ABSTRACT
During the Second World War, approximately 292,000 U.S. servicemen were killed in action. This number includes 36,000 sailors and 19,000 marines. Compared to the military casualties suffered by the other warring powers—the Soviet Union with 7 million dead, Germany with 4 million dead, and the Japanese with 1.2 million dead in service—the United States fared considerably better, if one can categorize 292,000 dead as "better." But in a war that killed 50 million people, numbers tend to lose their meaning, and perhaps better is as good a word as any. 1
