Price for Peace Page #3

The beach was full of bodies,

just full of bodies.

Chaos. It looked like

the biggest junkyard in the world.

Bombs being dropped.

Shells being fired.

It was chaos. There were hundreds

of people moving.

One reason we had to

get off the beach was because

people behind us were coming

one after the other, group after group.

Boats from the landing turned upside

down. Bodies floating into the water.

I'd never seen a dead person,

even at a funeral.

As I hit the beach,

I saw bodies and body parts all over.

We started to go up the sand.

We'd go up two feet and fall back one.

We were laying on the beach

and there were bodies all over.

Everywhere you could see,

somebody was dying.

We crossed the beach

as quickly as we could.

It was being raked with 88s,

machine guns and sniper fire.

The only way to deal with it

is look for some cover for your body

by jumping into a hole or digging one.

That's hard because that sand

flows back in as soon as you shovel it.

A young marine, maybe 17 years old,

he was running by and a sniper shot him

in the head right above his left eye.

He was dead and I looked at him.

He had blood running down

and it come down...

I didn't know this kid and

I still remember him... today.

Once we got in combat,

I don't believe we had difficulty

in doing what we had to. I certainly didn't.

The only thing we wanted

was to see the Japanese dead.

I was anxious to see the first Jap

I was gonna kill. That's why I was there.

It was very easy to shoot a Jap,

believe me.

I don't care if it had been

a woman, child, baby, I could shoot.

I wanted to destroy

the whole nation of Japan.

We were immediately up against

these reinforced blockhouse bunkers

that were reinforced concrete.

They were extremely formidable

defensive positions.

This was for an anti-tank,

anti-boat 47 mm.

It's obviously been hit quite a bit.

Against this kind of blockhouse

a flame-thrower was most effective.

The flame-thrower

not only burned them up,

but if it didn't, it sucked all the

oxygen out and they died of suffocation.

It was used directly on the enemy

as well, at times,

because they'd run out

of there partly afire,

and if you had any more left

you'd certainly use the charge.

It was a very brutal way to go,

believe me.

This looked altogether different

than it is now.

Most everything was scorched earth.

We'd used so much napalm

and burnt the grass and the trees.

- You volunteered to be a flame-thrower?

- Yes, that's the only way you could be.

- How old were you? 22?

- I was 22 years old, yes.

To avoid the constant attacks,

we hid in underground tunnels.

The caves were dug about

30 metres deep, so it was very hot.

It was around 104 degrees Fahrenheit.

So it was not a comfortable position

for them.

Water was in great demand,

but they had very little.

A number of the defenders died of thirst.

We had to lick each other's sweat.

When there was no more sweat,

there was urine.

But then we began to urinate blood.

The engineers would come up

to seal the cave.

Put a big charge on top

and shoot it down.

And cause it to completely close off.

If there was anybody in there,

they were trapped.

The branch of the military I was in

is the MIS, Military Intelligence Service.

The main thing was to translate military

orders or diaries or what have you,

and interrogate prisoners.

They were very careful

not to put us in harm's way

because we could've been shot

by our own men.

Some people have asked me

how we felt fighting the Japanese.

I'm not sure what I would've done

if I'd come face to face with my uncle,

whom I loved dearly.

But, to me, I was not fighting

the Japanese people,

I was fighting the Japanese military

government which started the war.

During the assault,

the tanks were able to roam at will

and not really be in danger,

unless a Jap got a charge on the back.

We had nothing else, so we came up

with the Nikaku attack plan

which was to put explosives

underneath the tanks and destroy them.

They'd do anything to destroy a tank,

including putting the demolitions on

their body and crawling under the tank.

They had a lot of mines and booby traps

set up, Bouncing Bettys.

You had to watch where you stepped.

The wires on the booby trap,

you can't see it. Looks like grass.

When you kick it, it pulls the pin...

You have a casualty or two.

The wounds themselves were horrid.

People blown all to pieces,

arms and legs all over the place.

My speciality in the Pacific was being

a corpsman to wounded marines.

Corpsmen were the navy individuals

who were trained to apply first aid.

They were the greatest guys

you ever saw.

Talk about bravery. If it weren't for them,

a lot of us wouldn't have come back.

They were like a priest or a minister,

they consoled you.

"I know it hurts, but, goddamn,

think if it was worse."

Part of our duty was to keep the guys

alive for as long as possible,

and get 'em back as quick as possible.

I was called in

by my lieutenant commander.

She said, "From 24 naval bases

in the US, they're choosing 24 girls,

"one from each base,

to form the Navy Flight Nurses.

"Would you consider being chosen?"

And I said I'd have to call my mother.

We were to fly on the aeroplane

and bring back the badly wounded.

I had no idea

what I was getting myself into.

I had no idea I would see what I saw.

It was an eye-opener. The ground

was shaking from bombs going off.

It was just a mess.

All I can say is, you saw blood.

And the odour.

There was a smell of war, really.

When I looked over

and saw the boys on the ground,

I figured, "Never mind all these

side effects, pay attention to these boys."

And I couldn't wait to get them out

of there 'cause I wanted to get out too.

We were always talking to them,

holding their hand.

Some had their eyes closed

because they had a lot of pain.

Some were just praying

they were gonna get out of there.

There was a patient from Iwo Jima

I had on my aeroplane.

He asked me if I would take a

small bottle of sand from Iwo Jima.

I said, "You keep it."

He said, "I'm not gonna make it.

"I want you to tell the people

never to forget what we did here,

"and what we went through."

And he didn't make it.

I was checking one boy

and saw tears coming down his face.

I said, "Am I hurting you?" He said, "No."

"I'm just thinking about

all the people I killed."

That's what he said to me.

I wrote my mother practically every day.

I'd tell her the everyday things I did.

"I took a shower today. We did this.

We did that." And so forth.

They had to walk a long ways

to get to the mail box.

I didn't want them to go to the mail box

and not get anything.

Everybody was glad for the mail, but

yet there was a fear of the telegram.

My sister received a telegram

that her husband was killed.

They had a little boy ride a bicycle

and bring the telegram to her.

And my sister just passed out

from shock.

But when we got a letter that they

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