American Flag in Japan

A Tale of WWII

Prologue

Important

Please know before reading this story that if you are under 10 years of age, you like happy books or can't cope with violence then I advise you to put this book down, sell it or give it away and read another book that may be better for you.

Parental Guidance: Please know (if you have read this) that your child is reading a book with extreme violence, small content of love, rare usage of drugs and alcohol and other negative traits. If you do not wish your child to read something with these in it then I strongly advise that you take it away. Otherwise feel free to read this book.

Chapter One

The Recruitment

I was an elderly man by the year 2007. I had silver hair and my eyes were black and unforgiving. I was one those who had survived the war all those years ago. Even though I survived, I could not forgive myself for what I had done on that battlefield. The war had been almost 70 years ago, but still my memory was vivid.

It was October 27th of 2007 when my dead friend's son came and asked me what my experience in the war was. His eyes were blue and were not stained by the conscience of what he had done, his hair black and well kept, unlike mine when I was his age. HE was hoping to make a book, as I am now. So I answered him.

"Alright" I started "It began when we got recruited…"

"Hey Chad how have you been?" I said to a 20 some old man. He was older than I but we treated each other as equals. We had fought a few skirmishes before and got to know each other fairly well over the years. He turned around and faced me shaking my hand.

"I'm doing alright lately, and you?" He smiled and offered to carry my bags since I had many and he had few, but I refused. We had been standing there for a while, waiting for our notices to go to the island Oski-Chui and to receive our bullets and other supplies. After a short conversation between us we found that there was nothing left to say. Everyone in the line was excited to get to the front-line. We had only seen skirmishes and almost no one had died in them. Soon another man came through the line, which we were standing in.

"Lieutenant!" As I heard the voice I stood at attention. A man of high rank came over, he had a few medals on his chest, his voice was deep and his face was dull. He showed no emotion but a few, neither did he usually. But even though he showed no emotion on his face, he did have inside feelings "Long time no see, eh gentlemen?" He also was a friend of ours and both of us shook his hand "Excited to be off I see. Well, that's the spirit." He smiled "I'd better be going." He continued down the line looking for more of his comrades.

We stood there for another hour or so and finally got the supplies we needed and boarded our ship, which was to take us to the shore of the Oski-Chui. The boat we stayed on was the Destroyer. Number was WAT-2781. We got up the ramp and looked back towards the shore where our families gathered, we waved good-bye and the ship started to move. The water around us spreading to make room for the ship in gracious circles of white foam, it was a glorious sight seeing everyone and waving good-bye. We thought we were headed towards one of those fun skirmishes that we had. God we were wrong.

Chapter Two

The Briefing

I awoke in the morning, around 8:00 to the sound of the large guns on the starboard side of the ship. All 50 of us rose from our beds in alarm. As it was so crowded it took us a while to get all on deck. Once we were on there we saw smoke rising from the island and we knew no more that we were going to a fun skirmish like usual, but a real battle. As the fighter planes soared above us we ran to the railings on the side of the boat and cheered.

The captain, wore a formal suite and hat. His eyes were brown but had seen too much of what we were soon going to experience. He soon came on deck and glanced at the planes before ordering us to silence. He ordered us to sit on the deck and listen carefully to the brief that we would soon have to follow. He stood at the bow between two easels, one showing a map, and one with black dotting on it.

"See here" He circled a small peninsula with his index finger that was still bandaged from his previous battle. "Here is a small mountain and the first area that we are to attack first. Most of the guns and artillery are located here. We take this out and the island is basically ours. Careful, there are many hidden guns. On this easel…" He pointed to the second easel. "It shows you where the enemy personnel are located. They will of course be moving. Once taking out the mountain then you will be moved to the north, re-supply and move east. Good luck gentleman, this is what you were trained for."

With these last words he walked past us and disappeared through the stairway "You leave tomorrow at high-noon." He didn't say anything more and he returned to his quarter. We all got up and returned to whatever we were doing. I went under again to our quarters with my friends and enjoyed some poker and smoking. Chad poured me some beer.

"So… What do you think this one will be like guys?" Asked my other friend, Steve.

I looked at him and smiled "Bet it'll be nothing out of the ordinary." We all laughed and Steve pointed out another soldier, who sat alone on his bed, his eyes focused on a photo. He wasn't happy. We asked him what he was looking at. He looked at us, got up and came over dropping the photo on the table.

"Those are our enemies my friends." He still focused on looking at the photo "That's what we're facing."

The whole table went silent as and we looked at each other without a word. We all were terrified weather or not we were the toughest of all soldiers or the weakest, we all felt the same thing, fear. Upstairs music played and we listened in silence as the night grew late. Above the deck the top ranks were speaking about the battle to come tomorrow. We listened to their faint voices. One of the voices were deep and the other was lighter.

"You know that the first ranks on shore wont make it far. And if they do many will be dead." Said the light voice. "Send in the airplanes first to take out some of the gunners."

"Sergeant, you will abide by my orders or jump of the boat at this very moment. Make your choice wisely," Said the other voice.

"Yes sir!" And a moment later we heard a splash and yelling's of a man overboard. We all sat in silence for the whole night, hardly moving until we got into our beds and fell asleep.

Chapter Three

The Frontline

That day was cloudy and dark, the sky stained with smoke from the guns. We were approaching the island and we went to the sides of the boat and climbed the nets down into landing transports. We were crammed and silent like the night before. The planes still soared over us, doing circles and getting ready to help support the troops. When there were about twenty of us in the landing transport we were released from the main ship. As we drifted away we had that sinking feeling and we didn't move a bit. No one talked, no one whispered to his or her neighbors. We were getting ever so close to the beach when we heard another splash.

"Man overboard!" A sailor plunged into the water but the man swam further underwater, hoping not to come back. That was achieved. The hair stood up on the back of our necks, we knew this man, he had fought many battles, and he must have known what was ahead.

The beach was just meters away and we had gotten ready for our landing. We finally got to the shore and the wall in front of us dropped and we rushed onto the land. The sand under our feet was crisp from the dirt from yesterdays shooting. Ahead of us was a sand dune and we all gathered behind it, laying down hoping not to be shot. I made sure my helmet was tight and my gun was loaded. Everything around me seemed like a first minute of chaos. Shouts and yells from commanding officers sounded on the beach. After a while the landing parties stopped and we were all there, the frontline. There were more, but there was no need for them on the beach yet, since he beach was almost full. I looked to my right and there was Chad.

"Hey pal, you ready?" He said in his bright voice. His eyes were shining with excitement. He grinned and looked at the mountain in front of them looking for gunners as a pastime.

"Well… Whether I am or not I'm going to have to fight, aren't I?" I said with a grin on my face. I looked up and one of the officers was standing behind the dunes.

"First line! Move out!" He yelled without emotion, his face hard and his eyes telling me that I wasn't going to make it.

"That's us Chad, good luck, I'll be by your side…" I got up and Chad rose to my right. Following in a happily mood, as usual. 13 More troops got up and walked with us, they also in the first line. For a while we walked without noticing anything. No one shot, nothing moved except the boats and us on the water. We walked over 100 paces and then finally heard the sergeant's yell.

"Full on!" All the soldiers behind the dunes rose and started running forwards, without fear. No one feared anything anymore.

Just then I saw something move in the thicket and a small metal bar coming out of it. A barrel, I realized. "Everyone down! Everyone Down!" I yelled but no one heard over the tanks rolling up the dunes behind us, and the hitting of soldier's feet on the soft ground. But Chad saw as well and dived into a small hole, made from a blast by the ships, for protection and I followed.

"Shit" Yelled another soldier who had dived into the hole just in time. The mountain was sparkling with lit gunpowder and our ears were full of guns, yells and shouts, which came from outside and inside of us. We looked back and saw man after man lying still on the ground, bullet wounds all over them. We couldn't look at all the wounded for more than a couple minutes. Their families would never be the same. Chad saw one of his mates and got enraged

"Stay here, ok?" He said to me and he rushed from the hole towards one of the gunners with a grenade in hand.

"No! Stop" I yelled after him. He must not have heard me cause he kept on running. The gunner shot him in the chest and I tried to get up and run after him, but the soldier grabbed me and shook his head "Don't"

And I watched him crumple right in front of my eyes…

Chapter Four

An Advance

More landings came in with more troops; it made me feel so small towards the outcome of this battle. I heard the sergeants yell to keep moving so both the soldier behind me and I got up and stumbled forwards in shock. As we passed Chad I fell to my knees over him and cried lightly. He was one of the best friends I knew, and now he was dead. I swore that I'd come back and I ran forwards, the mud sinking below my feet. The bullets splintering the ground, making holes as deep as my fingernail. We just kept running for what seemed like an eternity. We didn't dare look back; we were scared of what we would see.

"We can't keep going, if we continue there will be no army left," Yelled a man behind us to his friend. That scared me to hell and I started shooting wherever I saw holes in the ground where the gunners might be. I felt like I had gone crazy, lost in the present moment. I threw a grenade as well, that hit in a enemy gunning area and hit true, all the ranks cheered, but that was only one point out of hundreds that we would have to fight past.

Even though the ranks were yelling with joy, the men on the current battlefield felt remorse inside. We fought for the flag and our country, but even the country seemed like it was unimportant as well.

As we slowly advanced, but still falling back slightly more, we saw the blue sky and our planes coming down, but there were not only our planes in the sky, but others. We quickened our advancements. So far we hadn't seen any enemies except the dead ones where the gunners used to be. Soon the beach has been taken, or at least the enemies had stopped their fire. We set up camp and set fires. I had remained on the field a little longer to take Chad back, regretting that he had not tried to restrain his friend. I arrived back and sat with my friends again, most of which had survived. We sat silent listening to the sergeants' fight with each other about tactics. Finally one of us talked.

"Today was hell for me… What about you guys?" Asked a tall man who was known as Charlie, he obviously didn't like the silence. We all nodded our heads and I tried to start a conversation but no one really took part in it, except Charlie. The rest soon left and went to sleep. Charlie and I talked until late and became close friends, almost like Chad and I. We shared a few laughs and around midnight we went our separate ways for the night, awaiting the nasty surprises in the morning…

Chapter Five

Devastation