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 . " 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 . ( 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 , and to his description of empathy toward birds and animals to the point where he gave up his long term hobby of hunting . ) He expressed concern over historical revisionism about the Pacific war and what he termed might have been a " Rape of Nanking " in American cities if the Japanese had not been defeated . This was his opinion as a man who tried to live with the Socratic ideal of self-knowledge : " There is no ' mellowing ' for me - that would be to forgive all the atrocities the Japanese committed against millions of Asians and thousands of Americans . To ' mellow ' is to forget . "
atrocities
Japanese war crimes
China Marine (memoir)