· Focus/Summary: This lesson explores the similarities and differences between two first-hand accounts of two Pacific battles. By supplementing the memoir of E.B. Sledge with a journal account written by an American Marine during the campaign for Guadalcanal, the lesson also facilitates a comparison between two types of historical sources - memoirs written after the fact, and journals/diaries written in the midst of historical events.

· Vital Theme and Narrative: This is a bit ambiguous, as it doesn't fit neatly into any one of the themes. There is a bit of Conflict and Cooperation, as well as Values, beliefs, etc.

· Habit of Mind: The lesson will focus on developing Historical Empathy by encouraging students to write a journal entry from the perspective of a soldier in the battle for Peleliu or Okinawa.

Procedures and Objectives

After several days of reading and discussing the book With the Old Breed, and discussing the war in the Pacific in general, the students will be given the Guadalcanal Journal of Marine Pfc. James A. Donahue (14 pages). They will be told to read it with an eye towards comparing and contrasting Donahue's experiences and account with that of Sledge.

I. The class will convene for a compare/contrast discussion of Donahue's contemporary journal and Sledge's account written some 35 years later. The teacher will lead the discussion, which should compare the two texts on at least two levels
1. Commonalities and differences between the actual experiences Sledge and Donahue underwent.
A. Some commonalities are: the discomfort of prolonged exposure to weather, bad food, mud, insects (including the incidence of malaria); the numbing effects of extended combat; the commonplace sight of numerous Japanese corpses, with few caught as prisoners; attitudes towards the Japanese enemy; the painful experience of losing comrades in combat; the incidence of combat fatigue and mental exhaustion.
B. Some differences are: Since this was from a year or more earlier in the war, Japanese tactics on Guadalcanal still included human wave attacks (banzai charges); the Americans did not have naval or air supremacy until relatively late in the campaign, with the result of frequent naval bombardments and air attacks by the Japanese; there were periodic, partially successful attempts by the Japanese to reinforce their garrison by sea.
2. How a contemporaneous diary/journal, written in the midst of an arduous military campaign, differs from an account written decades after the event. Discussion should center on several themes.
A. Is a journal any more reliable than an account written at a later date? Why or why not?
B. Are there advantages/disadvantages to either form of historical record? For instance, the diary often includes or emphasizes day-to-day details left out of the later account, such as the importance to the soldiers of receiving mail from home and the types of food available. On the other hand, the later account may have the advantage of a more accurate and balanced overview of the campaign as a whole, given the author's access to the historical record.

Assessment of Student Learning

The class will be given a writing assignment designed to explore the differences between the two forms of historical record and to give the students a chance to creatively explore what they have learned from the readings and discussions of the previous days. They will take one or two episodes from Sledge's book and re-write them in the form of a diary entry, from the point of view of Sledge or any other common soldier undergoing this experience.

Source
Guadalcanal Journal, Journal entries by Pfc. James A. Donahue (1999)
http://www.guadalcanaljournal.com/guadalcanal2.html