China Marine (memoir)

China Marine: An Infantryman's Life after World War II is the second memoir written by United States Marine Corporal Eugene B. Sledge, published posthumously with foreword by Stephen E. Ambrose, without subtitle, on May 10, 2002 by University of Alabama Press^[1] It was republished in paperback with the full title by Oxford University Press in July 2003.^[2] This book is the sequel to his first, better known, memoir, With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa and Ambrose identifies it as the only account of the Marines stationed in postwar China.^[3] It has recently achieved wider public recognition as credited source material for the 2010 HBO miniseries The Pacific.^[4]

China Marine details Sledge's military duty in

However the book's primary focus is the process of psychological rehabilitation of the author as he recovered from the horrors of his combat experience.[7] Thus much of its content is deeply personal, such as his first meetings with his brother and parents^[8] and a disturbing incident at Auburn University where he realized the distance between his experience and that of those who had not been in the war.^[9]

Synopsis

Okinawa

Sledge's second book opens in 1945 with the

Sledge's battalion was shipped to Beijing (then known as Peking), China instead of being sent home. Initially this was an exciting experience as Sledge and the others were exposed to the complexities of Chinese culture, enjoying the rich experience as well as the pastimes of garrison duty. "Smokestacking" was expanded to include the Chinese with practices such as gazing at nonexistent objects in the sky until they were surrounded by huge crowds of onlookers all straining to see. Sledge met a number of people who influenced his direction in life, in particular a Flemish priest, Father Marcel von Hemelryjck, and the family of Dr. Y.K. Soong.^[11]

All was not tourism and fun during the China occupation and conditions worsened through the months. Sledge had a number of tense encounters while on guard duty and was witness to political events such as an incident at Lang Fang; stress rose as strife between Chinese factions grew.

He describes how he retained his wry sense of humor but he remained disturbed at the lack of understanding expressed by civilians. His incident at Auburn University was typical. A young staff member at the registrar's office called on him to list his military training courses then asked him if the Marines had taught him anything important. She could not comprehend the relevance of his training until he explained the twin facts that the United States Marines had trained him specifically to kill enemy soldiers and that most of his own friends and associates had been killed or wounded by the enemy. Sledge's opinion was, "(W)ar to this lady meant John Wayne or the sweet musical South Pacific... I felt like some sort of alien, and I realized that this sort of thing would confront me the rest of my days."^[9]

"Epilogue: I Am Not the Man I Would have Been"

Sledge went on to college, married and embarked on a long career as a biologist and teacher. He did find healing of a sort in his parents' love, his marriage and his academic work but he never forgave the soldiers of the Empire of Japan. He denied regret for the men he had shot but regretted the ones he had missed.^[18] (This is in contrast to his earlier description of mixed emotions described when he killed a man face to face in the Battle of Peleliu,^[19] and to his description of empathy toward birds and animals to the point where he gave up his long term hobby of hunting.)^[20]

He expressed concern over

• Combat stress reaction
• On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society

Notes