Our island is a little chunk of coral in the Solomon Archipelago.
It is nameless, and the great war beyond its horizons ignores us,
for we are the expendables of an amphibious landing,
left to guard a forgotten outpost of the lmperial Japanese Army.
Months ago our communicational equipment was destroyed by storm.
We have no contact with our base.
I, Lieutenant Kuroki, who is really two men, two enemies at war with each other.
The soldier with the blood of ancient warriors in his veins
and the man of peace who admires men's works and not their destruction.
As the commander of this platoon of castaways,
I have ordered the construction of a boat,
hoping to restore our supply line from Bougainville.
Thrust!
Say, you son-of-a-gun, what are you doing?
Stand still! You think you can stab Yankees like that?
Today I will chew you out until you fall!
Yes, Sergeant. Thank you very much.
Sergeant Tamura!
I have told you these rough methods are not permitted here.
But, sir, these lazy scum can't fight a war like this.
We are on the foremost war front.
You are right, but we have no enemy on this island.
What we need here is not to know how to fight,
but how to stand the long war.
But, sir, we have forgotten that we are the lmperial Army soldiers.
Soldiers?
Tamura, and just what are the soldiers?
The countless varieties of ordinary men blown together by the big wind called war.
Do you call him a soldier? Tokumaru was a Buddhist priest.
I still am, sir.
The people say once you become a priest for three days you can never stop it.
Is military service hard for you?
No, it isn't, sir, if it is for our country.
All right, keep it up.
Yes, sir.
You cannot be like this next time.
Next time I'll chew your tails off until you fall. Dismissed!
Detach bayonets.
Attention!
At ease.
- Ando. - Sir.
You are making good progress.
If only we have this boat we can contact our main force and bring us supplies.
I'm really glad that I can make use of my carpentry work.
To be useful is a most important thing.
I am fortunate to have a carpenter who can do such fine work with makeshift tools.
Thank you very much, sir.
- Say, Tamura! - Yes, sir!
Sergeant, I notice two men here who are assigned to other duties.
Hirano and Okuda.
Yes, sir, but I thought the boat construction needs are urgent.
You thought!
Hirano is busy with potato fields and Okuda catches fish for us.
Take them off the boat detail.
Yes, sir. As you wish, sir.
And one more thing.
Don't overwork the men in this midday heat. Dismiss them until morning.
Attention! Detail dismissed for the day!
Say, we all have worked hard today.
We can launch the boat tomorrow.
Shall we celebrate now, though we don't have any sake?
Corporal, I understand you are from Yamagata.
Yes, Yamagata is noted for rice and the Hanagasa 'flower hat' dance song.
Shall we start Bon dance?
Try and stop me.
Commander, you are a puzzle to me, if I may say so.
On one hand you talk about the urgency of boat building
while on the other hand you act as though time is nothing.
That's true. This place is as timeless as the moon.
Do you remember what day it is today?
No, sir, I have forgotten.
I only know I am being abandoned by the main force.
I had volunteered for combat duty.
So did I.
I am prepared to risk my life for the country, sir.
Commander, what's happening out there, sir?
Sometimes I wonder if the war front isn't moving to distant places northward.
What will become of Japan, sir?
Aircraft! North, northeast, direction of Bougainville.
Enemy aircraft approaching! Due south!
There!
Now one of our Zeros.
Mayday! Mayday! This is Work Horse 2-9-8, Work Horse 2-9-8.
Over. Over. Calling Octopus.
- Work Horse 2-9-8. - Everybody outta this firetrap!
We are down over enemy territory.
Kick that door out. Spread!
Our escort is down and we are holding for a fix. Over.
All right, let's spread!
Mayday! Mayday! Come in, please. Over.
Good boy. You'll get cited for sticking to your station.
Now, keep sending a fix on the position. I also want you to send this message.
"Marine replacements with medical and emergency supplies headed for Peleliu
"grounded by enemy attack."
Captain, sir, this radio is shot to hell.
But I'll fix this thing, sir, you can bet on that.
Let's go! Come on! Move it! Move it!
- You all right, Francis? - Yeah, I'm fine.
Except a bad case of the breaks. Look at this.
Did you hear me order you off the bus?
Yeah, I heard you. You need me up there?
All we need up there is a chaplain.
Oh, I'm sorry.
Hey, you! You call yourself a corpsman? I got injured men out there.
Injured? They're breathing, ain't they?
Now look, you get some of your malingering greenhorns
and get my gear out of there.
I was just about to give that order, but I don't take it from you.
You do when you need a medic, sonny.
Slip you a little advice, Lieutenant. Never pull rank on a Navy Chief.
I go by the book, sir. He's a rate and I'm commissioned.
Corporal Ruffino, take a squad of men in this airplane
- and hustle out that gear. On the double! - RUFFINO: Yes, sir.
- Brand new, huh? - Yes, sir. I guess it shows.
Well, here's your nursing bottle. You can sure cut your teeth on that one.
Thank you, Captain. Say, how long does it usually take for the shiny stuff to wear off?
- Not very long in this sector. - I hope not.
I'm in a hurry to see some action.
Well, you'll get more Japs walking than running, son.
Captain, I just wanted to tell you I really admired how you made that forced landing.
Well, you can thank the airplane. It's better than the last one I tried it with.
And, Lieutenant, I'll need some of your men for a burial detail.
- Burial detail? - There's two men up front I didn't save.
Complete assembly!
We must realize, sir, that time is against us.
The plane must have contacted its base by radio.
Yes. There will likely be an American rescue force.
Then we should attack the landing area before they come.
We shouldn't attack blindly.
The enemy commander would know better than to stay where he landed.
But, sir...
That's enough! I will take command.
Our first operation is to locate them and assess their strength. Tamura!
- Sir! - You will reconnoiter northeast.
Take Private Takumaru and Private Ishii with you.
Yes, sir.
Corporal Fujimoto, you will reconnoiter southeast.
- Yes, sir. - Leave immediately!
Yes, sir.
Oh, that's a beauty. Probably a little concussion.
But the shape your brain's already in, it may be an improvement.
- What's biting you down there? - Nothing. Just a nervous habit.
See me later. I'll fumigate your blankets and you. Next.
Better go easy on it, Doc, it's my loving arm.
Sit down here, lover boy.
Looks like a dislocation.
Damn you!
- Okay, pal. - Thanks.
Searcy, what's the matter?
Oh, I figure I got me a hunk of packing case in my back, Doc.
Nothing up my sleeve, Hoxie boy. Deal you a hand?
Not now, slicker. You're already into me for 1,000 bucks.
You know that's peanuts to this guy? Why, his old man owns Rhode Island!
We passed over Guadalcanal about 1000.
So that should place us right about here.
There's no island here on the map.
Corpsman, I presume the Captain radioed the base?
They'd know where to pick us up?
I couldn't say. But maybe that'll answer your question.
- That's a radio. - Or what used to be a radio.
- Then the base don't know we're here, huh? - No, but relax, relax. I'll fix it.
Him? That punk's so stupid, he couldn't fix a busted shoelace.
That's the pilot's responsibility. Captain!
Hey, hey, Lieutenant. Nowadays I wouldn't advise any yelling in any jungle
anywhere west of the International Date Line.
You mean Japs? No. No such luck around this strip of nowhere.
No strategic value. Probably not even inhabited.
Captain!
- We got company, sir. - Japanese.
- Point's broken off, but it ain't even rusted. - No.
No, this looks like a fishing spear. I found a footpath back in there,
followed it down to a cove.
Join the Jap Army and go fishing. Is that all them skivvies got to do?
Now we bypassed this position long ago when we landed on Bougainville.
Plumb cut 'em off, huh, sir? What's the name of the place?
Meet the neighbors, you can ask them.
Japanese.
That blade's Japanese, all right.
- You men see it? - ALL: Yeah.
Well, looks like we found some action after all.
- Thank you, men. What I want you to do... - Lieutenant.
You got any orders to mop up wayside islands?
Certainly not, sir. It's just a matter...
I just wondered. You said you go by the book.
Yes, sir, but this is one of those matters of judgment. All right!
Every man in combat condition, want you to grab your weapons
and let's move! On the double!
Unless they're in force, there won't be a dirty Jap around tonight.
Dirty Jap, Lieutenant? They invented the bathtub.
Why... You talk like a bird who's gone Asiatic.
You can say that again, sir. I been close to the top brass, see?
And I got the scuttlebutt on this stew bum.
He wouldn't come out of the reserve till Singapore fell
'cause he was shacked up with some Malay dame.
Oh, Sergeant, that kind of crude language will get you nowhere socially.
I was her houseguest.
Everybody ready? Count 'em off, Sergeant. Let's move!
- Fall in! - Now you wait just a second, Captain!
You trying to take over my command?
No, I'm just trying to help you keep it alive. Attention!
Corporal, pick yourself another man and get out there and keep your eyes open.
Yes, sir. Searcy! Yo!
Now listen to this! You, Lieutenant, and you, Sergeant!
I want to tell you a little something about the enemy.
Aside from the few fanatics, he's a cool cookie.
And on this island he's on his home grounds.
He knows the terrain, you don't.
So we give him the courtesy of making the first move. And get this!
Never start swinging at any enemy in anger or you'll wind up getting clobbered.
Now you ought to know that, Sergeant.
These gravediggers tell me you're the heavyweight champ in your division.
Yeah, when I fight, I fight mad.
Now you said you were close to the top brass. Kind of pampered, huh?
Yeah, and I got the scuttlebutt on you, too. You were a scrap pilot.
Landed on your head just once too often. In the hospital for weeks.
Well, I was more comfortable there than you're gonna be in the brig.
What brig?
You're gambling we're stuck here for the duration.
Jungle law. No military court to answer to. Well, I got news for you.
- Lieutenant. - You're the one who'll be held to answer,
sir, if you break the chain of command.
Well, Lieutenant, it seems you haven't read your Bible as well as you claim.
Article 9, page 33, and I quote, "Any military personnel
"assigned to the care and custody of the commanding officer
"of any military transport, whether seaborne or airborne,
"shall obey all orders of said commanding officer
"until arrival at destination." Unquote.
- I'll look that up in my handbook, sir. - All right, understand this, all of you.
The chain of command will remain as is.
Your platoon leader is Lieutenant Blair.
He'll consult with his superior officer on all matters of policy.
Me.
All right, at ease, men.
- Sergeant Bleeker. - Yes, sir.
- See that hill in back of me? - Yeah, I see it.
That's where we'll locate our base and defense.
And as of now you're captain of the head, so start digging.
- Me? - You!
You feel like gambling, Sergeant? Go right ahead, go for broke.
You the Ozark mountain boy I talked to?
Yes, sir. Corporal Craddock.
All right, Craddock, you're my chief scout.
Tonight I'll go on your first mission with you.
Much obliged, skipper.
Now, Lieutenant, have your men pack the supplies up the hill,
start setting up our defense.
And as of now we start conserving food and water. Our supplies are limited.
Sir. Fall out and turn to! You heard the command.
You got any more policy, sir?
You start learning to fight with your brains instead of your feelings.
I want to whip the enemy as much as you do.
Not because he's Japanese, but because he is the enemy.
Now that's policy, Lieutenant. Now one thing more.
In combat you'll live a lot longer not being saluted or wearing your insignia of rank.
The enemy likes to kill off the officers and non-coms first,
breaks up the chain of command.
Thank you, sir.
Mmm.
Conserve the water?
That's the best news I've heard since we whipped the Japanese at Midway.
- Want a drink? - Go easy on that stuff, Francis.
We'll need whiskey for medicine.
You just saved me about a dozen future patients over there.
Well, I figure we'll have to pay some lives, but I'm no spendthrift.
All that stuff that you were spouting about regulations and all that stuff,
is that really in the book?
Frankly, I don't know. I figure the Lieutenant will look it up.
Not too soon, he won't. 'Cause while you were indoctrinating the troops,
- I snatched this out of his duffle bag. - Hey.
Well, what do you know. Francis, I appreciate that.
Nothing at all, Captain.
Very interesting. Haven't read it since I was a kid.
If you had, you'd have been a colonel by now.
This is mighty peculiar scouting, skipper.
Now you just watch. They'll come to us.
You can see that light from any hilltop.
Yeah, but that sure is dirty pool.
Sergeant, it's unwise to disobey our commander.
Commander! He is too tame for this job.
They say he was the top of his class at officer's school.
Shut up! Theory and practice is different.
But we are ordered to report to him as soon as we rendezvous.
Stop arguing! We can't depend on such a commander.
Quiet. We are getting close. Follow me.
Wait till the whole detail's in the open.
Attach bayonets.
I'm taking no more orders to sit here on my lard!
Remember Article 9, Lieutenant, Page... What page did he say?
I don't know what the hell happened to that damn handbook.
I lost it somewhere.
But I'll take my chances he's faking. Come on.
I smell a grenade.
Those Yankees, slippery as snakes.
Of the two men in me, only the hard-nosed soldier
can be understood by Sergeant Tamura,
defying my order, risking lives on some crazy night adventure.
To him, patience is weakness and a rational man is a fool.
I was trained for combat, sir, and no flight officer's got a license
to keep me out of action!
I may sound impertinent, sir,
but I have more combat experience than you have.
Diddly-squat!
What the hell would a pilot know about infantry tactics?
What's wrong with my trying to destroy the enemy?
Corporal Craddock, you're a witness to armed defiance...
- Armed defiance! - Yes, sir, they're sure armed.
Why, that's crazy! We only came here to...
Now you take your gravel crunchers back up that hill
- and be thankful I'm a lenient man! - Yes, sir.
And I would do likewise again, sir, at any sacrifice.
You fool!
I had planned to attack them tonight, but your disobedience ruined the plan.
Next time I will have your head chopped off.
Yes, sir.
Who the hell you working for, us or the Japs?
How long you been cutting hair?
You're my first customer, jughead.
I wonder where our big military brain from the wild blue yonder is.
Probably out studying geography.
Yeah? I hope to hell he knows what he's doing on the ground.
He does, pal. Didn't he tell you he used to be a ground pounder?
Yeah, so he didn't like fighting and took to the air.
Me? I don't recognize no C.O., except Lieutenant Blair, here.
Mouth-fighters.
- What do you want us to be, scared? - Yeah. Better you should be, boot.
They transferred me to this nursery to learn you that.
Say, I hear you killed your share at Guadal.
Yeah. And I was scared all the time. That's why I'm still here, kiddies.
- Halt! Who goes there? - Daniel Boone.
Lieutenant, the captain was right, sir.
We'd have been real dead trying to get at that camp.
How big is their outfit, Craddock?
Well, I can't say for sure, sir. I was too busy ducking their outposts.
But they got a smart location with a supply wharf
that don't look like it's been used much lately.
You have to swim to get at 'em on the bay side
and they got a big old lookout hill over on the east.
Brambles at the other approaches are worse than poison ivy.
Ah.
There's something else mighty interesting, sir.
- What's that? - They're building a boat.
Well, that is interesting. Maybe they're building it for us.
Yeah.
They can keep it. The kind of boat I'm looking for
is one of those gray buckets with a big fat stars and stripes on it.
Now listen. Our lookout has just reported that he had seen an enemy ship.
We will go into the emergency operation immediately. Ando?
- Yes, sir? - You know your orders.
- I do, sir. - Carry on.
Right face!
Well, I ain't been drinking. It must be your power of suggestion.
No, sir, my boy, that's genuine American Navy.
Looks mighty good to me, Corpsman.
Take a look at that, that's a ship.
What the hell are you doing about it?
Well, we just now identified her as U.S.
- We got to try and signal that ship. Keller. - Yes, sir.
- Improvise some smoke pots. - Right away, sir.
She's searching for us because we're overdue.
Searching the water because I plowed in that airplane
clean out of sight of the ocean.
Now, Lieutenant, you pick some men and come with me.
- Yes, sir. Ruffino, Dexter... - Bleeker, you stay here
and guard the camp with the rest of the men.
Right. Move out.
Hold it. All right, spread out and move slow.
Don't let them get off a signal to the ship.
Shoot anyone who pops out of the jungle.
Get in there and light those pots on the double.
- You see anything, Captain? - No.
- Is it a sniper? - Must be, I don't see anybody.
Yeah, you learned young, Marine.
Now let's go.
Now let them come out. Let's go.
Wait a minute. They got to have something more than that going for 'em.
They could have pinned us down on this beach for a week.
Hit the deck!
You stupid bums, you're firing at your friends!
Lieutenant, over here!
They can't see the color of your eyes, but they can see that.
Well, I guess we've had it.
They don't even think this island's worth much shooting at.
- I guess we'll be here forever. - It'll seem longer than that.
So now it appears that we and our enemy are about even
in men and weapons.
And bad luck. They, too, are marooned with no means of communication.
It was plain they couldn't radio their ship.
To adjust to our stone-age standard of living will not be easy for them.
Evidently they have no provider like my good simple-minded Okuda.
I been waiting for you, Mac. You're sure a slowpoke.
I want you to answer me a few questions, boy.
First off, how many men you got scattered around this island?
Come on, boy, you're being interrogated. Can't you talk a little English?
You listen to me.
If you're just giving me a dumb act, I'm gonna ream your belly button.
Oh, shucks. I never could stick a guy when he was smiling at me.
Fact is,
where I come from we don't shoot nobody who's got a knack for catfish or sour mash.
How you like 'em cigarettes, Tojo?
The fish?
Good hot wampum from PX.
See you again, boy, and we'll talk some more.
Hey, this is good.
Yeah, baby.
How strange are these barbarians.
Ferocious yet capable of human reasoning.
"And we don't shoot nobody who's got a knack for fish. "
So this afternoon I undertake an intelligence mission.
Finally I discover what I am really looking for.
Their commander. My colleague in the game of death.
Oh, yes, I know him at once by his lonely detachment from the others.
Captain, I think it's my duty to tell you
these men are fed up with your kind of war!
I didn't choose this kind.
- You claim you're in command! - I'm in command!
Then attack!
Sir.
Lieutenant, a frontal attack on their terms would sure accommodate 'em.
Yes, indeedy. Begging the Lieutenant's pardon, sir.
If we hit that camp they'd chop us up into dog meat.
- Corporal Ruffino. - Yes, sir?
What is your opinion on that matter?
Well, sir, I'd say they're too smart to attack our hill position,
so I guess it's guerrilla tactics all the way.
They've got the advantage there, too. Food and water.
We're on short rations with very little to wash 'em down with but coconut milk.
Well, I spotted their water supply.
It's a spring well over to the west.
But they sure got it secured.
My men could take it, they're Marines!
No, they're not Marines till they start growing some brains!
You tell 'em, Captain.
He was in boot camp before they invented the airplane.
Well, who am I to contradict an old salt who was with Decatur at Tripoli?
Has-beens.
Has-beens!
What was it he said about jungle law? Well, we finally got it, ain't we?
Now, you guys take your orders from the Lieutenant.
I'll handle the fly-boy.
You dumb slob! You're lucky you don't work for a Jap C.O.,
he'd put you in that grave!
I'd make sukiyaki out of him. And that goes for you, too.
Anybody else? Last call for gripers, and I mean last!
Captain,
I consider it my duty to apologize, sir,
and request a deck court for that man.
Forget it, Lieutenant.
We're gonna need every big baboon we can housebreak.
Now let's see if we can't work together
and figure out a way to get off this worthless scab on the ocean.
I could easily kill him now at the cost of my own life.
I have been taught that death is purity,
and sometimes the call to die is a stronger wine than life.
He still lives today
because in the loneliness of command, we are brothers.
That's all today.
Damn!
Must've made that one at Lockheed.
Yeah, well, I tell you, I take 'em as a good sign we're getting close to water.
Now we'll wait here for Craddock, then we'll go on to the spring.
Hey, Hoxie,
I'll make book with you on who drinks first.
All right, slicker, you're on.
Double what I owe you or nothing that I beat you to the water.
All right, we'll advance, but slow.
Wish to hell I'd brought more canteens.
Oh, man, it's a beauty!
Yeah, this is as close as we'll get.
What? Sir.
I plan to grab the Japanese boat.
Our action here is just a feint to draw them away from it.
But, sir, we gotta have some water! We were ready...
That spring will be there anytime, the boat won't.
Figure they built it to contact their main force, it's our best bet, too.
Watch the action, gents.
No, you idiot!
- It don't make sense, skipper. - Yes, it does.
Come on, you guys. The Searcy luck's protecting you. Come on.
No! Damn it, come back here!
I'm sorry I jumped the command, sir.
Get back to Maloney. You're no good to me.
Yes, sir.
- Craddock! - Yes, sir.
I want you to make like a platoon. Spread 'em thin and encircle Indian style.
Make the enemy C.O. Think there's so many of you
he'll send reinforcements.
When you get the merry-go-round going, leave Roth in charge.
You and Bleeker join me at Rendezvous Tidewater.
Yes, sir.
Fujimoto.
You will re-enforce the spring immediately.
Yes, sir.
But return at once if you hear firing from this quarter.
Yes, sir.
I suspect a decoy maneuver to get at our camp.
Commander, will the boat be all right? She is like a wife to me, sir.
Don't worry. We will defend your wife's honor.
Yes, sir.
Corporal Fujimoto will take three men to re-enforce the spring, sir.
Left face, forward on the double.
- Don't waste ammunition. - I saw something moving there.
You are impossible.
No Yankee boat thieves can be here until the full tide covers the reef.
But I am only telling you what I saw.
You fool! Don't be a chicken!
You are the worst soldier in the whole lmperial Army.
I believe I share the distinction, Sergeant.
I try to make allowances for a prayer reader.
If anything happens to me, read me a prayer, will you?
Oh, leave it up to me, Sergeant.
Stop it! Not time yet.
- Who goes there? - Operation Idiot.
Ain't nothing holding that boat but two little old pieces of rope.
They can cast her off on the run.
Fine. Now get this.
We can't float her over the reef before the dawn tide.
When the moon goes down, you'll wade out and board her.
Keep your powder high and dry.
And remember, your destination is Santa Isabel.
- You got the chart? - Yes, sir.
- Any questions? - No, sir.
Good luck.
- Stay on your feet! - Why?
Get up, you too!
The boat is drifting!
Commander! Commander!
- Hold fire! - The fore cable has been cut.
The cable's been cut off. Take the boat on the other side of the pier.
Tamura! Cover them with fire.
Go!
There's enemy on the boat, too!
Bastards!
Behind us!
Move up!
Man on the dock! Get him! Get him!
She's drifting our way! Keep them pinned down!
Hand grenade.
Tamura, cover me.
Hey, get that man!
The boat! It's burning!
You took my boat. You took my boat. My boat! My boat.
The dream of hope is ashes,
but the fury that destroyed it is still aflame.
However, even hatred has its rituals.
We and the enemy have paused to honor the dead, and gird for more.
Here sleeps Ando, the carpenter
who, like Adam, built his love out of nothing.
Out of his rib, as the story goes. Ando and his boat.
He loved her like a wife and died with her.
And here lies Arikawa, who so boldly charged the boat.
And here is the Marine who traded his life for a drink of water.
How foolish that anyone must die for want of water
on a planet mostly composed of water.
Port arms.
- Tokumaru. - Yes, sir.
You read the prayer for them.
Yes, sir. I will bring my rosary.
Lance Corporal! Lance Corporal! Please, somebody, come!
Please, somebody, come! Commander!
Lance Corporal is trying to commit suicide. Please come! Hurry!
If I had been a step later we would have had another grave.
You make light of your life!
Hirano, why do you hurry to death?
Because I cannot do anything when my comrades die fighting.
Don't be silly. The fighting is not all of life.
We have only a few of us left
and we want to hear your songs.
Now let's see your leg.
Three crosses, three cremations.
Nobody can ever say we're not good to our boys.
We should fire a salute over 'em.
It's time we got stingy with the ammo.
It's not a salute you'll be needing, it's a lesson in the ways of love.
Take heed, you fornicators!
And bridle your lust for your neighbor's geisha.
'Tis the item of the boat I'm speaking of, my stupid friends.
She was a lover to the Japanese.
Men are strongest when they're protecting their darlings.
Look, what we don't need here is a drunken Irish poet.
I ordered you to lay off the whiskey.
Okay, Captain Bourke.
I'm sober enough to say I'm sorry, and I'm sorry for you, too.
So you bums didn't like my heads enough to stick around.
You won't find no better in hell.
If they could hear me, I'd promise each of them a dead Jap.
Captain!
I wish to speak to the American captain.
Can you hear me?
I hear you! Who are you?
Lieutenant Kuroki. I wish to negotiate with you. Privately.
- I'll take care of the creep. - Now you stay put, shavetail.
- You alone? - Yes. Of course.
- Where? - KUROKl: 50 meters east will do.
Now you try barging in, Lieutenant, and I'll kill you.
Damn maniac would, too.
Very trusting of you to come unarmed.
My apologies.
You the commanding officer?
Only the Acting C.O.
As a result of casualties in our battalion command.
Battalion?
You must have them well dispersed.
You'd need air reconnaissance to spot all the units.
Yeah, well, I'm fresh out of airplanes.
And we are both
out of communicational equipment.
Well, no matter.
My transport was carrying double troop capacity.
All seasoned veterans.
Most of them deployed in the hills.
So many and so thirsty, eh?
I wouldn't snow you on that.
A little honesty is refreshing.
Yeah.
Pardon me for testing yours.
It's perfectly all right. I was afraid it was making you uncomfortable in there.
What else is bugging you, Lieutenant? Why'd you call me out here?
I need the services of your doctor for a soldier with a gangrenous leg.
In return you may fill your canteens at the spring.
Now that's not much of a fee
for a man who's spent half his life in medical college.
I will add 20 liters of potatoes.
- And fish? - Ten kilos of dried fish.
All right, it's a deal.
I'll deliver my medic to you at the spring in about, say, one hour from now?
Right.
Maloney!
You're kidding.
Like hell I am. I'm trading your services for water and food.
But in Singapore I got real dough.
Yeah, but, they can't deport you here for practicing without a diploma.
Oh, you got a big mouth.
And they'll probably also stick a bayonet in my gut
if the patient comes up kaput.
Now don't be crass.
I gave him the impression you're a highly educated M.D.
Oh, you're so good to me, Captain.
I'm also promoting you to my Chief of Intelligence.
I expect you to scout their camp,
give me a report on the materials and manpower.
Now you're giving me a chance to get shot as a spy.
Well, nothing's too good for my boy.
That's what I mean. Chokes me up right there. Oh, you...
And place the helmets from the graves in front of the barracks,
pretend the owners are still alive.
- Fujimoto. - Yes, sir.
Place a layer of hand grenades on sand in this box.
We don't want our enemy to know our real strength here.
If any of you has any ideas for two plus two equal eight use your initiative.
Yes, sir.
- Ishii. - Yes, sir.
- Is your malaria fever down yet? - I feel all right, sir.
The physician is on the way, sir.
And that captain is almost draining the well.
Did you find out the enemy strength? I ordered you to count the canteens.
Yes, sir, I counted, but...
But what? Make it clear.
- He fooled me. - Fooled you?
He brought only one canteen. It's the world's biggest.
A fuel tank from the plane.
I can't do business with Yankee traders.
Maybe he has a lot more soldiers than we estimated.
So do we here. Look.
It would look like lots of soldiers resting in the barracks.
You couldn't have chosen better window-dressing than that sluggard.
There he comes.
I have brought the doctor, sir.
I appreciate your visit, Doctor.
Everybody out of the barracks! We have a visitor.
No, no. Let them rest.
As you were. Get your sleep.
You got a little problem here?
He wanted to turn out the troops in your honor.
But they'll need their sleep before they relieve the other units.
Oh, sure, don't let me upset anything, pal.
Tokumaru.
- You take the doctor's case. - Yes, sir, I will.
This way, please.
After you.
Chills and fever? Malaria?
Quinine.
I'll take it.
Here, keep these. We've got plenty of them.
Thanks. If you please.
What fool left all this dangerous stuff around here?
Put it out of the way.
One of the worst Japanese habits
is to waste materials when they are plentiful.
And now to your patient, Doctor.
Excuse me.
Tamura!
Cup of water, please.
Get him a glass of water.
Thank you.
This is sulfonmethane. It'll relax him.
This is a medicine, this will relax you.
Maybe even help kill the pain a little bit.
Some captain I got. He's crazy.
I beg your pardon.
He's crazy. He thinks I can do surgery with a first-aid kit.
Lieutenant,
the leg's got to be amputated or otherwise this boy's gonna die.
And he might die anyway.
Hirano.
Your leg has to be operated on.
Otherwise your life may be at risk.
I would've broken it to you easier, son, but I don't know how.
Did you take the malaria medicine that guy gave you?
Could this be quinine? May be poison.
Hey!
That's right, throw them away.
It's a compound of arsenic, strychnine and Spanish fly.
I doubt that, Doctor.
So do I, Lieutenant, because that's tougher to get than quinine.
I'm fresh out of pharmacy antiseptic and I've been hiding this from the children.
If any of you rockheads don't trust me giving it to the kid,
just say the word and you'll make me very happy.
Save it, please!
For the patient.
Lieutenant, I'm a Band-Aid man, I'm not a surgeon.
I put Mercurochrome on the scratches of the guys.
Please cut off my leg.
He says for you to take off the leg.
No. No, I haven't even got a bone saw in my kit!
We still have Ando's saw.
Sato.
Bring Ando's tool.
What the hell kind of a butcher do you think I am, pal?
Save us, merciful Buddha.
- He's some kind of priest? - Buddhist.
I hope he's got connections.
If I die without the operation I might as well die with it.
He feels if he must die without the operation,
he might as well die with it.
Sergeant.
Hold that over the flame and sterilize it.
Lieutenant,
when I tell you to make this tighter,
you tighten it up real good.
It's right over the main artery right there.
That's enough.
Don't just look down at me, please help me.
Captain, you have a most remarkable doctor.
Yeah, I know. He, uh, pulled me through once.
Lieutenant, remember the anti-tetanus.
But be careful with that juice, it can be rough.
Of course, if he starts bleeding again use plenty of styptic.
And the pain-killers and of course the sulfa drug.
Yes. Thank you for everything. Everything.
Why are we trying to kill each other?
Old tribal custom.
Our fight is just about that archaic.
You're so right.
I'm no longer of any military value to Japan. Nor you to the United States.
I'm marooned up to my ears in greenhorns.
What happened to the seasoned veterans?
Well, after seeing some of your boys, I figured I didn't need them.
Look, you and I are professionals.
We might just as well level with each other.
Professional? Well, perhaps I am, by heritage.
So, I think there's a next move, Captain,
which we should consider with professional calm.
- A truce? - Yes.
With one reservation.
If either of us again becomes part of the war potential of his country, we fight.
Well, that goes without saying.
Then, a truce it is. And all the water you can drink.
I have no delusions about this uneasy peace.
It is a sleeping tiger which could be aroused by trespassers.
And yet there is one for whose visits I am thankful.
If the ship will not take a girl
I will cut my long hair
And put myself in military uniform And follow you wherever you go.
Mayday! Mayday! This is Work Horse 2-9-8.
Calling anybody. Come in, please. Over.
Come on, baby, come on. Please, baby, you can do it.
I told you I could do it, didn't I? I told you!
All right, you got the receiver working fine, what about the transmitter?
Oh, don't you worry about that, I'll fix that, too.
You just keep pumping. Sir.
Like I tried to tell you, sir, this truce never did make sense.
I regret to say the Lieutenant is correct!
And you know why! Because you took it as an invitation to send a spy on the prowl!
That wasn't by my orders!
Oh, shove it, and don't forget to duck!
You just say the word, Captain, just say the word!
I saw this once on Mindanao.
The coming of the monsoon!
Tidal wave weather.
We are going to need all hands at the well.
If we don't dike it we'll be drinking salt water.
We'll secure our supplies and meet you at the well.
And you make sure you bring all your men.
You, too!
Take all the supplies up the hill!
All right, come on, let's move.
There's some good trees just right for cutting right up on top of the hill.
Yes, sir.
Lieutenant!
You gold-bricker, I told you to bring all your men!
This is all! You haven't many either.
Maloney told me you had at least two companies.
Oh, I'm surprised he believed that fake.
Oh, it's getting to where you can't even trust your next-door neighbor.
- Let's put them in there. - Let's go. Get those sandbags up there.
Throw that log around there, Roth.
Get it up there, will you? It's heavy.
Come on, let's go, gang.
I salvaged the radio, skipper, then I stashed it away.
- Anybody see you? - No, sir.
All right, let's move it, move it, move it!
Come on, move it, move it, move it, boys!
Thanks for... Thanks for pulling me out.
Don't thank me, thank him.
- Him? - Yeah.
Well, I'll be a son-of-a-buck.
Yeah.
Yep. Be it ever so humble, this is it.
For the rest of our lives perhaps.
Unless that radio contact you made changes your prospects.
A hula contest at Waikiki Beach? That was a big help.
Your signalman was operating in the transport.
Now no more transport, no more radio.
I went looking for that aircraft
while the rest of you were sleeping.
I looked for it, too, while you thought I was sleeping.
We didn't find much, did we?
No.
I regret we'll leave so few relics for posterity on this isle of the unblessed.
Lowbrow skull fragments of machine-age man,
remnants of firearms,
and perhaps a well-preserved manuscript as ancient as cuneiform.
Yours?
I was a staff writer for various periodicals.
Can't break the habit.
Well, I'll be darned. I had you pegged as a bonafide samurai.
No.
There is not room in this heart for the warrior.
It's too crowded.
What's her name?
Keiko.
We were married on the day I left for the war
in my house at the foot of Mount Fuji.
My family's house for 300 years.
All the lives which must have marched through it,
long gone, and to think it was still there.
That great mountain, so strong and beautiful, seemed to protect it.
You know, we Japanese can figure the time on the calendar by the flowers.
They were chrysanthemums then,
the sign of the end of autumn.
And to me, my Keiko was more lovely than the blossoms.
There was less than an hour remaining before my departure,
but I was convinced that our decision to marry was right.
To marry, yet never to possess her body for momentary joy.
Only to hold her in the arms of the heart
and the embrace of the spirit beyond this life.
They promise us better days there.
Don't they?
Well, that shouldn't be too difficult to prophesy.
It's easier to make a truce with you, my friend, than with life.
No, you did right.
Chief, don't you think we'd better get back, see what's left of the camp?
If that's not a command, Captain, I prefer sitting just where I am.
All right, you rummy, stay here.
I'd probably wind up having to carry you anyway.
Good night, Lieutenant.
Good night, Captain.
Kompai. "Thou shalt not kill."
Dennis Bourke has lost a second lover.
One of these days I'm gonna button your lip for keeps!
What was it you said? Second lover?
Mmm-hmm.
Love ain't always for people, Lieutenant.
Often it's an idea that keeps pounding at you.
What kind of idea?
Oh, many kinds of ideas.
Do good, do bad, rob a bank, build a hospital.
Or maybe a real big idea
like peace on Earth, goodwill toward men.
Or maybe an idea that keeps driving old Dennis.
Win the war. Smash everything that comes in your way.
Someone did get in his way?
You hit him where he lives.
You gave your girl a fair shake.
- Kompai. - Aw, no more kompai.
Until you've told me about him.
Yeah, where was I?
About his girl.
Well, just before the beginning of the war,
he got busted up pretty badly. Airplane crash.
And she wangled a government job
and got herself to the Philippines to be near him.
Imagine coming all the way from the United States to help this bum get well.
And she was some kind of girl, pal.
Some kind of a doll.
Once she kissed me
'cause she found out I got him to the hospital in time to save his life.
Yeah.
She kissed me right there.
Soft as the wings of a butterfly.
I wasn't the kind of guy who went around kissing ladies, but,
that little goober stuck there just like it was a tattoo.
I guess I was kind of mushy about her.
Imagine a tramp like me.
Maybe that's why I dig at him so much.
Anyway, when he got out of sickbay
the flight surgeons kept him grounded for a while.
And finally, just before the fall of Manila,
some of them were already dancing on the lid of the coffin.
Well, he got his flying papers back because we were short-handed in the air,
but he kept the secret from her that he was shoving off the next day.
He briefed me on what he had to do that night.
Break the news that I was gonna put her on the next flight stateside.
She didn't fight it much.
She knew as well as any of us that nobody but Dennis ever wins.
All she asked was that they be married,
figuring it would give her an excuse to go on living, even if he was killed.
But he claims he thought it wouldn't be fair to her,
married to nothing but the memory of a selfish slob.
But I know his breed.
War's their meat and home's wherever they can get it.
Oh, no. Lorie? Lorie!
Many times I've heard him call in his sleep.
Lorie. Lorie.
Don't take no headshrinker to figure out that he wishes he was dead instead of her.
Conscience.
Exactly. That's the monkey on his back,
eating away at him like cancer, only worse.
Too slow, too mean to make an end of it.
Teaching him the hard way that Lorie was his only real love.
And you are his self-appointed conscience.
She was real to me, too.
And I'll never let him forget that the bomb was his mistress!
I'm sorry for him. I'd like to help him.
Don't! Just play it cool, Lieutenant.
Remember what he told you.
Don't forget to duck.
Got the antenna rigged.
We'll soon have it working now, sir.
If you don't claim we have to move it again.
Well, I have to keep experimenting, sir.
Gotta locate this joker where she'll put out as good as she receives.
False alarm, eh?
No, I found footprints in there leading from the beach.
Looked like maybe they doubled back that way.
Did anybody see you with that radio beside the fisherman?
- You mean the day of the storm? - Yeah.
No, sir. No. And he didn't see it.
I think maybe he's seen it now.
You move the gear, pick a new spot. I'll stick around here,
make sure nobody picks up your trail.
Say. Oh, damn it, I missed one.
You stay there. Don't move. Here we go.
Damn, I missed again. This time I'll get it.
Here I go.
You can do nothing for me.
Save us, merciful Buddha.
Amen.
Dismissed.
- Lieutenant Kuroki. - Yes?
You can take this for whatever it's worth, and maybe that's not much,
but you're a hell of a guy.
Thanks.
You sure undermined his character.
The senses grow becalmed here. All except yours and mine.
Make your point.
I shall try to ferret out your radio.
Be sure you don't mistake your target the next time.
Wait a minute. Then it was you, not the fisherman?
Of course. But I find no dishonor in you.
What you're doing for your men, I would do for mine.
Well, believe it or not, I regret there's nothing I can do for you.
Ah, but there is. You can wish me luck.
I wish you this much.
That you find your way home to that house by the mountain.
I hope you find a place as peaceful as that one.
I could use it.
Good luck, Kuroki.
Good luck to me. I am convinced he means it.
Good luck and good aim.
And a bullet to silence his anguish.
Work Horse 2-9-8 calling Octopus. Octopus, Octopus.
This is Work Horse 2-9-8 calling Octopus.
Come in, please. Over.
This is Octopus. Where are you, Work Horse?
Gosh almighty, where you guys been? Hey, we been calling you for days.
Over. Over.
Where are you anyway?
Oh, well, we're here with some Japanese folks. Over.
You in Japan?
No, we're not in Japan! Stupid. We're...
Where the hell are we, skipper?
Give me that.
Octopus...
Octopus, Octopus, do you read me? Over.
I read you loud and clear.
Now this is Captain Dennis Bourke, pilot of missing air transport 2-9-8. Over.
I can read the truth in their faces and it is no surprise to me.
Against the inevitable,
I have already distributed our last few rounds of ammunition.
I have prepared for what I must now do.
Lieutenant Kuroki.
Our communications have been restored.
One of our destroyers is on her way to remove us from this island.
Captain Dennis has extended me permission to offer you terms.
Surrender?
Yes. You and your men will receive good treatment.
Prisoners of war.
No, thank you. As you can see I am moving my camp.
Yes, we looked for you there.
That position was no longer defensible, since you know it so well.
- We wouldn't attack you, Lieutenant. - I would! The truce is ended.
I belong to the Japanese Army.
Until my country advises otherwise, I remain at war.
I am sure you understand, Captain.
I understand.
Goodbye, my friend.
Left face! Forward march!
Hirano!
Stay here.
Hirano!
U.S.S. Walker to Captain Bourke. Captain Bourke. Over.
Captain Bourke. Aboard Walker. Over.
Verifying previous plan. Our rendezvous is at north point. Over.
Roger. We're on our way. Over.
We carry no orders for mop-up,
but will reinforce evacuation if necessary. Over.
Not necessary. Over.
You have sufficient arms to destroy remainder of enemy? Over.
Have and will do. Over and out.
- Waller! - Yes, sir.
Get that grease gun up here in front on the double.
You see any Japanese you start shooting and shoot to kill.
I didn't save that kid's life to see him get shot.
Why the hell don't we just get on the ship?
- Yeah. Why not? - Let's get on the ship.
- Knock it off! - Kuroki! If you're in there, keep away!
- Shut up, Lieutenant! - Don't try it, do you hear me?
I said knock it off! Now move out!
- Look at that! Is that beautiful? - Man, we're home!
Hold your fire.
Keiko.
Let me have a look at that.
Forget it. Take a look at Kuroki.
If you can do anything for him, we'll take him along.
All right, let's move.
Ruffino! Yes, sir?
- Bleeker! - Yo.
Gather up our dead, we'll bury them at sea.
Yes, sir.
Well, he's had it.
Looks like you won again, Danny boy.
He told me to give you this.
It's written in Japanese.
What do you make of it?
What little I can savvy, it looks like an address.
Aw, maybe one of these days I'll be flying a crate of greenhorns into Japan.
I'll look into it.
Captain, his flag's still up there. You want me to take it down?
It's his island.
Yes, and my friend the Captain
can tell you that my good soldiers will always defend it.
For there is no death where the spirit lives.
So do not grieve, my dear Keiko, when he brings you my journal.
This was only another day and I say good night.