Saturday, August 3, 2013

Gyokusai 玉砕

Attu Island, 1943, and two thousand
Six hundred Japanese troops
Were informed by the General
Staff in Tokyo that, Whoops!
We can no longer send you
Supplies or ammunition, so
Instead, you are expected to do
Your duty for the Emperor,
Attack the Americans and die,
You will be called "crushed jewels"
Who didn't flich, or wonder why
You, as warrior-sharpened tools
Of an Imperial dream, were callously
Abandoned, all tragic-heroic fools...

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