Sirs:
Congratulations are in order for John Hersey's article on Guadalcanal in your Nov. 9 issue. His composite description of the average marine was most interesting.
The entire article deserves commendation, for the gallant marines can never be over-publicized!
W. EDWIN BRISTOL, JR.
Hartford, Conn.
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Sirs:
First I read the article on page 36 by John Hersey on "The Marines on Guadalcanal: and I agreed wholeheartedly with the comment of the marines that the Japs are like animals and not humans with human reactions.
Why then, in the name of God, do we treat the Jap prisoners in the fashion as shown on page 38--eating to the accompaniment of musci and getting ten cigarettes a day. For my money this smells and I think it's high time we started giving them a dose of their own medicine.
M. KEEFE
Marion, Ohio
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Sirs:
Your affirmation (LIFE, Nov. 9) that the Wasp "comes to a shameful end" was a shameful statement. Nothing the Wasp ever did, in the North Atlantic, at Malta, at Tulagi and the South Pacific ever merited censure from anuone. When she met her end she had fulfiller every mission assigned to her. In her last hours, not a man, not one, failed in his duty. Deeds of courage, of self-sacrifice and devotion, of skill and competency were the rule, not the exception.
MERRITT F. WILLIAMS
Chaplain, USS Wasp
Washington, D.C.
- No censure was meant. However, that a Jap submarine was able to sneak through the Wasp's protecting screen and torpedo her when she was not in action, but merely maneuvering for position, must have been "shameful", even to her.--ED.
Life November 30, 1942
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