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Americans know the United States Marine Corps (USMC) as one of the most

decorated and admired military branches. The United States Marine Corps was
established on November 10, 1775, as a sub-department of the United States Navyiii. As a
sub-department of the Navy, the Marine Corps has adopted and maintained the Navys
core values of Honor, Courage, and Commitmentiii. The Marine Corps possesses a culture
that differs from the cultural norms of civilian society. Although today the Marine Corps
is a unified and indivisible fighting force, this was not always the case. During the first
half of the 20th Century, many of the members experienced a different type of military
service. In E.B Sledges, With the Old Breed, Sledge revealed the realities of service
during World War II through his own personal accounts. The book discusses many
different themes including racism, dehumanization and harsh realities of war.
During the early 20th century, an open hatred for anyone that is not an AngloAmerican white man was prevalent. The ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson showed that blacks
were treated as equals, but must be segregated from whitesiv. By 1939, Blacks only made
a median of up to 40% to their white counterpartv. This remained true while many blacks
served for the Department of the Navy. Blacks were placed in separate berthingsvi and
dining facilities. Black naval personnel for almost over two decades were allowed to
serve only as Mess Attendantsviiviii. In the Marine Corps, Blacks served mostly in the
Pacific. However, the two combat marine units saw less battle than those attached to units
who served as relief efforts to amphibious assault unitsix. While it was a struggle to
achieve equality in civilian life, it was equally as hard to attain it in the military. The
Japanese, during the later years of World War II, felt the same discrimination that
Americans had towards Black Americans.

The surprise aerial attack on Pearl Harbor Naval Base, angered and shook
America to its core. This sentiment was fueled by downright racist propaganda and
perpetuated among the ranks of the Marine Corps to motivate them to kill the enemy
without remorse. Sledge recalls the words of his instructor, Dont hesitate to fight the
Japs dirty. Most Americans, from the time they are kids, are taught not to hit below the
belt. Its not sportsmanlike. Well, nobody has taught the Japs that, and war aint sport.
Kick him in the balls before he kicks you in yours.x Instructors attempted to teach their
impressionable, young men that they will not feel bad for killing a rat, as many Japanese
were referred to at the time. Racist charged magazines like Life Magazine in the 40s,
attempted to distinguish the Chinese from the Japanese by differentiating their facial
features with stating that the Japanese had earthier yellow complexionxi. Propaganda
from magazines and posters, were part of the roots of the anti-Japanese sentiment; this
and including the bombing of Pearl Harbor, gave way to the dehumanizing of the
Japanese during World War II.
War is gruesome. The images of mutilated bodies from gunfire and bombs are
traumatizing. The racist fueled propaganda and the bombing of Pearl Harbor assisted
Marines to carry out their plans of killing Japanese without remorse or hesitation.
Remorse or hesitation to kill was what Americans believed that the Japanese didnt have
when facing their enemy (which were Americans). Sledge recalls an incident where his
friend Jay steps on an enemy Japanese soldier. Jay tells a BARman to fire, but there is a
delay in response. Sledge heard the BARman, reply something to the effect that he
thought hed just let the Japanese get a little closer to see if he could cut him into two
pieces with his BARxii. As repulsive as this visual may seem to most, the atmosphere in

which these Marines were subjected to was not kind to their psyche. Further on, Sledge
recalled the corpses of three Marines and described how the Japanese beheaded the
marines, cut off their genitalia and stuffed it into their mouths, bodies decaying in the
jungle, mutilated like carnivores mutilate their preyxiii. Sledge felt that this display of
barbarism towards people was wrong and admitted that as Marines collected trinkets and
gold teeth from their enemies, he knew that Marines were never capable of the gruesome
mutilations that the Japanese were capable of doing to Americans. There was no respect
from one enemy to the other. While the Japanese mutilated the bodies of their victims of
war, the Americans devalued the lives of Japanese people fueled by hate. At one point,
Sledge almost retrieved the gold teeth in the Japanese soldiers mouth. He almost lost his
sanity that day. As many people lost their lives during World War II, many returned
home with mental problems.
The term used now for the mental problems that many men of war return home
with is called PTSD. During the time of immense stress, namely World War II, men that
came back homexiv had endured the trauma of losing friends, people they called brothers
and mentors that they looked up to. Sledge remembers the loss of his skipperxv, Captain
Andy Haldane, and how it hit everyone in his group hard because they felt that they had
lost both a leader and friend, someone they believed was immortalxvi. This trauma was
suffered by many of the soldiers that returned home from World War II. PTSD Research
Quarterly reported in 1991, that in a psychiatric group of patients, nearly 54% of all that
experienced combat during World War II, suffer from PTSDxvii.
i

United States Marine Corps became a sub-department of the Navy in June 1834.
The Commandant of the Marine Corps reported directly to the Secretary of the Navy:
1834. USN. n.d. http://www.navy.mil/navydata/testimony/history/dudley040318.txt.
ii

iii

The Marine Corps and the Navy have the same core values of Honor, Courage, and
Commitment.
iv
Plessy v Ferguson. The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow Laws. Educational Broadcasting
Corporation. n.d. 2002. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_events_plessy.html.
v
Unit 12 World War II: Struggle for Democracy at Home and Abroad, 1940-1945.
New Jersey State Library. n.d. 2014.
http://www.njstatelib.org/research_library/new_jersey_resources/digital_collection/unit_
12_democracy/
vi
Berthings are types of dormitories for enlisted and commissioned personnel.
vii
Mess Attendants served in the dining areas.
viii
African Americans and the U.S Navy World War II. Naval History and Heritage
Command. n.d. http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/prs-tpic/af-amer/afa-wwii.htm.
ix
Unit 12 World War II: Struggle for Democracy at Home and Abroad, 1940-1945.
New Jersey State Library. n.d. 2014.
http://www.njstatelib.org/research_library/new_jersey_resources/digital_collection/unit_
12_democracy/
x
Sledge, E.B. Preparation for Combat. With the Old Breed. Presidio Press. 2010. 18.
Print.
xi
Distinguishing Chinese from Japanese. Life Magazine.
http://www.slideshare.net/timothyjgraham/anti-japanese-sentiment-and-propaganda-inwwii.
xii
Brave Men Lost.
xiii
Brave Men Lost.
xiv
Come back home is an idiom that most military personnel use to return stateside after
being gone from the United States for an extended period of time.
xv
Skipper is a term used for a Commander in Charge of a unit, platoon, squad, etc.
xvi
Brave Men Lost. 140-141.
xvii
PTSD and Combat-Related Psychiatric Symptoms in Older Veterans. Schnurr,
Paula P. PhD. PTSD Research Quarterly. The National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress
Disorder. Volume 2, No. 1. Winter. 1991. PDF.

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