YAMAMOTO’S DECISION

A Play in Four Acts by Sherwood Ross

ACT ONE, SCENE ONE

Hang them up yourself, thank you.

(He sighs, and does so uncomplainingly. She turns up a small lamp.)

I’ve never seen so many gloomy days in a row. It’s as though winter just hangs on and on.

So, were you pleased with the speech?

Pleased, with all those reporters present? When Tokyo reads what you told those children against war with America, the Army and the secret societies, they’ll-

Want to silence me?

Silence? Kill you, is what you mean.

(Chuckles) There’s a joke among the ensigns: "If the Admiral offers you a ride in his limousine, don’t accept."

Don’t be coy with me. That’s no joke, is it?

Idle talk, that’s all.

Ha! So why has the Navy’s installed a machine gun outside your office? Tell the truth, you’ve had more than a few death threats, haven’t you?

I assure you, they’re nothing.

You assure me?

My solemn word: empty threats.

Ah, my love, you are one truly accomplished liar!

What do you expect of a man after a lifetime in the military?

(She laughs at him and removes a rectangular box from a cupboard and hands it to him.)

A man I never saw before dropped this off. He said only you should open it.

But — see here — someone has opened my package.

Of course. Under the circumstances, I thought I should.

What circumstances?

Oh, the rectangular shape of the box, for one. The weight, for another, and the suspicious rattling sound it makes when you shake it.

(Yamamoto takes the box and rattles it gingerly but does not open it.)

Go on, open it!

I assure you–

You assured the Americans that bombing that gunboat of theirs on the Yangtze River was an accident when you knew all along it was deliberate. And you also know what’s in the box, so open it!

(Yamamoto opens the box and withdraws a silver dagger.)

Say, what a beautiful dagger! I saw silver like this in Mexico once. Just look at this exquisite craftsmanship! What a wonderful present! I wonder which of my friends sent it.

Not exactly a present, my esteemed husband.

Oh?

(Reiko reaches into her pocket and produces a note.)

This note was inside. Which of your friends do you think wrote: "Cowardly dog! Do your country a public service: join your ancestors." (Laughs bitterly.) Some friend, eh?

(Yamamoto takes note, reads with a chuckle, and crumples it.)

They’re too late. I’ve already had the hara-kiri experience.

What are you prattling about?

You know that scar on my belly?

You told me that was from a burst appendix.

So it was. What I didn’t tell you is that in order to know what hara-kiri feels like I asked the doctor to cut it out without anesthesia. That damned Navy surgeon, he sure made it feel like suicide!

I have never liked the way you gamble with your life. Any more gifts like this and I could open a museum. I don’t suppose it’s occurred to you to resign your commission before this war with America breaks out. You’ve already given the Navy forty years of your life.

And a couple of fingers in battle.

How- how many of these cowards who, who, haven’t the guts to sign their name to a death threat, have done what you’ve done for Japan in battle?

Maybe it is time to retire and read the books my forefathers wrote. Imagine, just to sit around and play flower cards all day.

Ah, my country bumpkin, if only I thought you meant that!

Why shouldn’t I prefer the sweet life? I’m no different from the man on the street who just wants a full rice bowl and to relax Sunday mornings with the papers. The shop girls in Tokyo certainly don’t want the Army to conscript their men. They just want to have a good time after work.

You should know, shouldn’t you? Anyway, I was proud to be your wife today.

I hope that warm feeling will carry over to tonight.

I will do my duty.

Duty without emotion is drudgery.

What do you expect? You show up here for a weekend every couple of months and you expect passion from me as though I don’t know where you are sleeping the rest of the time, and with who? Your children hardly recognize you.

My work is very demanding. If war breaks out, the Navy must be ready.

Oh, sure: sailors need to practice their cruising.

My work demands long hours.

Like those famous poker games of yours that go on for two days and nights? You call that working?

I play with other military men. More than poker is involved.

(Confronting him.)

I’ll bet! With plenty of geishas, too. A bunch of admirals poking a deck full of queens.

Japanese men will be men. That’s historic.

Truly, but some of them come home to their wives once in a while.

(She takes a seat on the same bench he is sitting on, but at the opposite end.)

Reiko, I go with other officers to geisha houses for social reasons.

Are you telling me you don’t keep a mistress? It’s the talk of Tokyo. You’re not an ensign any more. Since you’ve become a public figure, people gossip about everything you do. How am I supposed to face the women here in town?

(Sharply.)

Any one of them would be proud to have me for a husband.

Ashamed, you mean. It’s your geisha who is proud to have you for her lover. You’re a walking advertisement for her bordello.

It’s a respectable geisha house.

(Laughs) For respectable philanderers wearing respectable medals.

(Sadly) Ah, Reiko, our love bed has grown cold.

But that Yoko of yours is hot stuff, eh? Oh, I know her name. I’m surprised you’re not deaf in both ears from her cries of passion. All right, you want sex? Tonight I’ll wriggle around and scream for you, just as though I was a bought and paid for professional like her, putting on the kind of act you men like.

Maybe if we took a walk after dinner in the snow under the maple trees.

(Handing him his tea, then pouring her own cup, and shaking her head with amusement.)

Since when? In all the years we’ve been married you haven’t taken me for a walk once in the moonlight. Something’s up. You must be desperate.

Perhaps we could become close again, lovers…

Let me tell you about love, real love. Oh, just listen for once! My mother loved my father ‘till the day he died. They were always touching and kissing. They slept late every Sunday morning and none of us children dared intrude on their privacy for any reason because they were not to be disturbed. They made love in their bed, in the dairy, and in the bathhouse. You think you can drop in here just like that and take me for a walk through the maples or what-have-you and it will make up for my years of loneliness?

Reiko, what you’ve heard about me in Tokyo, it’s gossip, lies, exaggerations.

(Laughs good-naturedly.)

What do you take me for? At the London Naval Conference, remember, you told the press Japan agreed not to build as many warships as the British and the Americans, and the whole time you knew the Navy planned to build these monster battleships in secret. That’s what your pal Akio is working on, isn’t it? How could you not know about it when your closest friend is in charge? Seventy-five thousand tons! Nothing so big as that on the Seven Seas. Do you think you can lie to me as though I was some cub reporter? Don’t you know by this time that I can see right through you?

Those were not lies, my darling. When a nation is faced with a grave threat to its national security, its military has the right to resort to stretching the truth a little bit to protect ourselves!

(Reiko laughs. Yamamoto turns red in the face but keeps himself under control. Reiko laughs harder, puts down her cup and points to him. Then he begins to laugh, too. Now they are both laughing. Reiko shakes her head. Yamamoto turns his palms up in a gesture of helplessness. Reiko slides over on the bench next to him and turns up her face. They kiss.) Blackout

Continue

This scene performed at No Shame/Charlottesville on January 11, 2002, by S. Ross and Lee Moyer.

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