China Marine
The author of the classic World War II memoirWith the Old Breed(1981) returns at last to relate the conclusion of his marine career. After the fighting stopped, Sledge went to China, where everybody and his faction from Szechwan was struggling to fill the power vacuum left by the Japanese surrender, and where armed Japanese awaiting repatriation were frequently vital to keeping order. Sledge's regiment was the first marine unit to return to Beijing, and he saw the last of the old China as well as the vanguard of the Communists. His local acquaintances were more numerous than the average marine's and included middle-class professionals, his houseboy, and a Belgian priest. While on duty he rescued Chinese staff from dogs and tried to rescue fellow marines from their alcoholism. He was finally released to go home, long after many rear-echelon types. He wraps up this book, a quite satisfactory conclusion to its thoroughly satisfactory predecessor, with a brief summary of his homecoming and postwar career as a professor of biology.Roland GreenCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved