Aye, the hellish part of Sara's existance might be that she didn't want to be there any more, was too intelligent to simply numb herself into acceptance, and knew she had no way out as long as she lived.Graybeard wrote:As for how you create elite soldiers, not being and never having been one, I have zero first-hand experience to go on. However, friends who've been through that did experience a tearing-down of identity and ego, before the regeneration of the self-esteem and confidence -- in a way tied to their country, service and unit rather than to their identity. The tearing-down process would be something I would consider "hellish," if only mildly so because of the knowledge that it isn't going to last forever. But a perpetual and overwhelming assault on your sense of self that shows no sign of ever coming to an end -- that, my friend, is pretty close to the ultimate hell-on-earth that I can imagine.
A lot of military forces over the years have created elite soldiers by tearing trainees down and turning them into automotons, but it just doesn't work as well as the "Western" concept of re-building their individuality, as you note.
Max Hastings gives a chilling account of the traditional process in Retribution, his account of the last year of World War II in the Pacific. Like a number of Japanese writers, he blames a lot of needless pain and suffering in that time on a Japanese military system in which individual choice and conscience were literally beaten out of officers and enlisted men. By 1944, the men of talent could only watch as a cadre of dull-witted fanatics marched hundreds of thousands of men and women to their deaths, mostly because they didn't have the wit or courage to do anything else.
Along with the usual abuses, a Japanese cadet or draftee could expect to be repeatedly punched in the face during daily training. As one famous Japanese destroyer captain noted, the system didn't allow for the possibility of brain damage.