“He told me ... well ... there was terrible mayhem there. People, farmers, gettin between the armies and bein slaughtered. Maybe somewhere near 60,000 natives. Seems I read that. Fifty, sixty, seventy thousand noncombatants in just a few months. Then after ... after the fighting was finished, he was there, then too, part of the occupation force but just a short time. He couldn’t stand it. They carried so much anger, American soldiers, anger from having seen so many of their friends die. When they’d be on guard, at night, if they saw a native, they’d shoot im.”
“Shoot ...”
“Shoot em. After the war ended there.”
“Um. I’m not surprised.”
“Well, your father was! He didn’t like it. He wanted to have some men tried. It affected him a long time.”
“Yeah. I guess it could. We were very strict
