A Comparison of Justice with examples from "Guest of the Nation" by Frank Connor and "Another Way to Die" by Haruki Marukami
...rte wanted the hostages to run so that Noble could take on the responsibility for shooting the hostages, but he knew that the effects of shooting a friend would be harder on Noble. Hawkins continued to plea with the soldiers by saying that he would never kill a friend. “I wouldn’t, not if I was to be shot twenty times over. I wouldn’t shoot a pal.”(O’Connor 1097). Donavan shot Hawkins before he had a chance to finish what he was going to say. Hawkins did not die so Bonaparte shot Hawkins one more time to make sure he was dead. Belcher was ready to die. He knew that there was nothing that he could do to prevent this from happening to him (O’Conner 1099). Noble could not stand it anymore so he raised his fist to Donavan. Donavan shoots and kills Belcher. In Haruki Murakami’s “Another Way to Die,” three Japanese soldiers are ordered kill four Chinese boys. Prior to the lieutenant’s order to kill the Chinese boys, the soldiers had finished digging a hole that held the dead bodies of other Chinese boys. The lieutenant instructed the soldiers to kill the Chinese boys with a bayonet because they did not want to waste any bullets. The soldiers had never killed anyone in these manners and they did so with faces paler than those who were to die (Murakami 1106). The soldiers killed all but one hostage. He was kept alive longer because he is supposed to be the one who planned out an escape and kill the instructors at the prison camp with a baseball bat. The lieutenant saw no reason for killing the boys or the animals that they killed the day before. He is only doing so because orders are orders (Muraki 1108). The younger soldier was ordered to do the beating. Upon doing so, he stood there stupefied because he was unable to grasp the idea of beating a man to death with a baseball bat (Muraki 1108). It was just another way for the boy to die. The lieutenant delegated the murderous plans to the soldiers because he could not do it himself. He did not want to do it any more than anyone else, but could not admit it because he was an officer (Muraki 1109). The characters in both stories share similar experiences dealing with being forced to assassinate other individuals. The soldiers disagree and do not want to participate in the punishing of others by death. The soldiers are aware that they have no choice but to kill the hostages for they could face the same punishment as the hostages. Only Noble takes stand for what he believes in and refuses to take part in any killing. The rest of the soldiers, even though they do not agree with the orders, go through with the killing because they have no choice but to follow orders. The soldiers are all young. They are inexperienced and are unable to handle killing other people. The characters in “Guest of the Nation” have a harder time going through with the killing because they built a friendship with the hostages. Killing individuals is difficult as it is, but killing a friend is unheard of. The soldiers in “Another Way to Die” are forced to kill hostages in cruel and unusual ways. The effect on the soldiers is more severe because of the gruesome nature of the killing. They ripped the Chinese boy’s insides with the bayonets and killed the remaining boy with a baseball bat. All of the characters in both stories were negatively affected by the killings. Bonaparte from “Guest of the Nation” felt like a small and lonely child who would never feel the same about anything ever again (O’Conner 1100). The Japanese soldiers from “Another Way to Die” had suffered from Nausea. The younger soldier saw fragmentary images one after the other (Muraki 1111). I do not share the same experiences as the characters in the stories. I have never had to choose between duty and personal belief. If I strongly feel that it is too unmoral of a task, then I will not do it. I have strong morals and I will stick to them. The only circumstance that relate to this is when my boss at work tells me to do things which I find to be unnecessary. Like the soldiers in the stories, I do the tasks anyways because it is my job and I risk termination if I do not follow through with the orders. My friends in the military share the same experiences as the soldiers in “Guest of the Natio...