re: #46 Barbarian at the Gate

The more I read abut battles such as Tarawa, Peileilu, Saipan, Iwo, Okinawa, and the liberation of the Philipines, I am amazed that everybody did not just run away. Horrifying stories of having to literally kill every Japanese soldier because they refused to surrender. Imagine serving on a ship during a kamakaze attack?

My grandfather, he of the famous quote from last night, saw action at Peileilu. He said he wet himself climbing into the assault craft, threw up all his food during the run in, fouled himself when he finally managed to swim ashore, and lay among the dead and dying when he finally did make it to the beach. Realizing he was gonna die there on the beach, and bothered by the thought that crabs would eat him, as they had others around him, he got up, and moved in a straight line to kill every single Japanese he came across. Said if it hadn’t been for the benzedrine tablets, he’d have died from sheer terror and fatigue.