Price for Peace Page #4

were alive and well, what a great joy.

Back home, you kept up with the war

through the newsreels preceding

the main feature at the theatre.

...the first offensive drive to hurl

the Jap enemy from conquered lands.

We'd go to the Sunday movies to see

what was going on overseas.

I'd always look to see

if I could find him on the battlefield.

You saw cartoons,

and the racial hatred against

the Japanese had no bounds to it.

The buck teeth and the slant eyes

were a common feature

of all these propaganda films.

The American people

were propagandised

into hating everything

that was Japanese.

We were taught that the Americans

and the British were animals.

We were afraid

of the big American soldiers.

The Japanese told the Okinawans

that we'd rape and murder them all.

So they committed mass suicide

off the cliffs.

Just as at Saipan the Japanese civilians

threw themselves off the cliff.

Women took their infants

and threw them into the sea.

We thought that we would be

subjected to horrific deaths

in the hands

of the evil Americans and British.

We thought that men

would have their ears and noses cut off.

Women would be raped.

We thought that

we would be run over by tanks.

Therefore, we would rather

be killed by our own families.

We didn't know where our father was.

My older brother and I had to

assume the role of killing our family.

The first family member

we had to kill was our mother.

At first we tried

to strangle her with rope.

But finally, we had to use

a more dependable method.

We bashed our mother's head

with a rock.

I made sure that our mother was dead.

Then we had to kill

our younger brother and sister.

Afterwards, it was time

for me and my brother to die.

We realised that the Americans

were near, so we hid.

When we came out,

we were found by the Americans.

The Okinawans fared a lot worse

from the Japanese, really,

than from us, because

we weren't out to rape and murder.

All we were out to do

was get the Japanese soldiers.

I felt honoured to fight

against the Americans,

such a great military force.

I think the Japanese soldier was mean,

treacherous, tricky...

And according to American standards,

he wasn't a real good person.

He might have been a tough soldier,

but he did things Americans wouldn't do,

at first, but we learned to.

We learned to be

as tricky and dirty as him.

Many Japanese were shot

running away from us.

Because we didn't mind

shooting them in the back, either.

At that point in time, it was dog eat dog.

The Americans were better equipped.

But the Japanese

were courageous and strong.

As their number one weapon,

the Japanese relied on

the willingness of the men

in the armed forces of Japan.

Every one of them was willing

to give up his life for the emperor.

At that time, Japan

was fighting against the A, B, C, Ds.

A for Americans, B for British,

C for Chinese and D for Dutch.

We could not win man for man.

One of our kamikaze pilots

had to crash into

a ship full of a thousand men

to equalise the war.

A kamikaze suicide squad

was a special attack corps.

Soldiers who were prepared to die

would throw themselves with bombs

at the enemy ships and planes.

The pilots were trained to fly planes

and hit their target,

but they never learned how to land.

The training was short.

Kamikaze pilots are unique to Japan's

spiritual beliefs in "Kami" or God,

where they believed

the emperor was God.

It was an extreme concept.

To give your life for this God

was the most noble thing to do.

A suicide plane hit my gun turret

and exploded, killing 10 of the 20.

We had shot his wing and his tail off

and he was just like a bomb coming.

My buddy was trapped in the third gun

burning to death.

I tried to get him out.

Then there was an explosion. I fell

into the fire and they came and got me.

To the Americans,

a kamikaze was unbelievable.

They were willing to give up their lives.

The Americans were, too, and many did.

The American soldier would go

on patrols that were clearly suicidal.

But they weren't anything remotely like

those kamikaze attacks.

The conditions varied

because the islands were so varied.

Some of them jungly,

and some almost desert-like.

With all these mosquitoes

bringing malaria.

With floods. The rain came and it came.

We didn't get no bath or anything,

but the monsoon rains were a blessing.

We could bathe a little and catch water

in the helmet and so on.

Where we were was very inhospitable

because of the vines and the brush.

The coconut trees

were planted row on row.

That was very pretty to see that.

VICTORY:

Bob Hope and the USO

would come into these islands.

- Where are you going?

- Fishing.

- What you got in your mouth?

- Worms.

What it meant to the men was, "They

do remember us back in the States."

We weren't forgotten.

The marines had war dogs.

Every one of them was a hero.

I wouldn't go back into combat

if I didn't have one.

Our dogs didn't come from kennels,

they had no police training.

They were just from families

that wanted to help

by enlisting their dog

into the marine corps.

They have senses we don't.

They can hear and smell things

we never knew existed.

You could watch that dog when

he was working, his tail, his head,

he'd pick up the scent and go after 'em.

The dogs and the men

were together all the time.

Particularly in combat,

they were together 24 hours a day.

They ate together,

he'd drink from his canteen.

They ate out of the same mess kit.

I've seen men when their dogs got killed.

They'd take the dog in their arms, rock

'em back and forth, tears would come.

They'd lost a dear friend, and perhaps

someone who'd saved their lives.

Attacking at night

was a traditional Japanese tactic.

We stayed at our post during the day.

In the evenings, we attacked.

The Japanese were very crafty

about crawling around

and slitting your throat at night.

Just the idea that somebody's out there

that can do this to you. You can't rest.

You could hear a guy, "I'm hit!"

And you couldn't do nothing.

We had a password on the island,

and it was usually a word the

Japanese could not pronounce properly.

Like "clear weather" or "clear day".

That would be the password for the

night. Every night a different password.

When we shouted "Kesshi"

and if they didn't reply "Kanto",

whoever threw the grenade first

would live.

One tried to trick us, 'cause

they'd learn a little English, saying,

"How'd you make out, Joe?"

Of course, our sergeant

knew it wasn't one of us

and he mowed him down

with a Tommy gun.

Come the very earliest glimmer

of daylight,

the island was littered

with dead from the day before,

with a hand sticking up here

and a foot there.

One that hit me the most

that I remember

was a friend of mine, buried

with most of his face sticking up,

his body was buried

and this shoulder was sticking up,

with the waves coming in

at the water's edge,

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes