The NYPR Archive Collections
The Story of a Japanese Soldier
This episode is from the WNYC archives. It may contain language which is no longer politically or socially appropriate.
This episode of This is Our Enemy is adapted from American author Bradford Smith's novel, "The Arms are Fair," about the life of Tadeo, a Japanese University student drafted into the army. It attempt to show both "good" and "evil" Japanese soldiers, though the "good" soldiers have all had some kind of Western influence.
At the University, he studied English and English literature—in our first introduction to him, he quotes Shakespeare. He reveals that he had a Chinese friend at school, and feels it is strange that his friend is now an enemy.
Tadeo is held up in contrast to the other soldiers in his force. Hama, for example, talks about womanizing and murder cheerfully, saying, "The front will be alright. Plenty of killing. I like killing. But women are good too." And the captain, Hojo, questions Tadeo's loyalty because he states that Chinese people are similar to Japanese people, neither better, nor worse.
When they arrive in China, their train is bombed. The captain interrogates random villagers, and when Tadeo wonders if the bombers might have come from another, unrelated village, the captain forces him to prove his loyalty. Tadeo is made to bayonet a man.
Later, Tadeo and another good soldier, Natawa, wander the streets of a city they have bombed. They witness Hama raping a woman and looting homes, but can do nothing to stop him.
"We are a lost people. We shall be hated through all the world, like an unclean thing," says Tadeo.
When he comes across Captain Hojo torturing prisoners by putting lit cigarettes in the nostrils, however, Tadeo kills him, and risks his own life to set the prisoners free.
Audio courtesy of the NYC Municipal Archives WNYC Collection
WNYC archives id: 39021
Municipal archives id: LT307