This Is My Story

PART ONE- SICILY, EMIL JONES

I am Emil Jones, native of New York, USA. This is my story.

"Hey."

A throaty whisper.

I turned. Gilbert Adler was hovering next to me, his narrow amber eyes glowing in the near-darkness. "Hey, Gil."

My eyes widened as I spotted the red drenching his chest. "Gilbert!"

Gilbert tried to smile as he collapsed, amber eyes still wide open, "Don't worry about me, geliebt, you keep on fighting with the others. We'll overcome those nasty Nazis, won't we? Especially now that we have you." As his eyes slipped closed for the last time and I screamed for a medic, he whispered, "Auf Wiedersehen, mein Emil, mein geliebt. Win for me, ja?"

It's 1943, and I had been transported from my home in New York to Sicily as a part of Operation Husky more than a month ago on July 9th. It's now August 16th, my twentieth birthday. A whole month since Gilbert died.

We've heard that the Wops are retreating their soldiers and so are the Krauts, but we're still fighting and men are still dying. It's horrible why people would do such a thing, but look who's talking?

Emil Jones, that's who.

A boy - or man now - that lives to kill, lives to die for his country, for democracy, for killing the killers.

That's me.

We're fighting here in Sicily, and we're almost there. Soon we'll have the island under our control, but at what price?

I can't stop thinking about Gilbert and what he sacrificed for this war. It's the same every day - soldiers crying when their friends, their lovers, are shot or ripped apart by bloody shotguns and tanks on the streets. The dead are brought back to be cremated or whatever they do, and the barely alive are brought back to die or even left there on the beaches and cities to breath their last breath, staring at the grey sky, thinking about their family and friends and crying.

I'm glad Gilbert was able to make it back, to say his last words to a man he loved.

I want this. I want to fight for liberty, to take revenge on those who had injured the ones I loved, the ones I still love, and the ones I will love. I can't let them take over.

What is one man's life if it is the cause of many men's deaths?

PART TWO- OAHU, AMELIA ALAKA'I

I am Amelia Alaka'i, a native to Oahu, Hawaii. This is my story.

I heard the explosions, I saw the planes, I was cut by the things that rained down from the sky like the rubbish of a god.

I was there when we were attacked.

I awoke late in the morning, at almost 9:00. I was awakened by the booms and the screams coming from the peaceful Hawaiian morning. Racing outside, I was met by a terrifying sight- the mighty battleships in the harbor, one flipped over, another caught up in flames, the ocean burning up, bullets falling from the smoky gray sky like ua. Like rain.

It was as if the world was ending.

A bullet landed next to me and I screamed, jumping to the side. My thoughts raced. I had a younger sister and two brothers inside the home. If a bullet caught my hut, they were good as dead.

I sprinted back inside the hut, hoping desperately no harm had befallen my family. Thank Maui that my parents were off on a business trip to the mainland! I called upon my favorite legend, Maui, to save my siblings and I. He was an ancient Hawaiian hero who stopped the sun to help his mother. I wanted to be like him, with my last name meaning "leader".

I took by youngest brother in my arms and held the hand of my little sister, racing downstairs to where Father said the safehouse was. My older brother followed me downstairs and shut the metal trapdoor. We were all breathing hard as we heard the bullets raining down outside. Little Brother was crying.

Many years later, when I was older and when Older Brother had already perished in the war, I still remembered the sound of Little Sister's voice whispering in my ear, "Amelia, the people who bombed the ocean are bad people."

I used to agree, yes, the Japanese army were bad people, but now I know. They weren't bad people, it was just that they harmed us for a greater good.

Was it worth it?

Even now, as I lay on my deathbed with my younger siblings by me, I still think back to that day. The day that the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.

______________________________________________________________

Author's note: Emil Jones and Amelia Alaka'i represent me in this story. Gilbert Adler and Amelia's siblings were made up for the sake of making up characters.

I sincerely apologise if anyone is offended by this.

WWII was an interesting period of time and I felt that I would like to know more.