How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
The death penalty, Kabuo said to himself. He was a Buddhist and believed in the laws of karma, so it made sense to him that he might pay for his war murders: everything comes back to you, nothing is accidental. The fear of death grew in him. He thought of Hatsue and of his children, and it seemed to him he must be exiled from them—because he felt for them so much love—in order to pay his debts to the dead he had left on the ground in Italy. (11.19)
Kabuo perceives the fact that he's on trial—and might receive the death penalty—as fitting karmic retribution for the fact that he killed people in World War II.
Quote #5
Private Willis had been killed two days later on patrol, by friendly mortar fire he'd called for at the direction of Lieutenant Kent himself, who'd given the correct coordinates. Seven men in the platoon had died on that occasion. (16.2).
Private Willis had used the private parts of a dead Japanese boy for target practice... and then was shot by accident in friendly fire two days later. Ishmael's memories of war are a mish mash of grotesque accidents and atrocities such as these.
Quote #6
Hinkle went down over the starboard gunnel and dropped down into the water. Men began to follow him, including Ishmael Chambers, who was maneuvering his eighty-five-pound pack over the side when Hinkle was shot in the face and went down, and then the man just behind him was shot, too, and the top of his head came off. (16.33)
Here we get some details about Ishmael's participation in the Battle of Tarawa. Ishmael remembers that the Japanese presence was so strong that soldiers were being struck down in droves before they could even get up the beach.