WWII Combat Cameraman: 'The Public Had To Know'

Further affirmation of the social relevance and potency of film. He carried a camera instead of a gun. Below is an interview with Major Norman Hatch, USMC in his later years. To view the short documentary that he filmed as a soldier, click the post-title to link to NPR.

During Word War II, Staff Sgt. Norman Hatch was a cinematographer and combat photographer who witnessed — and filmed — some of the most bitter fighting in the Pacific theater. His efforts ended with, of all things, an Academy Award — for footage so brutal that it took special permission from President Franklin Roosevelt to allow his short documentary, With the Marines on Tarawa, to be shown as a newsreel.