Harvey Ball, communications sergeant in Company L, 383rd Infantry Regiment, 96th Infantry Division, served on the front lines in the Pacific during World War II. His memoir recounts the division’s training, and the horrific conditions endured during months of brutal fighting on Leyte and Okinawa. Three comrades were killed by a wayward shell as they stood beside him. Ball himself was awarded the Bronze Star for heroism. Blending battlefield detail with personal reflection, his account contrasts the official record with the infantryman’s lived reality—exhaustion, terror, and the camaraderie that sustained men through jungles, caves, and mountains. Moments of humanity shine through, from poetry shared in the mud to rare R&R breaks, even as the war closed with the atomic bomb and Japan’s surrender. A gifted artist whose best-known creation is the iconic smiley face, Ball also sketched life at the front. He drew portraits of comrades for their families and captured scenes of wartime chaos. These sketches, alongside his memoir, offer a deeply personal insight into the Pacific War. Table of Contents Preface by Jacquelyn Stein Introduction PART I: MacArthur’s Return to the Philippines 1 Our War Begins 2 I’ve Never Seen a Jap—I Never Want to See One 3 The War at the Front 4 The War at the Rear 5 The Mountain War 6 Warfare 7 Holiday at War 8 End of Leyte’s War 9 R&R PART II: Advance Toward Japan 10 Coming: Another Campaign 11 To the Enemy’s Ground 12 Our New War 13 Advance to Battle 14 The Enemy’s Time, the Enemy’s Place 15 Our War Continues 16 Bloody Kakazu 17 On-Borrowed-Time Acres 18 The Lame, the Halt, the Sick 19 Europe’s War Ends, Ours Goes On 20 Return to Battle 21 The Wall Crumbles 22 Climax to War 23 Our War Ends Harvey R. Ball (1921–2001) enlisted in 1942 and served as a communications sergeant for Company L, 383rd Infantry Regiment on Leyte and Okinawa. After returning home to Worcester, Massachusetts he opened his own business, Harvey Ball Advertising, where he created the iconic smiley face for a client in 1963. In addition to joining the National Guard and then the Army Reserves, volunteering at the Legion Post, and designing the city’s Korean War Memorial, he found time to write his memoir. His daughter Jackie, a public school art teacher, helped by typing up his hand-written pages and then editing and organizing the chapters.