story

i don't write stories... but in the first month of second year, everyone has to write one. (Everyone also has to play dumb charades, draw a picture, play basketball.. u get the idea). These are organized within the hall for its new residents... so that the teams for interhalls can have the best talent.

Anway... this is the story i wrote for that. Spent some time on it, hasty researching online, so maybe there should be someplace for it other than the captain's wastepaper bin. so here it is. factual errors are inevitable... this was just an intra-hall competition, so they're no big deal. do point them out if u find some, ok?

they gave the title, unimaginative as it is.

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The Girl

The three columns of kanji script were short and neat, but Major Tomori Akihiro stared at them for a long time. Although his loyalty to the Emperor was unquestionable, he could not help feeling a little disappointed at the order. He was being transferred to the Imperial Japanese Army station at Kobe.

Kobe, a military city, had been under intense American firebombing since February, as Curtis LeMay had taken command of the 21st Bomber Command. Much of the city consisted of burnt-out shells of buildings, and each night brought renewed terror as hundreds of B-29’s flew past the now-defunct air defenses, unloading their cargo of incendiary and high explosive bombs all over the city. Tens of thousands died in each raid.

Major Mizuno Hogai, who would take up Akihiro’s post in Ujaina Harbor, had already reported. This left little for him to do but to clear out his office. He had occupied it for the last ten months. Ten hectic months, in which the myth of continuing Japanese victories was shattered as American bombs rained down on the Japanese heartland.

As he emptied his cabinets of personal belongings, he realized with regret how little he had seen of this city. The city was beautiful, despite the sporadic bombing (far less frequent and less intense than at Kobe). The only time he had been out, sightseeing, was shortly after his arrival, when he went to the castle in the city centre. Although it was a military city, and under phased evacuation, people still went about their lives as normally as possible.

Akihiro walked into the officers’ canteen for a cup of tea before he set off for the railway station. He knew they would be serving him on the train, but this was a tribute he had to pay. For nearly a year he had had his every meal there. He had come to this city on September 26, 1944. Today was August 5, 1945. Proud of his Japanese schooling, Akihiro did the mental math in a minute… 313 days. Except for the very few weekends spent in the city.

It was the manager’s daughter behind the counter that day. She came often to give her father a hand – workers were hard to find in a city where one third of the population had been evacuated by imperial order. She looked up at him and smiled brightly. Her smile always lighted up her pretty face, he thought, as if there wasn’t a war going on, as if she didn’t have a care in the world. He felt a pang of regret that he had never learnt her name.

“You are going to Kobe, Tomori-san? This will be your last tea with us?”

Akihiro was very surprised that she knew. He never thought the bright smile had real recognition behind it. Of course, his name was written on his dress uniform, she would have no trouble learning it. He flushed as he replied, “Yes… and your name is?”

“Naoko” she hesitated. “Would you be coming back?”

“Yes, after the war. If you’re still here.” He didn’t know why he’d said that, but realized that it was a very stupid thing to say. He had only just learnt her name. He felt he had to say something more, something to break the awkward silence. “I really wish I didn’t have to go.”

A moment later he was wishing he’d let the silence stay. That was the second time in a row he had said something without thinking, something he should not have said. Would she think him a coward? A traitor?

She looked as surprised as he thought she would be. But then she gave a hint of a smile and said, “I wish you didn’t have to go, too.”

Akihiro’s father had been a boy in the Meiji years, and had had an American tutor, Graham Brown. The old man had stayed on in Japan through the political changes, through the beginnings of war… But as tension with America mounted, the 90 year old was arrested and held in secret – as were thousands of Japanese-Americans on the other side of the Pacific. Anyway, Akihiro now imagined the old man telling him with a chuckle that he was flirting.

Akihiro was sorry when he had finished his tea and there was no longer an excuse to stay. As he stood up to leave, she scrawled on a piece of paper and said, “If you do come back, that’s where I’ll be.”

In the jeep, on his way to the railway station, he thought about coming back. He had no illusions that Japan would win the war. An invasion, like in Normandy, would happen sooner or later. He hoped he would survive that. He hoped Naoko would, too.

The jeep drew up to the railway station, and with one last look through her address, Akihiro stepped out. Inner city, he thought. Old family. He walked into the station, under the large clock that said 5:17 pm.

Above it, a larger sign said, “Hiroshima Railway Station”.

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At 8:15 am on August 6, 1945, the 12-kiloton plutonium fission device “Little Boy”, dropped from a B-29 “Enola Gay” of the 21st Bomber command, detonated 2000ft above the centre of Hiroshima, where the Atomic Dome now stands.

Ujaina harbor, 4km from the blast, was only slightly damaged. It led relief efforts for 13 hours after the blast, before relief from Japanese General Staff Headquarters arrived.

A Normandy-style invasion never happened. Combat ceased with Nagasaki on August 8, and on 15 August, Emperor Hirohito made an unprecedented address to his people on radio announcing surrender.