“Veterans should not be mute about history. It breeds blind generations of destructive dreamers who have learned nothing from the scars of those who were mute.” (Memoir, page 78)

Carl Albin Hall

Carl Hall [undated] War: World War, 1939-1945 Branch: Army Unit: Headquarters Company, 383rd Infantry Regiment, 96th Infantry Division Service Location: Pacific Theater; Leyte Island (Philippines); Okinawa Island (Ryukyu Islands) Rank: Corporal Place of Birth: Washington, DC

Infantry Corporal Carl Hall wrote a stunning memoir of his experiences on Okinawa, by far the bloodiest invasion in the Pacific Theater of World War II. His illustrations and written imagery complement each other. The paintings and sketches only hint at the intensity of Hall’s prose, which throbs with urgency, bitterness, and dread. For Hall and many other GIs, Okinawa was “the island of fear,” as stubborn Japanese forces, aided by a civilian population convinced that victorious Americans would slaughter them, dug in and refused to surrender.