Manchester's Okinawa: The Bloodiest Battle of All is an essay composed in four distinct sections. The first details the author's experiences as a young boy, growing up in the quaint New English hamlet of Attleboro, Massachusetts during the late 1920's. He relates his fond, if not later disillusioned, memories of Memorial day parades, watching veteran servicemen float by in their dress blues, perched atop convertibles, admiring their heroism and representation of America's fighting spirit in the way that most boys do. Immediately following this polished description, he relates one detail that casts a grim shadow over the fond memory; his own father was among those veterans floating by in the annual town parade, and as Manchester writes, his father represented "the poster of a Marine, with one magnificent flaw: the right sleeve of his uniform was empty. He had lost him arm in the Argonne" (499).
Next, Manchester relates a brief history of armed conflict, and it's changing nature over the centuries of its existence. He details the battle of Camlann, fought in 539, complete with it's bloody use of pikes and daggers, followed by an account of Napoleon's loss at Waterloo, and a description of the technical advancements of the Industrial Revolution, which forced the battle to differ extremely from those fought in previous era's. Finally, he depicts the nature of WWI, complete with horrifying use of trench warfare, fixed bayonets, and mustard gas.
From this, he moves on to detail an account of his own experiences with armed conflict, on the bloody sands of Okinawa, the site of the bloodiest and most protracted battle in the history of the United States Marine Corps. He describes such details as the nature of Japanese suicide charges, the issues faced by a mechanized army fighting on terrain comprised solely of muddy expanses, and finally describing his discharge from this veritable hellscape, thanks to a mortar shell that landed amongst him and his men, leaving him with a chest filled with shrapnel and temporary blindness.
The essay is concluded by a description of his return to Okinawa, as an older man, to attend the construction of a memorial for the battle which he fought there. He relates his uncomfortability with the possibility of seeing Japanese veterans of the battle, and finally, informs the audience that he made the decision not to attend. He concludes the essay with a brief, yet illustrative remark on the nature of men and wartime. "The fact is," Manchester writes, "some wounds never heal" (506).
The essay is written to those who are presumably unfamiliar with the nature of armed conflict, or at least are less familiar with this topic than a member of the armed forces, especially one who fought during the second World War, would be. The context of this is Manchester's reflection upon being invited to attend the christening of the memorial on Okinawa island.
It is important in fully understanding the essay, to analyze not only what Manchester is saying, but how he is relating it. In this regard, he relates his message with a callousness and terseness that is oft seen among those who have survived armed conflict. Manchester uses this tone effectively to relate his message that war leaves some scars on those who partake in it that can never be healed.
It can be derived that Manchester is writing this because he wishes to inform the public of the true nature of war. He writes during the third portion of the essay how he and his friends could scarcely stand the projections of false bravado and machoism that they witnessed in pop culture after returning from the war. It is clear to me that Manchester writes Okinawa so as to help others avoid falling victim to the same trap that he occupied prior to being a soldier; that the machismo and heroism put forth by popular culture is indeed false, and that the reality of war is far more grim. It is clear to me that he succeeds, by virtue of the fact that his argument is extremely compelling, because his writing does not waver in relating his message, and because the audience is immediately forced to regard Manchester as an authority on the topic, due to his own personal experiences.
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