OKINAWA

MAY 1945

It's been hard in the Marines Corp.

Matt knew it was hard, but he just didn't know how extreme it truly was.

Not only did he have to deal with their rivals, but he has to deal with civilians, too. It was harder than he thought of it to be. Sometimes, the civilians were just victims but while others were allies to the Imperial Japanese Army. He couldn't decide which was worse.

And then there was Aya.

Thinking about her brought tears to his eyes. Back in December, he had ran into her. As he has stared at her in awe, she had stared at him in fear. They were supposed to be enemies, but Matt didn't see it like that. From their first meeting, he had a felt a strong attraction to her. And while it took her awhile, she eventually started to feel something for him, too.

Of course, they had to keep it a secret. After all, their countries were at war. Their friends and family would have shunned them out. It was a recipe for disaster, but Matt and Aya did not care. They were in love.

Right now, thinking about their relationship hurt Matt. He loved her, had loved her, if you catch the drift. And being away from her hurt. Seeing all these Okinwanians, in clear suffer, made Matt's heart hurt. He swears that as soon as the war was over, he was going to take Aya back to the states and marry her.

While Matt's head was in the clouds, as his unit was walking throughout the village, his friends-the ones that have been with him through thick and thin-were messing with replacements...prisoners of war.

"SIT DOWN!" Eugene and Shelton were screaming at one of the POWs. Then they hit him. They were going too far, and would get in trouble. Matt couldn't do anything about it, though. As time went on in the war, the soldiers were getting more aggressive and when the enemy was near, it was hard to get them to stand down.

An officer that Matt has never seen appeared at the scene. "Stand down, get back! You can't hit these men, they're protected by the Geneva Convention!" He was shouting, as men were still pushing the POW around. It then hit Matt that this man probably did not know English.

"Sã, suwatte*," Matt commanded the man. Everyone turned quiet. The POW stared at him.

"You know Japanese?" Snafu asked, but Matt did not answer, only staring at the man. The man slowly did sit down, and everyone watched in awe.

Then there was arterially hit.

Here are they fucking go again.


The fight lasted long, and by nightfall it was pouring down rain again. Matt fucking hated it.

What he he didn't like, however, was that the entire island was a graveyard...Sledge has found that out the hard way, when he and Snafu were digging. Man, isn't that spooky or what?

"How come the Japs are buried and our guys aren't?" the new replacement, Hamm, Matt thinks his name is, piped up.

"Maybe it's part of their protocol, or morals," Matt said. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't, but that was his speculation. Nothing more could be said, however, because the sky was lit up with a flare. The Japanese were moving to attack.

The motor squad set up and started firing rounds, but they weren't very successful. Since everything was wet, the rounds would only go a short distance.

"Gottverdamm," Matt muttered angrily, as others around him were cursing too. The latest one was a misfire, but thankfully Snafu was able to disable it, sticking it until a hole in the ground.

"Keep firing!" Second Lieutenant Robert Mackenzie shouted at them.

"Our rounds are all wet!" Snafu yelled back.

"Get more then, there's ammo over there, GO!" Mackenzie retorted, pointing them into the right direction. Matt, a bit impulsive, ran off towards that direction. Snafu, Sledge, and Hamm followed him.

The four group up behind a rock. They all watched as the ammo came flying from the enemy sign. The little bright white lights that whizzed by reminded Matt of firecrackers, if only just for a moment.

On signal, the four marines ran across the crossfire and were all able to miss getting hit. They reached to the ammo they needed and, as promised, they were dry. They grabbed sixty mortar rounds before starting to head back.

"Hold your fire!" One of the men yelled. "Civilians coming through!"

The four men held back as a fleeing family of four were running through. The US might have ceased briefly, but not Japan. They all had to watch as three out of the four fleeing civilians were gunned down. The last one, a little boy, was shot down as well, but he was moving.

"HE'S STILL ALIVE!" Hamm yelled, and moved to get to him, but Sledge held him back. Hamm didn't understand, but then the boy was finally shot dead.

Seeing that made Matt feel guilty, it really did. The boy was a civilian. He was a child, a child that briefly reminded him of Mikey, who had to be his age, or close to it, by now. Aya also flashed through his mind, but he had to keep her out, as much as he longed for her.

"We need to keep moving," Matt said, and his friends agreed. They ran back across the crossfire, and back to their original position.


In the morning all was calm. At least, it was for now.

Most of the motor squad were gathered around in the circle. Sledge was smoking his pipe, ticking off the days they've been here in his bible. Matt wasn't going to lie, when Sledge had one day asked him for a cigarette (which Matt never smoked, by the way), he thought he was going to drop to the ground. Even so, Matt did give him one and the next thing he knows is that Sledge is smoking from a pipe.

What a gentleman. Matt thought. But what's the term Ma used? Pipe Gentleman...Gentlemen of the Pipe? No... no... wait. Distinguished Gentleman's Pipe!

Matt couldn't help but laugh to himself. He did that a lot these days, and the lot of them was starting to think he was going crazy. He wasn't, it's just how he was, how his family was. They would laugh at just about anything. Especially Morgan.

"Why aren't we giving them safe passage?" Hamm asked, haunted by the previous night's events. Matt couldn't blame him, as he watched the replacement having difficulty getting the toothpaste onto his toothbrush.

"Whatchu' talkin' about?" Snafu asked, even know he knew what Hamm was talking about.

"The civilians," Hamm said. "We should be...we should be given them safe conduct."

"Most of them are Okinawans," Sledge offered. "A lot of them are helping the Imperial."

"That family wasn't," Hamm was choking up, as he pointed to the direction where they were at the night before. Sledge looked up towards him, Matt continued to stare at him, while Snafu was the only that only spoke up.

"Only thing that matters out here is killing Japs." Matt turned to glare at him, but said nothing. Partly because he didn't feel like arguing with him, partly because Bill Leyden walked up and sat down next to Hamm.

"The first time you see somebody get killed...it's something," Leyden began.

"Get used to it," Sledge said, no emotion in his voice.

"I was fifteen," Leyden continued, and this peaked all of their interest. "Buddy and I were hopping subway cars. The tunnel was too small, I fractured my skull and he, uh, his brains and bones got sprayed all over my face and chest." Leyden paused. "You never forget something like that."

"Jesus," Matt said, but Snafu had something better.

"Good thing your damn head is so fucking hard, you got nine lives, Bill Leyden," the man drawled out. Leyden smiled at that. It was true, it seemed like nothing could take that man out.

"What's the matter, Kathy?" Snafu picked on Peck, who was staring a photo, and hard. "One day of combat, and you're all wore out,"

"Shut up Snaf," Matt said, but no one heard him. They all watched Snafu pick on the guy, telling him the farther they go down south, the "meana and meana" they got.

"You better get mean too, boot," Snafu concluded, invading Peck's personal space. He stared at the man before grabbing the photo and jumping up so Peck couldn't reach to it.

Snafu examined it. "Ooh. Ooh, la la la. Now that's a piece of ass."

"Every woman is a piece of ass to you," Matt bit at him.

"That ma'be true, but fuck, Kraut, but look," Snafu handed the photo to Sledge, and together he and Matt examined it. Matt had to admit, she was beautiful, but not as beautiful as Aya.

"Wow. I'd marry her," Sledge concluded.

"Maybe you should get one of yo sisters to send some raunchy photos of themselves," Snafu said to Matt. "The one in Europe may not be in the best conditions, but I'm sure the men all love to stare at her."

"Shut the fuck up," Matt snapped, as Leyden got a hold of the picture and examined it, front and back.

"Katherine Jones?" Leyden questioned. Everyone stopped and stared at Peck, as he retrieved his photo and sat back down, clearly frustrated.

"I thought you said your name was Peck?" Leyden asked. "That's-that's not your wife!"

"Oh. Oh, that's rich! What does the missus think about the Kitty Kat?" Snafu laughed.

"I met her after I was drafted," Peck explained. It seemed like he had a surprise every other second.

"Drafted?" Matt echoed. "Who the hell gets drafted around here?"

"There is no way you got drafted," Snafu agreed, as everyone began to sit back down again.

"Hamm, where you drafted?" Leyden asked the replacement, who shook his head no.

"I don't believe it," Snafu was shaking his head. "There's no way that broad is banging some drafted marine. No way."

"I don't care what you think!" Peck exploded. Before anything else could be said, Lieutenant Mackenzie was yelling.

"K Company! Let's move, let's move!"

Burgin dropped by and ordered second squad to grab a rifle. Something tell Matt that his day was just going to end well.


The men had to go through a burnt village, a sign that they were here. Throughout the course there were dead bodies everywhere. Some were decaying while others were freshly new, bodies naked and stacked upon each other. The unit was all taking cover by the rocks, standing ready.

"Why the fuck are we doing here?" Leyden asked no one in particular. No one answered, choosing to listen to what was coming. They could hear footsteps, but Matt saw who they were.

"Civilians!" Matt yelled.

The marines watched as three woman, war worn, were trying to get out of the way. The men, trying to be helpful but at the same time wanted them gone, motioned for them to get out of the way.

A moment later, there was another woman, holding a baby. Both mother and child were crying, and the woman was speaking rapidly. She was desperate. The men were confused.

"She's trying to give us the baby!" one man said. Matt couldn't move, he could only stare.

The woman could see that the men couldn't understand her. She quickly undid her robe and then everything clicked in place: there was a bomb strapped to her.

"Oh my God," Sledge muttered, as Matt said, "Fuck!"

It was too late. The timer had gone off, and the woman blew to pieces, literally. Her child was gone too, and several marines were taken out, those who tried to get to her.

Then the Imperial Army started to fire at them.

As the two sides were shooting at each other, there were still civilians who were fleeing. Matt made sure they were getting out while shooting at the enemy at the same time.

Matt was able to take out the sniper before they were ordered to cease fire. They briefly watched the short aftermath: men checking on the others, a woman, who managed to survive, started to cry as she saw the blood on her hands.

This was all short lived, because then hits began. The marines were getting shelled at by themselves. Jesus, what a nightmare.


The morning after was always the calm before the storm.

The men were sitting around, reading letters mostly. Sledge's dog died while Hamm's brother had told him that five hundred men were killed by kamikaze pilots.

"Why don't they just surrender?" Hamm asked.

"There Emperor is their God, it's their duty," Matt answered.

"God damn it, give it back!" Peck roared. Snafu, Sledge, Matt, and Hamm all turned to see what the commotion was about. Peck and Leyden were fighting.

"That's it," Matt had officially lost his temper. He got up. "You two need to fucking stop!" He marched up towards the two. The two were physically fighting, but Matt was able to pull them off. When he wasn't happy, nothing was going to stop him. He ripped the photo out of Leyden's hands and threw it back at Peck.

"Listen, I know you miss your mistress, but this is a goddamn photo! Get over it! You don't see me mourning over my damn family or my damn girl!"

Everyone was silent as they watched the scene unfold. No one was used to seeing Matt being so upset. They were about to ask him, but Matt had turned to Burgin.

"And what the fuck is wrong with you?" Matt demanded. "Do you really have to start this bullshit? Isn't it already fucking bad we have to deal with goddamn Japan? Do you really have to pick a fight? Leave it out in the field!"

"What the fuck is up with you?" Leyden yelled back.

Before Matt could answer that, there was a loud whistling sound, and the next thing he knew was that he was seeing a world full of white.


*Sã, suwatte - "stay down"