Jig, Author's Note Summary and Analysis

Chapter Jig, ...Then I'll Rise and Fight With You Again, discusses the author's autobiographical combat experiences on Okinawa. The chapter name is continued from the previous chapter's name and both are taken from a verse by John Dryden. The chapter is the most autobiographical in the memoir but does contain an imprecise, complex, and often confusing chronology. The Japanese defense of Okinawa did not focus on the beach; instead the defenders holed up in extensive and strong prepared redoubts. The fortifications were so massive they could not be destroyed by aerial bombardment and had to be cleared out by infantry. The civilians were hostile and the geography complex. The author describes going ashore in a Higgins boat, relieved that there is no active defense. In the distance, kamikaze planes attacked the US fleet. The Marine invasion of...