: dick laird was a tough guy. but all the american training was that japanese troops were bloodthirsty killing machines. >> wertheim: and how did dick laird and paul tatsuguchi, how did they collide? >> obmascik: dick laird looks up the knoll and sees that a group of japanese soldiers has captured an american mortar. and so, laird pulls out two grenades. he pulls the pin, and then he throws it. the grenade explodes, and laird finds that some troops are alive. and he and a fellow soldier kill them. >> wertheim: he kills eight japanese men. >> obmascik: he does. and he wins the silver star for it. >> wertheim: on one of them, he notices something unusual. what was that? >> obmascik: there is an address book that's full of some names from california. and there is a sheet, the diary. >> wertheim: whose personal effects were those? >> obmascik: he found the diary of paul tatsuguchi, whom he had killed as tatsuguchi was joining the banzai attack. >> wertheim: the banzai attack and the japanese occupation of day, when 50