YAMAMOTO’S DECISION
A Play in Four Acts by Sherwood Ross
ACT TWO, SCENE ONE
Time: Evening, four days later
Setting: Geisha House
ILLUMINATED SCREEN: Yasuji painting "Scene at the Riverside of Kakigaracho", circa 1881.
(At rise, there is a bench covered with padded cushions along the back wall. In the center of the room there is a small table with a "Go" board on it, two pots of black and white stones, some of them on the board as if a game has just been played. There are mats on the floor and at the right a well stocked bar on a cabinet against the wall. There is also a low table on which rest several musical stringed instruments and a flute. The main door to the geisha house is at the left, and the audience cannot see anyone standing outside. We hear the clang of a heavy knocker. Tokuko enters from right and crosses over to door, and looks through a peephole.)
Tokuko
Who is it?
Fumio
(From offstage behind door)
Message from the Admiralty. I’m to wait for an answer.
(Tokuko opens the door. Fumio enters and hands her an envelope. Recognizing him, she claps a hand to her cheek, and he recognizes her as well.)
Tokuko
A-i! Can it be you?
Fumio
Nagako!
Tokuko
Sh-h! Here I am known as Tokuko. What- happened to your- ?
Fumio
My face: I, uh, crashed my plane in a training accident.
Tokuko
You-
Fumio
I lost an eye. But, see, (turning the left side of his face toward her) there’s still a good side to me.
Tokuko
(Incredulous)
Good side? Fumio, the way you left me like, just like that, to enlist, the morning after, and I never heard from you again.
Fumio
I was accepted in the Navy.
Tokuko
You might have told me! You must have known that before you pressed yourself on me.
Fumio
I thought if you knew I was going away the very next day that-
Tokuko
That I wouldn’t give myself to you. I heard you joined the Navy. I waited and waited to hear from you, Fumio. All those things you told me, were they lies?
Fumio
I wrote to you. I swear it.
Tokuko
When did you write? You never wrote me! Liar!
Fumio
I wrote last year but there was no reply.
Tokuko
Last year? Of course not. By then I was gone. My parents- (She chokes up)
Fumio
Yes?
Tokuko
They sent me away to people in Tokyo. I was a disgraced woman.
Fumio
Disgraced? How?
Tokuko
(She breaks down.)
Fumio, I had your daughter.
Fumio
What? What?
Tokuko
They took her from me. We had no money to feed her --
Fumio
And?
Tokuko
They drowned her, Fumio.
Fumio
My daughter? Oh, my God!
Tokuko
She would have died anyway. The rice crop failed. They let me hold her once and then… they took her away. If only you had been there, it might have been different.
(He makes a move to comfort her but she pulls back.)
Fumio
(Anguished)
Please, forgive me.
Tokuko
That was when they sold me.
Fumio
Sold?
Tokuko
You know how that’s done, Fumio. In the brothel I met other girls just like myself, daughters of rice farmers. They fed me well and I regained my strength. One of the girls had a samisen and she taught me and one day when I was playing Yoko passed by in the street and heard me sing and took me out of there. Now she is teaching me her profession.
Fumio
I am shocked for you, Na-
Tokuko
Tokuko. Oh, you needn’t be.
(Tokuko daubs her eyes with handkerchief, lifts her head bravely.)
So, tell me, how did a cadet like you get a choice post with the great Admiral?
Fumio
After my plane crashed, I was in the naval hospital when Yamamoto himself came to see the pilots. Most had been wounded in China, but I had crashed because of my own mistake, and I told him I wanted to die. He looked at me, with that way he has of sizing up people, and he said, "I’m looking for an aide. Come and see me when you get out of here." He gave me hope.
Tokuko
The gods have punished us both for our indiscretions.
Fumio
People avert their eyes from me. I must wear a patch or what they see will make them sick. It ‘s not pretty.
Tokuko
Our baby had your smile, Fumio. (She wipes her eyes.)
Fumio
Here you must meet many rich and successful men.
Tokuko
Yes, all of them middle-aged.Young men don’t climb the ladder so fast to afford this place.
(Yoko enters and Tokuko hands her Fumio’s note.)
Yoko
(Reads note, and tells Tokuko)
They are safe. (Reading) See you at eight. We are hungry as two bears.
Tokuko
Bears? What do bears eat?
Yoko
Salmon, of course. Make everything! Run! They’re both alive, and coming over.(Tokuko exits)
( Yoko to Fumio)
Now that this uprising is over, will things ever be normal again?
Fumio
It’s hard to undo the damage. The more politicians killed, the more afraid the Diet is to oppose the Army.Any member can get a bullet in his eye at any time. They have no veneration for age or wisdom.
Yoko
You have interesting ideas for a young man.
Fumio
We in the Navy are samurai. We are not butchers.
Yoko
And what makes you so different from the Army?
Fumio
We sail the world. In port, we see the people in Singapore and Manila are just like us. We become friends and we part friends. One flier in my squadron just married a Filipino girl.
Yoko
Do you think you could take part in a coup?
Fumio
Never. I was the one who drove Chamberlain Suzuki to the hospital.
Yoko
Aren’t you the brave fellow!
(Tokuko returns but stops in the doorway without entering.)
Tell them we are ready for them.
(Fumio, with a last glance at Tokuko, leaves at door left. To Tokuko.)
Let’s just have a wonderful time tonight.
(She takes Tokuko’s hands and dances with her. Yoko sings.)
Charleston! Charleston! Everybody Charleston! Why, Toko dear, your eyes are all red! What hap-
Tokuko
(Averting her face and hurrying back to the door.)
It’s nothing! Nothing!
Yoko
I know you too well. Something’s troubling you.
Tokuko
It’s just that, ah, after all this time the salmon is spoiled. Will bears eat sea bass?
(She breaks off and runs out. Yoko looks after her uncomprehendingly.)
Yoko
Sea bass?
Blackout
"Yamamoto's Decision" by Sherwood Ross IS COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL AND MAY NOT BE DOWNLOADED, TRANSMITTED, PRINTED OR PERFORMED WITHOUT THE EXPRESS PERMISSION OF THE AUTHOR
This scene performed at No Shame/Charlottesville on January 18, 2002, by D. Curry and S. Ross.
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