more attractive. At best it would reduce the number of WWII films all together because of the reduction in material for inspiration without Downfall.
 
One way to get American moviemakers creating more WWII movies based on the European front is to find compelling tales to tell about it. Which isn't easy, since Germany ended up as a country in civil war, and Italy peaced out at the first sign of serious trouble.

Maybe had Victor Emmanuel III refused to use his powers as King of Italy to depose Mussolini after the loss at El-Alamein, the war could have been prolonged and we'd see movies set in an hypothetical Italian front.
 
I'd love to see Saving Private Wyatt (which is set on Okinawa), bet set in the ETO, namely in Normandy, to show how the American Effort in Normandy was a Disaster.

I also wonder how this would effect Hollywood's Depictions about both on the Japanese Atrocities against their subjects in Manchuria and China (namely on Unit 731) vs the depictions on the Nazi brutality on their subjects in Eastern Europe and on the Jews?
 
How would the depictions of European Theater of Operations be like in the realm of video games (talking about games surrounding the US Armed Forces).

As there are already a crap ton of games set in the Pacific Theater with an American Protagonist.
 
I'd love to see Saving Private Wyatt (which is set on Okinawa), bet set in the ETO, namely in Normandy, to show how the American Effort in Normandy was a Disaster.

I also wonder how this would effect Hollywood's Depictions about both on the Japanese Atrocities against their subjects in Manchuria and China (namely on Unit 731) vs the depictions on the Nazi brutality on their subjects in Eastern Europe and on the Jews?

What Normandy disaster? The Anglo-American armies came ashore with virtually no resistance and rapidly took advantage of the German Civil War to flip the Vichy regime and move into Germany proper. Resistenece in Normandy amounted to single short engagement which ended with the German garrison little more than a Rgt Surrendering after showing the flag.
 
How would the depictions of European Theater of Operations be like in the realm of video games (talking about games surrounding the US Armed Forces).

As there are already a crap ton of games set in the Pacific Theater with an American Protagonist.
Less focused on the Marines, for one.

Then I assume that most of the game wouldn't feature all that many melee-only enemies and/or "Obligatory Militia Killing Scenes" where you basically empty entire strips of machine guns on bamboo spear-armed militiamen that also happen to carry granades in every fold of their clothing. Presumably, we wouldn't see a lot of monumental damage either, since a lot of the frontline in France and Belgium was fairly outside cities, while Japan's front was, indeed, mostly cities.


What Normandy disaster? The Anglo-American armies came ashore with virtually no resistance and rapidly took advantage of the German Civil War to flip the Vichy regime and move into Germany proper. Resistenece in Normandy amounted to single short engagement which ended with the German garrison little more than a Rgt Surrendering after showing the flag.
Then again, the weather condictions on the D-Day ensured that there wee way more casualties than there should have been if the weather had been stable. Some historians are tempted to say it was one of the rare 20th century battles where most of the casualties weren't due to combat, but due to external factors.
 
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