VOA标准英语2012--Combat Photographer Recalls Bloodiest Battle

 

Combat Photographer Recalls Bloodiest¹ Battle

Documenting a war

"That is the picture of the photographers of the 2nd Marine² division that landed on Tarawa. I am right here, at the top. They are all gone, all gone. I have never forgotten the battle at Tarawa. The Japanese lost about 4,000 people in that particular battle. We were about a little over 1,000 killed and about 2,200 somewhat wounded in 76 hours," he recalled.

Nearly 70 years later, those memories remain fresh for 91-year-old Norman Hatch.

“When you get into the battle, the blood begins to race and you do your job. My job was to take pictures," said Hatch. "I had to shoot the pictures the best way I could possibly shoot them."

In the midst of battle

Hatch carried a hand-cranked 35-millimeter movie camera. He waded³ in right beside machine gunners going ashore⁴.

“Looking through the viewfinder and trying to frame the story that I was shooting, it was like what you were looking at a movie. And in a sense, I felt detached in a degree from what was happening around me,” he said.

Even when he saw his comrades get shot and fall, Hatch continued to document the battle.

“The troops who were on the so-called front line would say when you come up, 'What are you doing here, you don’t have to be here.' And I would say, 'Yes, I do, because the public has to know what we are doing," he noted⁵. "And this is the only way they are really going to know is by seeing this film through the newsreels.'”

Special permission

President Franklin Roosevelt had to grant special permission for the public release of Hatch's film, which included gruesome and disturbing images.

“Nobody really had seen a down and dirty fight as the best way to describe it. Tarawa was really the first film that the public saw of in-close fighting. We had both our people and the Japanese in the same frame of film," Hatch stated.

Hatch’s footage is included in the documentary film With the Marines at Tarawa, which won an Academy Award in 1944. 

It is also featured in director Steven C. Barber’s new documentary, Until They Are Home. The film chronicles efforts to find the remains⁶ of fallen Marines and bring them home, almost seven decades after the last shot was fired on the Pacific island.

"After the war, so many people would say to me something about 'How come you walked all over the battle field and never got hit?' I have no answers to why I wasn't shot," he said. "You take chances and hopefully you win. That is the way it goes." 

1 bloodiest   

adj.血污的( bloody的最高级 )；流血的；屠杀的；残忍的

参考例句：

• The Russians were going to suffer their bloodiest defeat of all before Berlin. 俄国人在柏林城下要遭到他们的最惨重的失败。 来自辞典例句
• It was perhaps the bloodiest hour in the history of warfare. 这也许是战争史上血腥味最浓的1个小时。 来自互联网

2 marine   

adj.海的；海生的；航海的；海事的；n.水兵

参考例句：

• Marine creatures are those which live in the sea. 海洋生物是生存在海里的生物。
• When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时，他自愿参加了海军陆战队。

3 waded   

（从水、泥等）蹚，走过，跋( wade的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She tucked up her skirt and waded into the river. 她撩起裙子蹚水走进河里。
• He waded into the water to push the boat out. 他蹚进水里把船推出来。

4 ashore   

adv.在(向)岸上，上岸

参考例句：

• The children got ashore before the tide came in.涨潮前，孩子们就上岸了。
• He laid hold of the rope and pulled the boat ashore.他抓住绳子拉船靠岸。

5 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

6 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。