Lives lost should be remembered

Brothers, cousins, uncles, dads dropped in their teens.

We often hear of the 2,000 (2,335) lives lost at Pearl Harbor. But we had 12,000 casualties (that's right, 12,000 casualties) on the Okinawa campaign alone.

Just kids running up the beach and ra-ta-tat. Guadalcanal casualties 7,361; Tarawa, 3,000; Saipan, 2,000; Tinian, 6,821; Guam, 7,290; Iwo Jima, 6,800; Okinawa, 12,000.

I repeat, just kids running up the beach and — bang!

Four hundred thousand casualties in total during the Pacific Island campaign. Plus thousands upon thousands of young Japanese boys — two million, according to Google.

Let's remember, the attack on Pearl Harbor cost more than the 2,335 lives lost on Dec. 7, 1941.

GLEN P. HENDRICK

Yuma