they used to shout my name (now they whisper it)

chapter seven: okinawa, klein

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 artillery 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.