"Okinawa: The Bloodiest Battle of All" by William Manchester

Blood to Stone

Lt. Gen. Kenneth J. Glueck Jr. looking at the names of both the Americans and Japanese that had died in the bloodiest battle of World War II at the Okinawa Peace Memorial Park. 

        During World War II, out of all of the battles in the Pacific and in Europe, William Manchester knows from first-hand experience as a sergeant in the Marines, that the war fought in Okinawa was the worst.  On Flag Day in 1987, Americans and Japanese gathered together in Okinawa for a ceremony for those lost in the war.  Manchester writes to anyone in that time period that was affected by war or people who thought that they knew what war was like.  His purpose for writing this essay, "Okinawa: The Bloodiest Battle of All", was to show that the marks of war never left the men that fought in it, even if the countries had forgiven each other.

       Manchester tries to use personal anecdotes to get this point across.  Although he does eventually get this point across at the end of the essay, he could have done it much more efficiently.  The personal anecdotes are very important to the author, but they have no significance towards convincing the audience to agree with the purpose.  For instance, Manchester was explaining his role in the war, which he had already done multiple times before, by saying, "...I cherish most the Commendation from General Lemuel C. Shepherd, Jr., U.S.M.C., our splendid division commander, citing me fore 'gallantry in action and extraordinary achievement," (Manchester 498).  This detail, like so many others in this essay, was completely unneeded.  With an abundance of these personal details, Manchester shows that he is credible to talk about this topic, but the audience gets so carried away in these mini-stories that they fail to even notice the true purpose of the essay.  If he had wanted to get his purpose across more clearly, Manchester should have used less anecdotes and introduced the true purpose earlier on, rather than at the end of the essay.  When the audience doesn't have time to digest the purpose, the purpose rarely has the potential to have any impact on the readers, making the essay completely pointless.

Image source: http://www.mcipac.marines.mil/NewsCenter/NewsArticleDisplay/tabid/1144/Article/531394/local-community-americans-honor-okinawa-memorial-day.aspx