reading response

In 1987 William Manchester, a World War II veteran, wrote an essay/story about his time on Okinawa during World War II and his view that there should not be ceremonies with Japanese and Americans together. Manchester begins his essay writing about the American and Japanese veterans having only death in common. He tells of Okinawa being the bloodiest battle in the pacific theater with 200,000 people dieing just to take over an island. His argument seems to be for several things including patriotism, clear thinking, and that enemy soldiers shouldn’t have ceremonies together. This is an informative essay as well conveying to the reader some of the grotesque horrors untold by others about the truth of the wars. The author tells of the progression of battles telling about how soldiers originally used swords and lances and such to kill the enemy and how technology has made it easier and easier to kill and the atomic bomb made the fighting man a nothing. His argument progresses in the form of story telling and informing of events. He begins with facts: where Okinawa is, the fact of an upcoming memorial ceremony, and the statistics of the men who died there. Next his argument moves to the story telling. He tells of the point of the invasion and how he was involved in the beginnings of that battle and how he was involved in the capture of a strategic point called sugar loaf hill. He moves on to tell of how he was raised in such a way to eventually join the military, and his family and town’s proud parades and such. Next his argument/story moves to the time in which he is writing and tells of the Americans no longer caring about the soldier because of the power of the nuclear bomb. The next pert of his argument is about the progression of the weapons available to soldiers in a war, and how it has become easier to kill so more die in wars. In the next paragraph he moves back to his story of Okinawa and tells of how his luck had run out and how he was injured by the shrapnel from a mortar. Next he talks of the fake movies of the time that he didn’t like and how people should honor the fallen soldiers of battle. “It does not seem too much to ask that they be remembered on one day each year. After all, they sacrificed their futures that you might have yours” (Manchester). He sums up his story and argument in telling that some wounds never heal.