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Monday: “Yo lets go and get those dirty skinned whores who are joining our school tonight” I told my friend. “No prob, trashes don’t deserve to live in this world. Just look at their skin,” my friend replied after walking with me in the familiar hallway that we had gone through for five years of our life so far. But today something just felt different that made the whole school feel eerie. Yes that’s right, the damn plague that spreading through our country and swallowing it. Dammit, whites and blacks just don’t mix. “The almighty freaking god gave them that messed up skin color to show our superiority, why can’t the teachers understand that!” I cried as I smashed my hand on the banister of the stairs that I was taking. The sound echoed all around the building sounding just like a demented beast. I just hoped that it was the sound those dirt people were going to make when we did what we were going to do tonight. They are sure going to be in for a big surprise. “Come on, let’s go and prepare the eggs and toilet paper,” I told my friend after stopping my mind in the middle of a thought. “Alright let’s go!” My friend chirped, “ My little bro has already finished mixing the glue and is just waiting for us.” “Then what are we waiting for?” I asked gleefully as we began to pick up our pace and raced down the stairs. AS we turned left on a landing, I glanced over and suddenly found that my friend wasn’t next to me anymore. As I looked down through the gap between the stairs, I couldn’t catch the shadow of anyone. That’s when I heard a voice behind me. When I turned my head, I saw a five foot eleven dirt person lifting my friend my by the collar. “So white boy, what are you going to do to us tonight huh?” he asked without releasing his grip. If it had been me this would have gone a lot easier, but even I was startled my friend’s extra rude response of, “Yo n*, shut you black mouth up!” I knew that we were screwed, me and by bud, and tried to run. But the stupid punk had already turned his body and threw Michel straight as my. As I felt his body land on mine, a sharp metal object suddenly collided with the side of my head. As I fell to the floor gagging and wincing from the pain, I felt my eyes getting tired and drooping. As I turned my head, I saw the perpetrator walking up to me and smile a grave smile before I closed my eyes and blacked out…..

Tuesday: “Yo that freaking white boy is buggin,” Tony thought as he followed the two kids down the hallway. He had heard them plotting something ever since English class where they passed each other notes smugly just like little rat. It wasn’t hard to guess what they were about. After all, Tony and a group of twenty-five African American Kids had just recently joined the John F. Kennedy middle school, and the white kids seriously didn’t seem too thrilled. “Yo let’s get them tonight,” one of the white kids whispered to the other out loud thinking that they were the only people in the hallway. Tony was suddenly burning with rage. “Do those self-righteous pr**ks think that I want to come to this crummy school?” Tony questioned. He hated being here as much as they did. Always finding bugs stuffed in his lunch, having eggs thrown at him on the playground, and worst of all abandoned by those people who were assigned to protect him leave just because they just didn’t want to get their shorts dirty. “My little bro already has everything prepared for tonight” the stupid white boys kept on going as they made their way to another landing. As they turned, Tony felt as if a million bugs were slowly creeping up his skin. Prickling him everywhere with soft pokes that couldn’t be located. How great it would have been if their positions were switched. Tony could just imagine how he would treat them. Every morning he would throw lumps of dirt and mud at them as they came through the school doors, and then wet their pants with water balloons filled with drainage water. “Then what are we waiting for?” the blond one asked the other, as they began to make a mad dash down the stairs. As they began to run, their moving shadows invoked an image in Tony’s mind. It was of his little sister when they had just moved to this city. A few white kids had pushed her into a pile of dirty straw as a joke and her eye had been so badly infected that she still couldn’t take her eye patch off for eight months. Realizing that he couldn’t let anyone else just watch someone precious to then suffer like that, Tony decided it didn’t matter if he got suspended or not, and dashed after the two redneck jump seven steps at a time!

Wednesday: “Mommy, what’s going to happen to us?” I heard a girl next to her mother asking. As I looked around, all I could see were big semi-oval shaped buildings with an assortment of pipes leading into them. Scared, I put my hands on my Kippah on my head and silently prayed to god that I would be all right. Even I, who had traveled the world didn’t know what was going to happen to us. It was just a few days ago when some foreign soldiers, probably were German based on their accents, had attacked the town that I was in and captured anyone wearing a Kippah. They said that it was “evil,” and that all people with it should be liberated from the world. “I’m not sure,” the mother replied with her voice shaking, “be quiet and hope that the soldiers don’t notice you. “But I want to know!” the little girl pleated. As the mother turned around to look at her, her hand flew out and stuck her daughter on the face, forcing her to tumbled down on the ground. When the little girl finally picked herself up, I could see that tears had welled up in her eyes and that there was a burning red mark on the side of her face. “Stop talking in such a loud voice!” her mother commanded, biting her lip to brace herself from going to help her daughter. “Hey mam, why did you just strike your own daughter?” I demanded as I ran over to the woman, “You have no right to call yourself a mother.” But as I came up close to her, I could see that there were tears in her eyes too and that her bones were rattling. I really don’t get what’s happening. All we’re doing right now is just participating in a special event aren’t we. The Germans told us that all they were going to do is help us “relax” a little. “Sir, you really don’t know what’s going on?” the woman croaked behind her tears as she removed the smock covering the bottom half of her face. For the first time, I could see that she was breathing in from a machine-like device. “Have you ever heard of a man named Hitler?” she questioned. “No, I haven’t, and I’ve been all over the world,” I replied. “Well then perhaps your research or whatever distracted you from the important issues,” she told me, “what do you thing the word “relax” means to the German?” “It means that they’ll help us sleep or something?” I replied not sure of my self anymore after having the confidence taken out of my voice. “Well besides for me who is wearing an oxygen mask, all of you are going to put in gas chambers and kil….. she started. But suddenly, there was a loud BANG at the back her head. Her eyes instantaneously rolled upward and her body fell forward. Behind her I could see a tall guard where a hat and smoking a cigar. It seemed that he was dressed well in his outfit, with his muscles bulging all over the place. “Yo, its your turn, get in the dome!” the new guard commanded me. As I turned my body and looked forwards again, I could see that the line had progressed much faster than I had anticipated and I was face to face with a set of double white doors. AS I opened them open a crack, all I could see where masses of green gas and lumps of something else on the ground. But before I had more time to investigate, “Hurry up, its your time!” I heard from behind me as I was roughly pushed into the silver dome. After skidding a few steps, I finally caught my balance and stood up straight. “My time for what?” I thought as the mysterious green gas slowly penetrated and seeped into my body…….

Thursday: “Hello, what’s happening?” an impudent white man suddenly asked me. I wondered how he didn’t know. Today was the day the true father of all African Americans was going to make his big speech. It was April 4, 1968, and it was electric in the air. Our father, and personally, my idol, was going to make one of his greatest speeches. “So, are you going to tell me or am I going to pop a cap in you’r ass too kid?” “Martin Luther king is making his big speech right now white boy, and if you don’t want to get yo ass whipped by some brothers, I suggest that you shut the hell up!” I screamed back at him. Stupid pr**k, doesn’t know the great father, man, I was annoyed. I didn’t know how any one could not know of his greatness. “So then kid, you know where he lives?” the white man asked, seeming much more interested now. As I looked, I could see his face curl up in a twisted an evil smile. Anyway, it scared the holy crap out of me. “Yes, of course I do. Why?” I countered. If this kid wanted to mess, fine with me. I know that I’ll be able to win this shit. Whig*er want to freaking fight, I know his ugly face out. “Well can you tell me where it is?” he asked, seeming to nice now, “I just want to go and pay my respect……tonight…..” As you all can tell he scared the shit out of me. It was pretty freaky, and I didn’t trust him even one bit, as long as I could get away from him, it was enough. So, I said, “Hey, listen here, he lives at…….” “Thanks kid, go and have a drink on me,” he said and then left. “What drink, I don’t see him givin’ me nothing,” I thought. But as I looked at him again, I saw him throw something up in the air. As I ran towards the shadow flying through the air, I stuck my hand up high and caught it. As I opened the bundle covered with some short of handmade paper, I suddenly saw pure green. What the f***, this has at least four hundred dollars in here!” I exclaimed out of surprise. And if I had that money, I really was going to go get a drink. After all, Mr. Luther has god watching him, after all, he is in a pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, god can watch over him instead. He doesn’t need a small insignificant guy like me supporting him. “Ahh,” I had finally finished my beer with peanuts and already blew one fourth of my money that I had just gotten,” I knew that it was a good idea to be nice to people and tell then where the King lives.” After all, it was wasn’t it. I had enjoyed my self like never before, and that white bro wasn’t going to shoot down the King in Memphis, Tennessee at night when he is looking out from his balcony of his hotel room…………...he isn’t…………….right?

HF writing story: The Kamikaze Life “What the hell are we doing here?” I questioned, as I listened to the birds chirping away in the trees. “Just shut up and follow me dammit!” my squad leader replied. I had never thought that being a soldier would end up being so damn hard. We were somewhere in a place called Tokyo, at some sort of air base I think. But what really mattered was that it was a freaking Japanese base. “Why the hell are we in a Japanese pilot training camp?” I pressed on, unable to even though I knew just how rude I sounded right now. But it really wasn’t my fault. Those other soldiers had no idea of what I was going through. I hated the Japanese and even working with them undercover left a sour taste in my mouth. “”Yo Jack, shut yo white mouth up before I slap it off of you!” my squad leader replied. “Why should I?” I countered, furious, “I signed up for the army to freaking kill those messed up Japanese people, not work with them!” After all, every since their plan of conquest started, I had done nothing but suffer. Just imagine coming home one day and finding a letter in your mailbox telling your parents had just passed away while visiting Pearl Harbor. “I’ll never forgive these Japanese devils!” I stated. As I searched back in my memory, I could vividly see the day after coming home from work, trying to save up money to make my life better. As I got home, I did my usual routine to checking my mailbox, hoping to get a letter from a girl, any girl, asking to be my sweetheart. As I opened the lid to my marine blue mailbox, I had noticed an oddity. I did have a letter, but it took up three quarters of my mailbox. Still keeping my hopes up, I slowly took out the packaging, and unwrapped the string surrounding it. “Wow, this girl must be super rich or something,” I thought. But as I slowly opened the ominous message, I could just see my parents’ names. Under them, it read, Status: dead. I couldn’t believe what had happened. I actually lived in a pretty wealthy family, my parents were doctors and we always had enough to wear and eat. But my parent hated death and decided to work at Pearl Harbor to help the soldiers on the sea along with the raging waves. All they wanted was peace, but of course that was not what those messed up Orientals wanted and bombed them to death. As I fast forded my memory, I could see myself dashing down my street waving my hands crazily with a mad look in my eyes. To get over my parents’ death, I had taken way too much booze into my system. But suddenly a warm hand grabbed me and pulled me to a stop. As I turned around, I could see a well build man from the army, who was sent to draft the needed military force needed for war. My life was rescued by him, and I followed him for the rest of my time, he was, my friend, college, and my leader. “Then shut the hell up and follow me you idiot!” my leader commanded. “Yeah, listen to the man Jack!” a voice behind me whispered. Without needing to turn around, I already knew who it was. “What now Frank?” I turned around annoyed. This little kid was only fourteen, he shouldn’t even be able to enlist in the army. Even though I was still one of the youngest people in our squad, I am still at least eighteen. If I could I would just walk up to him and rip off his head full of blond hair. After all, he probably made me lose as much hair as I want to rip off his head, worrying about him. “So Jack, what are we going to do today?” he asked while making a cute face, with his eyes opened as large as a panda’s. It was just another thing that I hated about him, his big stupid hazel eyes. I have no idea why the girls are attracted by that kind of thing. Why couldn’t he just have been born with the regular naval blue eyes that I, and most Americans have? “Hey Frank, can I tell you a secret…” I began. “Sure, he replied and leaned his head over to where I was, thinking that I was actually going to tell him something important. “SHUT THE HELL UP!” I screamed into his ear. “Ahh, damn!” he screamed as he jerked his head backwards. Just then the squad leader just happened to learn back. As I realized my mistake, I felt something hard hit the side of my head. “Hey Jack, why don’t you shut the hell up!” My leader Tony yelled as I almost dropped to the floor withering in pain, “You’re going to blow our freaking cover punk!” As I regained my balance, I noticed that we were already at the front step of the center base of the air base. It seemed that I forgot to mention that even though he saved my life, he was a violent man who did crazy stuff sometimes. “Now shut the hell up and remember that I’m a traitor and that you guys are my servants,” Tony warned us. “Gee, it’ll be so hard for them to figure that out after seeing that vest that you’re wearing and how we are covered in rags,” I teased, but feeling a little warm bump rise slowly on my head. “Hey Jack,” Tony replied in a voice as sweet as honey while I scrunched my nose because of the leftover decaying smell of clean water gone bad, “Want me to bash in your head with the water canteen again?” “All right fine, I’ll shut up,” I answered, depressed. By then we had already walked into the building and were faced with twenty Japanese soldiers saluting to us in their full uniform of red and white and their idiotic flag of a red sun on their hats. I still couldn’t believe that we had to go undercover as an American traitor and suck up to these pieces of trash just to study their kamikaze planes. Sure it really decimated our military force, but what about our pride. Do we really have to kill our pride just to keep our lives. My father had always told me that pride and dignity were a man’s most precious items, and I just could get over the idea of what we were doing. “Ahh, welcome my good friends,” an old Japanese man came up and shook all of our hands and led us into a small white building. I was about to throw him unto the ground and start stepping on his ugly face. I could just feel my finger tips latching on to his pure white shirt which probably had never been dirtied when he is on the and throwing his as far as the gentle breeze blowing my fair into my eyes could carry him. “I hear that you guys…… are having a little trouble with your nation, no?” the old man told us in horrible English. “Well, on behalf of his divine majesty, the emperor we will welcome you into our homeland….just as long as you guys give us a little something back.” “Yes I have most of the flight formations of the American army,” Tony began, “Perhaps we could just rest today and talk about it tomorrow? After all, we are very tired and exhausted from our trip.” “Yes, yes, yes, of course,” the old man replied, obviously annoyed that his chance to impress his superiors with our “secret” information is being delayed.” Come this way and I’ll will lead you to your accommodations right now,” he stared as he opened the door to lead us out. I was probably the one who was the most grateful for that. After seeing how hard the soldiers were working, it was a surprise to smell the sugary scent of left over rice cakes and red beans. “Actually, we have always been interested in your brave pilots, I wan wondering if we could check them out, “ I said without any formality and how I would normally speak. Let’s see that messed up Jap figure out what that means. But to my misfortune, the scrawny old man immediately knew what I meant the moment that I spoke about planes and led us out into the courtyard. As we made our way out, I saw many men, some younger than me running around the courtyard, their breaths heavy with fatigue. “What are those men doing?” I questioned, feeling very bad for them. “Oh, those are just newbies who can’t do anything right,” the old man said, “they can’t even pilot a simple glider much less than a plane. All they’re doing is wasting our food without earning it. That’s why we are making them pay with their bodies. After their daily run of two and a half kilometers to their barracks, they still get tired of this little run. Was all of our training wasted on these losers?” Suddenly, one of the soldiers who looked just a little younger than me fell. As I looked, an instructor began to walk towards him. “Well, as least the instructors are doing their jobs right,” I said, thinking that the instructor was going to help the student up. “Yes, that’s right, the worthless do need to be punished,” the old man replied. “What!” I exclaimed as I suddenly saw the instructor tale off his belt. I had already guessed what was going to happen next, but it was still fairy surprising to see an actual man being beaten in public. The moment a lash landed, the student would start squealing just like a little pig and shouting in a language that sounded like two pieces of wood rubbing against each other. “Damn it, just shut up,” I begged the student in my head, didn’t he know that the more he cried out the more he was going to get whipped? “Can we please go on?” I asked the instructor. “Why, this is a beautiful sight for us,” the instructor asked smacking his lips as if me was feeding on the soldier’s pain, “Just look at all the crimson sparks that are flying all around.” “Well, I just don’t like seeing trash in my way,” I said out loud, while in my head I thought, “You freaking Japanese people don’t know the meaning of kindness, you guys are going to be trashed by the Americans and there’s nothing that you can do to stop them.” As the old man reluctantly led us away towards the plane, I could still hear the soldier’s yells of bone-chilling pain and could almost taste the soldier’s heart-breaking fear too. Soon, we were in the mountains. The mountains of Japan, rumored to being purely green, seemed to down to its last breath. After all, as I looked around, all I could see was a load of browned dead trees who’s death and decay invaded my nostrils. Even when I got tired and tried to lean against a tree, the whole tree actually snapped in half with a, “CRACK.” I was fairly surprised and jolted up, causing all the members, even that terrible old man to laugh at me. But when I looked around, I could see that most of their trees were already on the ground and were rooting with bugs invading their bodies causing the smell to grow and spread even more. As I saw this, even though I loved nature and regretted what had happened here because of war, a sudden thought struck me, “If this is happening, it could only mean that Japan was running out of supplies and that it could only run on the fuel from wood.” This greatly excited me, and caused a spring in my step. The people around me probably thought that I was crazy, but I didn’t care, we were crushing the Japanese and there was nothing wrong with that. With that thought in mind, I hummed “Blue Bird” all the way to the place where the kamikaze planes were kept. “Here you are gents,” the old man said to us as he pointed proudly to the planes, which had caused the deaths of so many Americans. I still couldn’t believe that they would just sacrifice one of their precious soldiers like that. I could see myself flying at several thousand feet in the air in the clouds with the birds where people looked like tiny little specks, then suddenly ordered to go to my death. I’m sure happy that America was honorable enough and didn’t need their soldiers to do that. We can fight honestly and didn’t resort to these last-minute tactics. The funny thing was that these planes, which have caused so much America deaths proved that Japan was about to bite the dirt. It showed how they couldn’t win on the land or at sea and could only rely on air. “Actually, could we have some private time to admire your planes that are created by such smart Japanese men?” I asked, horrified that I was actually sucking up to a Jap. The only way that I could even keep from going wild was thinking that what I am doing right now will help kill thousands of them. I will also be saving hundreds of American soldiers, but killing those heartless Japs mattered so much more to me that you can’t even begin to compare them. “Sure help yourselves,” the old man replied as he started walking away, “You guys know your own way back don’t you?” “Sure, go and relax yourself, don’t worry about those knuckleheads,” Frank said as he walked with the old man back towards the base. We needed someone to make sure that no one was coming our way, and who would suspect such an innocent little kid like Frank? Even if he was caught doing something suspicious, he could just flash his humongous Panda eyes. I actually don’t understand why people fall victim to that trick. To me, it looks exactly like that hobo who used to live near my house. I was friends with that homeless person and brought him food many nights, but I still admit that he looked like dung. When both of their shadows finally disappeared into the horizon and after Tony sent two of my squad members to keep guard. Tony, me, and another named Bill, who was a little slow on his feet, but who was still a good soldier all the same, went to inspect the planes. After taking out our notepads, we each crawled into the cockpit of one of the planes that had caused so much sadness for our nation, and began to take notes. “Hey, don’t you guys feel that this plane is a little crowded, nothing like those spacious planes back home?” “Well of course that would be the case,” Tony replied, “haven’t you noticed how short the Japanese are compared to us?” Well, me being five nine myself, I actually did notice how short the Japanese were on the car ride here. Their eyes also seemed to be considerably smaller than our and their seemed to be much less muscular. Their cars were also much smaller than the Jeeps that we had back home, and it was very amusing how small some of the stuff that they used were. “Hey Jack, stop dozing off and get back to work!” Tony commanded me, ripping me out from my daydream. As I looked back in front of me, I could see all kinds of odd buttons and levers. “Damn,” I muttered. I was not fit for this job. I drove tanks and killed Japanese, not inspect planes. As I swept my hand through the study metallic interior of the plane my heart burned with anger of not being able to destroy them right now and here. But, there were other things that I could do. As I reached into my back pocket, I slowly took out a tiny green sack, I opened it and let the contents spill onto my hand. In a flash, my hand was covered in dozens of small grains of sand. I could taste the crunchy grains of sand that the breeze had transported into my mouth and wanted to wipe it. But since I knew I was running out of time, I quickly placed my hand over the levers and poured the sand into the crevasses in the machines. I wasn’t ordered to do this but nothing restricted me said that I couldn’t. But one less Japanese meant that the world would have to suffer from one less piece of worthless trash. “Yo, we’re going back, hurry your ass up!” Tony yelled at me. As I quickly hid the contents of my bag, I hurried out of the cockpit of the plane, I had a wonderful time thinking about the unlucky soul trying to suicide himself with an American fleet but finding that his controls were jammed. I just loved the sound of the tiny little spheres assimilating into the group of wires and levers in the machinery. “Good riddance to bad people,” I thought. When we made our way back to the airstrip, I found all the soldiers gathered in one place at the center of the yard. As I walked towards them, I was fairly intrigued. What had happened, did the Japanese surrender already? Maybe the American government had bombed Japan earlier than we had planned to and its “divine emperor” had already surrendered. But As I walked closer, I learned that there was no such luck. All I could hear was the weird ravings in Japanese. Suddenly, I felt a hand on my back. When I turned ready to defend myself from anything that was going to happen, I saw that it was only the old man again. Then without me asking, he translated for me, “They are all saying, “We will win the war, and “we will defeat those evil white devils.” “Well, they sure are determined.” I replied as I saw a picture of the devil actually dressed in white, “Scary.” “Of course, they listen to the emperor’s teaching everyday early in the morning and everyday at night.” “Really,” I replied. “Say would you like some food?” the old man offered me. Since I was starving and my stomach was making a growing sound like a tiger when it’s hunting down small prey, I accepted gladly. I could almost feel the tip of my tongue curl around the bones of the fish that they were serving. With all the spices and peppers, my mouth was going to explode in a fury of fiery sensations. As we slowly walked towards the mess hall, I could see that it was the Korean soldiers who were serving the food. When he noticed me take notice this, the old man said, “Those are just drop outs from our elite group.” “Huh,” I replied. As I looked around, I also saw the officers higher up not taking notice of the lower ranking soldiers. To me, it seemed a little dangerous talking like they weren’t even there. As I listened, I heard many like how there was going to be a rifle inspection in a few days, and how today they were going to have to clean their living quarters. No doubt every server heard this and no doubt they were all going to tell their friends this when they got back. As I turned my head around again, I saw the old man face right in front of mine, like he had some sort of secret that he wanted to share with me. “Well youngster, do you have a girlfriend yet?” he asked me over the clitter clatter of the plates all around us. “Uh, no,” I replied hesitantly, a little creeped out. If this stupid Japanese bum started coming on to me in public, I didn’t care what my orders were, I could shoot him dead right there and then. “So there’s no one for you to cheat on right?” he asked, creeping even closer to me and putting one of his frail, bony hands on my right foot and looking into my eyes with his piercing eyes. “Of course not….” I answered very uncomfortably, ready to push him on the ground and bolt out of the door. “Well do you need anyone to pleasure you tonight?” the old man asked me. “We have tons of “comfort women” at our disposal,” he continued with a devious smile. “No! Of course not!” I backed away, horrified. Somehow, he just turned around, just like nothing had even happened. But thinking back on what he said, I lost my appetite entirely and tore my self away from the sweet aroma of naturally grilled bream. I quickly excused myself from the old man and made my way outside to get some air and clear my mind of the events that had just occurred. That’s when I noticed that I didn’t know where my squadron was settled, and I had to ask a soldier walking by. I grabbed his arm and asked in Japanese, “Hey, do you know how to get to the area where the guests who just came today are living?” “Sure its that way, near that shrine of the emperor and make a left.” He answered politely, “Hey are you guys joining our army too?” “Not quite,” I answered, “Say, what kind of training do you go through everyday?” I asked as I thought about that soldier being beaten earlier. “Oh not much, we have to run obstacles first and then run them again with weights, and we can’t rest until we have beaten out first time. We also have to memorize the emperor’s divine sayings. There is no point in cheating because the instructors listen to each of us individually. When we pilot planes, we also seem to make mistakes no matter what, and we are always forced to run laps.” “Wow, I feel sorry for you,” I sympathized with him. “We even need to clean our laundry everyday at night so that we don’t get beaten in the morning.” As he said this, my mind suddenly went blank. How could people endure this every single day? My body reacted on its own as I felt the need to make the soldiers’ life as much better as I could. Driven by this, I reached into my old dusty bag and took out a box of chocolates that was wrapped in a fine blue velvet that was covered with white sandpaper that was wearing through. I was saving the sweet sensational melting coffee taste fever for later and handed it to the soldier. “Here, give this to your fellow friends,” I told him. “Okay but what is it?” he asked me. I couldn’t believe that they didn’t even know what chocolate. Well that’s all for the better. When I was a child and I first had a piece of chocolate, it simply enveloped my mouth and I was enveloped by total bliss. I remembered being embraced my parents who were still alive at that time and longed for them. “It’s a secret,” I told the soldier, wondering what his expression would be like when he tastes this gift from god. “Thank you, you can’t even begin to know how much this means to us,” the soldiers thanked me, his brown eyes flashing brightly with bliss. “What do you mean?” “Well little do you know, all us soldiers never get any of the food that we’re sent from out families, and all our letters are censored. But before our final voyage, we get to send one uncensored letter. Nevertheless, we will never get a reply for it because we won’t be here in this world anymore. I don’t even know what we are fighting this war for. I don’t want to fight and I hate killing, I’m only doing this so that the Japanese government sends food to my family in need.” “What!, I’ll go and demand the old man for better treatment for you soldiers!’ I shouted infuriated. “No don’t they’ll only punish us even more for complaining.” The soldier warned me as he grabbed my hand. “But thank you for this wonderful gift,” he told me and walked away looking depressed. When I had finally made it back. I could see that all of my squad members had never even taken their belongings out. After all, what’s the point, we were going to leave today anyway. “ Yo Jack, you look funny, want to talk about it?” another member of my squad named Michel asked me. Being together in life and death situations with each other had made us friends in an incredibly short amount of time. After all, who knows when you might never have another chance to see each other again? But I didn’t want to talk today so I just turned away on my bed. My friend didn’t even try to press on even though they noticed my strange activity. I was usually open and was friendly to everyone, but they could see that I genuinely didn’t want to talk. Another funny thing about working together, despite all of our fears in battle, we could all understand each other’s feeling almost perfectly. Normally, I could fall a sleep before most people can even say the word, “Sleep.” But today I just laid restlessly on my bed. So many thoughts were crashing the sides of my head and I couldn’t calm down. I couldn’t believe that the Japanese were treating their own soldiers so horribly just because they were not Japanese. At first I was against our military sending out a letter to the Koreans saying that the United States will never bomb them. But now I could see that they were being forced to do so many things too. Their sad faces surrounded my eyes and I could feel their pain as if it was my own. I was more proud than every that I was a member of the United States, who was fighting against this evil. A few moments later, Tony tapped me on the solder and told me, “Hey sleepyhead, time to go,” almost nicely this time. As I looked around, I could see that I actually fallen asleep despite the internal conflict going on in my head. I hurried and grabbed my special blue bag whose sides were made out of rubber especially for my preference. Normally I just loved rubbing my hands against it, but now was not the time. I was go glad that we were finally busting out of this joint. As we slowly crept out of the door making sure that we didn’t make any noise, in my head all I could think of were the poisoned rule of the Japanese and how some people go through much more troubles than me. We had put our pillows under the bed sheets that were spread out over our so-called “beds that weren’t even large for my body to fit in so that it looked like we were still sleeping to anyone was might happen to look in to our cabin. If this was counted as a suite, then I couldn’t even think of what the living conditions in a regular lodging was like As I looked back, I could just hear the native tongues of soldiers clacking away out for their midnight incantation of the emperor’s teachings as my squad and I once again embraced the silky smell of the pine trees as we stole away into the night.