[NetWarNinja]

Awesome story of these kids who sacrificed so much. But in those days males were groomed to become the man in the family when they reached teenage years, a lot of these kids worked in the local town factory or were farmers.

Alexander the Great was 25 years old when he conquered the known world. Man is hardwired to conquer in all aspects of life. The desire to explore and to experience and see the unknown or undiscovered.

[Asbostos]

Is it also awesome that the Japanese soldiers they fought also sacrificed so much? If so, then how is it a good thing for people to kill each other with no apparent purpose? If not then who decides which side is right and which is wrong?

Add to your list the desire to kill other people. That's a human instinct which was, as the article seems to suggest, a strong motivator for this boy. Much like what drives westerners to travel to Syria to fight for ISIS, or what drives a mass shooter in America. We shouldn't deny that soldiers often choose their job for the opportunity and pleasure of killing.

[lujim]

Read Flyboys. The Japanese soldiers, especially the officers were acting in a way that could truly be described as evil. One jaw dropping story involved an officer raping a woman, killing her, and then adding her to a stew that was fed to his soldiers. Another mind blowing tid bit was about a Japanese commanding officer that dug up buried American airmen that had been decapitated so he could eat their livers.

While you're at it read "With the Old Breed" by EB Sledge. The Marines in the pacific had the joy of living in the mud next to their own excrement and the magot infested corpses of their best buddies for months at a time so that they could stop the kinds of atrocracies described in Flyboys.