Review of "Seven Lives to Repay Our Country," short story by Edward Carpenter
Summary: The battle of Saipan pitted US Marines and Allied soldiers against the island's Japanese defenders in one of the bloodiest battles in the Pacific War. In this short story written by a US Marine, a pair of Japanese soldiers on Saipan confront the inevitability of defeat in different ways. Review: I had to mull over this story for awhile before I could write a review. War stories such as this really aren't my preferred genre so I wanted to make sure that my assessment was fair. This story switches between two main viewpoints. The first viewpoint is a pair of Japanese grunts as they talk to each other and prepare for what will obviously be the final push. In between these conversations is the second "greater power" viewpoint. Basically, little snippets that read like a newspaper article with an obvious political agenda. The exchange between the soldiers is really quite good. Carpenter does an excellent job showing two believable characters ...