Analysis of "Okinawa: Bloodiest Battle of All" (SUMMER READING)

Title: Okinawa: The Bloodiest Battle of All

Author: William Manchester

This essay starts off in the present where on the Island of Okinawa veterans from the US and Japan will dedicate a monument in remembrance of all those who died there. Manchester then illustrates the sheer scale of the dead that this conflict claimed. He says, “More than 200,000 perished in the 82-day struggle- twice the number of Japanese lost at Hiroshima and more American blood than had been shed at Gettysburg.” The essay becomes much more personal when Manchester reveals to the reader that he not only took part in the battle but was twice wounded and cited for “gallantry in action and extraordinary achievement.” We learn about his experiences during the battle, specifically the horrific struggle for Sugar Loaf Hill. The narratives that he uses to describe living in a combat zone are powerful and moving.  They express the absolute horror, gore, and filth that characterize warfare. Manchester wrote this piece in 1987, most people in America did not live through the Second World War, and even fewer saw the “kill zones” the way Manchester did. He sees America as a nation that is losing its patriotism. It worries him that the American public forgets many of those who fought and died in the war that defined this life and his generation. He makes it clear how important the Battle of Okinawa is for him, he says it “was the central experience of my youth.” Manchester employs multiple writing styles to connect his message to the future, the past and the present. His message about the futility of war is carried by quotes from previous warriors, “war which was cruel and magnificent, has become cruel and squalid.” –Winston Churchill. Finally the essay ends with Manchester saying how even after all these years he still couldn’t bring himself to go to the ceremony on Okinawa because of the Japanese veterans, his explanation: “some wounds never heal.”