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[Heads up: These images can be considered graphic]
Filed away in their own special archive at the Humanities Research Center of the University of Texas are paintings that portray dark, vivid scenes of the human experience. Thomas C. Lea painted these scenes, and it's his experience during World War II that's given us a window into the war.
Mr. Lea was not a service member. He was a war correspondent commissioned by Life Magazine to cover the WWII Pacific Theater. He often found himself right in the thick of combat exploits (likely put himself there on purpose) and somehow escaped death or capture.
His paintings are based on his sketches, notes, and eyewitness accounts of himself, Marines, Sailors, and Soldiers with who he spent an inordinate amount of time.
Here are 3 Tom C. Lea paintings and the stories behind them...
#1. That 2000 Yard Stare
Bar far the most famous of Lea's portfolio is "Marines call it that 2000 yard stare."
Lea's caption reads:
I noticed a tattered marine…staring stiffly at nothing. His mind had crumbled in battle…his eyes were like two black empty holes in his head…Last evening he came down out of the hills.
Told to get some sleep, he found a shell crater and slumped into it…First light has given his gray face eerie color.
He left the States 31 months ago. He was wounded in his first campaign. He has tropical diseases…He half sleeps at night and gouges Japs out of holes all day. Two-thirds of his company has been killed or wounded…How much can a human being endure?”
Those words provide a small insight into the lives of Marines in the Pacific Theater, specifically on the island of Peleliu. Perhaps the most infamous battle of the Pacific, second only to Okinawa, Peleliu saw some of the most vicious combat of WWII. (Read this story of a Marine who documented his time on Peleliu.)
The image portrays what we now understand to be PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). The vacant, lifeless stare is symptomatic of a dissociative response to repetitive trauma.
#2. The Price
Lea's recount of the Marine assault on Peleliu beach produced this shocking image called "The Price". It depicts a young Marine who was hit by indirect fire and had half his body shredded by shrapnel.
Lea's caption reads:
"I got up… ran a few steps, and fell into a small hole as another mortar burst threw dirt on me. Lying there in terror looking longingly up the slope for better cover, I saw a wounded man near me, staggering in the direction of the LVTs (Landing Vehicle - Tracked).
His face was half bloody pulp and the mangled shreds of what was left of an arm hung down like a stick, as he bent over in his stumbling, shock-crazy walk. The half of his face that was still human had the most terrifying look of abject patience I have ever seen. He fell behind me, in a red puddle on the white sand.
The battle for the island of Peleliu was disastrous. American casualties were as high as 10,000 in just 73 days.
The tactical gain bought with blood-stained sand was questionable. Even today, military historians question the rationale behind invading Peleliu.
#3. Sickbay in a Shellhole
This illustration depicts the immediate aftermath of combat. It shows how life and death are practically roommates in war. A dying man can be receiving his last rites while another stands right next to him drinking coffee, getting ready to start his day.
In a dispatch, Lea wrote of the scene:
The padre stood by with two canteens and a bible, helping. He looked very lonely, very close to God, as he bent over the shattered men so far from home.
Conclusion
At the time it was published, Lea’s work was highly controversial. Publications often censored photos and paintings or drawings from the war to keep their audience from feeling uncomfortable.
Life Magazine did not.
They showed Lea’s paintings in all of their gory glory. Many readers wrote in condemning Life for showing such images and they even saw a mass exodus of subscribers over the illustrations.
Some accused Lea of exaggerating his paintings, but Lea was adamant his work was unbiased, and simply reflected what he saw with his own two eyes.
He's quoted as saying:
I did not report hearsay; I did not imagine, or fake, or improvise; I did not cuddle up with personal emotion, moral notion, or political opinion about War with a capital W. I reported in pictures what I saw with my own two eyes, wide open.
Thomas C. Lea was an admirable man with an admirable ethic whose work transports the viewer into startling moments of the past.
Sources:
https://www.historynet.com/tom-lea-created-some-of-world-war-2s-most-powerful-images.htm
https://www.historynet.com/fire-effect-price.htm
https://hekint.org/2017/01/22/peleliu-as-a-paradigm-for-ptsd-the-two-thousand-yard-stare/
https://laststandonzombieisland.com/2015/05/24/combat-gallery-sunday-the-martial-art-of-tom-lea/
https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.ajp.2014.13121682
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