Is Your Conviction as Strong as Desmond Doss’s?

This is the true story of Desmond Doss, which I read in the book “What If Soldiers Fought with Pillows?” by Heather Camlot, illustrated by Serge Bloch.

Below is a part of it that I translated from the book.

In the Second World War, the American army trained its soldiers with two choices: kill or be killed.

But there was one soldier who decided he would choose neither.

Desmond Doss was willing to serve in the war but refused to carry a weapon; instead he carried a Bible. For this he was bullied by his own comrades. One officer even wanted him discharged, and accused him of being mentally ill.

Doss stayed firm and would not change his decision not to take up a gun. He wanted to stay with the task of saving lives, not taking them. He became an army medic, but he was still classed as a CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR for refusing to carry a weapon.

On 5 May 1945, at Okinawa, Japan, in one of the bloodiest battles of the Second World War, Doss’s unit was ordered to take the Maeda Escarpment, nicknamed Hacksaw Ridge, at any cost. But after the American soldiers had climbed the sheer cliff to hold the ridge, the Japanese attacked. The American army had to fall back quickly, leaving the wounded stranded up there.

BUT Doss stayed with the ones who were stranded.

He carried each wounded soldier to the edge of the cliff and lowered him down to safety. It took 12 hours to bring down everyone who could be brought down, and by some miracle Doss himself was not hurt at all.

When he was wounded a few weeks later, Doss treated his own wound so that another medic would not have to risk his life coming to reach him. He was finally put on a litter many hours later, and then gave it up to a soldier in a worse state. While he was waiting for help, Doss was wounded again. He made himself a splint and crawled to the aid station.

Doss never hurt or killed a single enemy, and yet he saved 75 of his comrades that day. For his service and the greatness of his sacrifice, he became the first conscientious objector to receive America’s highest military award, the Congressional Medal of Honor.