The marines really took a beating the first two weeks. They were abandoned by the Navy when they were drawn off. Then the biggest banzai charge of the war came after them. My dad wasn’t on the island until the third week. One story he told me was going into the jungle with 27 one day and only coming out with five others.
The Japanese used to really chop up the US servicemen into small bits.
My dad and pretty much everyone else thought that Mexican guy who took prisoners (and recently received the MOH) for it, was a real prick for doing it.
To be fair, some Japanese surrendered to my Dad after much of the fighting was over and he was running supply operations. At that point, he pretty much was over all the killing.
The Japanese wanted to make sure they were not surrendering to a Marine.
He received no recognition for it and might say was punished for it.
One of the two officers attended USC.