His day is just beginning. He finally reports to work and finds he has a tough assignment ahead of him. He and a crew must haul an air compressor to a dock. The compressor is headed, he says, to the USS Arizona so that air can be pumped into the sinking vessel. Just traveling along the roads is arduous.
Cars rest on shoulders and in ditches.
They are pushed out of the way by military vehicles in a hurry, Dato says. He is stopped at checkpoints where soldiers level guns and rifles at him. We were all of us the enemy. Finally, after delivering the compressor and after traveling through checkpoint after checkpoint, Dato returns to his shop. He sleeps there.