My paternal uncle, Toshihiko, was shot up when Japan invaded Hainan Island in early 1939 and died, as a result, three years later at age 27. This is one of the things that came to mind recently when I read news stories about three veterans of U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
On Feb. 2, at a Texas shooting range, Chris Kyle, a 38-year-old former Navy SEAL, and Chad Littlefield, a 35-year-old military veteran, were shot dead by Eddie Routh, a 25-year-old former marine marksman whom Kyle thought he was helping.
Kyle, "the most lethal sniper in U.S. military history," as the subtitle of his autobiography "American Sniper," put it, is said to have killed anywhere from 150 to 255 Iraqis. He had started an organization to help fellow veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the affliction that he suffered himself. Routh was among those he had extended his hand to.
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