Existing comment:
Thomas Lea
That 2,000 Yard Stare, 1945
Illustration for Peleliu, Tom Lea Paints Island Invasion, Life, June 11, 1945
This painting was inspired by Tom Lea's experiences as an artist and war correspondent with the First Marine Division in the battle of Peleliu, Palau, in September 1944. It portrays a war-weary soldier whom Lea met after the fight on Bloody Nose Ridge, one of Japan's most staunchly defended redoubts on the western Pacific Island. The "two-thousand-year stare" describes the appearance of soldiers who have been forced to detach themselves from the trauma of their experiences with violent combat. After Lea's painting was published in Life, the image became synonymous with the phrase and the residual effects of war on the human psyche. |