The Pacific Quotes

It’s incredible what can happen over a cup of coffee.

It’s good to be scared. It means you’re awake, you’re ready.

It’s a hell of a lot easier to raise money when there’s a face behind it and a heroic story attached to it.[to John]

Isn’t there anything the Marine Corps taught you that you can continue at ‘Bama Poly?[Registrar Girl]They taught me how to kill Japs. I got pretty damn good at it.[Eugene Sledge]

I hope they don’t. I hope we get to kill every last one of them.[Pvt. Hamm: They can’t f***ing surrender?]

I don’t believe I will ever put on a uniform again. Ever.

History is full of wars fought for a hundred reasons. But this war, our war, well, I want to believe, I have to believe that every step across that airfield, every man that’s wounded, every man I lose, that it’s all worthwhile because our cause is just.[to Eugene]

False is the vaunt of the victor, empty our living pride. For those who fell there is no hell, not for the brave who died.[writing a poem]

Dear Vera, it seems a lifetime since we met outside Saint Mary’s. This great undertaking for God and country has landed us in a tropical paradise somewhere in what Jack London refers to as “those terrible Solomons.” It is a garden of Eden. The jungle holds both beauty and terror in its depths, most terrible of which is man. We have met the enemy and have learned nothing more about him. I have, however, learned some things about myself. There are things men can do to one another that are sobering to the soul. It is one thing to reconcile these things with God, but another to square it with yourself.[in a letter]

Best stuff I ever wrote.[Vera Keller: What were they like, these letters?]

A hundred against twelve hundred. They’re either incredibly brave or incredibly stupid.[Wilbur ‘Runner’ Conley]Or just really f***ing hate us.[Robert Leckie]

“Slap a Jap.” That’s what the enemy is to you, huh? A f***ing bucktoothed cartoon dreamed up by some asshоlе on Madison Avenue to sell soap. Well, let me tell you something. The Jap I know, the Japanese soldier, he has been at war since you were in f***ing diapers! He’s a combat veteran, an expert with his weapon. He can live off of maggoty rice and muddy water for weeks and endure misery you couldn’t dream up in your worst nightmare! The Japanese soldier doesn’t care if he gets hurt or killed, as long as he kills you. Now, you can call them whatever you want, but never, ever fail to respect their desire to put you and your buddies into an early grave!